a day in the life - alisha jo

Woot.  Hump day.  Which = MDO which = a slightly more sane mommy today.  Plus my mom is still around helping us out since the hospital has kidnapped my husband.  So today should be a good day.  Unless said husband gets snowed in at the hospital, then I think I'll be extra sad that he can't come home in the morning.  We shall see.  Anyway... 

Check out a day in the life of Alisha Jo.  Twins, could you do it?  I figure if I had to, I could.  But one baby is daunting enough for more.  More power to you mommies of multiples!

***

Hi everybody, my name is Alisha Jo and I am currently a SAHM to twin girls who are 9 months old. My husband and I relocated back to my hometown (Lee's Summit, MO) when our girls were four days old due to my hubby taking a new job. I was thrilled to be back by my family and that his job allows me to stay at home right now. I'm a licensed attorney (only licensed in IL right now) so I'm enjoying my time with my girls while I figure out what how I want to proceed career wise next. I began blogging to chronicle our infertility journey and to keep family updated. Now I blog about my girls :) Enjoy a peek into our day!

2:05 am: For some reason, I wake up, immediately check both monitors (hear & see nothing) and contemplate going upstairs to check on the girls. I know if I check on them then it will be harder for me to get back to sleep but if I don't check on them then my Mommy Guilt kicks in... While I contemplate for a few minutes Ellie Jo decides to make my decision easy by starting to cry. She's fine, lost her paci and rolled herself into a corner of her crib. I fix the issue and head back to bed.

3:50 am: Ellie Jo's full on screams wake me so I head upstairs to check on her. She tends to talk/cry in her sleep (I always wonder what is so terrible in my poor baby's life that is causing this?! This is probably Mommy Guilt kicking in again, blaming myself...) so I wasn't sure if she was actually awake or still asleep. She was actually awake so I rub her belly and try to calm her before heading back to bed. When I get to bed though she's back to crying! Ugh. Because we're trying to sleep train I stay downstairs and intensely watch the monitors. After 10 minutes my husband heads up to try but no luck she's back to crying. I hate sleep training.

6:55 am: I slept through Scott leaving (well, I heard him in the kitchen but decided not to get up) and am awakened by Charlie through the monitor. I grab the girls and bring them to our bed to let them hang out (surrounded by pillows and my watchful eye) while I at least go to the bathroom. And then I take a few minutes to snuggle and love on my baby girls.

::Ellie Jo on the left & Charlie on the right::

7:15 am: Starting our morning ritual- we head to the living room, I turn on Good Morning America (Momma needs a little bit of news and pop culture), change a couple wet diapers, set the girls' toys up, and head to the kitchen to make the morning bottles. The girls' first bottle of the day is 6 oz at 7:30. They fell into a routine extremely early, within a week old, and while the schedule has changed with their needs, it hasn't deviated too much. I figured out early that E & C thrive on a schedule, when we would deviate that's when things would go bad. The girls are happiest when we (the adults around them) stick to their schedule. Personally I love it because I am extremely type A and this just worked. I was prepared for the feeding on demand but the girls never did that, in fact, I had to make sure I was feeding them every three hours during the day in the beginning because they wouldn't cry for food. Even at night our pediatrician had me wake them up every four hours for a bottle till they were one month old. They both would've happily slept longer but they were too small. That was a long first month.

::Morning bottles in the living room. Please excuse the boxes, that's our pantry till we buy a freestanding one! But it also serves the purpose of blocking the fireplace since 

Charlie is obsessed with it right now!::

7:50 am: Bottles are done so it's play time for the next hour and ten minutes. Ellie Jo FINALLY crawled last night while she was at Nana and Papa's house (yay baby girl!) so I was hoping she would practice her new skill for me, which she did! She's much slower than Charlie right now but I anticipated that. Charlie has been crawling for over a month now and is everywhere. She's a determined lil girl and loves to follow me around the house.

9:00 am: The girls have been rubbing their eyes randomly for the last 15 minutes and I'm starting to see the tired signs from both of them. They're like clockwork, so I quickly check diapers and head them upstairs to nap. I get them wrapped up in their blankets, give them their taggie blankies (Charlie is a big blankie girl and loves hers) and paci's before I turn on their music and head out the door. We don't rock or sing, and never have, because we want the girls to put themselves down. They have been awesome with it so far and it's saved us quite a few headaches probably. After the girls are down I pick up their toys, straighten up around the house, let the dogs out into the backyard to play (we have 3 fur babies who really were my first babies), and tackle any projects I have planned for the day. Today it's finishing the girls' Valentine's Day/Papa's birthday outfits. My dad's birthday is on Valentine's Day so cupid has always taken the backseat to my dad. Always a Daddy's girl! The girls love their Papa, especially Ellie Jo who just lights up with him and hates to share him, so tomorrow we are celebrating at my parents' house. Of course I had to make them outfits!

::this picture is actually from Valentine's Day, but I wanted to show their outfits!::

10:30 am: delivery guy wakes up the girls which is ok because they'd be waking up anytime within the next half hour. My husband sent flowers a day early for valentines day! Definitely surprised me :) I immediately change the girls diapers and we head downstairs to play a little.

11:30 am: bottle time! 2nd 6 oz bottle of the day. And a quick lunch of leftovers for me.

11:50 am: I quickly pick up the living room toys, put the bottles in the sink, and we head up to the playroom. I grabbed my camera to get a few pictures of the girls and they had fun playing with all their toys.

1:15 pm: 2nd nap of the day and shower time for mommy! I also spend some time working on the disorganization of our house... The guest room is currently filled with every single picture frame, candle, decorative mirror, wall decoration, etc, that we own. There are no decorations of pictures up in our house so it feels a lil cold and not family like. I hope to get things up soon but I have no motivation!

2:30 pm: The girls are up. I was hoping they would sleep a little longer but oh well. I change the girls' diapers and decide to load them up in the jogging stroller to go get the mail and take a little walk through our neighborhood since it was a nice day.

3:30 pm: Back home after our walk and ready for bottle #3 (another 6 oz) and some more play time in the living room.

4:30 pm: Time for me to start dinner. While we were living with my parents I didn't cook a lot so I collected a lot of recipes on pinterest (follow me @Jo Scott!). This was my 3rd new meal for the week and was geared to my husband (philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers-- they were actually good!).

5:30 pm: Scott is home, girls are in their highchairs, and dinner is ready. The girls usually only eat one meal of solids a day. On the weekends if we make breakfast like pancakes they'll eat those but they usually are more than content with just their bottles through out the day. They are eating more finger foods than purees and love food. Tonight they munched on some steamed carrots and peas along with a little bit of potatoes that I made for us.

6:30 pm: Bath time! Scott picks up the living room and vacuums for me (Ellie Jo is scared of the vacuum, wth? so he does it while she can't hear it) and then makes the final bottle of the night (8 oz). I give both of the girls their baths, put them in their pj's, and hand off Charlie to Scott. By 7:00 pm both girls are done and ready to be fed.

7:20 pm: Both girls are asleep... we'll see how long this last. Currently the girls are going through a sleep regression

7:30 pm: It's off to the gym for me. I hate treadmills but in this weather it's all I can manage. I'm running the Rock the Parkway half marathon in April with some friends so I have to put some time in on the treadmill to train.

9:30 pm: After my run, a quick pick up of the house (really I pick up through out the day... I'm compulsively clean so I clean as I go, I just never make note of it because it's second nature to me!), and a quick shower, it's off to bed for me. Which really means laying in bed with my computer, watching tv, and talking to my husband. Sleep doesn't happen for a while but I like to be comfy :)

Now for Ashley's questions:

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

How easy it was to fall into the role! I don't know if I thought it would be different or if I would need more assistance but looking back I realized that the minute they arrived my life changed and so did I. I just naturally fell into the role of a mom of multiples and it felt natural to be their mom and to love them more than anything in this world.

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

Trust your gut. Seriously, everybody says this but you need to do it. My best example of this is when we were visiting my in-laws in Illinois and we noticed something off about E's diaper (not to gross anybody out but a little discharge). She had been diagnosed within the previous month of having a kidney issue (urine in her bladder leaks back up to one of her kidneys and she had a UTI, which can be serious and we have to monitor everything pretty close) but she wasn't showing the same signs as her previous UTI. But in my gut I felt like she had been "off" all day even though my husband didn't agree. But we called the nurse's hotline and ended up taking her to the emergency room where they diagnosed her with another UTI. You know your child, so if you feel like something is wrong or they need something, trust that feeling, you are their mom!

What are your top three baby products?

Hmmm, mine are based on helping with multiples since my hubby was only home on weekends the first 6 months of the girls' lives but I think they may help others :)

1. Rock n play: Yes, they had a recent voluntary recall (wash them people, not hard) but I would still buy another. They are portable and great for tiny babies too! When the girls had RSV this winter at 7 months they slept in them at night because they were elevated. They are awesome!

2. Boppy: we still use them for feedings now that the girls are holding their own bottles but they were great in the beginning too for helping the girls sit up and for laying comfortably and playing with toys.

3. Aden & Anais swaddle blankets: Get the big ones, you can find them on amazon... they are a bit pricey but they are big enough to swaddle easily, soft enough that my girls LOVE to cuddle with them, cute enough for photo props, and they are versitile- I've used them as stroller & car seat blankets and as car seat covers. 

Thanks Ashley for the "day in the life" series! I have loved reading these posts since before I was even pregnant and am always curious how other momma's  spend their days.

***

Thank you, Alisha Jo, for sharing your day with us!