friday roundup: a day in the life.

A while back, my friend Laura did a post series all about her typical day, and I remember thinking "I could never write a post like that because, from the moment I wake up until the moment my head hits the pillow, I have no &$#*ing clue what I will be doing." That was when L was needing 4-5 naps a day because she could only sleep for 45 minutes at a time unless I majorly intervened, and when she could only handle being awake for about an hour at a stretch. It was like my whole life was constantly in transition! But for the past several weeks, we've actually settled into a routine (cue angels singing). It's not perfect, and she likes to mess with my head, but 8 months in I finally feel like I can start planning my life again!

(how I feel when I can plan my day!)

So here's my Friday roundup, daily schedule edition.




7:00am -- alarm goes off. L, with her freakishly-good hearing, usually wakes up immediately despite the two closed doors between her and the alarm, but if she doesn't I drag myself out of bed to get her, nurse, and then bring her into bed with my husband.

7:20am -- take a fast shower while daddy and daughter do a diaper change and get her dressed for the day.

7:35am -- start making coffee, breakfast, and lunch for The Professor while they play together in the living room. (My husband used to make his own coffee, breakfast, and lunch, but he felt that he wanted more time with L since he's gone all day, and this way he starts his day happy and relaxed!)

8:00am -- breakfast is served. L has something small (we're working up to three full meals of solids a day, but we're not quite there yet) while we eat oatmeal, Chobani pomegranate yogurt, and veggie sausage.

8:20am -- The Professor takes his shower and gets ready while L and I play on the kitchen floor with items from the baby-safe shelf I created for her (plastic cup, old egg carton, wooden spoon, baby-sized rolling pin and bundt pan)

9:00am -- Daddy leaves for work. We practice waving bye-bye out the front window, then read a story or two to wind down.

(L reading with a good friend of mine)

9:20am -- diaper change, nurse, and sing a song before putting L down for her first nap. It usually takes between 5 and 30 minutes for her to fall asleep, depending on how much she wants to talk and sing to herself in her crib (she is always put down awake).

9:30 to ??? -- okay, here's where it gets a little loosey-goosey. L naps anywhere between 30 and 150 minutes, which pretty much sucks in terms of trying to plan on any "me" time. So I do what I can. Have a second cup of decaf, check my email and Facebook, finish up my daily blog post from the night before and tweet about it, get dressed and do my hair when I'm feeling motivated. Once we get past the 45 minute mark and L is still asleep, I know that I can get going on some other things because she's going to sleep for a while longer: laundry, dishes, etc.

somewhere between 10:30am and noon -- L wakes up. If she's not up by 12, I wake her up to keep her on a schedule. Nurse. Go out on "an adventure" (a walk outside if it is nice, a trip to a store if it isn't, or meeting up with a friend for a playdate). Come home for lunch -- we do Baby Led Weaning, so L gets to make a big ol' mess feeding herself. Play with toys in the living room. Sing songs. Explore the house on hands and knees. Read a book or two.

somewhere between 1:30-2:30pm -- second nap (same routine as the morning). If she woke up early from her first one, she goes down a little earlier (and the reverse is also true). Clean up her highchair, have a cup of tea, work on the checklist for my Etsy shop, read the mail, check my email again, plan out dinner.

by 4:00pm -- L gets up (I wake her up if I have to or she won't go down at her bedtime, but she usually wakes up on her own). After nursing, more toy + explore time, usually while listening to Toddler Radio on Pandora or one of our Putumayo Kids CDs. Skype with the grandmas when we can.

5:00pm -- The Professor arrives home. Daddy and daughter play while I throw dinner together.

5:45pm -- Dinner is served. It's a little early, but this way we eat together as a family.

6:10pm -- A few more minutes of playing, then the bedtime routine starts. I clean up the kitchen and start picking up toys while my husband changes her diaper, puts her in her blanket sleeper, and reads her a story.

6:30pm -- Nurse, song, put her down awake. My husband does the dishes from dinner during this time, which is nice because I hate doing them (we don't have a dishwasher).

7:00pm -- L is generally fast asleep by now. Finish picking up toys. The Professor goes into our home office to do a few more hours of work while I fit in some more of those "me time" tasks. Start my blog post for the next day -- set it to publish if it's ready, or save it to finish in the morning if I need more time. Somewhere in here, we usually have coffee + dessert and watch a show together (Psych, The Mentalist, Castle, or PBS Masterpiece on Sunday nights).

11:00pm -- L often (though not always) wakes up. Usually she just needs someone to put her pacifier in, but occasionally she wants to nurse. Afterwards, I read for a while before going to sleep.

2:00-4:00am -- Depending on if she breastfed the last time she woke up, L wakes up somewhere in this timeframe to nurse. Goes right back to sleep. I head to the kitchen for a middle-of-the-night snack, then crawl back in bed to sleep for a few more hours.

Of course we have some exceptions to this, like when we have swimming lessons or I have an appointment to get to...but that's our very exciting daily life! If you had told me pre-baby that it would take 8 months before we'd have even this fuzzy of a schedule, I would never have believed you :)

Hope your days go as planned today -- or not, if that's what you prefer (but I have no idea what that'd feel like!). Happy weekend!