A Day in the Life...

Was thinking this morning as I took care of one of the hundreds of things I do during the day... perhaps I should share this. For the Moms-to-be (pregnant or not) - so you get an understanding of your life post-baby. The more experienced Mommas may enjoy reflecting back on the craziness that was the first years as well - although, I imagine that your lives are just as crazy now, just in a different way!

Here is a typical day in the life of this Mom:

• 5:50am - Hear Jane chatting through the monitor
• 6:00am - Crap, she's still chatting through the monitor... not going back to sleep. Becoming more of a Two-Second Whine by now (click here to read about the crying types).
• Wake up, get dressed, wash my face, brush my teeth, deodorant, etc. Basically get the basics of "me" ready
• This is dependent on the level of crying... if she's still chatting or whining, I take care of me first. If she's escalated to drama queen cry, I go get her first. It's not because I don't want her crying, it's because it's not enjoyable at all to wash your face while someone yells at you.
• 6:10am - Greet my sweet potato. She's all smiles, bouncing up and down every morning. 
• Pick her up, open the blinds and sit in the rocking chair where we have a good morning chat and snuggle a little before the wrestling starts.
• Time to change her diaper. DING, DING, DING. I only wish there was a chance for a tag team effort on this one. 
• Button her PJs back up and head downstairs
• 6:30am - Hit the basement to let the dog out of her crate and let her out to pee. 
• 6:35am - Make Jane's breakfast. 
• Usually she has blueberries for breakfast which is why I keep her in her PJs for breakfast - it took several stained outfits before I caught on to this trick. 
• Cut up some banana, pear, etc. 
• Some mornings I get ambitious and make multi-grain pancakes for her - of which 99% of ends up on the floor... really makes the effort feel worthwhile
• 6:50am - Make breakfast for myself. 
• 6:55am - Eat breakfast with Jane. 
• Check email
• Catch up on the news if I can
• 7:10am - Collect bottles to organize and clean for the day. 
• Clean up kitchen and livingroom while Jane plays
• Taking breaks to play with Jane as she often ends up holding on to my leg while I slowly walk around the kitchen with her
• 8:00am - Water garden if it's going to be sunny.
• 8:10am - Make Dan's lunch
• 8:20am - Jane hanging off leg yelling at me. Time to make her AM bottle. 
• Upstairs to feed Jane her bottle and put her down for her AM nap - sometimes she'll actually go, sometimes she decides it's not nap time but usually this works
• Grab monitor from bedroom
• 8:25am - Work time.
• Check email
• Job hunt
• Write blog post
• Usually have previous night's shows on in background while I do this. I, literally, cannot just sit and watch TV. Dan hates this. I have to be doing something else too - on the computer, cleaning, etc.
• 10:00am - Jane wakes up. 
• Change diaper. Wrestling match #1.
• Get Jane dressed for the day. Wrestling match #2. 
• 10:20am - Put some laundry on. I feel like I'm always doing laundry. If I'm not collecting it and putting it in the washer, I'm staring at 2 full baskets full of clothes ready to be folded that I usually leave sitting around until I need the baskets again to do more laundry.... I hate laundry.
• 10:30am - Get mommy ready. 
• Get shower if necessary. Daily showers not required for new Moms. :p I realize I could have done this while Jane was asleep but she likes playing in her playpen (which I leave up in our bathroom) so it's a treat for both of us - I leave her Wish Bear in the playpen and it's one of her favourites so she loves it!
• Get myself dressed. Yes. I realize I already did this at 6am. However, the 6am dress was throwing on whatever I was wearing the day before so that I'm not doing everything up to this point in my nightie or, worse, naked.
• 10:45am - Snack for Jane. Fruit, veggies, cheerios - basically whatever she'll eat. 
• 11:00am - Get ready for a walk and/or the playground if the weather's nice. 
• There are several girls in my neighbourhood who take in kids as a home daycare. So, at 10:30ish, they all hit the playground and it's awesome - there are tons of kids for Jane to play with and tons of adults for mommy to chat with! 
• 12:00pm - Back home to make some lunch.
• Make Jane's lunch - veggies and beans or tofu or chicken - again, whatever she'll eat. Sometimes it's just strawberries and a muffin!
• Make my lunch - usually a whole wheat english muffin, with some cheese and a piece of fruit. YUM - super exciting eh?
• Turn on the Today Show and see what's going on in the world... truthfully, at 12pm, that's the hour with Hoda and Kathy-Lee... so what's going on in the world is too half-drunk, half-crazy chicks gossiping and talking about wine.
• 12:45pm - Clean up the mess that was "lunch"... in other words, tell Molly (dog) to eat all the stuff Jane's thrown on the floor and dump most of her lunch into the garbage.
• 1:00pm - Playtime. Go outside if it's nice. If not, make a mess inside. 
• Includes, but not limited to, floor time, climbing the stairs over and over again, singing, dancing, bouncing, reading, playing piano, pressing buttons we're not supposed to, etc. Basically, me chasing Jane around while she is up to no good.
• 2:00pm - Make another bottle for Jane as she climbs my leg yelling at me. 
• Time for another nap
• Upstairs to feed Jane bottle and put her down for her afternoon nap
• 2:10pm - "Playtime" for mommy.
• Work on my projects - websites for friends, photography, etc. 
• This is usually when I remember that I put laundry in this morning
• Take laundry out and hang on the line - Yes. I realize this takes five times as long as the dryer (in work and dry time) but (1) it's enviro friendly and cheaper and (2) it makes the clothes smell like heaven
• Take care of any cleaning, errands, etc. that need to be done (appts, emails, etc.)
• 3:30pm - Jane wakes up. 
• Wrestling match a.k.a. diaper change.
• 3:40pm - Snack time for Jane. Same as all meals - whatever she'll eat. 
• 4:00pm - Time for The FEUD! :p We turn on Family Feud and play for a little bit. 
• If it's nice out, we sometimes hit the playground again with the daycare gals.
• 4:30pm - Time to make supper. 
• Usually give Jane a bunch of mixing bowls, or let her into her cupboard (full of baking things that aren't dangerous) so she can play while I prepare dinner. 
• John Mayer usually goes on the iPod or, depending on the mood, we turn on our dance tunes (lately, the Glee Soundtracks) and dance, sing and cook.
• 5:10pm - Daddy's home. 
• Pick up Jane. Pick up water bottle. Spray dog with water while she continues to bark anyways because the garage door opened... although it's starting to work more now that I added the hydrochloric acid to it... ha ha ha, just kidding OBVIOUSLY! I'm sick, I know.
• 5:20pm - Supper time... kind of. Usually, I get Jane's supper ready (usually just cutting up our meal for her) first and then we eat. 
• 5:45pm - AHHHHH, mommy's break time. Daddy's usually happily on duty for an hour or so during this time.
• Check email. Fart around on the net. Watch Daddy and Jane play.
• Make Jane's bottle for bedtime so the air bubbles will calm down and not make her gas-y at night.
• 6:45pm - Bed snack - if she'll eat it. Oatmeal or toast with a little butter.  
• Warm up bottle
• 7:00pm - Bedtime rountine.
• Upstairs for bedtime.
• Close blinds, turn on lamp, fill humidifier, collect nummies, and get the crib ready. 
• Strip down my filthy rotten child (wrestling match) and let her have some nuddie time while I get everything ready for bed.
• If there's clothes to fold, this is usually when I do it. I leave the baskets in Jane's room so I can fold while we "chat" and play before bedtime... usually makes folding take twice as long as Jane always grabs my piles and unfolds everything, but it's worth it. 
• Fill the bath while I chase my child around preventing her from climbing into the bathtub on her own and face planting into the water and squishing her fingers in the toilet lid... which usually fails and there is usually at least one finger crush every few nights (I know, I need to get those clips that keep 'um closed, on my to-do list). Yesterday, she had the lid just up, fingers underneath and the stupid cat jumped right on the lid, squishing her fingers... F. Seriously? Obviously I didn't notice the fingers under the lid... stupid cat. Stupid mommy.
• Lay pj's and sleepsack out
• Bathtime - wash, play, etc. Usually when I wash my own face and brush my teeth - the art of multi-tasking. I've brought all of my bedtime needs into her bathroom so I can do this while she plays.
• Quick massage post bathtime with lotion
• Put on diaper (hmmm, what? Yes. Biggest wrestling match of the day as guess who's starting to get cranky now?)
• Put on PJs and sleepsack while I sing "you are my sunshine" as it's the only way to prevent her from struggling through the entire thing because she's cranky and she wants her bottle
• 7:15pm - Bedtime bottle and bed.
• 7:30pm - freedom. FREEdom. FREEDOM!!! :p Night time is the only time, as a Mom, that you really, truly, get a break. You know, if you wanted, you have as many hours to do whatever you want as you like. 
• Check email. Work on projects. Try to convince Dan to watch TMZ instead of that annoying Jim Cramer on CNBC. 
• I definitely do not clean up after supper at this point. Either Dan does it before bed, or, if he has frisbee or something, I do it the next morning. The mess can wait!
• 9:30pm - Get ready for bed. Yes. I'm an early to bed girl. Always have been. I'm a morning person, what can I say. Plus, I never know what kind of night's sleep I'll get.
•  I always play a game of sudoku before bed. I don't know why. It's like my little brain challenge for the day. I try to beat my times and everything, I'm a total geek. I think it also gets my mind off all the to-dos and worries as well before bed.
• Usually when I realize that I've left the clothes out on the line and pray that it doesn't rain over night.
• 9:45pm - Pass out cold and pray Jane has done the same.
• 4:00am - Usually up for a quick breastfeed with Jane. 
• 4:05am - Back to bed. Ideally. This is, of course, hoping she's not teething and decides that she'd rather yell at me while jumping up and down in her crib for 30-45 minutes. 
• And, then, the day starts all over again. :) 

In summary, days are packed. With that said, two notes... (1) I choose to make my "break times" busy. I like to be busy most of the time. I like to have things to do always. When I don't have something to do, I create something to do. (2) Even on the "worst" days... every day is the best. Just sayin'. :)