Monday 31 August 2015

A Day in Our Life

It's amazing how much and yet, how little gets done in one day...

0845 Wake up as Jate is starting to stir
0855 Head to kitchen to fill my water bottle. Tyler is sitting by his empty bowl. Open a new can and can't find the lid, which I know I washed last night as we finished the end of a can. Open the fridge to find that Husband opened a new can and already fed him this morning. Cheeky little bugger.
0900 Jate is now sleeping soundly. Hate to wake her, but it's time.
0910 Change Jate into her cloth diapers. Bring her back to my bed for feeding
0915 Watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, as I feel asleep on it last night
0945 Place Jate in the Rock and Play
0947 Make a cup of tea with the Keur.ig. Pretend not to notice that light indicating that the water reservoir is empty came on.
0950 Transfer milk pumped overnight into freezer bags. Wash bottles and throw into the sterilizer
0952 Pour cereal into a bowl.
0953 Discover Husband has finished off the milk. I guess I'm having oatmeal.
0954 Fortunately, there is one packet of oatmeal left.
1000 Watch the final segment of LWT again because it is so fucking brilliant
1020 Catch up with blog reading by reading them out loud to Jate, because it counts as reading. Genuine Greavu and It Only Takes One are her favourites.
1030 Jate has been alternating between being quiet alert and lightly sleeping, but now her eyes have been closed for more than 5 minutes. I always hate to wake her, fearing it could backfire on me
1040 Nurse her in the rocker. Husband is still on Sky.pe with his parents trying to talk them through online booking their flights for the trip in October. Realise he has been on the phone with them since I woke up.
1100 Time to try to put the contented baby down for a nap, so that I can go to swim practice. The pool will be closed for maintenance for a few days, so this is my only class this week. No pressure Jate! Time to bring out all the reinforcements. Disposable diaper. Swaddle. The Happiest Baby White Noise
1125 Success! She is asleep. Now just to put her down in the Rock and Play...
1130 Uneventful transfer! Quickly change into swimsuit and leave as soon as I can
1140 On the road. Whoo-hoo! I'll actually be on time and will get to do a proper warm up.
1147 Realise that I'm not on my usual route to the pool. I have no idea why I jumped on Route 13. Will blame it on "Mommy Brain" I can still get to the pool from this road, but it takes a little longer. So much for warm-up
1200 Arrive at the pool. Lena, the other (formerly) pregnant swimmer is there with her baby. I can't let it go. I'm still annoyed at her, "Oh, I'm so lucky that I'm superfertile and got knocked up without really trying, unlike those poor infertile people who spend all their money on medical treatments" comment. (paraphrased) I really wish I said something to her at that moment. I probably wouldn't be carrying so much angst. Oh well. I take delight in the fact that I'm a faster swimmer.
1235 Ugh. It's a breaststroke day. Fuck.Me.
1325 Stop at Safe.way for milk and a few other items. Enjoy a few more minutes of freedom.
1350 Jate is still asleep when I arrive home. Consider asking Husband to unpack groceries while I jump in the shower, but realise it's unlikely they'll get put away until after I shower. Quickly unpack groceries myself.
1410 Showered and changed. Notice that I missed a call from the DS regarding my return to work date. Promptly return her call.
1415 Didn't intend for Jate to sleep this late, as it's now approaching three hours and her daytime maximum is two a half. Hope this doesn't screw her up for tonight, but decide fifteen more minutes won't matter, and I quickly eat some lunch
1430 Unswaddle Jate. She wakes up a few minutes later
1435 Husband volunteers to change her. Willingly accept his offer
1437 It's a blow-out! Ha-ha!
1442 Feel badly and decide to help him. Throw the bag of cloth wipes into the washer.
1450 Nurse
1515 Sit her down on the Boppy while I fix my clasps. She seems content so we work on grasping a rattle. She'll hold it in her hands, but doesn't really reach for it. I'm trying to discern if she's smiling at me. This process feels like an Occupational Therapy session.
1550 She's getting fussy. Bounce on the balance ball a few times. Not working. Switch to the rocker. She settles down, so I start reading some of her books.
1600 Look over and discover that she is asleep. After all, she's use to the sophisticated writing styles of fellow bloggers. The Very Hungry Catapiller is way too basic for her.
1605 Place her in the Rock and Play
1610 Load the tumble dryer. Put away clothes from the drying rack.
1615 Decide a nap sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll get some shut-eye myself
1620 Jate wakes up. So much for a nap
1630 Attempts to get her to settle are futile
1635 Since she's already pissed off, might as well do some Tummy Time
1645 Tummy time abandoned as she's really starting to wail. Decisions, decisions. Do I take her for a walk or feed her, since she'll be due to eat soon?
1650 Opt to nurse. If she's really hungry, she'll just scream her head off during the walk (plus I have to fuck about getting the pram out of the boot of my car).
1715 She seems to be dosing off. Feel this was the right call and it wasn't just because I was being lazy about taking her for a walk. Husband leaves for Cross-Fit
1730 After a little rocking, she's sleeping and ready to be put down in the Rock and Play
1735 Empty the tumble dryer and put away the cloth wipes
1745 Check email, face.book and blog roll
1800 Time for a little cat nap (believe me, this does not happen every day!)
1845 Husband returns home and wakes me up
1855 Feed Tyler
1900 Wake Jate and change her
1910 Nurse while we watch The Big Bang Theory. We enjoy singing the theme song to her.
1915 Remind husband to start dinner
2000 Place Jate in the Rock and Play (which is kept in the kitchen, near the breakfast table)
2001 Also known as "Beer o'clock" I credit my plentiful milk supply to my daily consumption of one bottle of beer
2005 Dinner (Safe.way frozen salmon and peas) is served. I suggest to Husband that it might just be easier to make protein shakes for dinner. He actually agrees.
2020 Jate is really fussy. Her diaper is soaked. I love cloth diapers, but she does need to be changed more frequently
2030 Jate remains quiet and alert while we finish dinner and clean up
2045 Give her a quick bath and get ready for bed
2100 Husband has to take a call from his boss (who is on the east coast where it's midnight). This must be serious. Try bouncing a hungry and cranky baby.
2115 Husband finishes his call and is ready to give her the nightly bottle. He has me send a few emails from his phone for him. I wonder if his contacts will notice that these messages are grammatically correct and punctuated properly.
2130 While burping, she has another blow-out. Husband gets shat on. Try not to laugh.
2135 Fortunately, I didn't get a chance to empty out her tub. I use the sprayer to clean her off while Husband cleans himself. I'm surprised that he doesn't jump in the shower
2200 Everyone is cleaned up. While getting her dressed, Jate pees on the changing table. Sigh. She does this at least once a day. Often while we're drying her with the hair dryer. There must be something about having warm air on your bits that invites open urination. I finish dressing and swaddling her on the tummy time mat
2205 Husband reads some stories to Jate as he rocks her
2210 Tyler runs into the room and jumps in the crib. He wants to hear the story too!


2215 While Husband reads, I brush Tyler. We've been sure to give him plenty of affection since Jate's arrival, but his coat maintenance has been neglected
2230 Transfer Jate to her bassinet
2235 First pumping session of the night
2245 Wash pumping parts, get set up for next pumping session
2300 Fix cup of tea, read emails, new blog posts. Facebook.
2330 Brush teeth and go to bed. Tyler joins me.
2345 Fall asleep
0130 Hit snooze on my alarm
0139 The alarm goes off again and wakes up Husband, who tells me to get up and pump
0145 Pump. Leave parts in the sink, will wash in the morning
0410 Jate starts to stir. Hope this is just a false alarm and she'll go back to a sound sleep
0415 No such luck
0420 Start to feed. Sometimes she'll fall asleep on the breast and it's easy to get her to go back down
0445 Tonight is not one of those nights.
0450 Re-wrap her swaddle and head to the glider. Offer her the elephant Wubbanub
0455 Play "womb noises" from the white noise selection. Sometimes this works almost instantly
0500 Nope. Eyes are wide open
0515 After more rocking and stroking her cheek and face, her eyes remain closed
0530 Transfer her back to her basinet and jump into my bed
0835 Jate starts to stir and another day is ready to begin.

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are rockin' motherhood and that Jate is a pretty good sleeper for her age. :-)

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  2. Oh my gosh... That's a busy baby day.. :)

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  3. It does feel like nothing gets done, and yet, every single hour is filled. The only solace I can offer is that it really does get better the older they get. Breastfeeding and pumping is a time suck like no other.

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  4. busy day! Lots that made me smile, and I'm sure you, too. Ah, feeling nostalgic for those early bleary days of motherhood. Love that Jate enjoys hearing blogs.

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  5. Thanks for sharing! I love these posts. And I'm very impressed that you managed to go swimming - and that Jate was still asleep when you came back. Our situation was more like "nurse SB, hurry across campus to pool, swim for 20min, shower and find messages about crying baby on phone..."

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  6. Love the image of you reading blogs to Jate - ha! Obviously she is much too advanced for baby books now.

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