a day in {my} life

Finally got around to sending out a new 'day in the life' post schedule, so look forward to checking out different mama's days for the next two months!  After that though, I'm not sure how much longer the series will continue, because volunteers are becoming more and more scarce.  We shall see.

To kick off the new set of posts I thought I'd share another day in my life.  Even though I really did just do one in March.  But hey.  A few months can make a difference!  Funny that I've caught Elsie on good sleeping nights both times.  On that note though, sleep has been MUCH better the last week.  Like all the sudden sleeping through the night four times better.  I don't know what the heck happened, but I hope it sticks!

Oh and I really wanted all the photos from the day to be on my big camera.  But the light in our house is CRAP plus it was a stormy morning.  So I was too lazy to put in a real effort on the pictures.  Oh well.  Day still recorded.  Boom.

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Friday, May 31st, 2013.  Ryann is 3 years 2 months old, Elsie is 3 months 3 weeks old.

12:25am:  I groggily wake up to Christopher telling me to go get in bed.  Whoops, I fell asleep on the couch.  I seriously used to do this ALL. THE. TIME.  But not so much lately, because I get in bed way earlier than I ever used to :o).

4:43am:  I wake up, check the monitor and see that Elsie is still sleeping.  I try and roll to my stomach to go back to sleep, but I'm surprised by the rocks that are attached to my chest.  Check the clock and do a little happy dance because Elsie slept so long.  Not that I'm too surprised, she barely slept the day before.

5:12am:  I fell back asleep for a little bit, but the boobs are starting to drive me crazy.  I could get up and pump a little bit, but inevitably she would wake up when I left the room (she is in her own room, but our floors are so damn squeaky, and our door is really loud too) so I might as well just stay put and deal.  So I just play on my phone.

6:23am:  zohmygawd boobs.

6:36am:  Ryann starts crying in her room.  I go in to check on her, and she is mad because her flashlight won't stay on.  The batteries are dead.  We switch them out and tell her to stay in her room until sleep buddy is off.  But of course the commotion means Elsie is awake (which the boobs are a-ok with).  Diaper change for Elsie, pee break for me, and then I sit down to nurse.

7:11am:  Elsie is finished nursing so her and I head to Ryann's room.  Chris comes in to give us all a quick hug and kiss goodbye and he is out the door for work.  Ryann requests that I read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.  I oblige, and then head to the kitchen to make breakfast.  I start to put it on the table, but Ryann seems to think we need to eat a picnic outside, even though it is raining... I convince her that a picnic in the family room is good enough.  She has blueberry muffins and a banana that she requested, and then of course wouldn't eat.  After she is settled in eating, I make myself a plate of eggs.  While they are starting to cook I do some dishes.  Must always multitask!  Once they're cooked I gather my stuff and head to the family room.  And move Elsie from the rock 'n play to her playmat.  Ryann requests Cat in the Hat on TV.  Elsie does some tummy time, but starts yawning, so I get her dressed for the day and put her down for a nap.

8:22am:  Elsie is down for her nap.  I'm hoping it works out for us to go to the gym, so I grab my workout clothes, brush my teeth and pull my hair back.  All during which Ry keeps running back to find me because she needs this or that.  Which shouldn't be a problem, except Ryann has a volume issue, and my kids are light sleepers.  Randomly I decide to tweeze my eyebrows.  Important stuff, you know.  I grab some clothes for Ryann and get her dressed while she finishes watching Dinosaur Train.  The easiest way to get clothes on her and her hair brushed is to do it while she is in front of the TV.

9:00am:  Time to turn the TV off, she has watched plenty already, and when Elsie is sleeping and I'm not rushing around like a crazy person, I really try to play with Ry.  I try to convince her we should practice writing her name, which lasts for a few minutes.  Then she starts drawing people, which is always hilarious.  She made sure to give herself lots of eyelashes and a belly button :o).  My mom calls (probably because my blog post made her question my mental state, but it is nice to hear from her) so we chat for a bit.  Ryann got sick of drawing so we spend some time playing with the imaginarium connect and create bucket.  I have a love/hate relationship with those things.  Ry likes them and is pretty creative with them, but they don't stay together real well and she gets pissed.  After a while I get Ryann a snack (apple slices and oatmeal squares) and I spend a little bit of time picking up the family room and the kitchen.  I'm happy that Elsie is taking a good nap, but I'm hoping she'll get up soon so we can get to the gym and back before Ry's quiet time.

10:27am:  Miss E finally wakes up.  I call the gym childcare center and see if they'll have coverage for a 3 month old in the baby room (they do), then nurse Elsie and quickly get us all ready to leave.

11:15am:  We make it to the gym.  I would have liked to get there a little bit earlier, but these days I'll take what I can get.  I hop on a treadmill and struggle through 3.5 miles.  I can't believe I've done 8 miles on the treadmill before, so far I'm lucky to last two miles before giving in to a walk break.  After running, I stretch a little bit, and do three rounds of 10 push-ups followed by 50 oblique twists.  Then I grab the kids and we head home.

12:27pm:  Home again home again.  Elsie surprised me and fell asleep in the car, so I unlock the house for Ry and let her in.  When I come back out for E (for the record the car never left my sight, I did not leave my child unattended in the car) our friend Kyle pulls into the driveway.  He had watched the house for us while we were in Georgia, and he was bringing back my garage door opener.  Elsie of course wakes up, so I put her in the rock 'n play while I make Ryann's lunch (PB&J, same thing she has everyday, along with fruit, almonds and a squeezy pouch).  I know Elsie's tired, but she'll probably be hungry again soon, so instead of trying to get her back to sleep I make the executive decision to go ahead and eat my lunch (leftover shrimp from the night before on top of some lettuce) and get Ry down for quiet time before dealing with her.  Elsie seems a little bit fussy, but so far she does pretty good just going with the flow.  Even if it means she is awake for long periods of time.  If girlfriend would just stay asleep in her carseat...  After we're done eating, I quickly go through Ryann's quiet time routine and then tell her to stay the heck in her room.

1:25pm:  I settle into the rocker to feed Elsie, and not more than a minute later I hear Ryann's door open.  I despise nap (quiet) time and bed time.  Ryann loves to stall.  She claims she needs to go pee, so she heads to the bathroom.  I can hear her messing around in there, and I should probably go make sure she isn't destroying something, or balancing precariously on the back of the toilet or anything, but I'm so content in the rocker that I can't make myself get up.  I tell Ry to hurry up a few times and to get back to her room, and after about five minutes or so she does.  But a couple minutes later she comes back out again saying she needs to poop.  #*(%&!*#%$!  I tell her fine, go, but this is her last chance to be out of her room or I'm taking her sleep friends.  She does her thing and heads back to her room.

1:57pm:  Elsie is finished nursing and has passed out in my arms.  I hold her a bit longer than I probably need to, but a warm sleeping baby is so irresistable.  After I convince myself to put her down I hope in the shower.  Then I spend a good twenty minutes texting various friends.  I should go in the basement and do a load of laundry, but I'm honestly just too lazy at that moment to make myself go, so I sit down at my computer instead.

2:48pm:  Elsie wakes up crying and at first it seems like she is going to need some help to settle back down to sleep, but she surprises me and after just a couple of minutes conks back out on her own.  I get to work on a couple of blog posts, and then go poke around on bloglovin' in preparation for all the google changes.  Eventually I make myself go downstairs and work on the laundry.

4:07pm:  I usually try not to let Ry nap past 4, so it is time to wake the bear.  Part of me wants to make sure she doesn't nap daily so that I didn't have to wake her all the time (it SUCKS) but we have a hard time getting her to bed any earlier than 8:30 just because Christopher usually isn't home until after 6, so for now I'll just deal I guess.  She of course isn't amused with me and is super grumpy, so I just leave her in her room to wake up a bit.

4:20pm:  Miss E wakes up from her nap.  Ryann is still in a crummy mood, but I convince her to help me change Elsie's diaper (which she loves to do, who knows) which gets her to perk up a bit.  Then I put some goldfish crackers and craisins in a bowl for Ry, and sit to nurse Elsie again.

5:00pm:  Elsie is done nursing so I suggest we head to the family room, but Ry wants to stay in Elsie's room to play.  She says she likes it better in there because it is prettier.  Can't say I disagree so we hang out.  I text Christopher to see if he can be home before (when I think Elsie will need a nap again) and he says sure.  Score.

5:42pm:  I don't know what it is about the afternoon / evenings that makes me lose my mind, because really our days has been relatively good, but I'm starting to go a little nuts.  Elsie is all spazy because she wants to sleep so I have a hard time getting her swaddled, and Chris isn't home yet and Ry isn't making any of it easier and I snap at her.  And then she tells me I'm not making her very happy right now.  Of course I feel guilty and my anxiety starts building.

6:00pm:  I hear the garage door go up.  Thank goodness.  Pretty much my favorite sound in the evenings.  As soon as Christopher is in the door I head back to rock Elsie to sleep.

6:21pm:  Elsie is asleep.  I sit on the couch in the family room talking to Chris and watching him and Ry playing for just a bit, before heading in the kitchen to start prepping stuff for dinner.

6:57pm:  We start cooking dinner, and I make the mistake of asking Chris to fill my water cup.  As soon as he starts getting out ice Elsie wakes up.  Sad story.  So begins the little game of take turns cooking parts of dinner while watching the kids and back and forth and so on.

7:35pm:  Dinner is finally ready, and of course that means Elsie is ready to eat again too.  So I nurse her at the table while eating my meal too.  Dinner time is another part of the day that I really dread.  Ryann eats like a champ throughout the morning (probably because she mostly gets stuff she really likes) but it is a struggle to get her to eat a few bites of even a dinner she requested.  So annoying and such a waste of food, but pretty typical behavior for her age I guess.  My rule now is that she has to try one bite of everything on her plate, when she finally manages that we turn on a movie for her for just a bit.

8:11pm:  Bath time for the girls, which Chris generally does (I hate giving baths, I have no idea why, but I HATE doing it, thank goodness he doesn't mind).  While he is washing them I do the dishes.  Then I grab Elsie and get her ready for bed while Chris takes care of Ryann.  If she doesn't nurse to sleep bedtime is usually the hardest time to get Elsie to sleep, and tonight is no different.  Except that she is fighting it harder than ever.  I try nursing her to sleep even though she just ate, but she isn't hungry so the milk coming out just pisses her off and she cries.  And cries.  AND CRIES.  I try standing, I try rocking, I try singing, pretty much anything I can think of.  Part of me thinks she is fighting the swaddle, I know she doesn't love it, but she hasn't ever done well sleeping without it, so I don't want to unswaddle her.

9:30pm:  Elsie is still crying and I'm at a loss for what to do, so I just set her in the rock 'n play and head out to get help from Chris, except he is MIA (really just in the basement doing chores, but I didn't know).  So I watch her on the monitor for a bit.  E stops crying and just starts 'talking' and babbling and such.  Her eyes look heavy and I have hopes that she'll put herself to sleep, but around the ten minute mark she starts to seem a bit agitated and progressing towards really upset again.  I make a poor choice and grab some marshmallows and dark chocolate chips.  I'm such an emotional eater.  I've curbed the habit quite a bit, but sometimes my willpower can't hold up.  Chris comes back upstairs and stats dictating notes.

9:46pm:  I decide to give getting Elsie to sleep another try since she is starting to fuss a little harder.  As soon as I pick her up she starts screaming again.  I just don't know what to do.  It is incredibly defeating to not be able to comfort and soothe your baby.  Maybe she really is ready to just go to bed on her own, and unswaddled, I'll just have to suck it up and give her the chance to do it, even if it means some tears (not like there hasn't been any tonight).  We're not too far off from her 4 month well child visit, I guess I'll ask the peditrician for some advice.

10:09pm:  FINALLY.  Both girls are sleeping.  I find Chris in the family room and we talk for a little bit.  Then I nearly fall asleep on the couch again so he makes me go to bed.

10:39pm:  I brush my teeth, climb into bed and PASS OUT.

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I have full intentions of putting together a 'favorites' post touching on baby gear from the first three months (seeing as Elsie is you know, FOUR MONTHS on Saturday!), it just hasn't happened.  But it is coming.  Eventually!