Another ordinary day in our life this month. Greg was traveling for work so it was just me, the kiddo, and the doodle at home. 

Here’s what Wednesday, July 15th, 2015 looked like in our little world…Greg is out of town, so I bring Paige into bed with me after her 5:30am feeding. I had a rough night of sleep, and can’t blame P for it. I broke my electronics rule and checked email after a middle of the night feeding only to find something annoying around our condo refinance. I knew I’d have to deal with in the morning and tossed and turned. When I finally fell back asleep around 4:30, the smoke alarm in the office went off for no apparent reason.

We manage to sleep until 8:45 thankfully. We’re on day three of Dad traveling and I’m beat. Single moms are rockstars. When he’s gone I really realize how nice it is when he’s home!
Hers and hers. We get Paige changed and dressed for the day and head upstairs for breakfast. For me it’s coffee, eggs, soup, and cantaloupe. I don’t have to do any cooking today as over the weekend I prepped every meal for the three days Greg is gone.

Paige gets boob + bottle. My supply is still not great and we supplement anywhere from two to six ounces each day. So far we’ve kept her off formula and I’m so thankful for all the mamas out there who donate their extra milk.
She loves to help hold her bottle. She can’t actually hold it yet, but she puts her little hands on it and tries. This morning she actually didn’t want any extra milk so maybe my latest supplement (#5) is working?

After breakfast P plays while I try to organize the desk. I’ve had a very unproductive week and decide that my best bet for the morning is to clean off the desk and get things organized. Maybe that will spur me into action? 

Her smiles kill me (in the best way possible). Anytime you look at her she breaks out into a huge grin and if you move towards her it gets even bigger. No wonder I’m getting nothing done!

Around 10:30 we head downstairs for nap time. The biggest change from last month is that P takes naps in her crib. I don’t have to wear her for every nap! I still do sometimes because I love the snuggles, but I also love the breaks.

We nurse, drink our bottle from breakfast plus another ounce, and rock for a solid 35 minutes. Nothing. Just staring at me wide eyed. I put her in the crib to see if she’ll fall asleep on her own and head back to my office project.
Nope. Twenty minutes later she’s started to cry. I get her and bring her back upstairs, trying the swing to see if it has any sleepy dust. Nope. But that smile. Still killing me. She happily swings for NINETY MINUTES but won’t fall asleep. I eat lunch and continue to organize the office, work through the refi issue, and try to find someone to finally fix our oven. Paige starts fussing around 12:45 and we snuggle on the couch for her lunch. She eats for two minutes then passes out. Not shocking since she’s been awake for four hours, instead of her normal two. The nap is great except that we need to leave in 15 minutes to meet a friend. I contemplate canceling our walk plans with Talia, but decide I really need to get out of the house and talk to an adult.

We pack up, including the doodle, and head to Ballard. 
After picking up Talia we arrive at Discovery Park. I’m in need of a good walk and so is Alfred. Paige almost immediately falls back asleep in the carrier so I don’t feel too bad about interrupting her nap. Thankful for friends who are by my side as I figure out this mama thing. Also thankful to live somewhere so beautiful. 
We arrive back home around 3:30 and I figure I better make my smoothie and freeze some more fruit. I do not like smoothies (and I don’t really love fruit), but my latest supplement is much cheaper in powder form. It’s way too gross to choke down just mixed in water so I’ve been having it in a smoothie, in my breakfast soup, and in my chili at night. I have to get five 1/2 teaspoon servings in each day. 

I haven’t had a chance to get the dry cleaning in this week so I pack P in the stroller and we walk to the cleaners to drop it off. We rarely use the stroller, so I figure this is a good way to put the several hundred dollar contraption to use. The stroller is fine, she and I just much prefer baby wearing right now.

After the short walk to the dry cleaners we’re back in the office. I easily spend 75% of my waking hours in this room. While I finish organizing, I set Paige on the pink blanket. I look up a few minutes later and she’s maneuvered herself to her play mat. That’s the first time I’ve noticed her move with intention. It’s crazy how she is just learning new skills left and right.
Around 6pm P falls asleep in her swing. The evening nap is always a short catnap so I grab my dinner and read for a few minutes. The evening nap is always a short catnap so I grab my dinner quickly and read for a few minutes. Still trying hard to read rather than play on the internet when I have a few spare moments. Some days are better than others. We have a bedtime routine now, which is really fun and a family affair as Alfred usually likes to join in as well. When Paige starts to get cranky, usually around 7:30, we head down to her bedroom.

She gets down to her diaper and we have a little playtime on the floor. We change her and put on her pajamas and then Greg and I switch nights picking out and reading the book. Tonight we read Goodnight Gorilla. We’re having fun going through her little library.

I nurse her/give her a bottle until she falls asleep and then transfer her into her crib, where she sleeps now! . She’s out by 8:30 (and usually sleeps for four or five hours. In total she sleep about 12 hours with three wake-ups).

I head back upstairs to clean the kitchen and straighten the house. I’m feeling a little wired so I read until Greg gets home from the airport and we head to bed around 10:45.

I’m glad I captured a day like today, a very ordinary and routine day. Groundhog like. Nothing terribly interesting happened today, but it’s a very accurate depiction of life right now. 

Here’s what Monday, June 15th, 2015 looked like in our little world…

Sleep. Is it possible to be the parent of a child under two and not talk about sleep non-stop? God help me, please tell me it ends at two. The last few days have brought with them a set of new skills (laughing, rolling over, trying to sit up) and we’ve had to ditch our most valuable sleep tool (the swaddle) thanks to the rolling over. Sleep hasn’t been great.

Last night Paige woke up six times between 8:09pm and 6:20am. Greg isn’t feeling well and I didn’t want to wake him so it was a bit of a long night.

I put her back down after her 6:20 feeding and got up for the day. I love that I have some time to myself in the mornings now. She wakes anytime between 6 and 7 and goes back down for another hour or two.

Time for coffee and breakfast (three eggs, scrambled, with salsa verde). 

I like to start the day with an empty dishwasher. This way I can add my dishes as I go and they aren’t sitting in the sink to be dealt with later. 

This morning I am able to work for almost two hours. I sped time on my internship, finish the latest two rounds of thank you notes for Paige gifts (we are blown away by the generosity of friends and family), and start working on my continuous education credits for my NTP certification. Nothing like a little small intestine webinar before 9am, right?

Paige stirs right around 9am and I head down to get her. This is probably my favorite two minutes of every day. She wakes up with a confused look on her face, and then once she’s able to see me (or Greg on a weekend) and focus she bursts out into a huge smile. Makes every wake up every night worth it.

Paige is so alert these days, which is really fun. Except that it means everything, especially feeding, takes forever because she wants to look around. 

It’s going to be 84* today in Seattle, so after breakfast we break out some adorable summer clothes sent by her great aunt and uncle, Sue and Al. 

Getting ready for me today means just a shower and brushing my teeth. This weekend I had my hair chopped into a messy bob (#momhairdon’tcare) and I want to see how it dries on its own (verdict: I’ll be making time for a quick blow dry going forward).

After we’re ready I load Paige into our ring sling and we walk to the store to buy some fresh fruits and veggies for the week. She finally falls asleep when we’re about one minute from home on the way back.

It’s only 11am but I ate breakfast early and am starving, so it’s an early lunchtime. Pork verde I found in the freezer, a pint of blackberries, and sweet potatoes. Yes, it’s baby food. I’ve found the more carbs I eat (fruits and starchy veg) the better my milk supply is and when I don’t have time to make them myself I have no shame eating baby food. 

Paige sleeps through my lunch (she might have got a bit of pork on the forehead) and I get in a bit of work. I love having the opportunity to be working in the nutrition space this summer, even if it is for free.

This girl decides that today’s morning nap will be only one hour instead of the usual two. At least she woke up in a good mood. 

We play on the floor for a bit with her colorful butterfly until it’s time to leave for the post office and chiropractor appointment. 

Paige loves playing on the paper at the chiropractor’s office. We go twice a week for baby cranial sacral massage and it’s amazing how well it’s helping her digestive issues. Hopefully we can stop at some point (it makes afternoon naps tricky), but for now it’s a big help. We are back home around 3pm and I put Paige in her swing. She’s exhausted at this point and quickly falls asleep. I settle in to get some work done, but her little eyes pop open about thirty minutes later. Not going to win the nap game today, I guess.

Our first baby is hanging out downstairs in our bedrooms today since it’s so warm. The mystery of why the bottom of my skirts have been wet lately is solved when I look down from making a few lists to see Paige shoving my skirt in her mouth. It’s about 4:30 and this is when the countdown to dad coming home starts.
Sometimes after 5pm we go up in our new woven wrap and walk around until Paige falls asleep. It lasts about 30 minutes, until big brother loses his sh!t when dad gets home from work and starts barking and running around. Sigh.

It’s dinner time for the pup (half a can of Grammy’s Pot Pie)… 

… and for the humans (chicken verde and salad with peppers and mango). No, I did not intend to have every meal include verde sauce. Just what happens when I pull stuff out of the freezer instead of cooking.

After dinner it’s family work time in the office for a bit,

followed by play time. 

Right at 8pm we take Paige down to get ready for bed. Now that she can roll over we no longer swaddle her. She sleeps in Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit. Yes, you will fall for any marketing when you’re on night three of your unswaddled kid not sleeping, but in all honestly this ridiculous thing works really well. After nursing and getting her extra few ounces of milk she’s out. I put her down in our room and it’s time for my mad scramble. I clean up, pump, water the garden, and get ready for bed. By 9:30 I’m in bed and falling asleep. I try to be in bed within an hour of when she goes down. Greg stays up a bit later to clean up the house, let the dog out, and finish up from his day.