a day in the life - wendy

Oy.  Pregsomnia + holiday procrastination + a babe who apparently thinks 4:30am is a great time for a dance party in my belly = lack of sleep.  I would say pass the coffee, but I don't drink coffee... darn.  Maybe a delicious brownie for breakfast would do it?  :o)

Anyway, it's Wednesday, and you get spy on the day of another mama!  Today you get to meet Wendy, I hope you enjoy taking a peek at her life.

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I'm so glad to be participating in "A Day in the Life" on Ashley's blog! I've been reading her for a little over a year now and really enjoy getting a peek into other mother's lives. I blog over at Playing Parent, which started as a good way to track my pregnancy and give voice to being a mother. My own mother died when I was one and I loved anything of hers I could get my hands on. I would have loved to have her written words at my fingertips, so my blog is a way to ensure my children have a piece of me, no matter what.

My name is Wendy, and I live in South Carolina with my dashing husband Johnathan, our spoiled yorkie poo Jericho, and our precious daughter Bonnie. She is 10 months old now, and is a ball of energy! I'm a working Mom, but I get to work from home so my commute is super easy. Today you'll follow me through a Friday, which would normally be pretty boring, but I'm cheating because I'm pregnant again and today is our gender scan!

Let's begin:

5:45am- I hear Bonnie squeaking and showing general signs of wakefulness in her room. If she's not sounding unhappy I usually let her chill until one of two things happen: 1) She starts sounding unhappy or 2) It gets late enough that I've gotta get her dressed, fed, and ready for Grandma's house. But I can say without a doubt that 5:45 is not normal, and I was NOT getting up that early.

6:45am- I must have fallen back asleep, because when I wake up again it's silent. Bonnie must have actually fallen back to sleep herself, which is unusual because when she wakes up, she's usually awake for good. Part of me is in awe of this fact, and another part is starting to get worried because this never happens.

7am- I've waited as long as I can take it, I have to get up and peek in on her. I step into the room and look into her crib. She's laying on her side with her head away from her "Bonnie" pillow with nothing around her, so I know she's fine. I don't touch her for fear she'll wake up, and I wouldn't mind getting back in bed for a few minutes.

7:20am- I'm too excited about today to go back to sleep so I drag myself out of bed and go to the kitchen to mix her bottle. I made it about 5 months breastfeeding, but couldn't keep it up so she's been on formula ever since.

I take the bottle in her room and as I rustle around she starts to wake up a little. She does some cute little stretches and then I turn the lamp on and stand her up to wake her up further. I don't normally have the luxury of waking her up as she's usually bouncing up and down grinning from ear to ear when I walk in her room every morning.

Mid-stretch, not yet awake

Starting to wake-up more

"I'm awake now!"

I change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. We sit down in the chair and she has her bottle. She usually eats the rest of her breakfast with her Grandma at her house. When she's done I burp her and take the time to inspect her nails for clipping, she is in good shape today.

7:35am- I take her into the bedroom and plop her on the bed next to Johnathan. He would normally be gone to work by now, but he took the day off for the ultrasound. We spend some time playing with Bonnie, letting her bounce around, and generally being gleefully attacked by her.

7:45am- I take Bonnie into the living room and put her in her playpen while I prep her stuff. We are so lucky to have my mother-in-law watch Bonnie for us during the week while we work. I prepare a formula bottle for being put in the fridge at Grandma's. I also fill a formula dispenser with her other servings for the day. I put it all in her diaper bag. I also add about 6 nighttime diapers in the bag for a trial run. We use Pampers Swaddlers during the day and Pampers 12 hour at night. However, we've been having trouble with bad diaper rash and are hoping that switching to the 12 hour during the day might help.

8am- Grandma arrives to pick up Bonnie for the day. Normally it's a 5 minute process of picking up, discussing any details for the day, and she's off. However, since my husband is home he makes coffee for them and we sit around chatting for a while as Bonnie plays around the room. It started getting late so I went on with my normal process of taking Jericho out for a walk, coming in and showering, then logging onto my computer for work. Grandma takes our car with her and leaves her own vehicle (ours has the car seat). She lives just up the street so if I need anything throughout the day I can just give her a call.

8:45am- I log onto work (a little later then normal) and start taking care of business. We have to leave a little before 10:30 for our 11am ultrasound appt because we live in one city and have all my OB visits in another. I've been going to her well before we moved here and I didn't want to change.

9:11am- My MIL calls to talk about the new puffs she bought for Bonnie to eat, and how she incorporated those flavors into her baby cereal to make her eat more of that after tasting the puffs (cinnamon and maple). We also discuss the diaper rash issue for a bit.

10:30am- We stop at Starbucks so I can get a little bit of caffeine in me. The last thing I want is a sleeping baby with their legs crossed. I have a gender reveal dinner tomorrow with some friends and family and I certainly don't want to cancel it. I have a fun Willy Wonka golden ticket reveal planned.

11:00am- We get to the appt just in time and are immediately escorted back to the ultrasound room. This is also the checkup where they check all the arms, legs, face, brain, heart, etc. So we are in there a while. We were hoping for a boy, since we plan for this to be our last pregnancy and would love to have a well rounded family.

11:15am- It's a girl!!!! We don't even have a name picked out for a girl, only a boy name, so wow back to the drawing board! But yay! Bonnie will have a sister and we won't have to buy all new clothes! I always wanted a sister growing up! Bonnie and her sister will be 15 months apart and I'm guessing as close as can be (a mama can hope!).

12:30ish- We head out to grab some lunch at our favorite restaurant that we don't get to visit anymore because we live so far away. On the way we stop at the UPS store to drop off some gender scratch off cards for family who can't be at the dinner tomorrow.

I tease Facebook with the following: "We know the gender of our baby. Wouldn't you like to know? Too bad! You'll have to wait a few more days. Muahahaha. #MeanMama"

We get to the restaurant and greet our favorite waiter with double kisses, he's half Latin half Italian, it's what you do! We stuff our faces with Italian and discuss top three girl names.

1:30pm- I get a text from my MIL: "Bonnie just took 3 steps all by herself. Then squealed with her own happiness." I'm not upset about this because she's been taking steps for a while, so I didn't miss anything but it's still fun and cute to hear.

Playing at Grandma's

2pm- I'm way past due for getting back to work, so we head home so I can log back in.

3pm- Johnathan planned to clean his guns on his day off, with Bonnie out of the house. Seems fitting since we'll now have two girls to "protect" from potential suitors. :)

5pm- Grandma brings Bonnie home on the dot since we're both home. Normally she waits for a text from me letting her know I'm ready.

5:30pm- I start to feel nauseous so I crack open a ginger ale and make a run to the store for some crackers. This pregnancy the morning sickness hasn't been bad, but I still get bouts on into my second trimester. Johnathan plays with Bonnie while I get myself right again.

6pm- Fix some sweet potatoes and rice cereal for Bonnie and feed her in the dining room. I feed her some puffs as a side as well. She's gotten really good at throwing them on the floor for Jericho to eat, sigh.

Funny how Bonnie has her hand in the same position as the picture in the background

7pm- It's baby bedtime! Daddy gives her night night kisses and I take her back to her room for a diaper change, put on her PJs, turn on her sound machine (ocean sounds), and turn off the light. We sit in her chair and she gets her last bottle of the day. She usually falls asleep during the bottle but lately since we went away for a night she hasn't been doing that. So we have a session of what I call "Mommy Jujitsu". I hold her while she does a bunch of antics to try and stay awake. Grabs her foot and messes around. Takes her paci out and chews on it. Tries to hit or kick mommy in the face. Anything to distract herself. But Mommy Jujitsu always prevails. I withstand all of her moves while keeping quiet, and avoiding any major injury to myself. After about 10 minutes she always taps out, aka falls asleep.

7:30pm- I join Johnathan in the living room and we watch some Duck Dynasty. I realize we're sounding like total rednecks by now, but it's a fun show.

8:30pm- We fix dinner together, tonight he's having leftovers and I make something else for myself. (I'm keeping it secret because my endocrinologist might be reading this!)

9pm- Just as we're sitting down to eat, Bonnie wakes up crying. This doesn't happen very often, she usually sleeps right through. Johnathan goes back to try and soothe her while I scarf my food down. I am diabetic so I have to take insulin during dinner and I had already taken my shot so I have to eat my food. Unfortunately, Johnathan isn't successful at getting her back to sleep (he usually is), so I go back there and hold her back to sleep. We usually just lay her back down and soothe her, but sometimes that just won't do.

10pm - 12am- We putter around watching TV, looking up baby name stuff, and paint swatches online. I don't normally go to bed at 12 but somehow the day has gotten away from me. Lights out!

Ashley's Questions:

1. What is the most surprising thing to you about being a mom?

I'm constantly surprised at how it has changed my world view. Things that bothered me before, REALLY bother me now. Like when bad things happen to children on TV. I recently saw a picture of a military mom hugging her child sobbing and the second my eyes saw it, I was broken and crying. You never think that you're going to change all that much, other than knowing you'll love your children. I was not prepared to also love everyone elses children merely because I can put myself in the other parents place. I definitely feel like I'm in a club, which sounds silly but so true.

2. What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas?

It's going to be SO hard in the beginning. People try to warn you, but there are just no words for it. Hormones run amuck, sleep deprivation, breastfeeding difficulties, unconditional love for a little helpless someone, etc. It took me a while to feel like myself again, and that can be scary. But your hormones will adjust, you'll somehow get use to less sleep, you'll figure out breastfeeding (and if you don't you'll discover formula), and your love will continue to grow. Soldier on Mama because in the end, it's so worth it!

3. What are your top three baby products?

-Boppy: I've used it every day since we brought her home, and if I had known better I would have had it with me in the hospital. Of course it's perfect for its intended use, but I also used it to sleep with her in the beginning when nothing else seemed to work. I just propped myself up, laid the Boppy on me, and laid her on the Boppy with my arms encircling her. Life saver!
- Diaper Genie: We've only had ours for about a month now. Before that we had a different brand that allowed you to use your own garbage bags. But it stank up the room something awful. The Diaper Genie has been a total nose saver!
- Wireless Camera: We don't use it as much anymore because I had it installed on her crib and she started ripping it off and throwing it on the floor. But when she first moved to her room it was fantastic. We could check on her via an app on our phones where ever we were. A few times we went to the movies after she was in bed, leaving her with her uncle and we could sneak peeks on her during the movie. Took care of our worries!

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Thank you Wendy, for sharing your day with us!  Congrats on Baby Girl #2!