A Day in the Life (with a 3-week-old, a 2-year-old, and a 5-year-old)

I love getting a sneak peek into other people’s lives, so whenever bloggers do A Day in the Life posts I get super excited to read them.  I guess you could say I’m a little bit nosy.  🙂  I’ve never written one myself, but thought some of you might like to read about what my days look like right now.  (I’ll give you a hint.  They are full of baby feedings, diaper changes, and all in all not very exciting.)  Partly, my motivation for writing this post is selfish.  I want to be able to look back in a few years and remember what these days with a newborn, an almost 3-year-old, and an almost 6-year-old were like.

So here goes… this is what a mostly typical day looks like right now.

12:55a.m. Hannah is awake and ready to eat. I nurse her, change her diaper, and nurse her some more. Thankfully she goes right back to sleep after eating so I swaddle her and put her back to bed.

1:40a.m. I get back in bed for some more sleep.

3:10a.m. I hear Hannah waking up again, and the telltale sounds of a dirty diaper. I change her and feed her. We do a second diaper change and she goes back to sleep after eating. It’s rare that she easily goes right back to sleep after both middle of the night feedings, so I consider myself lucky tonight!

4:05a.m. Time to get a little more sleep before getting up for the day.

5:10a.m. Already baby girl is starting to fuss. I’m rethinking my “consider myself lucky” thoughts from earlier! I do not feel ready to get up at all, and I wait a few minutes before forcing myself out of bed.

5:25 Of course, once I do get up and bring Hannah downstairs, she is still this sleepy. I take advantage of the few extra minutes to start typing this post.

5:40 I nurse and change Hannah. Meanwhile, Brad gets up, showers, and eats his breakfast. I enjoy a few baby snuggles before putting Hannah down since she’s sleeping again.

6:15 Since the baby’s sleeping, I take a quick shower before the other kids wake up. If I don’t do it now, who knows when I’ll get the chance! Brad wakes Julia up and she comes into my room to get dressed.

We head downstairs, and I pour a bowl of cereal for Julia and throw in a load of laundry. I make coffee for myself and oatmeal for William and I.

I pour myself a cup of coffee – one of my favorite parts of the day.

7:00 Julia goes upstairs to get her brother up. She loves doing this!

It’s finally time to eat. In today’s oatmeal: a tiny bit of maple syrup, cinnamon, raisins, slivered almonds, and plenty of milk. (Yes, there’s really oatmeal under all of that milk!) While I eat, I check in with a few blogging tasks, like scheduling some pins for the day. Hannah is still sleeping, which is unusual. Usually she’s fussy at this time and I’m holding a crying baby while trying to make/eat breakfast.

William requested some Cheerios while waiting for his oatmeal to cool. My kids can’t get enough of cereal. (Hmmm…I wonder where they get that from…)

7:10 My mother-in-law arrives because she’s going to take Julia to school today. Usually Brad would take her, but he needs to get on the road early for work and we are trying to keep Hannah home for now to avoid all of the sicknesses going around. (Yes, I realize I’m a little paranoid- but she’s so tiny!) Our parents have been helping out with picking up the kids from school. I am so very lucky to have such wonderful parents and in-laws.

I remind (and remind) Julia that it’s time to go potty and put on shoes for school, and then she and Grandma are out the door at 7:15. Brad also leaves for work then.

7:30 I help William use the potty and get a new diaper. Success! He earns a chocolate chip. 🙂 It’s also time for another diaper change for Hannah. We pretty much change diapers all day around here at the moment.

William, Hannah and I sit on the couch and talk for a few minutes. Then I read stories to William while feeding Hannah.

Hannah’s wearing a hand me down outfit of William’s today. Love those monkey feet!

8:00 We’re at a stage right now with Hannah where she’s awake more during the day, but she doesn’t know what to do with herself. So there is quite a bit of crying and wanting to be held. I hold her in one arm while clearing the breakfast table with the other hand.

William watches Bob the Builder on TV and I walk around with a fussy baby.

After his show is over, William spends some time playing with his trains, a favorite activity at the moment. I put Hannah down for a few minutes so I can throw the laundry in the dryer and start another load.

9:15 Hannah is still fussy, and William is hungry. I put her in the Solly Baby wrap and make us smoothies. We’re having a green smoothie made with kale, mango, banana, and lemon juice today to use up the huge bag of kale we have in our fridge.  It’s super yum!

9:30 I sit down to enjoy my smoothie and do a little work on the computer. Hannah’s still sleeping away in the baby wrap and William’s playing with another train set of his.  The boy’s got more trains and cars than you can count!

10:00 I decide to bake some healthy cinnamon-raisin quick bread for snacks. The recipe is one I’ve made many times, from one of my favorite cookbooks.  It’s super quick to make, which is just what I need!

William has moved on to playing play dough.  He even cleaned up the mess and put it away when he was done!

10:30 Time for another snack. I have a handful of nuts, along with my multivitamin. I transfer Hannah from the wrap to her bed and quickly unload the dishwasher. She wakes up right away and I change her into a new outfit.

10:45 I feed Hannah and then she spits up so we do another outfit change. Guess I should have waited a few more minutes the first time. 🙂

11:30 My mom brings Julia home from school. Mom holds Hannah while I make a quick lunch for the kids and I. On the menu: cheese and tortilla roll ups, apple slices, and a piece of the cinnamon raisin bread I made this morning. In my hurry, I forgot to take a photo.

After lunch, Julia holds her baby sister and we visit with my mom for a while. When she leaves I hold a sleepy Hannah while Julia and William play together. Really, this means I remind them over and over to be careful because the way they are playing it seems inevitable that someone will get hurt soon!

12:45 We all head upstairs for stories before William’s nap. Hannah is super fussy, and I put her in her bouncy chair while we read the book Julia has chosen. She doesn’t settle down at all, and only gets more upset so I decide to feed her while I read William’s story. Then William goes down for nap, still in his pajamas – he loves to have a “jammie day” when we are staying home and not going anywhere. Julia watches Thomas on TV while I finish feeding the baby.

1:30 I put a sleeping Hannah down, only to have her wake up right away. Luckily, she fusses quietly for a few minutes and goes back to sleep. I quickly clean up the kitchen.

2:00 Julia has quiet time while I enjoy a cup of tea and a slice of cinnamon raisin bread with cream cheese. I sit down and put my feet up for a few minutes while working on blog stuff.

I’m still feeling super snacky, so I have a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with pecans and another cup of tea.  Nursing a baby makes me hungry!

3:00  Julia and I sit down together to work on her homework.  While she works, I fold laundry and throw in yet another load.  It sure piles up these days!

3:30 William gets up from him nap and I give the kids some yogurt and string cheese for a snack. Then Julia and I play a game together.

4:15 Brad got home from work early today so he gets Hannah up and changes her, then I feed her.  He usually gets home after dinner and bathtime, so it’s nice to have an extra set of hands for the evening routine tonight.

After that, we have some family hangout/play time/more story time until it’s time to make dinner.

5:15 Brad gets dinner ready, while the kids play and I sit on the couch with Hannah. It takes some real effort for me to keep my eyes open at this point!

5:45 Dinner is ready! We are having leftover kale pesto pasta from last night. I’ll be sharing the recipe soon!  It’s a good one, and this iphone photo certainly doesn’t do it justice.

I hold this cutie while I eat.

After dinner, Hannah takes a nap and the kids have a few minutes to play before it’s time to head upstairs for bath. The kids’ favorite thing right now? Glow sticks. When we tell them they can pick one out tonight, there’s no arguing about heading upstairs. 😉

Before hopping in the bath/shower, I ask Julia and William to help put their clean laundry away. Tonight this was more of a headache than it was worth. It would have been way easier to do it myself, but we’re working on it.

6:45 Hannah wakes up and is ready to eat again. While I feed her, Brad helps the kids get into their pj’s, brush their teeth, and reads bedtime stories.

7:15 Julia and William are all tucked in and off to sleep. Brad and I do a few chores like finishing the dishes and packing lunches for tomorrow while Hannah hangs out in the pack n play.

7:45 Brad hangs out with Hannah while I upload the photos for this post from my phone to my computer.  I’m pretty tired at this point and consider heading up to bed but by the time I got to sleep it would be time to get up and feed the baby again so I decide to just stay up.

Snack time.  I eat a homemade peanut butter granola bar.  So good.  (Excuse the terrible photo.  You just might see these on the blog soon too.  😉 )  There may or may not have been a piece of Sees candy consumed as well.

I end up holding a sleeping baby while I work because that’s the only way she’s content at the moment.

8:45 I shut down my computer and turn on The Bachelor.  (Mindless TV is just what I need right now.)  I feed Hannah one more time before heading upstairs to get ready for bed.  She’s ready to go to sleep too.

10:15  I turn out the lights for a few hours of sleep before it’s time to wake up for a middle of the night feeding.

Whew!  I’m exhausted just thinking back on my day!  These days things are certainly more routine than exciting, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.  If you made it this far, then wow and thanks for reading!  🙂  What do your days look like at the moment?

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