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Hi readers of "The Domestic Wannabe"! I'm so excited to be guest posting today. My name is Liz and my blog is "The Life of a Running Momma". I am an elementary teacher in a 1st and 2nd grade multi-age classroom. Right now we are on summer vacation, so I get to spend all day with my little chubby thighed, 6 month old, precious baby boy, Carter! Can I just say I wish summer never had to end! This is how a typical summer Monday looks for us.
4:00 am: Carter is fussing in his crib so I head in to feed him. He typically only wakes up once at night around this time for a feeding. I nurse him and read up on some blogs on bloglovin while he eats. I lay him down and am back to bed by 4:20. He always goes right back to sleep, thank goodness!
7:00 am: Ty's alarm goes off and he rolls out of bed. I reach over and check Carter on the monitor. He's still asleep so I stay in bed.
7:20 am: Ty comes in to say goodbye as he heads for work (wouldn't it be nice to be able to get ready in 20 minutes?!!?) and says Carter is awake and playing quietly in his crib. This is a relatively new thing. All the sudden the last few weeks he's been waking up and playing without making any noise. I get up and head into his room to play with him. He nurses and I lay him down on a blanket to play. Then I get a text from my co-teacher asking if she and her kids can stop by to see us. They each hold Carter and comment on how sweet and happy he is even though he's tired. His little eyes are getting heavy so they leave.
8:30 am: I lay Carter down for a nap. He falls asleep quickly and I get busy with chores. I brush my teeth, get dressed (in running clothes so we can go for a run when he wakes up), start a load of laundry, eat breakfast, put away the clean dishes in the dishwasher, and wash bottles and pump parts from the weekend. Once I am finished with chores I sit down to work on math units for school. We are re-vamping everything next year to align with the Common Core State Standards.
10:30 am: Carter finally wakes up! His morning nap is only an hour long, but he must still be worn out from his busy weekend. I love going in and getting him when he wakes up from a nap. He always smiles at me so excited to see me! Once he's up I change his diaper and quickly get ready to head out for a run. We are getting out about an hour and a half later than normal. I don't mind the heat, but I worry about Carter. Luckily today it's only about 5 degrees warmer than when we normally run. We get in 3 miles and then head home.
11:30 am: We get home and head into Ty and my bedroom to play. I pull back the comforter so he's laying on the sheets, which have less dog hair. I sit on the ground and pop up to play boo with him. We also practice sitting up. Harper comes in to join us and Carter smiles and reaches for her.
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| Laughing at me popping up at him. |
12:45 pm: Carter starts acting tired, so I nurse him and lay him down for nap. I sit down to work on a blog post while he's laying down. I need to take a shower but I prefer to wait until he's asleep in case he needs something. He plays around talking for a while and finally falls asleep at 1:20 and I hop into the shower. While he's napping I get ready for the day and then realize I never ate lunch, so I heat up some left overs to eat. I also pump so I have some milk to mix in with his rice cereal for the next couple of days.
3:30 pm: Carter wakes up from his nap. I am surprised he slept for so long, I figured since his morning nap was 2 hours he would cut this one short. We head into Ty and my bedroom to play in front of the mirror. Carter loves watching himself in the mirror.
4:00 pm: We pack up all our library books and head out to my car to get Carter's stroller. I get the stroller set up and put Carter in. This will be the first time we've ever tried the stroller without his car seat insert. I am pretty nervous but it goes well. We head into the library and turn in his reading log. Since we have been to the library 4 times and read 20 books Carter gets his prize. He receives a medal and a stuffed prairie dog. The girl working is so excited to give it to him! I open the medal and let him wear it and play with it as we choose new books to check out.
4:30 pm: We arrive home from the library and it's time to get ready for my tutoring appointment. I only tutor on Monday evenings and normally tutor from 6:00-7:00 and Ty comes home early from work to watch Carter. Today my tutoring student has hockey practice so we are meeting from 5:00-6:00 and his mom offered to watch Carter for me.
I feed Carter rice cereal and he's still hungry, so I get the pumped milk from earlier out of the fridge and get it ready to take with us. We don't have time for him to nurse. I load the car and we head to a different library for tutoring.
5:00-6:00 pm: I tutor while Carter plays at the library.
6:30 pm: We get home and Ty is home mowing the lawn. We go out to say hi and talk to him for a little bit. Then we come inside and I feed Carter apples for dinner. Ty comes in to shower so I read Carter a book while we wait to use the bathtub.
7:00 pm: It's bathtime. Carter loves bathtime and kicks and splashes the whole time. I just wash his hair and use a wash cloth to rinse off the rest of his body. We don't use soap every day because he has sensitive skin.
7:30 pm: Ty leaves to run some errands and I lay Carter down for the night. Normally Carter goes right to sleep, but tonight he fusses and cries. I go in a few times to soothe him, but he just cries again right after I leave. I finally decide to get him out and rock him for a while. When I lay him back down he goes right to sleep.
8:20 pm: Carter is finally asleep and I sit down to work on a blog post until Ty gets home. When Ty returns we pack our bags for a trip we will leave on tomorrow and then watch recorded episodes of Duck Dynasty. My co-teacher got me hooked on the show!
11:00 pm: We head for bed.
What is the most surprising thing about being a mom?
When I was pregnant I already loved Carter so much and I knew I'd love him even more once he was born, but I was still amazed by how much I truly loved him. That wasn't a total surprise to me though. I'd have to say I was most surprised by how hard it was to go back to work after maternity leave and how little sleep I can survive and function on. I absolutely love my job. There is never a day where I come home unhappy. Some days I may be less happy than others, but my job is very fulfilling. I figured it would be hard to leave Carter, but I thought since I love my job so much it would be easier. It wasn't. I cried every night for weeks before going back just anticipating having to leave him. Even after 3 months I still cried on the way to work numerous days. It's just plain hard, no matter what.
As far as sleep goes, I've always been one of those people who HAS to get 6-8 hours of sleep. If I go for a week without enough sleep I end up with a migraine every time, that's just how it goes. When Carter was born he was eating every hour day and night. For the first week I was sleeping 15-30 minutes at a time. It wasn't pretty, but somehow I still functioned. When I went back to work there were weeks where I would only get 4 hours of sleep every night and I was exhausted, but my students were none the wiser. It still amazes me. It's like once you become a mom your body says, okay we will now be surviving on less sleep... let's go!
What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas?
I think the most important thing to remember is that every baby is different. If you are going through something difficult with your baby every single mom and dad you talk to will have a solution. They will think that what they did was the best answer and the only thing you can do. Maybe it was for their baby, but that doesn't mean it will be for yours. You will talk to moms who will tell you to let your baby cry it out in the first month. You will talk to other moms who will tell you it's just plain wrong to let your baby cry no matter how old they are and how could anyone do that. It's surprising how much judgement is out there. Remember that just because someone believes something or it worked for their baby, doesn't mean it will work for yours. People can judge away, but all that matters at the end of the day is that your baby is happy and healthy (and you are sane).
What are your top three baby products?
1. Medela Hands-Free Pumping Bra: I started pumping from the get go. I knew I had to go back to work and it really helped when I was engorged. After a couple weeks I was sick of holding the shields on and my arms were getting tired. I had my husband go buy me one of these and it was amazing! I can pump while getting ready in the morning and when I pump at work I can still get stuff done! I love mine and can't imagine pumping as long as I have without it!
2. BOB Stroller Strides Fitness Stroller: This stroller has a swiveling wheel which makes it very easy to maneuver. It folds up really easily and I can lift it by myself. The wheels are all-terrain and we have gone on walks through grass and it does fine. I was able to start walking a few days after Carter was born and enjoyed the ease of this stroller. We did have to buy a separate infant car seat adapter so we could put his car seat in it which was around $50 but so worth it!
3. Bassinet with Wheels: We borrowed a bassinet from one of my friends. Carter ended up sleeping in his Pack N Play instead of the bassinet, but we would put him in the bassinet and wheel him around. It was amazing. I would still be using it if my friend hadn't needed it back for her sister. Up until a month ago I was still propping Carter up with a pillow so he could sit in the bassinet in the bathroom while I showered. It was so nice to have on mornings when he woke up while I was still getting ready for work. I would put him in the bassinet in the doorway of the bathroom so he could watch me and I could talk to him. I wouldn't use this one for a baby to sleep in, but for what we used it for it was perfect.
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Thanks Liz, for sharing your day with us!
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