Spring Day in the Life

Monday, April 13th, 2015

I am re-writing this post after I got about halfway through documenting the day and it somehow all got deleted. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

Brodie: 35 

Jessica: 29 (for 2 more weeks!) Hello 30

Ayla: 3

Miles: 3 months

The night before I was able to get Miles to sleep in his crib from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. This was a big deal and a rarity. Brodie went in to get him when we woke up and found that he had rolled to his tummy. We decided that this would be the end of the swaddle. Brodie brought Miles in to sleep next to me for the rest of the night. 

Miles wakes up a million times during the night and punches me in the face several times with his tiny fists. I guess it's going to take a while to get used to sleeping unswaddled. 

5 AM- Ayla wakes up to go potty. She has grown leaps and bounds with potty training over the last couple of weeks. She goes potty and then holds Brodie hostage in her room. 

6:30 AM-Miles is up for the day. He is being very vocal and adorable. I play in the bed with him for a while. 

7:00 AM-I get him dressed in this cute monster suit 

 7:15 AM-Ayla is up for the day. She helps me make banana bread and we put it in the oven.
Sidenote: During my last DITL post I wrote about trying to eat mostly Paleo or at least gluten and refined sugar free. Yeah, well, I have decided that being super restrictive with my diet sucks the joy out of my life and stresses me out. I don't have severe enough symptoms to warrant being so strict. I'm still picky about the quality of our food (for the most part) but I've had to chill out a bit to save my sanity.

Ayla is being cute and silly this morning. Lately she has been flapping her arms wildly when I try to take her picture.

 I love watching Ayla with Miles (when she is being calm) and he has started looking at her and smiling. So cute.

8:00 AM- Miles is ready for his first nap of the day. It's his first nap without the swaddle. I get him in his robot sleep sack and nurse and rock him to sleep. I lay him in his crib and his little arms don't jerk up and startle him awake. Success! He looks so big to me in his sleep sack.

8:10 AM- Brodie gets ready to leave for work and discovers Ayla's mini Elsa and Anna dolls in his sock. She is very excited about this as she has been looking everywhere for them.

Ayla yells, "tissue!". Poor girl. It has been a very sniffly Spring. I sit her up on the bathroom counter and clean her nose out with the "nose thing". She is surprisingly patient and willing to let me do it. I put Aquaphor on her face. She has had a rash around her mouth for the last couple of months because she has developed the habit of licking. It's a never-ending cycle,

Ayla says, "Mom I want you to go to work and have a fun babysitter come over."

I say, "Wouldn't you miss me?"

She says, "No".

I let her watch Curious George in my bed while I do some laundry

8:50 AM-Miles wakes up. I try to get him back to sleep but it's not happening. Note the coconut oil stains on his sheet from when I tried to get rid of his epic cradle cap a few weeks ago. I ended up scraping it off his head with a soft comb. It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever done but strangely satisfying once I got most of it off.

 

I take the banana bread out of the oven and let it cool while I make some eggs and tea. Miles sits in the Rock 'n' play on loan from a friend and tries to eat his hoodie.

I take some milk and bread and butter to Ayla while she watches Daniel Tiger. I sit with Miles and drink my tea. His little charming smile kills me. 

I need to get Ayla dressed and ready so that we can run errands and go to the park before meeting Brodie for lunch. I don't have the energy to deal with getting her dressed while she hops on one foot and then runs away so I get her dressed while she is glued to the T.V. Whatever works. 

Miles starts to fuss. I nurse him and then put him in his carseat. I get everything else ready so that when Ayla's show is over we can just get her shoes on and go. She goes along with it surprisingly well and doesn't even whine to watch another show. Miles is not happy about being in his carseat but I know that once we get the car started and get going he will fall asleep soon. 

We take back a kids yoga DVD to the library and head to the park. Miles is asleep so I leave him in the car, crack a window, and lock the door. (the playground is right next to the car)

While at the park Ayla runs through the dry splash pad and we talk about how much fun it will be when the water turns on. She runs through the giant frog and says he is eating her. 

She wants to play hide and seek and this is her hiding spot:

 I make a dramatic show about looking for her and not being able to find her and then she jumps out and says, "Mom! I'm right here". She then wants to play Merida on this rock.

I check on Miles and he is awake. It's almost time to go meet Brodie so I get Ayla in the car and we head out. 

We meet Brodie for lunch. We both order Cuban sandwiches because we watched the movie Chef the night before and they make them on their food truck. Ayla has a PB &J and chocolate milk. I dump out 3/4 of it it before I gave it to her because they gave us a huge cup and I just do not want to deal with the aftermath of that much sugar. I also sneak her mini rice krispie treat into my purse for me to eat later. Brodie is slightly outraged about the price of that PB &J and says it is the cost of a whole loaf of bread. He's right. We were hoping she would share our sandwiches but she tried a few bites and was not having it. I am not too keen on the sandwich either. It is a little too pickly and mustardy for me. I also don't like the ham. Not sure why I thought a cuban sandwich would be the right choice. I eat the crusts from Ayla's PB&J and look forward to the Rice Krispie treat that I will get to eat later. Remember when I talked about caring about the quality of our food? Clearly I forget that rule while out to eat. But, hey, an exhausted mama's gotta do what she's gotta do sometimes. 

Ayla became obsessed with picking out ice from her cup and rubbing it on Brodie's hands. He is way more patient than I am. I would've shut that down long before he did.

1:00-ish PM: Brodie has to leave to go back to work, so I round up the kids and all our crap and head out. Miles cries in his carseat and I'm hoping both kids will take a car nap. I go pick up a prescription first and then get us back in the car and take off. I drive up toward the mountains and Ayla is asking a million questions and singing songs. A car nap does not look promising today. I stick with it though and she finally passes out. Miles does not. I plan to head home and leave Ayla in the car in the garage (with the car turned off obviously). I leave the door to the garage open and go hang out in the basement so that I can hear her when she wakes up. This may seem extreme but it is the only way she will nap. I do this on days when she didn't get enough sleep the night before.

More baby smiles

I felt a little achy and chilled this morning and I'm realizing now that I really don't feel well. I go check on Ayla and she is still out:

2:45 PM-I hear Ayla crying so I set Miles down on his playmat and I go out to get her. She didn't know where I was and was scared. I feel bad. I pick her up and bring her in. I am really feeling sick so I tell her we can watch Brave together on the couch. I get her set up with her movie and get her a snack. Cheese and crackers and strawberry organic fruit snacks that taste like fish. They have DHA in them and they smell like it. The folks at Organic Valley had good intentions but something went horribly wrong. She likes them though. 

I didn't take any other pictures for the rest of the day. I didn't cook dinner and Brodie threw something together for Ayla when he got home. Miles was getting fussy around 6:00 so I took him in my room, nursed him to sleep and turned on an episode of Six Feet Under. That has been my nightly ritual for the past month or so. With a colicky baby it has been my sanity. I'm embarrassed to admit how many episodes I have gotten through in that short amount of time. 

At one point Ayla really wanted me to come in to her room so I put Miles down in his crib and went in to lay down with her. She was being really chatty and she asked me if we were going to have another baby in our family. She asked if I would please grow another one, a baby girl. She then requested that I sing Christmas songs to her. I got her to sleep after a few minutes and quietly snuck out. Brodie was doing some freelance work in his office and so I made some tea and watched another episode of Six Feet Under and started going to sleep around 10:00. Way too late for someone who is sick, but once I finally have a moment to myself it's really hard for me to give it up. As soon as I started to fall asleep Miles woke up (of course). I brought him into bed with me, nursed him and we both fell asleep around 10:30. 

Day in the Life Winter 2015

I've been wanting to participate in one of these for a long time! I decided that now would be the perfect time while I have a newborn sick with RSV (I may have been a tad ambitious). It was at the start of his illness and I knew it would probably just get worse so I figured I would get this done while he was still feeling relatively okay. I somehow managed to pull it off and I will hopefully look back on it and be glad that I did it.


Thursday, January 29th, 2015

Brodie: 34
Jessica: 29
Ayla: 2 years 10 months
Miles: 1 month



1:15 a.m. Miles is stirring next to me so I nurse him (side-lying nursing FTW!)

1:20 a.m. I hear Ayla calling from her room. Brodie goes in. He stays in there and I assume has fallen asleep in her bed (this has been happening a lot lately).

4:30 a.m. Miles wakes up again to nurse

5:00 a.m. Brodie comes back into our room.

6:15 a.m. Ayla waks up again and Brodie goes back in. She has been sleeping 12 straight hours through the night since she was 2 and these delightful middle of the night wake ups are a relatively new thing. She becomes hysterical if Brodie tries to leave her room. We are trying to come up with a game plan to correct this but maybe we need to just wait it out. I guess maybe having a new sibling has something to do with it?

7:18 I nurse Miles again. I am loving these 3 hour stretches of sleep. Sometimes he even does 4 1/2 hour stretches! Not bad for a newborn, and definitely better than his sister at this age. Miles has RSV (a mild case) and had a couple of coughing fits during the night. It's absolutely heartbreaking and I have a mini panic attack every time he coughs. Ayla picked up a cold from preschool and gave it to him. She has only been sick maybe three times in her almost three years of life so having a sick, tiny baby is new for me.

7:50 Ayla is up for the morning. I go in and get her Pull-Up changed and we head into the kitchen. I give her a probiotic. I take a probiotic and a placenta pill (yep, I'm one of those people).

8:10 I start making breakfast then stop when baby wakes up. Brodie brings him to me. I change Miles because he soaked through his jammies.

8:15 I nurse Miles on the couch. I hear Ayla down the hall telling Brodie "look Daddy! I got my booger out! Look!" She then proceeds to run in and show me. Delightful.

Miles has a coughing fit. Poor guy.

Miles finishes nursing and I put him in the Ergo. I breed babies of the high-needs variety so babywearing works well for us.

8:35 I continue cooking breakfast. We are having blueberry paleo pancakes and bacon. I am challenging myself to eat little to no gluten and no refined sugar today. I've been out of control with eating since Miles was born and I definitely feel it. The style of eating that makes me feel the best is a Paleo/Primal-ish approach. I have a long way to go to get back to it so for now I will start by eliminating foods I am most sensitive to (and coincidentally sort of addicted to). I'm going to have to ignore the homemade brownies calling to me from the fridge all day.

"Mommy, there are baby ducks in these eggs!"

                                                   Sweet little guy is content while I cook 

First batch gets slightly burned.

9:10 a.m. I finish making breakfast. Ayla takes one look at the pancakes and says "I don't want it!"
I somehow convince her to eat it.

I look over at the drying rack slightly annoyed. Brodie and I are in a constant disagreement about this. I like to dry things immediately and put them away. He uses the drying rack and then NEVER puts away the dishes.

9:40 I start cleaning up kitchen. Ayla cleans up her kitchen 

Ayla gets out her pastry making tools and play dough. This particular play dough recipe turned out kind of gross-looking due to the natural food dyes. Good thing she doesn't seem to mind. 

10:00 a.m. I finish cleaning up the kitchen. Why did I think making a big, complicated breakfast was a good idea? I need to work on prepping things on the week end so that we can easily make food during the week. 

I make tea. Ayla requests a clementine. She says, "I don't like oranges, mommy. Only clementines." She notices some scissors on the counter and says that when she is a mommy she can use them. 

I ask Ayla if she would like to try using the potty. Standard answer of "no". I'm trying to be patient with this potty-training thing but she is almost three and I really thought she would be potty trained by now. She knows how to do it but chooses not to most of the time. I really don't want to push her and I think that we will be more successful if we follow her lead. 

10:15: We go downstairs to watch a show, which will likely turn in to more than one show. I tell myself we will eventually get back to our goal of thirty minutes to one hour of T.V. per day (with 30 minutes being the ideal). I will admit that I have gone significantly over that amount since being alone with both kids. 

I catch up on some highly intellectual reading. 

10:30 Miles wakes up and I take him out of the Ergo to nurse. He has another coughing fit and struggles and cries after. Poor little guy.

Miles is fussy so I swaddle him and bounce around with him for a while.

We watch another show and then Ayla builds with Legos while I continue to try to keep baby brother happy.

"Aarrgh. I be Captain Sugar"

11:45 Miles falls asleep in my arms and I take him upstairs to see if I can set him down in his crib. His eyes pop open immediately.

12:00 Ayla is done with Legos. She asks to watch another show. I say no and she freaks out and starts falling apart over everything. Cries for milk and then starts coloring on her princess dolls. She starts aggressively touching Miles' cheek. She calms down and I get her some milk.

12:15 I try to set Miles down in his crib again, He lasts in there for two minutes and then starts coughing and wakes up. I put him in the swing but it doesn't last for too long. I put him in the Ergo and frantically try to get lunch made.

Lunch today: Chicken and apple sausage from Costco, Sweet potato tots, plain yogurt with honey

Ayla picks up my phone and turns on some music. The soundtrack to "Little Women" comes on (one of my favorites). The music helps set a calmer mood in the house which is nice because things have gone downhill ever since we came upstairs to make lunch. I used to be a server in a restaurant years ago and there is a term we used called "in the weeds" when things got chaotic and you couldn't stay on top of everything. I've had this feeling at least once a day since I've been alone with both kids.

After lunch we create a game out of rubber bands and a box

 Miles projectile vomits while in the Ergo and we do a wardrobe change

We sit down for story time

We're hanging in there. I realize how exhausted I am all of a sudden.

 I want a brownie

The rest of the afternoon is kind of a blur. There may have been another show (or two), more fussy baby, more coughing, more toddler hijinks. 

4:00 Ayla has a snack of dates and peanut butter while I start to make dinner. I make dinner for her early on Thursdays because she has dance class at 5:30. 

I heat up some brown rice pasta with red sauce and meatballs. My mom was here helping us out after Miles was born and she left us with about twenty freezer meals. So helpful! 

5:15 Brodie takes Ayla to dance. I used to take her to the Wednesday morning class but we switched over to Thursday nights a couple months ago knowing I would soon be out of commission. I really miss taking her. I will resume taking her when she goes into the three year old class in a couple of months. Apparently Ayla did her whole warm up routine and then came over to Brodie tugging on her leotard saying "my camera, my camera!" He told her he had a camera and would be taking pictures. She said "no, my camera!" and pulled out her little Frozen camera that she had stashed in her leotard. I guess her tutu had been hiding it. 

I realize I'm exhausted and go into my room to relax. I want a brownie but I choose this instead:

I've managed to make my bed and move the clean clothes from the floor to the bed. This feels like a step in the right direction. 

 I watch an episode of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. I binge-watched this for a few weeks after Miles was born. I hibernated with him in my room while I had my mom and mother-in-law here. It was heaven!

6:15 p.m. Brodie and Ayla come home. I give her her gummy vitamins and dose of cod liver oil (yes, she takes it! It's flavored and is not as gross as it sounds). I take some as well as my prenatal vitamins.

6:45 Brodie starts the bedtime routine with Ayla and I listen to a litle bit of this podcast:

http://www.throwingshade.com/

and a little bit of this one:

http://balancedbites.com/podcast

7:20 Brodie finishes putting Ayla to bed and he shows me this video and decide we want to try this with Miles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR3iBaN-758

9:30 p.m. We play on our phones for a little while, put the unfolded laundry into a hamper and call it a night!