Day in the Life

This entry might not be interesting to anyone other than Aaron and myself, but for the sake of preserving our memories, I thought I’d do a blog detailing what a typical day is like for us at this stage of our lives.

Macario has been a really good night sleeper pretty much since he was born, so I’m not up with him very much at night and usually not at all.  Our day usually gets started around 7:30 a.m.  As soon as I hear him start to move around in his bed I go in to greet him. I gently say, “good morning, baby”and he gives me a big smile in return. Despite the fact that he can barely open his eyes yet, he is always very happy during this part of the day.

Morning Smiles

I find it important to have morning and evening rituals so that he recognizes when his day is about to get started and when it’s ending.  Our morning ritual begins with me greeting him as I mentioned before.  Then I pick him up out of bed and open up the blinds in his room to let the light in as I say, “It’s daytime!” Then we go over to the mirror and he greets himself. 

We spend a few minutes in front of the mirror while he talks to himself and smiles back and forth with his reflection.  When we are done playing in the mirror, I change his diaper and get him dressed.  That is another important part of starting the day.  It’s important to me that he not hang out in his PJs all day.

Macario and his reflection

On a weekday I bring his jumper to the hallway, just outside the bathroom door, and I shower while he plays in the jumper. He can handle the time alone while I shower, but doesn’t always make it through me getting my hair and makeup done before he starts fussing.  When he can’t make it through, I have to stop and hold him for a bit, but usually that’s all it takes to buy myself a little more time.

Jumper Time!

Three mornings out of the week Aaron is gone before Macario and I wake up and on those days my mom comes to pick him up for me.  She usually gets there just as I’m finishing getting ready, but on the days that Aaron is there he usually gets up and takes over from this point.

The weekends are a little different in that I am home with Macario all day and I like to take on most of the baby duties, since I don’t get much time with him during the week.  On the weekend I will wait until Macario’s first nap to shower so that we can spend the morning playing together instead.

Mac and Mommy Playing

His first nap happens around 8:30/9:00 a.m. and depends on what time he woke up to begin with. I feed him a bottle and he drifts off to sleep while he eats.

At nap time, Aaron and I like to set the tone by keeping things quiet until he falls asleep and then once he is finished with his bottle we put him to sleep in his crib.

Naps are sometimes a bit tricky.  Most of the time, he’ll drift off as he has his bottle and then goes down peacefully.  There are times, though, when he can be a bit difficult to get down for a nap. Usually that happens when he is overly tired or when there are things going on. He’s very curious, so if there is something going on he can get too distracted to settle down and sleep.

His naps usually last at least an hour, sometimes more (and unfortunately sometimes less). Just as he does in the morning, he wakes up happy as a clam from his naps.

When he’s up Aaron and I will play with him, sing songs, read, give him tummy time, practice his ABC’s, body parts, or animal sounds. He also likes to play in the jumper and sit in the kitchen in his high chair with me while I get things done there.  We don’t do all of those things all at once, but those are the activities we have in place for him to do while he’s awake.

                                                                                                                       
By noon (or sometime around there) he’s ready for his second nap and feeding of the day.  Again he’ll nap in his crib for about an hour.

While he naps, I try to get things done like a load of laundry or dishes or even make a phone call.  I feel guilty doing those things when he’s awake as I’d rather give him my attention.

We continue on the same 3 hour cycle which means he’ll have his third and fourth naps at 3 and 6 or sometime around there.  Sometimes he can only make it 2 and a half hours between feedings/nap time and sometimes he’ll go 3 and a half hours.  As long as he is within that half an hour I don’t get too concerned over his schedule, but it can be a little bit difficult for us to keep track of this during the week when he’s not with me or Aaron.

During the week, I get off at 5:00 p.m. and I’m home within just a few minutes as I live across the street from my office. On the days when my mom is bringing him to me she’s usually already waiting for me, but on days when Aaron brings him home, he isn’t usually there until 6-6:30 which can be pushing it for Macario. 

In any case I get him down for his nap the same as all his others and then after this last nap of the day, I bring him in the kitchen with me to hang out while I make dinner. It takes me a bit longer to make dinner now than it used to as you might guess.  Part of that is due to me being distracted by trying to keep Macario entertained and the other part is me taking extra time to clean as I go so that I won’t have a bigger mess to clean up later.

Dinner time is still a bit hit and miss for us.  I try to have the three of us eating dinner together at about 7 or 7:30 each night. Macario doesn’t eat what Aaron and I eat just yet.  Instead, he’ll have some peas or carrots for dinner and some apples for dessert.  He loves to eat!

Once we’re all fed, I try to get dinner cleaned up quickly (or at least cleared) and then I set up Macario’s bath.  His bath is the first part of our night time routine. 

Fortunately for us, Macario loves to be in the bath, so it’s a really great way to get him settled for the night. I usually let him play in the tub for a little while after I get him all cleaned up. While he plays in the tub, I make a warm bottle for him.  One special thing about night time is that it is the only time he gets a warm bottle and I believe it’s another indicator to him that his day is ending.

After his bath, he gets a baby massage and I call out his body parts as I massage them.  Sometimes when I call out a body party he’ll respond accordingly.  For example, if I say, “I’m gonna rub your left arm,” he’ll fling up the appropriate arm.  It’s pretty incredible, but he doesn’t do it every time so I can’t be positive he is doing it purposefully. Still, I like to think he’s a baby genius and does know what he’s doing. *smile*

When his massage is over, he gets into pajamas and then goes with daddy for goodnight hugs and kisses. After they exchange their “good nights” I carry him off to his bedroom.  We rock in the glider and I sing a soft and slow version of the ABC’s while he drinks his bottle and dozes off to sleep.

He is used to falling asleep to the Alphabet Song, so I like to joke that I’d better find a new bedtime song or he’s going to nod off in school when they sing their ABCs!

Usually by 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. Macario has finished his bottle and fallen to sleep.  At this point I give him extra snuggles and kisses and then place him in his crib for the night.

Once I have him down for the night I try to get the kitchen cleaned up, any laundry I started done and put away, shower, pack his bag for the next day, and watch a show or two with Aaron or by myself if he’s already off to bed.

I can usually get all of that done (if I’m not dragging) by midnight at which point I go in and give Macario his dream feed.  The dream feed is a feeding I give him just before I go do bed to ensure he’ll make it through the night.  It’s called a dream feed because he sleeps through it.

The dream feed usually takes about 15 minutes, so I can be in bed by about 12:30 a.m. and get a good 7 hours before we’re up doing it all over again! If you do the math Macario is getting about 11 straight hours of sleep at night.  No wonder he wakes up so happy!

In a nutshell his day looks like this (approximately):

~7:30 a.m. Wake up with morning ritual
~8:30 a.m. First feeding and nap
~10:00 a.m. Wake up, play
~12:00 p.m. Second feeding and nap
~1:30 p.m. Wake up, play
~3:00 p.m. Third feeding and nap
~4:30 p.m. Wake up, play
~6:00 p.m. Feeding, last nap
~7:00 p.m. Wake up, play and dinner
~8:00 p.m. Bath time
~8:30 p.m. Warm bottle, bed time
~12:00 a.m. Dream feed
~12:30 a.m. Mommy/Daddy bed time

We’re very fortunate to have such an easy going baby because otherwise I don’t know what our days would be like!