January 11, 2012

a day in the life - laura

Kicking us off with 'a day in the life' this year (after myself I guess...) is Laura!  I hope you enjoy getting a little peek at her day.  Happy hump day!

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I'm Laura, 35-year-old mom to Shelby (22 months) and another baby girl on the way (due in May). I blog over at Payette Pigtails, mostly about adventures with Shelby. Here's a look at a weekend day in our life, documented this past Saturday (since weekdays we're at work/school).

3:30am  -  I'm up to pee. Pregnancy is fun like that. I take the other half of my Ambien and watch a bit of Almost Famous to help me fall back asleep. I toss and turn the rest of the night, mostly sleeping (I think).

7:00am  -  I take out my earplugs and listen for Shelby. At first I think she's still asleep (ha!), but then I hear her talking to herself in bed. I tiptoe into the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth. She hears me and starts saying, "Mommy. Mommy!" in her outside voice. Let the day begin.

 

7:00am-7:30am  -  I change Shelby's diaper and take off her jammies. She can kind of do this herself now, but she doesn't want to help unzip them today. She also doesn't want to use the potty when I offer. No big deal. She demands to, "Eat! Eat!" so we head downstairs for breakfast.

I let her sit in the "big chair" and give her a cereal bar so she can't make too much of a mess. I sit down next to her with my own bar while I wait for coffee to brew. I let myself have a little bit of caffeine every morning to help kick-start my brain.

Nearly half an hour later Shelby's still working on her cereal bar, which she's crumbled into pieces. She used to eat breakfast pretty well, but lately she just plays with her food. It makes getting out of the house on weekdays challenging. Today I let her watch some videos from our trip to California. She wants, "More, more," but I finally turn them off, wipe her face and hands, and convince her to head downstairs.

 

7:30-8:15am  -  I actually bribe Shelby downstairs by telling her I have something for her. It's true; I shipped a box of Christmas presents back from California and they arrived the day before. I'm hopeful she'll be excited to see them again and that she'll want to play with them for a while. Hahahahaha! She glanced at them for a few minutes and then moved on to her easel.

We spend most of the next hour shuffling between toys downstairs, never spending more than five minutes with any one thing. Shelby is a busybody. About once a day she'll focus on something and stick with it. Otherwise, it's like chasing the Tazmanian devil; it's exhausting.


8:15-8:30am  -  I manage to get Shelby to go upstairs (we have a tri-level) to brush her hair and teeth. This is always a battle and today is no different. She wants nothing to do with her toothbrush (I recently made her first dentist appointment because of this), but she does want to brush her hair, which means she wields the brush everywhere and then cries when I take it away to actually brush her mane. Somehow I get her to at least put the toothbrush in her mouth while I get put hair into half-pigtails.


8:30-9:00am  -  It's time to get ready to go to the doctor. Shelby's had a rash since before we went to California and nothing seems to be helping it, so after three calls to the advice nurse (over the last two weeks), we're finally going in. I pack Shelby's diaper bag while she pushes her baby doll around the kitchen in the stroller. All of a sudden she says, "No, no poop!" Clearly, she's pooping, although she always denies it.

A few minutes later she says, "Peeyoo poop!" I look at the clock and calculate that I should have enough time to change her and get to the doctor's office without rushing; it's just down the street. Of course, getting into the car is a challenge. Shelby wants to take every toy in the house with her. I tell her no and pick her up like a football, expecting a tantrum. Amazingly, she doesn't cry, but she also doesn't make it easy to get her strapped in the car seat. Is it nap time yet? I'm tired.


9:00-9:30am  -  We're seen pretty quickly, which is nice. Shelby got to stand on the big girl scale for the first time; she weighs 27.2 pounds. The doctor confirmed that it's probably a yeast rash but said it could also be eczema. Apparently they look very similar. We're to alternate using anti-fungal cream and hydrocortisone cream for the next couple of weeks until it's gone. Hopefully, one of them will work. Poor Shelby says, "Itch, itch," every time I change her diaper and then touches herself like mad.

 

9:30-11:30am  -  Chris is awake when we get home. Yea, relief for the mama! Shelby saw a banana in her diaper bag at the doctor and asked for it the whole way home, so we have a snack. Then Chris and I take turns playing with Shelby and doing house chores. I get a load of laundry folded and the floor vacuumed. Shelby loves the vacuum and tries to help. I notice that my lower back is killing me; it feels like I pulled every muscle in it. I haven't felt that before with this pregnancy, so I hope it's a fluke. It's really uncomfortable.

As it nears Shelby's lunchtime I realize I'm starving, so I start thinking about what we can eat. There's rarely any food made, so it's always a challenge to figure out what can be whipped together in 0.2 seconds. I decide I want some eggs, so I make a scramble with frozen veggies and some already cooked ground turkey, and lay out yogurt, a veggie pouch, and a Chik patty for Shelby.


11:30am-12:30pm  -  All three of us eat lunch together. It doesn't often happen that way, but I'll take it! Chris and I have the scramble and Shelby coats herself in yogurt. The kid is seriously messy when she eats. She also has her veggie pouch but then she wants our eggs instead of her Chik patty. Chris gives her a side of ketchup and she dips her eggs in wholeheartedly, eating at least as much ketchup as egg. She's recently fallen in love with dipping her food in ranch, ketchup, BBQ sauce, you name it.


We clean up and go upstairs for a nap. Instead of going right to bed, though, Shelby plays with her Little People carriage and princess at the window, watching for snow. (It had started to lightly flurry, but it quickly abated.) I finally forced the issue, changing her diaper and putting her in her sleep sack. Then she wanted, "House!" (the book The Little House), so I "read" it to her one time. (I paraphrase the story as we look at most of the pictures.) She threw a fit when I said we were all done. I barely got her into her crib before she flailed out of my arms. I sang her one song, kissed her, and walked out the door.

12:30-3:20pm -   Naptime! I listen to Shelby roll around in her crib for a while before she finally conks out. I have every intention of starting this blog post, but I realize I've left the cord downstairs and the laptop has about a minute of battery life left before it dies, so I opt to read instead. Finally I get up to check Shelby, get some more food, and grab the laptop cord. I start this post and then take a bath, hoping the warm water will make my back feel better. It doesn't, but a bath sure is nice.


I've barely gotten dressed and sat down again before I hear Shelby's little voice. I give her a couple of minutes and she quiets down. I guess she's back to sleep? I don't want to check for fear of waking her. I go dry my hair since we'll need to leave once she does get up. I also pack her snacks and put her diaper bag in the car. It's started snowing lightly.

Shelby's still not awake, so I eat a pb+j. I've been living off those and cereal lately. I finally go back upstairs to peek at Shelby. Zonked out! We're going to need to jet the second she wakes up. We were supposed to be at a party at 2pm and it takes us 20-25 minutes to get there. Good thing most of the other kids coming are also napping right now. At least we won't be the only ones fashionably late. I decide to look up some recipes; maybe I'll actually make something tomorrow?

3:20-4:00pm  -  She's finally awake! Shelby hasn't napped this well in a while. Of course it would be on a day we actually need to get somewhere, but I'm not really complaining. She takes a while getting up; she used to pop right up after sleeping, but now she likes to cuddle her lovey and stuffed animals. Chris is trying to help my cause and he entices her out of bed by telling her she can look at the snow that's falling.


I manage to change Shelby's diaper and clothes and even fix her ponytails, which are all funny looking following her nap. I get her buckled into the car seat and give her some raisins to eat, but then I can't find my keys. Good grief. This happens to me every day. I whine at Chris and pout through the house while looking for them in a panic. I find them in the pocket of my coat, in the car. Naturally. Finally we're off to Kara's for her gender reveal party. She's due with baby #2 four days before me. Fortunately, I'm one of the lucky few who already know the gender, so while I missed the reveal via cake cutting, we still make it in time to play.

4:00-6:00pm  -  The second we walk in the door Shelby freezes, turns around, and clings to my legs for dear life. Seriously? This kid is socialite numero uno, but sometimes she gets really shy when we first arrive somewhere. She sits in my lap for what seems like a long time before getting up to play with her friends.

Shelby and Auntie 'N'

I love play dates and get togethers; it's so much easier to watch Shelby when I'm not her only source of entertainment. Today Kara's house is packed with kids Shelby knows (and some she doesn't), so once she's off playing she's happy as a clam. Auntie N (my sister) is also there and helps keep an eye on her. It doesn't hurt that Shelby gets to eat cake. Mmmm.

playing with Thatcher before we head home

6:00-7:30pm  -  We head home and have some dinner. Shelby actually ate some of Kara's chili at the party, which is amazing because it was mostly vegetables and Shelby almost never eats veggies unless they're in a veggie pouch. I was impressed. Anyway, she wasn't really into dinner as a result. She actually rejects her pb+j, which she usually loves. Then she eats a few bites of cheese, but she starts banging her fork and kicking her high chair (something we've been trying to put the kibosh on), so she loses her cheese-eating privilege (it's one of her favorite foods).


My back is still killing me, so Chris "flies" Shelby around the room until his arms hurt and then we sit on the couch and let Shelby listen to music on his headphones. She learned how to hold them to her ears just before our trip to California. Pretty soon it's 7:00pm and time to get ready for bed.

 

Usually I'd give Shelby a bath, but I'm not up to it and she's not that dirty, so Chris takes her up to brush her teeth and I handle a diaper change and jammies. I kind of feel bad putting her to bed already since she napped late, but this is her normal bedtime. I read "House" with her (yes, again) and then leave her with Chris for songs.

7:30-9:45  -  I'm wiped. I climb into bed to finish writing this post and upload and edit photos. Shelby cries because she doesn't want to go to sleep, but within 20 minutes it's quiet in her room. I realize that if there's any hope of cooking tomorrow I'll need to make a grocery list so I can shop in the morning. I used to love to cook, but that was before Shelby. Now it's really hit or miss as to whether anything gets made. Maybe it's the pregnancy, but lately I'm just not inspired by any recipes no matter how many I look at. And let's face it, when I leave grocery shopping until Sunday morning and then expect to cook a week's worth of food that afternoon while entertaining a toddler? Well, it just doesn't often happen.

9:45pm  -  Time for bed. I turn into a pumpkin early these days; I have to if I want to get enough sleep. I take my Ambien (half now, the other half when I wake up in the middle of the night) and read a bit to get sleepy. I've had major insomnia issues since Shelby was born, so the fact that I've been sleeping decently lately is wonderful. I cue a DVD so I have something to watch at 3am and then turn out the light. Good night! Thanks for peeking in to one of our days.

1. What is the most surprising thing about being a mom?
How much patience and love you can find within yourself even when you're exhausted and about to crack. 

2. What advice would you give new or soon-to-be moms?
Be kind to yourself. Being a mom is HARD. You'll do the best you can given your circumstances; try not to second guess whether it's good enough for your child(ren). As long as you show them you love them, it is.

3. What are your top three baby products?
That's a toughie because it's been a while and it may be different with baby #2, but I'd say:
  • Wubbanub: Shelby was a huge pacifier kid; the attached animals helped us keep track of the pacifiers and, later, allowed Shelby to hold them by herself
  • Woombie: Best swaddle ever (for us)
  • Medela Pump-In-Style: I pumped exclusively for seven months when feeding at the breast didn't work. This, along with a hands-free bra, made it possible to give Shelby at least some breast milk. I even pumped in the car!
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Thank you for sharing your day with us Laura!  I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well!

    1 comment:

    kathryn said...

    I'm tired just reading about your day! What a little Princess though! You must be so proud! Good luck and take care of yourself!