It’s been a while since I’ve done a day in the life. And truthfully, I’ve started them about twenty times, but I either don’t take enough pictures or I lose track. But I did okay this day!
2:15am – I wake up and my whole body hurts. We went to the zoo yesterday and I was definitely feeling tired, but I didn’t think it was that bad. We were only there for a couple hours. It takes me less than a half hour to fall back to sleep.
5:30am – My first alarm goes off, and I turn it off.
5:40am – My second alarm goes off, and I turn it off. I have every intention of getting up in a few minutes, but I’m tired. C’s sleep has been a mess (though last night it somehow wasn’t!) and she’s been going to bed later than we’d like, and I am having a hard time getting comfortable in the middle of the night.
6:02am – I actually get up, brush my teeth, and put my contacts in before heading downstairs.
6:13am – Sit on the couch with my water, coffee, chocolate milk, and supplements (beef organs + creatine in the morning), play Wordle, and start a Costco order on Instacart. We’re low on a few things and also decided to stock up on snacks and some meat before baby boy is born. I like grocery shopping with C when we can, but Costco is a different beast and everything is big and awkward.
6:44am – Text the order to Jack to make sure I’m not missing anything. Notice C is starting to stir on the monitor and hope she goes back to sleep because 9:30-6:45 is not an ideal sleep interval.
6:52am – She seems to have settled, so I run a 20-minute cycle on the dryer to refresh the clothes I dried last night and then go back upstairs to take a shower.
7:13am – Out of the shower. Put on workout clothes, and then start doing my makeup. Get distracted texting my mom about logistical things, so it takes way longer than it should.
7:45am – Start working out. I do a pregnancy-modified version of a Phase 2 workout from this program. I’m exactly ⅔ done at 8am when I hear C calling, “Ma! Ma! Mommm!” from the top of the stairs. Jack is on C watch till 8am and then we switch back so he can get ready for work. He’d totally give me five more minutes, but I’d rather go her than do a few sets of lunges. I tell myself I might finish the workout later, but I know I probably won’t. It’s my own fault I started late, and I like having her nap time to get things done and rest.
8:01am – Unlock the upstairs gate and get C, who runs immediately back into her room. She does this almost every morning. She plays on her bed for a little bit, and I ask if she wants to turn the lights on. Initially, no. Eventually, yes. I lift her up so she can pull the light cord on her fan, and then we say good morning to the princesses and animals on her walls. I tell her we can see Dad if we go into our room, which I need to do anyway to get dressed. She’s a little upset about it, but she follows me.
8:22am – We go downstairs together and I offer her breakfast.
She declines eggs, fruit, peanut butter toast, and whatever else I offer, but asks to open the fridge. She requests chocolate milk. I fill her cup halfway and mix a little honey into plain Greek yogurt, mostly for me. She chugs the milk and then eats about four bites of yogurt while I start unloading the dishwasher. When she’s not really into breakfast, we do it in the learning tower. If she’s more interested, we’ll eat at the table.
8:35am – She spots her Toniebox charging on the counter and asks for it, so I get it down and put it in her play room. She climbs down from her learning tower, gets the Belle figure, and starts listening to Beauty and the Beast.
I finish unloading the dishwasher and fold the laundry.
8:41am – C calls for me, and I tell her I’m in the laundry room. She comes to get me and show me that she wants the Nugget on the stairs. I oblige and then quickly finish the laundry so I can keep an eye on her. But she mostly just keeps playing with her stackers and the not-yet-restocked nursing/diaper cart in the play room.
8:55am – I go upstairs to get C some clothes for the day and pull my hair back, and then come down and get her dressed. She kind of fights me, but we get there. Then I throw snacks for us both in the diaper bag, realize I forgot my rings upstairs, and we go up to get them and say goodbye to Jack.
9:12am – We might be on time for Little Gym if we left right now, but C decides we need to put her new shoes on. She pretty much never wears shoes in the car because she just ends up taking them off, but it doesn’t feel worth saying no.
9:18am – We actually pull out of the driveway and head to Little Gym.
9:44am – Get to Little Gym, a typical five-ish minutes late, go in, take off our shoes, and go play. C’s favorite thing right now is hanging/swinging on bars, so she mostly runs around, does the balance beams, and hangs on various bars. I chat and chase her.
10:25am – C gets a stamp on her hand and then leaves the room without me so she can say goodbye to the dog statues by the door. I gather our stuff, we say goodbye to our friends, and then we drive to my OB office. I’ve been measuring small all along. However, much like at the end of my pregnancy with C, I’m measuring a little smaller than before, so they want an ultrasound.
10:44am – Get to my OB office a little early, as I expected. I take the stroller out of the back of the car and load C up. I walk with her in the stroller for a few minutes, and then she gets out and climbs on some rocks and plays with some sticks, and then she climbs back in and we hurry back to the office for my 11am appointment.
11:00am – C plays and plays in the lobby. She climbs on and off the chairs, we read a book, she pretends to feed formula samples to her Cinderella doll, and she gets all twisted up in a stretchy lanyard she likes to play with.
11:16am – We’re called back. I offer C the entire diaper bag and my phone to play with, and she goes for the spinny stool and the exam light in the ultrasound room. The tech is very kind and says she can do whatever she wants. She tries to get a decent picture, but you mostly see placenta. Baby boy looks good and appears perfectly average in size. I just carry small. And he’s descending.
11:25am – C and I are back in the car. I text the people who know I had the ultrasound today to let them know everything looks fine, and then we head home. She gets kind of upset with me about ten minutes away from home and I wish I knew how to help.
11:46am – We get home and go inside, and I heat up leftover pad thai for lunch. C requests an apple, as well, so I cut one up and set the table.
11:55am – I sit down with C, sense resistance, and immediately turn on Beethoven’s 5th. This is a new trick. We had music on at dinner a few nights ago, and C was mad about sitting down. Beethoven’s 5th came on, and she stopped, looked around in awe (or something), and eventually took a couple bites. We’ve done this at most meals since.
She eats a bunch of noodles, a couple apple slices, some carrots, and a couple bites of chicken. She spills water all over her and makes it into a game, so I take it away to some whines. The tiny water bottles are new, since she’s not that into open cups or her water bottles at meals right now. But she eats a couple more noodles and says she’s done.
12:16pm – I clean her up and get her down from her booster seat. Then I clean off the table. She runs into the living room and rolls around on the couch and plays with her Toniebox. Jack comes out to say hi and play with her for a few minutes, but she gets sad when he’s about to leave. We go back to the Nugget on the stairs until she starts looking tired.
12:50pm – I offer her milk, she says no, and Jack needs to get back to work, so we do a little wind-down time in the living room with Bluey. I’m more chill about screens than I thought I would be, but I try to keep some simple rules more so I don’t overly rely on them than because I’m afraid of any particular consequences for her.
We only watch things that don’t make Jack and I crazy, we generally don’t do TV first thing in the morning unless she’s really sick or it’s early on a weekend and we don’t have our act together, we have some outside time before we turn the TV on each day, we don’t give her TV to end a tantrum, and if it’s on after dinner, we turn it off around 9. If she’s staying up later, she’s not just staying up for that. I try to keep the iPad for especially long car rides (or if I need to keep her awake in the car).
I can totally see adjusting rules for subsequent kids, but C is active as heck and very rarely just sits and watches TV unless she’s exhausted. It’s most often on in the background while she’s playing somewhere nearby or when we’re trying to wind her down.
12:59pm – My mom calls to tell me their dog is an anxious mess at the groomer, we talk about Christmas gifts for C, plans for the week, and then hang up. I go get milk ready for C.
1:25pm – C looks exhausted, so I insist on taking her upstairs. I get her in a sleep sack and turn on music and give her milk. She downs it and immediately signs for more. So, we get more. And then she still isn’t asleep. I rock her in my arms and then put her down when I think she’s out. She’s not. She keeps popping up and checking in. I assure her I’m here and she doesn’t have to check in. But she’s still awake, so I pick her back up and rock her longer. Half the time her loveys help her fall asleep, and half the time they’re a distraction. This time seems to be the latter, so I take them and tell her they’ll be waiting in her dreams. She cries for a minute but calms down and passes out.
2:07pm – I leave C’s room and make myself a snack of my grandma’s spice bread with butter and salt. Before I eat, I call C’s pediatrician to confirm my suspicion that they’re automatically baby boy’s, too. Yep. Good. And then I start doing research on installing a generator plug in our house because that would be a good thing to have set up before the winter. And before any storm, really.
2:35pm – Write most of this post.
3:58pm – Hear a woodpecker and suspect our woodpecker deterrents aren’t working.
3:59pm – Go wake C up. I meant to get her earlier, but oops.
4:01pm – C isn’t super thrilled I woke her up, but she asks me to carry her downstairs. She chugs water, declines a snack, and watches an episode of Bluey before she pops up and starts building with blocks (and then destroying her towers). Our Costco order has arrived, so Jack and I start putting things away.
4:50pm – Jack goes out to hang more woodpecker deterrents and C and I head out for a walk.
We’re only a few houses from ours when I suddenly feel so hungry I have to get home now. But we’re also close to the house with all the flags C likes to visit, so I allow a quick stop.
5:13pm – We get home, I grab a protein bar and a granola bar, and eat them while I start doing bubbles with C.
5:39pm – Jack is finished with the woodpecker project for now (hopefully it works!), so he takes over with C while I go make dinner.
I make this beef taco meat (but approximately double the seasoning), cook peppers and onions, shred cheese, and finish putting away the Costco stuff.
6:15pm – We sit down to eat. C eats about two bites of beef, two pepper slices, a couple pieces of tortilla, and a few spoonfuls of Greek yogurt mixed with salsa.
6:47pm – Jack offers to clean up from dinner, and C and I go play on the Nugget on the stairs for a while.
7:25pm – She sprints back to the living room and plays with her activity cube, runs around on the couch, practices locking and unlocking her Lovevery lock box, and practices buckling in her activity book. Jack and I mostly sit nearby and chat, and occasionally she comes over and engages us or asks for help.
8:45pm – I glance at my watch and note that a shocking amount of time has passed. I go get C’s pajamas and a diaper and Jack starts changing her. I get her some apple slices and a few bites of my grandma’s spice bread as a bedtime snack. She eats about half of it. I start cleaning up the play room, and then when she’s done with her snack, I brush her teeth.
9:10pm – C and I head upstairs for bedtime. She gives Jack her usual kisses through the banister and then runs into her room and lays down and demands I turn the light off. We cuddle, she drinks milk, and… she doesn’t fall asleep. She rolls all over the bed, stands up, asks to be held, then asks to be put down, etc. I think I have her asleep two separate times, but just as I start to leave, she asks, “Ma?” and/or stands up.
10:01pm – I was just about to leave when it turns out, C was not asleep and she stands up again. Jack has been watching on the monitor and comes up to trade off with me so I can get ready for bed. I got wash my face, start laundry, get a snack, and prep the coffeemaker for tomorrow morning.
10:32pm – I’m about to go back up to take over when I see Jack slip out of her room unnoticed. He comes downstairs and I congratulate him. We commiserate over the long, frustrating bedtime and then I go up to bed, hoping for a good night, even if it starts late. Jack joins me a little later.
And it was not a good night at all. C woke up with all the energy at about 2:45 and didn’t go back to sleep. Screen time rules went out the window by about 4:30am, and we were eating snacks by 7. Once I got over the annoyance of under four hours of sleep, I must say, we had a ton of fun snuggling and being silly together on the couch. And hopefully it was a weird one-off.
