I’m participating in the Carnival of Breastfeeding today. The theme is ‘How To’, and you can find my own contribution and links to lots of other great breastfeeding posts. After you read all about a day in my life, go check it out!
It’s Mat Leave Monday! Today I’m going to lighten the mood a bit, by sharing what a typical day in my life is like right now. Prepare to be dazzled by my glamorous lifestyle! 
6:00am – Woken up by the baby. Attempt to nurse the baby while lying down to coax him back to sleep and get more rest myself. Spend half hour in this fashion, give up after his third jab to my eyeball with a cheerful, “Ba ba ba!”
7:00am – Get up. Lecture baby on my need for sleep and the importance of being considerate of others. Preschooler hears talking and also wakes up. There’s no way I’m getting back to sleep now.
7:30am – Try to dress the children. Yell, “Would everybody please just BE QUIET!” Feel immediately guilty.
8:00am – Breakfast. We are all feeling much better once we have some food and/or caffeine.
8:30am – Jon leaves for the day. I try to spend a few minutes on the computer, nursing the baby. Preschooler tries to jump on my lap too. Then she wants to type. The baby gives up on nursing and starts trying to eat paper off my desk. I give up.
9:00am – Try to do some tidying, but more mess is being made as I work. Almost cry when a container full of dry oatmeal gets spilled everywhere. Tell preschooler I need help with cleaning, am told, “No, I don’t want to.” Deliver mini-lecture on how I don’t want to either, which is why I didn’t spill oatmeal everywhere.
9:30am – Baby is tired. Put him on a baby carrier on my back to nap. Do puzzle with preschooler. Prepare a healthy snack. Hug my daughter. Feel like Supermom.
10:00am – Break into the Girl Guide cookies on the sly. I get caught by my kid and have to give her one, too. Darn. I wanted those to myself!
10:11am – Attempt to go to the bathroom alone. Or as alone as I can be with a sleeping baby on my back. Preschooler feels abandoned, end up peeing with an audience. Fun!
10:30am – Start getting ready to go to the playground across the street.
11:30am – Arrive at the playground across the street. I have no idea where the last hour went, did it really take that long to get shoes on everyone?
12:00pm – Lunch negotiations begin. Preschooler is hungry, but refuses to say what she wants, I’m supposed to guess. Grilled cheese? No! Peanut butter and jam? No! PleaseJustTellMeWhatYouWant! No!
12:30pm – Sit down to a lunch of pasta with cheese grated on top. My preschooler tells me I made a great lunch. Feel like Supermom again.
2:00pm – Head to the library. Repeat to the preschooler over and over, “You must keep your shoes on in the library.” She doesn’t.
3:15pm – Visit the playground adjacent to the library. Leave because Jacob is awake and squawking, and won’t nurse because he’s too distracted by the scenery.
4:00pm – Home again, I try to sneak in more computing time. Inform my preschooler that sometimes she needs to play by herself. Have an argument. Realize that I am spending more time arguing than if I just spent 10 minutes pretending to be Peter Pan.
5:00pm – Begin dinner negotiations. No, you cannot have more Girl Guide cookies. No, we will not go to a restaurant. No, not even just one more Girl Guide cookie. Popcorn is not a dinner food.
6:10pm – Jon could be home anytime now. The kids are grumpy, I’m grumpy, and dinner is nowhere near finished. Consider calling him, just to confirm his arrival is imminent. Decide against it.
6:16pm – Where is he?
6:21pm – Consider hiding in the bathroom. Pick up the phone, put it down. Smell something burning.
6:23pm – Salvaging the food, Jon walks in. I hand him the baby and burst into tears. Feel decidedly unlike Supermom.
6:34pm – Food. Everyone feels much better. The baby makes a mess with avocado. Our whole family is together for dinner, maybe I am Supermom.
7:20pm – Bathtime. Jon cleans the kitchen, I wrangle the kids. I make funny voices and pretend to be the rubber ducks. Wonder to myself how toxic the rubber ducks are, decide not to think too much.
7:50pm – Bedtime snack negotiations. No, we are not making popcorn now. No, you cannot have more Girl Guide cookies. No, I will not guess what you want. How about some fishy crackers? Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
8:07pm – Preschooler kisses me good night. She says, “I really love you. Have sweet dreams!” I think she’s the best kid ever.
8:10pm – I nurse the baby to sleep and spend some time on the computer.
9:10pm – After a few unsuccessful attempts, I lay the baby down. I do a little dance outside the bedroom door.
9:15pm – Me time. Which means I’m probably doing some cleaning. Woohoo!
11:00pm – I’m getting into the shower and the baby wakes up. Try to get him back to sleep, shower very quickly.
11:32pm – I’m tucked in with the baby, to the baby’s great relief. He snores, I collapse in exhaustion after pleading with God that we all get enough rest tonight.
How in the WORLD did you manage to write down my entire day???
Actually one difference: I never get to lay the baby down and get some me time at night.
Did you have to make a list as you went through your day? Just the fact that you remembered the times is amazing to me!!
When you write it down like that, it’s really amazing all that you get accomplished in one day. It’s tiring just to read.
Wait, you have to feed kids that many times in a day? Wow.
And you think your day starts early? Try teaching teenagers at 7:30 in the morning after a week off. Of course I didn’t have a baby keeping me up all night, but darn it that’s early!!!
This post resonates with me…. I just found a journal that I was keeping when my oldest was a preschooler and my second son was just new.
Your post is a snapshot of my average day back then! I remember the angst waiting for hubby to get home, the desperation for a moment’s break from the nonstop neediness! The feeling of failure at not meeting my own expectations for being an at-home mom…. I was broken into tiny moments, my day fragmented crisis averted minute by minute, my own individuality temporarily lost by the needs of the young’ns.
I feel for you…. (now that the youngest is 7 years old, it seems like a universe of lifetimes ago). I’m happy to say that is really does get better, not al at once, but in baby steps. Then one day you realize that you can sit through a whole meal, schedule an event during the day and maybe even be surprised that hubby is home so soon!
(Thank goodness the “I Love You Mommy” still happens every night, it makes that whole thing worthwhile when they wrap their little arms around you with a squishy hug and sloppy pink lips pressed against your cheek…. I’m cherishing while it lasts!)
Sorry for the long-winded comment, like I said it resonated with me….
Popcorn isn’t a dinner food? oops.
I have actually called my husband snarling “where the hell are you?” and had him answer “in the driveway”. Good thing for him, too.
You are TOTALLY Supermom. Your cape is in the mail.
absolutely supermum – you have two children. i stopped at one and don’t think i could do what you do (at all, ever, never)
husband did however come home a few times to me lying on the lounge carpet with baby, pleading “sushi” as soon as he walked in though.
and once he walked in just as i was walking out and handed him the baby as i left …… oh, those were the days!
(PS: does it really get better? i suspect it just changes and one set of anxieties is swapped for another … but you didn’t want to read that one, no)
Wow. That’s a long day. And many days like it, I’m sure.
Our nanny has gone on vacation for several weeks to take care of some family business, so I took today off work. Sooooo, exhausted by the end of the day! Thank heavens we have family coming in to help.
*sigh* I remember those days…my baby turned 10 last week and her older brother’s almost 13 and trying to spread his wings while they promptly get snipped by his mother who KNOWS he’s not talking to HER with that voice! Ahhh, it really does get better, but who am I to say, I don’t quite have teenagers yet right? The ability to get out and do your own thing is what happens. Just this year I re-joined the gym and go 2 times a week. I have pleas of “You’re going again?” at 8:00 at night (bedtime for one who still likes Mommy to rub her back), but I have to do this for me. It’s been 13 years of how-much-life-can-we-suck-out-of-her (nah, not really, but you know what I mean) so now I’m taking small bits back for me, and they love me for it. They do, I just have to remind them of it some days!
I can totally relate, with almost everything!! Sounds so similar to my days
Girl Guide cookies – yummy. I didn’t get any this year, only b/c no one stopped by our house. I miss them! And I so understand how impossible it is to sneak a treat without a kid seeing and demanding they have some!
p.s. things will get much better on the sleeping front, I promise. I always notice a huge change when a baby hits 12-18 months old. They sleep better, and are more like independent little people. Before you know it your two will be playing together nicely and giving you a few minutes of peace here and there.