I've been asked by a few people what my average day looks like. Well, each and every day is a bit different, but I'll try to paint a general picture.
5:15 am -this seems to be the baby's most common wake up time. Breastfeed, change diaper. Listen for toddler. If awake, skip to the next step and try again the next day for a shower. If not awake yet or just starting to stir, strap baby into bouncy chair and jump in the shower for a most glorious 5 min where I can imagine myself on a tropical beach somewhere. Oh, baby is slumping and tiring of the chair, so quickly dry off and get dressed.
6:00 -toddler is most probably wide awake now. Pop the baby into the sling and go to get the toddler out of her crib. Change the toddler's diaper. Baby may also need another change by now too. Climb the stairs with the baby in the sling and toddler holding one hand.
6:15 -feed the hungry toddler breakfast. The baby is starting to fuss at the same time because he's been wake an hour and is tired and ready for a nap. Swaddle, and rock the baby while retrieving the dropped soother a dozen times to coax a nap while shovelling some cold toast and lukewarm tea down myself.
7:00 -poop hour begins. Toddler grunts and announces "big poop" while I'm changing the baby for the third consecutive time and tossing the change pad cover and my own shirt in the laundry from a newborn poop explosion during one of the changes. Select something for toddler to wear that doesn't clash too badly but doesn't involve a group trek downstairs. Baby needs to nurse again.
8am -everyone is dressed and fed. Almost time for baby to be sleepy again. Swaddle, rock, and fetch soother again while toddler plays.
8:30 -Baby is asleep, so pack bags up and get ready for the day's outing. Make sure the diaper bag has two spare diapers and changes of clothes for the baby and one for the toddler.
9:00 -toddler is hungry for a snack. Feed her something not too messy. Baby wakes and is hungry too.
9:45 -everyone is fed and if we need to make an outing, now is the time. Pop baby in the sling again and wrestle toddler into shoes and a sweater. Pack both out to the car. Buckle toddler into car seat. Buckle baby into car seat. Fold stroller and put it in the trunk along with the giant diaper bag. Turn ignition onto accessory and let the children's CD play. Now, my favourite part -run back into the house myself and use the toilet uninterrupted!
10:00 -we are on the road. Arrive at destination and repeat the stroller/toddler/baby unloading process in exactly the reverse of the loading.
10:30 -enjoy whatever outing we are doing. Baby naps in the stroller or sling while I chase toddler.
11:15 -toddler begins to rub eyes and become silly and clumsy. Time to go home. Pack everyone back into the car. Both cry on the way home either alternating or in unison.
11:30 -arrive home. Toddler gets a quick bite of lunch while I change and soothe baby. Change both diapers.
12:00 -nap time. If I'm extremely lucky they both sleep at the same time and I get a snooze or some time to myself. Otherwise I get some 1:1 time with baby while toddler is in her crib.sometimes it takes a while and a few drop ins from me for her to fall asleep. She typically naps for 1-1.5 hours.
2:00 -toddler wakes up. She gets a cup of milk and a snack, and another diaper change.
2:30-4:30 this is the best window of time to get outside for a walk and play at the playground if it's nice. Baby sleeps well in the fresh air while toddler burns off some energy. Return home and change diapers again.
5:00 - dinner time for toddler. Baby is fussy and wants to cluster feed. Mommy juggles both.
5:30 -bath time for toddler. Baby may still be cluster feeding or want to be held so ring sling to the rescue again.
5:50 - PJ's and story for toddler.
6:00 -toddler is in her crib and getting herself off to sleep for the night. Make dinner for the adults, tidy up toys, start evening laundry loads (1diaper, 1other)
7:00-baby's sponge bath or full bath, change diaper and sleeper.
7:30 -baby is usually ready for his longest stretch of sleep now (4 hours). Time to myself, or to spend as a couple between changing laundry over and tidying up the house.
9:30 - bed time for me.
11:30, 2:00, 4:00 -wake for feedings, hope he doesn't poop as well and need to be changed and soothed back to sleep.
Rinse, lather, and REPEAT the next day.
Lilypie tickers
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Monday, 24 June 2013
In-law visits
Whew! They are gone... the in-laws.
First came my father in law for one week. He's pretty easy to have around and is helpful but sometimes helpful to a fault. For example last time he visited all of our cast iron cookware got cleaned... right down to shiny silver metal (cringe) :(
Anyway, his visit co-coincided with Kai's 6 week growth spurt and fussy time. He's so enthusiastic to hold him and play, but the poor little guy got so easily overstimulated that it was so much more work for me to settle him down again.
Then he flew out and the next day my mother in law arrived. That's when the fun began. She is extremely high maintenance and treats visits with us like a full service spa expecting full and prompt service. Hello... we have two children under a year and a half that NEED full and prompt service. She brought along 3 recipes with her for things she said she would like to make. We shopped and got all the ingredients, but somehow DH or I ended up having to prepare and make the recipes, sigh...
She barked at my DH one night to make her a coffee after he had just sat down to get some work done in his office. We showed her where the coffee supplies were and she was not impressed to have to make it herself. One night Kai was cluster feeding away and she offered to make me a cup of tea. I thought that was really nice. Minutes later she changed her mind I guess and said she didn't know how I wanted it prepared so I should just do it myself. Needless to say I didn't get my tea.
We rented a friend's basement suite apartment for them to stay just 150m down the street, and thought this would be ideal. It was ideal for us, but my mother in law put up a huge fuss about not being able to stay with us. First off we actually don't have anywhere for her to stay other than a foam mattress in the middle of the living room floor. The baby is up 3 times in the night and both kids are up by 6 am bouncing around in there, so staying with us would not be comfortable.
The one that really got me was that she refused to walk the 100 steps to her apartment and demanded we give her a ride in the car. I don't think I've ever made such a short car trip in my life. We love to be active and get outside every day rain or shine. Unfortunately the week she was here we had fairly wet weather on and off and she wouldn't dream of going out in it. Finding things that she was willing to do, and that we could manage to do with two young kids was a challenge. We spent a lot of time at home tripping over each other.
Fortunately, she did really enjoy playing with Anika so that kept them both busy while I managed the laundry, cleaning up and the baby's feeding, changing and soothing to sleep routines on 4-5 hours of broken sleep and DH juggled working and cooking.
So, yes now we have our space back. It's so nice to slip into less chaotic routines again. We've definitely decided that having 3 kids would be too much to juggle.
First came my father in law for one week. He's pretty easy to have around and is helpful but sometimes helpful to a fault. For example last time he visited all of our cast iron cookware got cleaned... right down to shiny silver metal (cringe) :(
Anyway, his visit co-coincided with Kai's 6 week growth spurt and fussy time. He's so enthusiastic to hold him and play, but the poor little guy got so easily overstimulated that it was so much more work for me to settle him down again.
Then he flew out and the next day my mother in law arrived. That's when the fun began. She is extremely high maintenance and treats visits with us like a full service spa expecting full and prompt service. Hello... we have two children under a year and a half that NEED full and prompt service. She brought along 3 recipes with her for things she said she would like to make. We shopped and got all the ingredients, but somehow DH or I ended up having to prepare and make the recipes, sigh...
She barked at my DH one night to make her a coffee after he had just sat down to get some work done in his office. We showed her where the coffee supplies were and she was not impressed to have to make it herself. One night Kai was cluster feeding away and she offered to make me a cup of tea. I thought that was really nice. Minutes later she changed her mind I guess and said she didn't know how I wanted it prepared so I should just do it myself. Needless to say I didn't get my tea.
We rented a friend's basement suite apartment for them to stay just 150m down the street, and thought this would be ideal. It was ideal for us, but my mother in law put up a huge fuss about not being able to stay with us. First off we actually don't have anywhere for her to stay other than a foam mattress in the middle of the living room floor. The baby is up 3 times in the night and both kids are up by 6 am bouncing around in there, so staying with us would not be comfortable.
The one that really got me was that she refused to walk the 100 steps to her apartment and demanded we give her a ride in the car. I don't think I've ever made such a short car trip in my life. We love to be active and get outside every day rain or shine. Unfortunately the week she was here we had fairly wet weather on and off and she wouldn't dream of going out in it. Finding things that she was willing to do, and that we could manage to do with two young kids was a challenge. We spent a lot of time at home tripping over each other.
Fortunately, she did really enjoy playing with Anika so that kept them both busy while I managed the laundry, cleaning up and the baby's feeding, changing and soothing to sleep routines on 4-5 hours of broken sleep and DH juggled working and cooking.
So, yes now we have our space back. It's so nice to slip into less chaotic routines again. We've definitely decided that having 3 kids would be too much to juggle.
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
6 weeks
Both Kai and I had 6 week doctor's appointments this week.
He tipped the scales weighing in at 12lbs 5 oz. making his weight gain nearly 1 lb per week! That's pretty amazing that breast milk alone can make such a chubby bubby.
My visit with my OB was kind of a fond farewell. I've been seeing him since 2009. Apparently the small tear I had from the delivery healed up really nicely and I was given the go ahead to resume exercise and intercourse.
My OB then asked what our plan as far as birth control was. Yes, it's such an odd situation to be in. I can't use hormonal methods while breastfeeding, and have had more than my fair share of gynaecological procedures, so DH is most likely going to have a vasectomy in the fall when his work is at a slower time. The irony of that just kills me after all of the time, money and emotional turmoil we went through to conceive our daughter. Anyway, he now has a referral to the urologist to discuss things further. My OB said there is less than a 1% chance of getting pregnant while exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months. I pointed to my baby and reminded him that we conceived him in those very circumstances when my daughter was 7 months old, so we'd be using condoms in the interim just in case. As much as I like the fantasy of having a third child, the reality is that we are so incredibly blessed to have one, much less two beautiful healthy children and our family is complete.
On route home I stopped at the drugstore and purchased a small package of condoms. I felt like a teenager all over again. Of course I bought a few other items so I could sandwich the condoms between them at the checkout to make it somewhat less embarrassing. LOL, maybe they'll make us feel like randy teenagers again?
He tipped the scales weighing in at 12lbs 5 oz. making his weight gain nearly 1 lb per week! That's pretty amazing that breast milk alone can make such a chubby bubby.
My visit with my OB was kind of a fond farewell. I've been seeing him since 2009. Apparently the small tear I had from the delivery healed up really nicely and I was given the go ahead to resume exercise and intercourse.
My OB then asked what our plan as far as birth control was. Yes, it's such an odd situation to be in. I can't use hormonal methods while breastfeeding, and have had more than my fair share of gynaecological procedures, so DH is most likely going to have a vasectomy in the fall when his work is at a slower time. The irony of that just kills me after all of the time, money and emotional turmoil we went through to conceive our daughter. Anyway, he now has a referral to the urologist to discuss things further. My OB said there is less than a 1% chance of getting pregnant while exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months. I pointed to my baby and reminded him that we conceived him in those very circumstances when my daughter was 7 months old, so we'd be using condoms in the interim just in case. As much as I like the fantasy of having a third child, the reality is that we are so incredibly blessed to have one, much less two beautiful healthy children and our family is complete.
On route home I stopped at the drugstore and purchased a small package of condoms. I felt like a teenager all over again. Of course I bought a few other items so I could sandwich the condoms between them at the checkout to make it somewhat less embarrassing. LOL, maybe they'll make us feel like randy teenagers again?
Monday, 10 June 2013
A little math
I took both kids to a birthday party yesterday (on my own I should mention -whoop toot!) for a little friend of my daughter's who was turning one.
There were 3 sets of parent's there with 8 month old babies. Each of them asked me at different moments what the ages of my babies were. When I told them 17 months and 5 weeks the response was "oh", followed by an awkward pause. I could almost see the wheels turning in their heads doing the math and realizing that I was already pregnant with my second by the time my first was the age their babies are now. It felt like it was a good reminder to use birth control or something. It was pretty much a conversation ender, and from there another subject was brought up.
I have to think of something witty to say that will break the ice a bit next time. Hmmm... Any ideas?
There were 3 sets of parent's there with 8 month old babies. Each of them asked me at different moments what the ages of my babies were. When I told them 17 months and 5 weeks the response was "oh", followed by an awkward pause. I could almost see the wheels turning in their heads doing the math and realizing that I was already pregnant with my second by the time my first was the age their babies are now. It felt like it was a good reminder to use birth control or something. It was pretty much a conversation ender, and from there another subject was brought up.
I have to think of something witty to say that will break the ice a bit next time. Hmmm... Any ideas?
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Fending for Myself
I made it through an 8 day stretch with my husband being away for work... And the house is still standing and everyone has all their limbs.
All kidding aside, it wasn't easy peasy, but it wasn't too bad really. There were 3 tricky things:
1. Getting myself showered and dressed for the day. Many days I had to skip the shower all together and just throw on a pair of pants I could pull up with one hand. Thank you Lu Lu Lemon!
2. Groceries, and cooking. Yes, if there is one quick way to lose pregnancy pounds it would be doing the toddler dash with a hungry newborn at the breast all day, and then getting to 8pm and realizing you forgot to eat more than a few snacks here and there. I did not stock up on near enough chocolate! We needed milk once and luckily I was able to call upon gramma and grampa to take my toddler.
3. Dinner/Bath/Bedtime routine. There is no flexibility on this one. It also often coincides with cluster feeding/ fussy hour for the little guy. We had one night that if you were walking by my house and heard all the screaming you would have for certain called social services. My toddler had a complete meltdown about putting on her diaper and PJ's, all while the newborn was gassy.
The rest of the time things actually went quite smoothly. We got out for walks, went to the park, and did some baking and arts and crafts between the 20 some odd diaper changes and feedings. I even got more sleep than usual because I'd just crash when they were both asleep day or night.
Boy am I glad to have hubby back! Hats off to all the single parents out there! I have an entirely new respect.
All kidding aside, it wasn't easy peasy, but it wasn't too bad really. There were 3 tricky things:
1. Getting myself showered and dressed for the day. Many days I had to skip the shower all together and just throw on a pair of pants I could pull up with one hand. Thank you Lu Lu Lemon!
2. Groceries, and cooking. Yes, if there is one quick way to lose pregnancy pounds it would be doing the toddler dash with a hungry newborn at the breast all day, and then getting to 8pm and realizing you forgot to eat more than a few snacks here and there. I did not stock up on near enough chocolate! We needed milk once and luckily I was able to call upon gramma and grampa to take my toddler.
3. Dinner/Bath/Bedtime routine. There is no flexibility on this one. It also often coincides with cluster feeding/ fussy hour for the little guy. We had one night that if you were walking by my house and heard all the screaming you would have for certain called social services. My toddler had a complete meltdown about putting on her diaper and PJ's, all while the newborn was gassy.
The rest of the time things actually went quite smoothly. We got out for walks, went to the park, and did some baking and arts and crafts between the 20 some odd diaper changes and feedings. I even got more sleep than usual because I'd just crash when they were both asleep day or night.
Boy am I glad to have hubby back! Hats off to all the single parents out there! I have an entirely new respect.
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