A Day in the Life

I've seen this done before by other bloggers and I thought it would be nice to have a real, full-day record to look back at in the future and recall what life was like at this point in time. So, here goes. I'm not picking any day in particular for any particular reason. I'm mostly a stay at home mom now so my days kind of blend together anyway! This was all done on Thursday, July 18. Evelyn is 2 years old and it's Adam's 4 month birthday!

11:30 pm - Adam is up. He's been asleep since before 8, which is typical, but we didn't swaddle him tonight since he's started rolling over. We'll see how the rest of the night goes. I nurse him and say a quick prayer before putting him back to bed.

1:14 am - Adam is up again. I nurse him and tell myself I'll wait until he's good and asleep before trying to transfer him. 

1:40 am - Fell asleep in chair (it's funny, I almost NEVER did this when Evelyn was a baby. Now, I have the hardest time staying awake during night wakings. Talk about sleep deprived), Adam leaked out of his diaper (finding a solution for diapering him overnight is a whole other story), change Adam, get him back to sleep, crawl in my bed. Feels so good!

2:40 am - Adam is up. Again. Sigh... I guess it's going to be one of those nights. Have a fleeting thought of just sleeping in the chair or on the couch. Let's see if I can't get him back in bed.

3:49 am - Fell asleep in the chair again. Back to bed for me.

4 am - Adam is up again. To the couch we go. Nurse Adam back to sleep. Praying he decides to sleep longer than an hour.

6:28 am - Good morning sunshine. We hang out in the couch for a bit (aka I keep my eyes closed as long as humanly possible).

6:54 am - Rob heads out the door for work so I finally decide to get up and change Adam's diaper. So. Freaking. Tired. I dream of dropping Adam's adorable, smiling little tush in Rob's arms on Saturday morning and sleeping until noon. It probably won't happen but a girl can dream, right? Nurse big boy and set him down to play for a bit. He found his toes the other day and is loving it.

7:09 am - head downstairs to continue doing diaper laundry I started last night (I've got some exciting news on this front to announce soon!). Cloth diapering 2 kids has definitely meant an increase in laundry, but I still love it!

7:16 am - assess the damage from last night's lack of sleep... me in all my morning glory. Just keeping it real! Splash some water on my face, put my hair up, and go sit for a bit to browse Facebook, Instagram, StlWed, etc. on my phone until Evelyn gets up. This will likely be the only quiet time I get all day. Hoping she sleeps until at least 8. But with construction going on to build more houses you just never know.

7:45 am - I get Adam down for a nap in his swing just in time to hear Evelyn awake in her room. I get Evelyn up and change her, then walk in the kitchen and realize that the trash smells terrible so I take it out.

8:20 am - I put Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on so I can sit down and pump. Then I text my mom to firm up plans for swimming this morning. It's supposed to be in the 90's today and I'd like to beat the heat.

8:30 am - Done pumping. Get some breakfast for Evelyn and I (Cheerios and apples and peanut butter). Adam is waking up in the swing, but he's content so I let him be. Side note: I'm off dairy in an attempt to help Adam's tummy. It sucks. I'm attempting to like almond milk and chocolate almond milk, but it's just not the same. I miss my big glass of chocolate milk in the morning. I really, really miss it. And on mornings after a night like last night, I sometimes consider forcing myself to like coffee. Or drinking. I guess it would be too early for that though...

8:53 am - I finish breakfast and empty/load the dishwasher and put my pumped milk away while Evelyn finishes. Another side note: this is actually two days worth of milk. I pump every morning to manage my oversupply. Some days I get 20 oz (when everyone sleeps well) some days I get 5 oz. Depends on the day. I'll be attempting to wean myself off the pump when Adam is around 6 months old.

9 am - I clean the magnets and such off the fridge so they can take it away (it's broken) and move the loaner in, get my swimsuit on, and run a rinse cycle on my diapers. Adam is fussing again, so I change up his scenery.

9:15 am - Get Evelyn cleaned up from breakfast and (attempt to) get her swimsuit on. Adam is fussing again, so another change of scenery. I'd like to wait to feed him until right before we leave for the pool but I don't think he's going to last that long.

9:28 am - Adam is done. So I sit down and feed him while Evelyn dumps a bag of diaper samples on the floor. Whatever keeps her occupied.

9:32 am - Way too distracted by sissy to actually have a good nursing session but he's a little more content.

9:37 am - Sit down to put Adam's swimsuit on and find he pooped! Woo hoo! We've been having some poop trouble lately, so I get excited when he goes.

9:40 am - Mom and James arrive and we get the kids slathered in sunscreen.

10:00 am - Load up the ridiculous amount of paraphernalia it takes to go to the pool and head out the door.

11:45 am - Get home, feed Adam, change clothes/diapers, hang suits to dry and decide on lunch while the kids play for a bit.

12:30 pm - We head out the door to Arby's for lunch. Evelyn eats a ham and cheese sandwich and I have a French Dip. Nothing too exciting, but since we haven't left the house except to go to the pool for three days it was kind of nice.

1:30 pm - We get home from Arby's and Adam is way beyond ready for a nap. He screamed the whole way home in the car, through Evelyn's diaper change so I could get her in her room for a "nap" (lol), and through his own diaper change until I sat down and nursed him for bed. He konked out pretty much immediately.

1:45 - Adam is asleep and Evelyn is in her room, so I grab the laundry from downstairs and hang the diapers out to dry before sitting down to get started on this post.

2:17 pm - Adam is up, coax him back to sleep.

2:37 pm - Call Lowe's to try and figure out what's going on with the fridge issue. They are supposed to be picking up our broken fridge today and moving a loaner into the house until our new one arrives in a couple of weeks. Except they haven't called or come yet. Come to find out one of the delivery men cancelled our visit because he didn't have anything to deliver. They said they would call me back and let me know what's going on.

2:45 pm - I check on Evelyn to find her standing on her art desk turning the light on and off (oye) and with a poopy diaper. I guess quiet time is over. I get her up, change her, and give her a snack.

2:55 pm - Lowe's calls back and says they are on their way. Crap. I haven't emptied the fridge yet. So I go find a couple of coolers for the frozen stuff and empty it all onto the counters. My kitchen is officially a disaster area. I finish just as they are arriving. Evelyn is pretty fascinated.

3:40 pm - The old fridge is gone and the loaner is in place. Now I have to figure out how to get everything from our 22 cu. ft. fridge into this 18 cu. ft. one. I guess I needed to purge anyway. Nothing like being forced to clean the fridge out!

4:00 pm - I figured since it's all out, I might as well bag and label my milk to go into the deep freeze. Then Rob calls and reminds me that his mom is bringing his grandma and great aunt by to visit. Crap. Again. The house is a disaster and they will be here any second. Oh well. Not much I can do at this point since Adam is now awake (woo-hoo for a 2 hour nap!) and hungry.

4:30 pm - I finish nursing and changing Adam just in time for my mother in law to arrive with Rob's Grandma, great Aunt, and our niece. Evelyn is super excited to see Isabella and they immediately run off to play while everyone else dotes on Adam. Thank goodness he is rested/full/clean!

5 pm - Rob gets home.

5:30 pm - Our visitors leave and I coax Evelyn back inside. She really wants to ride her bike, but it's really just too hot. I bribe her with another snack. I try to clean the house up a bit more while we relax and play with the kids a bit.

 

5:54 pm -I get dinner started, while Rob entertains. We're having leftovers: Mini Meatball soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and homemade calzones.

6:15 pm - Dinner is ready so we sit down to eat. In his perfect time, Adam starts fussing, so I get him down in the swing for a little cat nap and continue our dinner. Yummy!

6:45 pm - Evelyn needs a bath since we swam today, so I decide to take her in the shower with me. This is what we typically do, but as Adam's gotten older we've been doing more tub baths with them together. And since I've pretty much decided to give up on getting her to nap, we're moving bed time back from 8:30 to whenever she seems tired. She was pretty glazed over at dinner, so we get the process going. I love taking showers with her because it's one of the few times when we just quietly play together. She has her tub crayons and we talk to one another and sing songs. Love it.

7:10 pm - We're out of the shower and I get Evelyn dressed, her teeth brushed, prayers said, and nurse while Rob gets Adam in his pjs.

7:30 pm - Evelyn is in bed so I start working on Adam while Rob starts on cutting the grass. He's not always so easy and tonight is the second night we didn't swaddle him. He's rolling over now and seems to prefer his tummy, so that's what it ends up being.

8:11 pm - Adam is in bed so I sit down and work on this post a little more and start researching ideas for a little secret project I'm working on. :) What a busy day!

9:00 pm - Adam is awake. Coax him back to sleep.

10:00 pm - Join rob on the couch to watch a little Netflix while he draws on the tablet.

10:30 pm - Crawl in bed, praying for a good night's sleep but worried about Adam sleeping on his tummy.

Another long night was had as Adam was up at 10:45, 11, 3, and 6. And just for good measure, Evelyn was up at 4:15. Blah. This too shall pass and I comfort myself knowing that I get to start fresh everyday. Tired or not, I love being home with my kids and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sleep Drama

I've come to the realization that I need to accept the fact that nap times for Evelyn are gone. Woe. Is. Me.

This all started about 6 months ago. Evelyn was skipping naps occasionally in her crib. I didn't think much of it, chalked it up to being a phase, and ignored it. Then we moved her to a big bed since Adam would be needing the crib and that only exacerbated the problem. We tried timing her to sleep, laying next to her in bed, ignoring her, etc. She still wouldn't sleep.

Then, about 3 weeks ago I decided I needed to make one last-ditch effort to save nap time (in the midst of my sleep-deprived survival-mode) and we called a sleep specialist. I firmly believed my two year old should still be napping and the bags under her eyes proved it.

The "Sleep Lady," as she's known around here, put us on a strict schedule. We essentially shortened her night time sleep by putting her to bed later and walking her up at a specific time everyday in hopes that she would then feel tired enough to nap in the afternoon. You guys, I needed my sanity. At least an hour of quiet everyday.

She showed slight improvement in the first couple of weeks. Then she plateaued. Then she regressed. She has mapped once in the past 10 days. Once.

So I called the sleep lady again and asked what I should do. She was shocked that she still wasn't sleeping. She thought the fact that she wasn't in a crib was the problem, but when I told her that she goes to sleep in her bed at night without a problem everyday, she discounted that idea. She said she would give me one last suggestion and then she wouldn't really know what we could do from there.

That's where I am now. I'm trying to decide if I want to limit her already minimal nighttime sleep even more and try to manage dual car naps for a week or if I want to just let it go. I think if I can get Adam to keep taking consistent afternoon naps it won't be so bad, but feel like I'm done fighting this battle. The Sleep Lady said she has only seen 4 or 5 kids in 24 years do what Evelyn has done.

It's been hard. I've had very little patience and my sleep-deprived brain needs the respite from toddler babble and being a human jungle gym. But I think if I change my mindset, it will be okay. If we can get her rested with nighttime sleep, we'll survive.

Hopefully.