I've been meaning to do a post like this for awhile now, mostly just to document it for myself, so I can read back over it two years from now and think about how much nicer life is with older children.
Context: Lana is almost five months; Julia is almost 23.
Lana's been starting to show readiness for a real, actual nap schedule, instead of four 30-minute catnaps every day, so I'm trying to push her for longer morning and afternoon naps plus an evening catnap. I've also realized she's incapable of falling asleep unless she is attached to the boob, which is easy when I'm with her 24/7, but not a good long-term plan. So I'm also trying to create some new sleep associations for her, so she can put herself back to sleep (and stop waking all the way up after each 30-minute sleep cycle). Right now, we're trying to swap the boob for a pacifier and a stuffed puppy.
Julia goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and usually goes to my mother-in-law's house on Wednesdays. Today is Friday so we're together all day.
5:24 - I hear Lana start to fuss on the baby monitor. I go into her room a few times but I'm trying to resist helping her get back to sleep, and she's not crying, so I just stare at her for awhile then go back to bed. Robert is sleeping in the guest room, since it's my night "on duty" and he needed a solid night's sleep. I was pretty hacked at him about this last night, for no rational reason except I was tired too and I was jealous of him, but both girls were quiet all night so I'm in a much better mood. Even though it's 5:30 in the morning.
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| L - Lana. R - Julia. |
6:20 - Robert comes in to wake me up. I've been just dozing for about the last hour. Normally we'd be up about 15 minutes earlier. But today, my friend A is planning to hike at a park nearby and she generously offered to take Scrappy with her, so we're off the hook for a walk. And, R is leaving about 20 minutes later than usual for an appointment before work. I'm NOT a morning person so I
6:45 - Lana is up for good. I bring her into bed and nurse her. Unusually, she falls back asleep and I get my chance to shower.
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| Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby in your bed? |
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| "Where's Julia?" "hehehehehe" "Julia? Juuuuliaaaaaa, where are you?" "hehehehehe" "Julia! There you are! Behind the curtain!" "heeeeheeeeeheeeee! more!" |
8:15 - I sit Julia down for breakfast. Running a little later than usual today, probably because R left a little late, but we have nothing on the agenda so it's no big deal. Lana is getting fussier by the minute. She spends some time in her Jumperoo and some more time on the floor while I'm dealing with Julia's breakfast, but ultimately ends up in my arms at the table, while I stare at my out-of-reach coffee cup.
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| Psst. Come here. $&%! |
8:45 - Time for Lana's morning nap. I use the iPad to lure Julia to the couch in her room. I don't love giving her daily screentime, but it's the only way I can make sure she stays in one place (i.e. safe) when I need to devote most of my attention to Lana. Lana nurses briefly and goes in her crib. I finally take my first sip of that coffee.
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| "Are you ok Julia?" ..... "Do you need anything before I go clean up?" ......... "Alrighty then. Carry on." |
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| I make waffles and all she does is lick the butter off of them. But I did not end up scarfing down those pre-licked waffles straight off the table. Absolutely not. Because that'd be gross. |
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| Life goes much more smoothly when I pre-package lunch ahead of time. By the time she needs bagged lunches for school, I'll be a pro. |
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| Post-tears puzzles. |
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| Some puppy love. |
10:20 - Actually get out the door.
10:25 - We go to PetSmart and Carter's, both just a two minute car ride away and right next to each other. Julia loves the pet store. We walk around and look at all the animals before picking up some treats for Scrappy, totally forgetting to get dog toothpaste, the only reason I planned this errand in the first place. Lana is in the Baby Bjorn, facing out, so I'm assuming she's having a good time but I have no idea. Carter's is a zoo and it's too much to keep both children happy and within eyesight AND shop, so I grab a bunch of clothes and check out. Brilliant plan. I'll sort it out later and maybe come back this weekend to return my mistakes.
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| The closest she'll ever get to having a cat. |
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| Like she owns the place. |
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| I don't know how there isn't anyone else in this shot. Every time I looked over at the table, there were like 12 kids all fighting for legos and chairs. And 12 adults nowhere to be found, not supervising their children. |
11:25 - We're back home. Lana's looking sleepy and cranky, but doesn't want to rest or eat, so we all play in the basement a little.
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| Julia has some ham to go with that cheese. |
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| This one's finally getting interested in her exersaucer. |
12:05 - Lana loses it. Time for a nap for her and lunch for Julia. I debate what to do with Julia while I put Lana down: whether it's best/safest to leave her playing happily in the basement or put her in her seat for lunch. I opt for the basement choice and periodically upset Lana's pre-sleep routine to check on Julia. Julia's happy as a clam in the basement, and Lana's getting more and more upset. She won't nurse, she doesn't want to be held with her pacifier, she wants nothing to do with anything so after 15 min of trying to soothe her, I finally just put her in her crib with her puppy and paci, and she passes right out. Huh.
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| This dollhouse keeps her entertained longer than any other toy. Probably if I buy 75 of them, she'll be able to entertain herself all day. |
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| Before she ditched the spoon. |
12:50 - Lana's fussing in her crib. She's got to be hungry by now, so I nurse her and put her back down, wide awake. Julia gets the iPad again for this, much to her delight.
1:15 - Shockingly, Lana's still quiet in her crib. I can tell she's not sleeping but she's not upset either so I take the chance to put Julia down for her nap. I do my best to avoid putting Julia down while Lana's awake, because it just doesn't ever go smoothly, so I hustle us through a book and a quick nursing session. As I'm putting Julia down in her crib, Lana starts to holler.
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| This happened at some point around here, and I thought it was adorable so I'm posting the pic. I don't know when or why or how it happened though. I just have this photo right here in the series of shots I took today. |
2:00 - I finally nurse Lana again and she passes out in my arms. I put her back in her crib. She hollers a little, but with her eyes shut, so I decide to leave her alone. Ordinarily I'd be folding the load of laundry that's been sitting in our family room for two days, or getting dinner together, but I work on this blog post instead.
2:20 - Julia's awake. What? She used to nap for two solid hours in the afternoons but lately that's been getting shorter and shorter. I ignore her babbles and hope she falls back asleep. I spend the next ten minutes laying on the couch with my eyes shut, doing absolutely nothing. Then, it's clear that Julia's awake for good so I go in to get her.
2:30 - I walk into Julia's room and Lana's monitor chirps. But, she's being quiet enough that I can get Julia some milk and turn on Curious George. Then, I go outside and talk to the tree-trimming guys who are going to be working on the forest in our backyard. I get nervous about leaving Julia inside by herself, so I grab her and head into the backyard. Lana's getting worked up but there's only one of me. Finally, the tree-trimming guy (or, "tree man" as Julia called him) is gone and I grab Lana, who is surprisingly sweet as pie and delighted to see me.
2:45 - Diaper changes and costume changes for all. I talk to Robert and decide to head out to the mall for the afternoon. I need to grab some things for the girls and I've been thinking about CPK all day so I'm hoping that works out for dinner.
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| I don't know when this happened but she was cute so here ya go. |
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| Same here. |
3:15 - Curious George is over and I herd everyone downstairs to the car. I'm putting Lana in her carseat and smell something. The next twenty minutes are a blur of poop and snot and tears. (Like blood, sweat and tears, baby-version.)
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| Everyone looks okay right now... |
3:55 - We're at the mall. I get what I need to get for the girls (tights and a hair clip for an upcoming wedding, in case you're wondering), and Robert calls to say he's left work early (hooray!) and will come meet us (hooray!). He meets us in the shoe department at Nordstrom (wait how did we get there?).
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| The lady in front of them was all, "I can see you're taking a photo. I don't know why so I'm going to purposefully look into the distance and appear nonchalant." |
Robert takes the girls to the germy mall play area while I run into the Children's Place to see if there are any fall clothes on sale for the girls. There are. :)
4:58 - Lana's fussy, so R and Julia go to Barnes & Noble to play with their Lego and train tables while I try to find a quiet spot to nurse Lana and hopefully put her in her carseat for an evening catnap. While I'm looking for a quiet spot, she dozes for four seconds. Then, I feed her in between her shrieks and hollering (so much for a quiet spot). I walk her around the mall some more to try to get her to nod off, which worked exactly five minutes ago but apparently the four second doze was all she needed.
5:15 - I meet R and Julia in CPK (hooray!). R takes Lana out to walk her to see if he can get her to sleep, and I color with Julia while we order. He comes back, unsuccessful, and our food trickles over to our table. Julia is done eating in about 8 minutes and spends the rest of mealtime standing on the booth, staring at the family behind her. Not my favorite behavior but I'm gonna let it slide as long as she doesn't try to touch them. Lana sits sleepily in her carseat or our arms while R and I scarf down our food. No one melts down until we hit the parking lot - success!
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| Julia enjoys her dinner while Robert gives it the Death Stare. |
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| Yeah in retrospect I feel pretty awful for taking this photo instead of comforting her. But at least she'll have ammunition when she's in therapy in 20 years. |
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| This one clearly doesn't know what an awful mom I can be sometimes. I love 'em when they're so sweet and innocent. |
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| Clean! And totally not right next to Julia's toilet. |
She eats briefly and falls sound asleep. I put her in her crib and head out to see R and Julia, who have just gotten home. We connect briefly and then R takes Julia back to do her bath. She melts down because she thinks she's never going to see me again, despite this being the routine. That we do every. single. freaking. night.
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| But she recovers swiftly with a pair of shoes. Atta girl. :) |
8:00 - Lana wakes up again. Despite it going against all the "sleep training" I've been attempting, I pick her up and let her nurse again. Mostly, I'm concerned that she didn't eat well before bed because she was so tired, so I'm hoping to get a little more into her for the night. She falls asleep almost immediately so back into the crib she goes, hopefully for good this time. Robert's giving Julia a bubble bath and gets her into pajamas.
8:15 - I head into Julia's room to do bedtime with her. She's like, shocked and thrilled to see me, despite the fact that this happens every. single. freaking. night. But she's sweet. It's not like it's bad having your little girl be delighted to see you. We read a few books together, she nurses, she drinks some "cup milk," I brush her teeth, and into her crib she goes.
8:45 - I work on this blog post until Lana hollers again and scares me. I decide to head away from her room and prowl for that wine.
On my way to wine, I end up doing laundry, restocking diapers, and a little bit of housework. Normally R or I would do some general picking-up around the house, but it's Friday and we're both beat so not much happens in that department tonight. I show Robert all the clothes I got for the girls today. (Upon evaluation, I did better than I thought, so I probably don't need to make a separate trip to return anything. Score!)
9:15 - R and I finally make it to the couch, drinks in hand (and fro-yo for me too!) to watch tv. We end up chatting until almost 10, then watching some stupid tv.
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| All sorts of win and my favorite part of the day. |
A good day. I'm pooped, but that's the norm. Overall, it's constant crazy, but I like it. :)
