Tuesday, May 26, 2009

a typical day

I want to write about my typical day so when it gets better I can reminisce and be so proud to survive being a newborn parent. I'm working now so that changes a lot of things. Here goes:

2:30 - feed Bella (unless she doesn't wake up because I fed her at 10-11 pm the night before)
6:30 - feed Bella, wake up for real, eat breakfast, change diaper, put cute clothes on Bella, find descent clothes for myself, shower, put lotion & lipstick on, dry hair if Bella is crying, put hair in pony tail if she's not crying (she likes the sound of the hair dryer), pack pump parts from drying rack, pack lunch, make trips to car to load everything. Matt helps to entertain Bella.
8:00 - feed Bella one more time before going to work (I'll probably have to stop this feeding so I can be at work earlier in June)
8:30 - drop off Bella at daycare
9:00 - work
11:00 - pump at work, read blogs, facebook, entertain myself with one hand on computer because other hand carefully holds pump in place
between 2:00 and 4:00 - pump at work
4:30-5:00 - leave work (remember to bring expressed milk!)
5:00 - pick up Bella, chat with Ms. Cindy or Ms. Llda
5:30 - hang out on front porch with dogs, wait for Matt to come home
6:00 - feed Bella
6:30 - fix dinner or Matt fixes dinner
7:00 - eat dinner, maybe go for a walk
7:30 - bathe Bella, Matt cleans kitchen and pump parts & does laundry
8:00 - feed Bella, Bella goes to bed
8:30 - watch tv, hang clean laundry, listen to Bella breathe on monitor, plan meals, help Matt with my work projects, talk to Matt, yawn a lot!
10:30 - sleep or feed Bella (depending on how sleepy I am at the moment)

Whew! and it starts over the next day!

Nursing is certainly not taking the 40 minutes that it used to! It takes about 20-30 minutes which is good. She gets distracted if there's unusual noise around so we try to be quiet and boring. When she uses me as a pacifier, I stop and she actually doesn't fuss that much about it. I attribute the ease of switching from bottle (expressed breast milk) to nursing to the nipple shield. It's a soft, silicon cover for your nipples, but resembles a bottle nipple. The instructions say to only use when necessary to prevent soreness, but I use it exclusively...and it worked and continues to work for us.

Bella seems to enjoy daycare. She likes being around the other kids, or at least watching them. She has had 2 "excellent" days since starting (about a month) so that is good. She has not been sick at all either!

4 comments:

Ashley said...

Go Mother's Goodness (Bella not getting sick!).

Love the part "be boring/ non distractive" during Bella's feedings. Too cute!

Carolyn said...

Enjoy your routine - it will change - she's so sweet!!

Kimberly said...

You rock! It gets easier. Today we were out and about from 9:00 am to almost 1:00 without a sleep, bottle, diaper, etc and all was well.
Miss you!

Paola said...

I forget how much packing is involved for a baby. It goes by so fast - then you will miss her being a baby. I am curious about the nipple shields - I was wanting to try it for our new baby.