Day in the Life Feb 2012

So another Laura at Navigating the Mothership does quarterly or semi annual posts of a day in detail is like an invites others to do the same, since that's sort of what I'm trying to do with this blog I thought I'd try it out.

Thursday Feb 16

5:00am Yep even with a almost 5 month old my day starts out at 5.  This is a fairly new phenomon, just last week Will was waking up once at 2-3 for a middle of the night feeding.  He has been sleeping all night for the past 4 days, hopefully that continues.  We still have him sleeping in the rock n play because it seems like he's constantly stuffed up and the couple times I've put him to bed in his crib, he wakes up super stuffed up, so we keep his head elevated.  I nurse him as soon first thing when I get up.

don't pay attention to the non-centerness of the picture, I had others that were centered but he was waking up and rocking and my shutter speed wasn't quick enough so I ended up with blurry pictures as will be more evident with the next couple pics that were taken in the morning.

5:25am  After nursing Will hangs out again in the RnP outside the bathroom while I get ready for work.  No shower today but the other days he just sits and looks around the bathroom.  He loves the sound of running water.

Will is such a happy baby in the morning

5:30am  Brian gets up and starts getting things put together for the day.  He's in charge of packing his lunch, making sure the diaper bag has diapers, wipes & a wet bag in it, filling my 3 water bottles (takes a lot of water to keep this mama hydrated enough for a good supply), putting my pumping bottles and a yogurt in my pumping bag and doing morning chores.

6:00am I'm ready for work so I change Will out of his pj's and his diaper and head downstairs.  If Brian has everything ready to go I sit and talk with Will otherwise I finish getting things around.

It's harder than it looks to take a self portrait, I think I'll take mainly pics of the baby



Baby loves to kick his legs during diaper changes



6:10am  We get Will dressed and into his carseat and pack everything in the car.  We both work at the same place but for different companies.  I work as an accountant for a large corporation and he is the head electrician for the company that does the maintenance on the building that I work in so we drive together most days. 

From closest: the green gift bag has Will's 3 bottles for the day in it with his diaper bag in front, then it's my pumping bag, then the bag to carry my water bottles and purse in and then Will in his carseat.

6:20  We drop Will at the babysitter's.  It is my aunt that watches Will during the day.  She has 4 kids of her own, 2 girls that are graduated and living on their own and 2 boys still in high school.  I guess she watched my sister and I when we were little.  She watches about 3-5 other kids during the day but it varies each day how many are there and a couple more get off the bus at her house after school.  It's so nice to have someone help get Will and all his stuff in the house.  I've done it by myself but it is much easier with a second person.

6:50:  We arrive at work.  I'm lucky that I sit by a window but below is a picture of what I see when I stand up and look over my cube wall.

7:10am  We have a cafeteria at work so I go down and get oatmeal for breakfast and add walnuts from home.

8:00am  I go to the mother's room and pump for Will's bottles for tomorrow. I'm on the 4th floor and the mother's room is on 1st floor It takes me about 30 minutes round trip to take the stairs to and from the room, pump, clean my pump parts and get back to my desk. 

9:00am I get a text from my aunt telling me Will woke up and took his 1st bottle by 9:00.  She usually sends me a couple texts a day telling me how he's doing.

11:00am Pump again

11:45am  2nd text saying Will is taking his 2n bottle at 11:45

12:15pm  I go to the cafeteria for lunch.  I always bring my lunch back to my desk and check Facebook and blogs while I eat.  I always get a salad of spinach and mixed greens with shredded carrots, cheddar, chicken, sunflower seeds and then either oil & vinegar or french dressing...I'm trying to eat healthier since I'm nursing Will but sometimes I can't ignore the call of the hot pretzel and fake nacho cheese and today is one of those days....at least I get it without the extra salt.



2:00pm Pumping again.  The yogurt Brian packed along with some walnuts is my afternoon snack that I have after my 2:00 pumping.

3:45pm Brian and I leave work for the day and head to pick up Will

4:15pm  We pick up Will from my aunt's

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4:25pm Even though the trip home is less than 10 minutes, Will always falls asleep.  I let him sleep in his carseat.  Sometimes he wakes up in 5-10 minutes other times I have to wake him up when it has been 3 hours since he last ate.  Him sleeping when we get home allows me to get the diapers in the washer.  We only have enough for 2 days and the washing & drying take most of the night so they need started as soon as we get home.  Next time they go on sale I'm going to buy enough for an extra day or two.  I also wash Will's bottles if he's still sleeping or I do that later.  Brian puts wood in the wood burner and feeds the animals for the evening.

5:00 pm  I take Will upstairs to change his diaper and nurse him.  Afterwards we sit at the kitchen table and Will plays a little.  Right now his playing is trying to grab different objects.  About an hour after he eats I put him on his tummy for tummy time, any sooner and he tends to spit up a bit.  He's doing pretty good with his head control.  Even though he's 5 months old, he was 2 months premature so his milestones go by his adjusted age of 3 months.  There is really only enough time for 1 session of tummy time at home during the week.  We do it on the table so Mommy doesn't have to lay on the floor, at least until he starts rolling over consistently.



6:30pm I start to get supper around thinking we can eat before Will needs to go to bed.  It is spaghetti tonight, and the sauce was left over from before and was in the freezer so it takes a little longer than I thought.

7:00pm No supper yet and Will is starting to get fussy so I take him upstairs to get ready for bed.  This means a final diaper change for the night and into his pj's (the same  every night so what he was wearing in the picture from the morning in the RnP).  He nurses one final time and I burp him.  It usually only takes about 30 min to change his diaper, nurse, burp and put to sleep.  He's pretty predictable, either he burps after 6 or 7 minutes of burping or he doesn't burp at all.  By that time he's really sleepy so I put him in his RnP.  He's barely awake when I put him down but he goes to sleep and we haven't had to back up stairs in several weeks.  We can hear him cooing and squeaking over the baby monitor but he doesn't cry out.

7:25:  I get the diapers out of the washer and the inserts (prefolds & fitted doublers) and wipes go in the dryer 1st on high to get mostly dry and then I add in the fitteds for another 20 minutes on low.  The pockets get put on the drying rack right away and I add the fitteds and their inserts when they come out of the dryer.  The pockets will dry overnight and Brian will stuff what is needed in the morning.

7:30 Brian and I finally eat supper and clean up the kitchen a bit.  Afterwards we watch some TV, usually the DVR'd shows that were on the night before.  Last night was Wednesday so we watched the premier of the new Survivor and then by time that is over The Big Bang Theory has recorded so we watch that.

9:00ish  After Big Bang, Brian watches a Pawn Stars episode but I go get read for bed and am in bed by 9:30.  Brian comes to bed by 10:00