Erin Reads

I totally missed Trish’s A Day in the Life event. Oops. Then she told me I could just play along a little late…so here you go! I’m a stay-at-home mom of a four-month-old, and this is a pretty typical day for us. Except for the sleeping — usually it isn’t THIS bad!

Going from midnight to midnight for my day in the life finds me awake. S (my son) hasn’t been sleeping well the past few nights. He woke up to nurse around 11:30, and now I’m holding him, waiting for him to fall asleep deeply enough that I can set him down without him popping awake. I find I’d rather hold him a little longer than transfer him too early and then have to get him back to sleep.

12:25am – S is down. I’m down soon after.

3:15am – S is up to eat. Finally asleep enough to put down an hour later.

5:45am – It seems S is up for the day. (This is early even by his standards; usually he’s up between 6 and 7:30. The only thing that makes it bearable is that he is extra cute when he wakes up for the day, cooing and screeching and smiling. It must be a survival thing, so we don’t just leave him somewhere to fend for himself while we go back to bed.) U (my husband) knows it was a rough night and, as he often does, offers to take S so I can sleep a bit more. I set my alarm for an hour and go back to sleep.

6:20am – So much for an hour. S is hungry again. U brings him into the bedroom. I feed him while U showers.

6:40am – U takes S again and tells me to reset my alarm for an hour again. I do not argue.

7:40am – I wake up to my alarm and the sound of S crying as U tries to put him down for a nap. S really does not like naps, but he also does not function well without them. As I suspect is the case with most babies his age. I shower. There is sudden silence from S’s room, and I hope it’s because he’s out and not because U had given up. It is. Hooray!

8:05am – Breakfast. It’s the last of the chocolate peanut butter chia pudding I made over the weekend plus fresh strawberries…so good. U leaves for work, and I sit down to knit for a few minutes until S wakes up. I’m working on a cowl for my sister, the last of several Christmas presents I’d committed to making. (Yes, that blue plaid is a robe. I don’t bother with real clothes unless we’re leaving the house. It’s just not worth it!)

8:32am – I realize there is no way I’ll be sitting down at my computer to type up this recap, so I download the WordPress app. I’m pleasantly surprised by how much better it is than whenever I last tried to use it (several years ago).

8:36am –  I think I hear something from S’s room. I check the monitor because I realize it’s been over 30 minutes, which is his usual nap length. Sure enough, he’s awake, but I wait a few minutes (until he fusses) to go get him. Diaper change, etc., then we go into the living room. I lay him down among his toys and start to knit, but that doesn’t last long because he starts fussing for attention. I play with him a bit, then go back to knitting while I watch him with his mobile. It’s amazing how differently he interacts with it now. Two months ago all he did was stare in wonder; now he’s hardly still long enough to take a picture!

9:06am – I check the silly cat game I “play” (Neko Atsume…anyone else??) and realize there’s been an update. I get way too excited and make a mental note to see what’s new next time I have a few minutes. S and I do some rolling and tummy time.

9:38am – Feed S. He’s getting silly when he nurses, which can be rather annoying. Apparently this is a thing babies go through.

9:50am – S seems to be done and bored, so we read some books. We keep a small stack on the couch for such occasions, and we’ve read them so many times in the past week that I probably have them memorized. Another mental note: switch them out for some new ones.

10:08am – S is super wiggly, so over to the activity mat we go. He chews on things and works on kicking his socks off (a favorite pastime of late) while I type up some notes for this post.

10:19am – Get a snack. Still amazed by how hungry breastfeeding makes me. And I thought pregnancy was bad! S really enjoys watching people eat at the moment, so I show him chips and pieces of cheese as I eat.

10:30am – I realize I need to wind up more yarn for the cowl I’m working on. S and I go dig out the yarn, swift, and ball winder. I set him up in his high chair so he can watch the proceedings, and he seems content.

10:46am – I look over to see S scratching at his eyes and staring off into space and realize he’s been up for two hours, which is about his max. I leave the second skein of yarn for later and begin naptime preparations.

10:58am – After a fair bit of protesting, S is asleep in my arms. I settle in with my phone for a few minutes to make sure he is well and truly asleep before I try to lay him in his crib.

11:14am – Successful transfer to crib. We’ve been swaddling S with his arms out for naps for the past week or so, so I wait and watch while he flails a bit but eventually settles and seems to be asleep.

11:19am – Sneak out. Go put actual clothes on, as we’re planning to visit U’s coworkers when S wakes up. Set up the second skein of yarn on the swift.

11:31am – S coos. That is an epically short nap even for him; usually he goes for 20-30 minutes after I lay him down. Confer with U via text, who says there’s no point in visiting now as everyone will be at lunch by the time we get there. Quickly wind the second skein of yarn before S starts fussing.

11:41am – S starts fussing. I go in and get him. Into the bouncy seat he goes while I add notes to this post. I think again how much better the WordPress app is; I could actually run a blog from my phone now. Hmm…if only I were getting any reading done! (It’s interesting…I don’t have much desire to read fiction these days, which is a complete 180 from my usual preferences. It’s nonfiction or knitting for me. I think I prefer to be learning or making because those are all the signs I have some days that I’ve made progress on anything.)

12:06pm – S is starting to fuss in the bouncer, so we go into the kitchen to fix my lunch. I made bean and kale soup over the weekend, so I just reheat a mugful and make a piece of gluten-free toast. S sits on my lap, watching me eat and chewing on my finger.

 

12:27pm – Feed S. Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. S chews on his Indestructibles book for a bit.

12:55pm – I hear the beep of our mail carrier’s package scanner. Yay packages! It’s nothing exciting — just some baby stuff I ordered — but it’s fun to open anyway.

1:20pm – With S in the stroller and The Martian on my phone, I head out for a walk. I’m hoping my little guy will nap; he obliges.

2:20pm – Home. A change of clothes for me and a snack for each of us and we’re ready to visit U at work.

3:25pm – Hand S off to U. I like U’s coworkers — quite a bit, actually — but today I don’t have the energy for socializing. So I sit in the car with the windows down, enjoying the weather and knitting my cowl while keeping an eye on the traffic. (Rush hour is something like 4-6pm here and it is brutal! Not a good place to be with a baby, as I have learned the hard way.)

4:10pm – U returns a very sleepy S to me, and we head home. We only hit one slow spot and it’s long after S has fallen asleep.

4:40pm – Pull into our driveway. Despite all past experiences to the contrary, part of me hopes that maybe if we just sit there with the engine running, S will sleep past the 30-minute mark. No such luck. A minute after we pull in, I hear him blowing raspberries (his new thing) in the back seat. Into the house we go. On our way past the couch, I remember to swap out the books.

5:15pm – Nurse S. Read a few of the new books.

5:50pm – S is getting unbearably cranky and acting tired. He hasn’t had a good nap today. It’s too late in the day for a long nap, but something is better than nothing. I take him into his room to see if I can get him to sleep. He proceeds to melt down for 20 minutes while I rock him.

6:08pm – I lay a not-at-all-asleep S down in his crib, where he stops crying immediately and begins cooing to himself. I sit down in the rocking chair to wait for him to get fussy again.

6:28pm – He is fussy again but refuses to sleep. We move to the living room, where he continues to fuss.

7pm – U is home. S is super grumpy. I hand the latter off to the former and start collecting the trash.

7:25pm – We realize S is just getting more and more wound up and decide to go ahead and start bedtime proceedings. I do S’s little massage routine, then grab dinner while U tries to calm S down.

7:53pm – Nurse S, hopefully to sleep. Fingers crossed!

8:46pm – S is finally asleep and in his bassinet. I sneak out to get ready for bed myself.

9:15pm – Bed for this mama. Hoping S sleeps a decent chunk instead of waking up at 10 and 11 the way he has the past two nights…

9:37pm – Hahahaha nope. He’s up.

10:45pm – He’s up again.

11:55pm – Aaaaaand again, this time to eat…which brings us back around to where the day started. Lather, rinse, repeat…