Day in the Life- Fall 2016

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 edition

CP- 40 years old

NSC- 38 years old in two months

Izzy- 3 years old in one month

Wes- 2.5 months old

Buster- 5.5 years old

I picked Wednesday, October 5th to document. CP is in North Carolina for work and it is one of my last days of maternity leave with Wes. I will likely do more than one of these next week to highlight the difference between one of my last days on maternity leave and one of my first days back to work.

Get Wes to sleep around 10 after an hour. Text with CP and watch Modern Family until 10:30. Turn off the light and go to bed.

4:44- Hear Wes starting to softly cry in his room so I pee, then change his diaper. This is a third night of about a seven hour stretch which is perfect as I head back to work. Good job buddy! Nurse one side while I check my phone and keep things as quiet as possible in the hopes of getting Wes back to sleep when we are done. I read a political fight over Gary Johnson on my sister 's FB page and am happy that I have mostly stayed out of political conversations this year. Meanwhile I rock Wes and pat his back.

5:15- Put Wes down in his crib, turn on white noise sheep and turn off the night light. I do my best to sneak out of his room with squeaky floors (darn you old house!). I then run into our bed frame with my shin- that's going to leave a mark. *sigh*

6- I hear Wes again. I decide to bring him into my room and I lay down to nurse. This is something that I wasn't able to do with Izzy because I couldn't quite figure out how to do it but Wes is pretty good at it. Afterwards I try to get him to sleep next to me but he is fidgety so I lay him down on my stomach face down. He passes out quickly and so do I. I would have never done something like that with Izzy as I would have freaked out that this would create a bad habit, but as a second time parent I'm not worried about this as much (plus I just wanted some more sleep!).

7:25- I wake up with a start and can't believe I haven't heard Izzy yet. Check monitor- she is awake. I take Wes and head into her room. The first words out of her mouth- "I don't want to go to school." She keeps saying it as I try to distract her with picking out clothes. She runs out of the room and slams the door to Wes' room. I put Wes down in the vibrating chair and head to his room to talk to Izzy.

She is playing with some of his toys and reading his books, crying.

I finally get her to take off her pullup and get clothes on. We then have our daily struggle to brush her hair; I end up putting it up in a ponytail without brushing most of it. We then head downstairs while Izzy sings a song about being the first one downstairs.

Izzy lets Buster out and we grab her vitamins.

I pour her milk and we put a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios in a cup for the car.

We get her shoes on and we are out the door by 8:10. On the way to daycare we listen to NPR commentators talk about VP debate. I bring Izzy and Wes into daycare; all of her friends are happy to see her. I am home by 8:30 and make myself cheese omelette and chai tea latte while Wes sleeps in his car seat. I eat quickly once Wes starts crying.

Change Wes' diaper (yikes- almost a blowout!) and nurse. While nursing I read an article about raising kinder and less self-entitled kids. I also text a friend who has started to foster adopt (she recently came out on FB about their infertility). By the time I get downstairs at 9:25 my chai is lukewarm. I gulp it down.

9:30- Since it is supposed to be a bit hotter today I decide to walk Wes and Buster earlier than usual.

When I head outside, I see our neighbor and I am jealous of his work hours. It's 9:30 and he is just leaving for work. This is Buster's favorite time of year to walk as we see lots of squirrels. We also pass by tons of construction in our neighborhood. We end up quickly walking away from two dogs but no barking encounters so I consider it a good walk. We are home a little after 10. I quickly check our gardens.

Anyone need any jalapenos? We have a bumper crop this year.

Mmmmm shishito peppers

Hopefully a few more of these tomatoes turn...

I grab ice water as I am really thirsty and get annoyed at our expensive fridge that is falling apart. I change and nurse Wes before wasting 30 minutes playing on my phone and uploading pictures.

I run downstairs to the basement to grab Buster's vaccination records and get Wes in his car seat. We head to Verizon where I upgrade to new iPhone 7 because my iPhone 5 has been acting weird. They are out of 7s so the phone is being shipped to me. The good news is that the rep was able to change us to a better (aka more data) and less expensive plan. Score!

From there, sleepy Wes and I head to Chipotle to grab lunch (steak burrito bowl). I decide to get it to go as to not push Wes too much (he won't take a bottle from me- only boob in the presence of Mommy) and eat it at home. He is still sleeping when I load him into the car so I go for one more errand- to get Buster's dog food for the month. He basically wakes up as I am pulling him out of the car after getting home so I unload the car then change and nurse him.

1:30- I finish burping Wes and finally get to shovel lunch in my face while Wes is not so happy in the Mamaroo. I read an article on PANDAS and wonder if Izzy has undiagnosed strep since she is asymptomatic? Once done I pick Wes up and he does some tummy time on the Boppy while I distract him with a stuffed sheep. I call the ped office about trying to get Izzy in today for a strep test but will have to do walk-in hours tomorrow morning. Once Wes starts crying from tummy time I move him over to what we jokingly call the circle of neglect (but really it is still working on his core because he is constantly kicking his legs). I lay down with him and point out all of the animals on the mobile, shake the rattle, try to get him to grab onto things, etc.

The circle of neglect

After a bit of play time Wes looks like he is getting a little sleepy so I put him in his car seat and we drive over to the town hall to get Buster a pet license (something I should have done anytime after July 1st but I was a little busy being super pregnant and then with a newborn). It's a quick trip there and I stop to fill up the car on the way home.

Wes is sleeping again so I decide to put him in his crib so that I can shower. I ended up scrubbing the tub and tile in the shower to clean it first before jumping in. I am really pushing my luck today, but Wes ends up sleeping the entire time. Nice! He is still sleeping after I get dry so I take the time to try on the few shirts I bought a Kohl's the other day to make sure I still like them (I do). Wes starts to cry after I get dressed and we head downstairs for a diaper change and to nurse.

The house smells funny from the Tilex that I used on the shower (or it did something to my nose) so Buster, Wes, and I head outside for some fresh air. Wes starts to get fussy after about 30 minutes of silly faces and me poking his belly so we head inside to nurse around 4:45.

We leave to pick up Izzy around 5:15.

Buster's face when I tell him that we will be back soon.

She is excited about a birthday invite left in her cubby for one of her friends. We get home and I start to heat up dinner in the microwave before I realize that the microwave seems to be broken. *sigh* F*ck it we are eating out for dinner. I'm now in a bad mood because this is not ideal and Izzy didn't take a nap today which means she is going to be a terror. I take deep breaths in the car and try to engage Izzy in conversation on the ride to get food to bring home. I quickly decide on Boston Market because it is close, cheap, and slightly healthier than McDonalds. When we get home I am trying not to lose my sh*t after Izzy tantrums that she didn't get to use the key in the lock (she doesn't know how). Thank goodness Wes is sleeping through all of this and not crying.

Izzy sits down to eat then starts to complain about her stomach. I try to get her to go poo and she gets halfway to the bathroom, then heads back to the table on her hands and knees. We try to Facetime CP but he is still at dinner and can't talk yet. We both finish up dinner and Izzy says her stomach feels better after farting a few times.

Eating her green beans

After dinner we head into the sunroom when CP Facetimes. I start to nurse Wes and while doing so, Izzy squats. I ask her if she is pooping and she says no. She clearly is straining so I unlatch Wes and make Izzy go to the bathroom. With one hand I try to help her take off her underwear and pants but she clearly has partially pooped already. I put Wes down in the sunroom and he starts crying while I deal with Izzy. All three of us head upstairs so that Izzy can jump in the bath, Wes goes into the vibrating chair. It's a quick bath and as I am drying her off, CP Facetimes again (men have such great timing). It's a struggle to brush teeth and CP tries to talk to Izzy as I put on her pajamas.

Wes starts crying so I bring him in bed and start nursing him again while reading an article from The New Yorker to Izzy (Grandma left it at the house on Saturday and Izzy thought it would be a fun read). She quickly stops me and then has me read "Curious George and the Bunny" and "Dragons Love Tacos." We then sing the ABCs, You are my Sunshine, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while Wes smiles at the singing. I tuck her in, telling her that we will work on pooping in the potty again tomorrow. I also tell her that I love her.

I turn off the light, turn on her white noise machine, and say "see you later alligator." She responds "in a while crocodile."

8- i head downstairs with Wes. I turn on the tv and start to watch Designated Survivor while Wes nurses. I burp him and then make funny faces to make him smile. We also coo at each other. He starts to suck on his hand, a new skill for him.

At 8:30 I give him his daily dose of Ranitidine, his new medicine for reflux. The medicine seems to be working because he is a MUCH happier baby (and sleeping for longer periods of time). He then nurses the other side and falls asleep.

9- I bring Wes upstairs, put him in his sleep sack, rock for a few minutes while singing Sunshine and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and then lay him down in his crib. I head downstairs with the monitor and start to edit this post while continuing to watch Designated Survivor.

11- Finish Designated Survivor and head upstairs to bed. I should have gone to bed earlier, but it was nice to have these past two hours for myself.