The 15th was on a weekend this month. I was excited to capture more of our story with Greg in it. It was one of those weekend days with nothing planned and nothing that absolutely had to get done. They are rare, but oh so nice. 

Here’s what Saturday, August 15th, 2015 looked like in our little world…

Paige has a cold and isn’t sleeping well. Sometime around 2am I give up trying to feed and/or rock her to sleep and just brought her in bed with us. She woke up ready to start the day at 7, her usual cheerful and babbling self.

We’ve turned out to be crunchier parents than we would have thought. Everyone getting sleep is much higher on our priority list than everyone sleeping where they are “supposed to”. We’re learning as we go, that’s for sure. Greg changes Paige’s diaper. She is non stop movement these days so she gets buckled in on the changing table. The dryer is currently broken, which means we’re 100% disposable diapers. And here’s the thing: it’s awesome. You can now take away my previously awarded crunchy mama label. I’m not sure I’m going to go back to cloth once the dryer is fixed.
A big part of the story of the last six months has been my milk supply and feeding Paige. First stop every morning is to my crazy pharmacy of supplements and drugs that keep me at about 75% of what P needs to eat. I take something at 8am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm, and 2am every day. I constantly wonder if it’s worth it (yes) and how long I’ll keep it up (I don’t know). But for today, I take my 8am pills and move on.

Weekend breakfast is always more fun than weekday. While Greg plays with Paige and reviews our monthly finances, I get to work making a sausage and sweet potato hash topped with fried eggs.
We shouldn’t even both to use blankets anymore. Paige immediately rolls off them (or up in them like a burrito) to explore anything more interesting than the toys we’ve set out. Right now she’s obsessed with anything hanging off of an object, like straps, tags, or laces. This was a big morning – Paige’s first time with food other than breast milk! We started with soft boiled egg yolk. The spoons we had turned out to be too large so I fed her with my pinky. She seemed confused at first but then enjoyed a few bites.Egg face! (And, while not pictured, for the first time ever Alfred showed real interest in Paige. We knew it would happen when food was involved and he didn’t let us down.)All week I’ve been telling Greg about how great Paige has been napping. And then she makes a liar of me. We try the usual crib nap and get no where. Plan B, the swing nap. Nope, not having any of this, Mom.  We give up on nap time and go downstairs to get dressed for the day and fold clothes. These cuties take selfies while I finish up the folding. And then we have nap success! We use a DropCam as our monitor so it’s easy to pop it up on an iPad or phone and see how she’s doing. 

Yes, we still have a dog. He is not neglected but I’m sure he could use a little more love. We try.After nap time, Paige nurses then we top her off with extra milk. We’re getting near the end of our donor milk stash and I haven’t been able to find anymore, so we’ll see what the next step is. One day at a time.
We start to walk to our local pub for lunch but are thwarted with a flat tire on the stroller. Our air pump isn’t working so it’s time for our second plan B of the day. 

Paige agrees that you can never go wrong with Mexican. In fact, it’s offensive to call it plan B. What these pictures don’t show you is how snippy Greg and I were getting with each other before lunch. We have started eating breakfast much earlier (thanks to that cute little 12 pounder), but forget to move lunch earlier too. Can you tell we were both hangry? Back at home Greg breaks out his father’s day gift, a giant Simpsons Lego set. It has over 2000 pieces! I’ve never played with Lego (that I remember), so I decide to join in the fun. I have to stop teasing Greg about his revived childhood hobby because it’s fun. It’s a type A’s dream – a little instruction booklet where you follow all the rules. I thought we couldn’t be nerdier than we are, but we’ve outdone ourselves. 

We take a break from relaxation to clean the kitchen, change laundry, and clean all the cardboard and old paint out of the garage. Then we hop right back into relaxation mode. We are finishing up season 2 of the Americans – so good! Also, another currently: our living room is half decorated. I replaced almost all of the furniture then stalled on progress so there is nothing on the walls or any decorations really. (That chair is also just there temporarily to make room at the table for our Lego project.)We decide to be good dog parents and take Alfred for a walk. He immediately starts running like a crazy man when we get outside. Whoops, probably should have gone on a walk sooner. On the walk we stop in at our local toy shop and pick up a birthday gift for our nephew. It’s time to eat again! (No, I do not cook much on weekends.) I’ve been wanting sushi for a while and we call into our local place and pick up. We’re not going to push our luck taking Paige to a restaurant twice in one day. 

Something I love about this photo is our sauce selection. Greg has something normal that I’ve twisted just a bit but he probably has no idea (tamari versus soy sauce) and I’m using something weird (coconut aminos). Pretty much how food typically works in our family.Alfred was needing some love as we ate dinner and squeezed himself between the couch and Greg. Oh buddy, we are trying so hard. Just remember, it gets easier every day for all of us.
After dinner we take Paige down to bed. I love her bedtime routine. We play, change into pajamas, and read a book. She usually managed a few minutes of naked time before the PJs go on. But the real highlight is the book. She squeals and lays down next to whomever is reading the book that night. It’s just the best.

Greg straightens up the house and does the dishes while I feed Paige and put her to sleep. Then we collapse on the couch, settling in to relax. You may have noticed that P never took another nap. 45 minutes total today, which is crazy low and very exhausting for all parties involved, or so you would think…

Someone wakes up every twenty minutes. This cold is slowly killing us all. After an hour and a half of trying to get her to sleep for any decent amount of time I decide to just go to bed and take her with me.

Any day that ends with snuggling twelve pounds of sunshine is a good one in my book.

(If you noticed that Greg and I both wore gray Slalom shirt all day, Greg would like you to know that he got dressed first. I would like you to know that I’m still in a very awkward stage of having nothing to wear, so I go with what’s clean.)

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.

I had a lot of fun with this month’s DITL. I’m feeling much more confident with this whole motherhood thing these days, so life in general is easier. And specifically to this project, I took cues from a few bloggers who recently shared DITL posts (Ali, Elise) and focused on the overall story of our day rather than worrying about what we did at exactly every moment. I took fewer photos, but I think each one is a thousand times more interesting, so it’s a win. 

In picking a constant day each month, the 15th, I knew I’d get a good variety in the days I highlight. Last month was a very ordinary day. Today started out very ordinary but ended with Greg’s and my first night out together since Paige was born, so definitely not our usual Friday night. Love that I was able to capture our daytime routine + the role Grandma Berta plays in our life + time with friends. 

Here’s what Friday, May 15th, 2015 looked like in our little world…

We are doing really well with sleep these days, but of course there’s always an exception to the rule and tonight was it. Paige wakes up at 1:35, four and a half hours after we put her to bed. Love that we are getting four and five hour stretches these days. I now can feed, diaper change, and get her back to sleep within twenty minutes.

Usually I fall asleep within ten minutes or so of climbing back into bed, but tonight that never happens. When she wakes up again at 4:20 I am still awake. THE WORST. We repeat the feed  and diaper change and she goes back down, but I am still awake when she wakes up again at 5:45.

Now it was her turn to be off schedule. Typically she sleeps from 9:30pm to 9am with three feedings (around 1:30, 4:30, and 7). Thankfully I fell asleep around 6 after putting her back down. When she goes down after her final feeding around 7:30, instead of getting up and eating breakfast and having some ‘me time’, I go back to bed too and we sleep until almost 9.

We wake up to a sunny day. With bedrooms in the basement we don’t have the most amazing views, but we have nice dark rooms that are cool in summer! I opened the blinds, we said hello to Mr. Sun, and Paige eats breakfast. She then lays on daddy’s spot on the bed (staring at the ceiling and telling me all about her dreams) while I pump. I pump after the first and last feeds of the day to build up a little supply for times like tonight when we’re going out and she’s staying home with Grandma.

Paige doesn’t sleep in her crib yet (we’re hoping to change that within the next month or so) and for now she thinks it’s a fun place to hang out. I land her in baby jail for a bit while I finish packing for our trip to Denver tomorrow and move the laundry along. Once she starts whining we both get dressed and head upstairs. Grandma is coming over later today so I skip my morning shower in lieu of taking a nice long one when she arrives.

It happens to be Greg’s birthday today and I see that he read the card I left out for him. I’m not sure I know anyone who cares about their birthday less than he does, but I try to do a few nice things.

I’m starving and tired at this point so I put Paige down in the office and make myself coffee (it’s decaf but I can pretend like it will wake me up) and a few eggs. I eat my eggs while Paige works on her tummy time skills.

By 10:30 she is starting to fuss and I see a yawn. If I get her to nap now I know I’ll get a good long one out of her. We’ve been working a lot on nighttime sleep (and it’s totally paid off!), but daytime naps are still a struggle. She only sleeps well in the Moby or the car, so that’s pretty much what we do daily. Once she’s in the Moby we go out to water the veggie boxes and walk around the house a bit. Within 15 minutes she is out.

I spend nap time cleaning up the kitchen, doing and folding laundry, and working on emails, etc. on the computer. Each time she starts to stir I take my book and walk a few laps around the house while reading. Steps + book progress, I have no complaints.

Once we hit the two hour mark, at 12:45, I know my time is limited and I heat up my lunch. All week I’ve eaten the same thing: meatballs and sweet potatoes that I cooked on Sunday and some form of greens that I quickly put together daily.

Paige wakes up and we eat lunch together. Two and a half months into this nursing thing and I’ve got multitasking down pretty well. Usually I read, but if she eats around my meal time and Greg isn’t home, we eat together.

After lunch it’s play time for Paige and race around the house to finish laundry and dishes time for me. She loves this new piano toy that makes noise if her feet hit the keys hard enough. I love to watch her dance when she hears the music. And let’s be honest, I also love the twenty minutes she is willing to self entertain.

Because we we are going out for the evening, I want Alfred to burn off some energy. Once Paige is done playing we head to Green Lake dog park. Alfred’s routine for getting in the car is to get in the passenger door and jump across to the driver’s seat while I get Paige situated. He then gets out of the car, jumps into the backseat, sniffs Paige, and finally sits so I can buckle his harness in. (Now that Paige is in the car we use a $10 buckle from Amazon to keep him restrained in case of an accident.)

I forgot the Chuck-It, which is the only reason Alfred likes the dog park, but I manage to talk him into running around and playing with a few dogs. Paige eventually falls asleep so we stay for a little while longer.

We run a few errands and to keep Paige sleeping I decide to extend our car time with a coffee. God bless the Starbucks drive-thru options in Seattle. Lately I’ve been ordering a water to go with my coffee to make up for all the coffee I’m drinking these days. It’s all decaf, but I’m totally addicted again. My lack of sleep leads to ordering outside of my usual decaf iced Americano and I go for a coconut milk latte.

We are back home around 3:15 and Roberta, my MIL, arrives shortly after. I hand off the baby and head into the shower. (My feet are filthy from the dog park, not normal daily life.) Greg and I are going out together for the first time since Paige was born and leaving her home with Grandma. I know they will be fine and we’ll have fun, but I’m still anxious about going out. Luckily the afternoon is getting away from me so I don’t have much time to think about it.

When I get out of the shower Greg is home early from work and we both quickly get dressed in wedding-going attire. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve put contacts in since Paige was born. We do one last feeding and give Grandma the low-down on bottles, diapers, play time, and sleep, say goodbye, and are on our way.

A baby does change everything. We are the two most punctual people in the world and Google maps is telling us we’ll make it to our good friends’ wedding at 4:59, with just one minute to spare. Pre baby, we easily would have been twenty minutes early and awkwardly waiting around. A stop light selfie is the best proof we have that we got out on our own.

The ceremony is at a park in Queen Anne and lovely, but I respect the bride’s wishes and let the photographers take care of photos. After the ceremony we drive over to Ray’s Boathouse in Ballard for the reception. On the way I use my borrowed car adapter for the pump for the first time, with a hopefully well placed scarf. Oh the fun…

The view from the reception is gorgeous. We arrive, get a beer (him) and glass of wine (her), and enjoy catching up with a small group of friends. These are all the friends we have Sounders season tickets with and typically we’d be seeing them almost weekly. We haven’t been going yet this season because of Paige, but no one else has made it to many games either. It’s nice to catch up and enjoy appetizers and the view while waiting for the bride and groom.

The bride and groom arrive around 7:00 to cheers. I’ve known James and Talia since before I moved up to Seattle (James used to work with Greg) and they are among the first friends I had in Seattle. We are all happy to see them tying the knot. After their arrival we sit down to a really fantastic meal.

Around 8:30 the toasts happen and the dance floor opens. We stay for the first dance but our carriage is soon turning into a pumpkin. Or, we have a two month old we’ll be taking on a 6:40am flight the next morning. At 9:00 we say our goodbyes and head home to relieve Grandma.

Everything went well back at home and Paige is sound asleep in Grandma’s arms. That is until Alfred wakes her up with his excitement at us arriving home. Sigh. Grandma heads home and we get Paige in her pajamas and back to sleep. We figure out our timing for the morning, set the alarm for 4:15am, and drift off to sleep.

As I mentioned before I don’t really have any interest in doing a traditional baby book for Paige, but I do love documenting daily life and how it changes. I’m doing this in a few ways during this first year of Paige’s life. Some will stick and I’ll continue to do them and others will seem less interesting over time and will be retired. The things I have going right now include a monthly “I want to remember” recap, a One Line A Day book, keeping up with my 2015 Project Life album, and a monthly Day In the Life (DITL) recap.

I had the idea for DITL long before Paige was born didn’t end up doing it during her first month. I suppose I was overwhelmed with a newborn or something. On the 15th of each month I want to take the time to take pictures and note down what we did. I think it will be fun to see how our daily life changes over the year. And by picking the 15th, I’ll get a good mix of weekdays and weekends, days when Greg is in town versus traveling, boring days at home and maybe a day with some sort of adventure.   

To make it really easy I just use my iPhone for photos and keep a note going on my phone with what we’re doing at what time. Some parts of the day are much more detailed than others, but that’s sort of how our days feel right now – moments of calm mixed with moments of chaos. 

Here’s what Wednesday, April 15th, 2015 looked like in our little world…

8:30am – I pump for 10 minutes while Paige hangs out in bed with me.

7:30pm Off on a short family walk to see if that will calm down Paige. Witching hour is real, people. Except that it should be called Witching Hours.