Another day in the life.
May. 26th, 2005 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaA while back, when Alex was three weeks old, I posted a 24-hour log of my day. I thought it might be a good idea to keep doing that occasionally - if for no other reason than to be able to use it as a weapon when Alex is twelve and whines that I never do anything for her. Plus, things have changed a lot in the last few weeks. So, for the record, here's a day in the life of the mother of a six-week-old:
3:30am: I wake because Alex is awake, moving around and making little grunts and murmurs. Just before it escalates into crying, I haul both of us out of bed. Of course, as soon as I put her on the changing table it escalates into crying anyway. I change her wet diaper and settle down in the rocking chair to give her a bottle with three ounces of expressed breast milk. She falls asleep while being burped, and I hold her at my shoulder while I pump one side at a time.
4:30: Back to bed.
5:30: Alex hates me and wants me to be unhappy, as I can tell from the fact that she is awake again a mere two hours after the start of the last feeding. I give her a bottle with two ounces of formula and one of breast milk, and she goes back to sleep at around 6:10.
6:30: She starts to fuss again, for God's sake. With cuddling, reassurance, and liberal application of her pacifier I manage to get her to drift off for a few minutes at a time, but she keeps popping back awake and fussing.
7:15: I give up on sleep and ask Michael to go downstairs and make her a bottle. She's momentarily asleep, but of course that won't last. I get up and get dressed, and then sit down at my computer, ready to dash in to her as soon as she starts crying. Which she inevitably will, any minute.
8:45: The baby's still asleep in bed. I belatedly realize that I could've showered, had breakfast, and pumped, damn it. I go downstairs and wash bottles.
8:55: I can hear Alex whimpering, so I put a bottle in hot water to warm. Then I haul her out of bed and change her diaper and, since her nightie is a little damp, her nightie.
9:00: I put on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2 Disc 1, to keep me company this morning, and then offer Alex the bottle. She sucks down four ounces of formula, spitting up a little as she goes.
9:20: Mmm, tasty tasty Zantac. I administer 0.5ml by medicine dropper. She wrinkles up her little face disapprovingly but does not spit it out, so I praise her.
9:25: She spits up copiously, probably ridding herself of Zantac as well as milk. Oops.
9:30: Alex grins at me. I grin at Alex. We spend a few minutes enjoying a smile-and-cuddlefest, with lots of deep searching eye contact.
9:35: Sweet Jesus, more spitting up. Weirdly, she doesn't seem at all disturbed by it. The smilefest continues.
10:00: I dress her in her third ducky-themed nightie of the day, because she's managed to get the neck, chest, and sleeves of the second ducky-themed nightie so thoroughly drenched.
10:10: Alex is sleepy and cuddly. Mama is sleepy and cuddly. We cuddle sleepily together.
10:20: She's fast asleep, so I slide her into the sling and have breakfast - Cheerios and grapes.
10:50: I pump again, Alex still asleep in the sling.
11:05: Bill drops by to bring me a painting which one of my clients made for me, and which Bill framed. It's a beautiful job. We enjoy a priceless 45 minutes of adult conversation and hand-holding while Alex sleeps in her sling. Somewhere in there, I trim her razor-sharp little fingernails.
11:45: I go upstairs and fold the laundry, which has been sitting in baskets for a few days.
12:00: Back to my computer. I pull the latest Alex pictures off the camera, edit them a bit, and upload them to Flickr. Then I surf the net while Alex continues to sleep. I order two enormous cans of infant formula from amazon.com at a shocking discount.
1:20: Good heavens, this baby is sleeping a long time. I go downstairs and make myself some lunch - ham and cheddar on a whole wheat roll, pretzels, and carrot sticks - and heat her up a bottle.
1:40: I change her diaper. She's in a fabulous mood, grinning up at me in delight. I give her four ounces of mixed breast milk and formula, and she does some more spitting up while she eats.
2:00: It's cuddly smiley happy interaction time again, as I hold her upright for the required 30 minutes after she eats.
2:25: Quite a bit of spitup.
2:30: Time for our walk. I put some essentials into the diaper bag, set the baby in her carseat, haul out the stroller frame, and carry it down the front steps to open it on the sidewalk. Then I go back in for the baby and the diaper bag. Her carseat snaps right into the stroller frame, and away we go. We stroll down our street, watch the children on the playground at the Episcopal school, and make our way to the Washington Monument, where we wander around looking at flowers and people (me) and the trees overhead (Alex). It's a beautiful day, cool and sunny.
2:55: We arrive back at home just as Alex starts to get a little fussy. I give her another 0.5ml of tasty tasty Zantac.
3:00: My mother keeps insisting that Alex needs tummy time, so I spread out the blanket that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pecunium and his partner sent and lie her down on her tummy, stretching out next to her so she isn't so alone. She buries her face in the blanket and screams.
3:05: So much for tummy time. I cuddle her and show her her toys for a while, and change her diaper again.
3:25: 3oz formula.
3:45: We both close our eyes and drift off for a few minutes.
4:00: The phone rings, waking us both up. It's someone from church who ushers occasionally but is unreliable, and who wants to get back into ushering and other aspects of church life. I reluctantly suggest that he help out this coming Sunday, and make a mental note to have a backup usher just in case. Alex spits up.
4:05: More smiley eye contact cuddle time...
4:30: ...and more spitting up. Okay, now she's fussy.
4:45: I give her another couple of ounces, because she really does seem hungry, and she spits up some more.
5:00: I call my mother to ask her about all the spitting. She's unalarmed. I change one of the worst dirty diapers I have seen from her yet.
5:20: Alex is fussy and crying.
5:30: She's asleep. Well, asleepish.
5:40: I slip her into the sling and pump.
6:00: I check my e-mail and read the nice comments people have left about the pictures I uploaded. Yay for having a cute baby who garners positive reinforcement.
6:25: I come downstairs to wash bottles and the pump parts. Alex is stirring. Michael comes home and we check in with each other about how the day has gone.
6:45: I put her on the changing table and she looks up at her teddy bear mobile in obvious happy anticipation. This is the first time I've ever seen Alex clearly demonstrate that she knows what's supposed to happen next. How cool! I wind up the mobile for her and she grins at the bears.
6:50: She sucks down three ounces of formula.
7:00: Michael brings us a washcloth, and the two of us sponge her off and change her into a clean nightie. She's a little fussy, so I cuddle her and give her the pacifier to suck. She continues to fuss, and eventually we give her another ounce of food. It goes down quickly.
7:35: Alex falls into the glassy-eyed state which heralds sleep, combined with the general fussiness which heralds her determination to hold sleep off as long as possible. I turn on the Braves game.
7:50: Michael serves dinner: chicken apple sausages with dijon mustard, steamed broccoli, and exceptionally good rosemary sourdough bread from Whole Foods. He cuts my meat for me because I'm still holding Alex, and we eat on the couch in front of the game.
8:05: Fussy tapeworm girl takes two more ounces of food and then falls asleep. I read and watch the Braves game at the same time. My book has turned out to have irritating Christian inspirational themes, when it looked from the back cover to simply be light fiction about small-town zaniness. I am annoyed.
9:45: I hand the baby to Michael and pump one last time. Then I pack up the diaper bag for the night: pump parts, bottle of breastmilk for the middle-of-the-night feeding, clean empty bottle to hold the middle-of-the-night pumping. I go upstairs to brush my teeth and take my medicine, and then tell Michael to bring the baby up. She and I settle down in bed, she in her snuggle nest and me alongside.
10:15: I am asleep before my head hits the pillow. Michael will be by later on to wake the baby and give her one last feeding, and one last dose of Zantac, but I will barely wake up for that. Mmm, sleep.
3:30am: I wake because Alex is awake, moving around and making little grunts and murmurs. Just before it escalates into crying, I haul both of us out of bed. Of course, as soon as I put her on the changing table it escalates into crying anyway. I change her wet diaper and settle down in the rocking chair to give her a bottle with three ounces of expressed breast milk. She falls asleep while being burped, and I hold her at my shoulder while I pump one side at a time.
4:30: Back to bed.
5:30: Alex hates me and wants me to be unhappy, as I can tell from the fact that she is awake again a mere two hours after the start of the last feeding. I give her a bottle with two ounces of formula and one of breast milk, and she goes back to sleep at around 6:10.
6:30: She starts to fuss again, for God's sake. With cuddling, reassurance, and liberal application of her pacifier I manage to get her to drift off for a few minutes at a time, but she keeps popping back awake and fussing.
7:15: I give up on sleep and ask Michael to go downstairs and make her a bottle. She's momentarily asleep, but of course that won't last. I get up and get dressed, and then sit down at my computer, ready to dash in to her as soon as she starts crying. Which she inevitably will, any minute.
8:45: The baby's still asleep in bed. I belatedly realize that I could've showered, had breakfast, and pumped, damn it. I go downstairs and wash bottles.
8:55: I can hear Alex whimpering, so I put a bottle in hot water to warm. Then I haul her out of bed and change her diaper and, since her nightie is a little damp, her nightie.
9:00: I put on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2 Disc 1, to keep me company this morning, and then offer Alex the bottle. She sucks down four ounces of formula, spitting up a little as she goes.
9:20: Mmm, tasty tasty Zantac. I administer 0.5ml by medicine dropper. She wrinkles up her little face disapprovingly but does not spit it out, so I praise her.
9:25: She spits up copiously, probably ridding herself of Zantac as well as milk. Oops.
9:30: Alex grins at me. I grin at Alex. We spend a few minutes enjoying a smile-and-cuddlefest, with lots of deep searching eye contact.
9:35: Sweet Jesus, more spitting up. Weirdly, she doesn't seem at all disturbed by it. The smilefest continues.
10:00: I dress her in her third ducky-themed nightie of the day, because she's managed to get the neck, chest, and sleeves of the second ducky-themed nightie so thoroughly drenched.
10:10: Alex is sleepy and cuddly. Mama is sleepy and cuddly. We cuddle sleepily together.
10:20: She's fast asleep, so I slide her into the sling and have breakfast - Cheerios and grapes.
10:50: I pump again, Alex still asleep in the sling.
11:05: Bill drops by to bring me a painting which one of my clients made for me, and which Bill framed. It's a beautiful job. We enjoy a priceless 45 minutes of adult conversation and hand-holding while Alex sleeps in her sling. Somewhere in there, I trim her razor-sharp little fingernails.
11:45: I go upstairs and fold the laundry, which has been sitting in baskets for a few days.
12:00: Back to my computer. I pull the latest Alex pictures off the camera, edit them a bit, and upload them to Flickr. Then I surf the net while Alex continues to sleep. I order two enormous cans of infant formula from amazon.com at a shocking discount.
1:20: Good heavens, this baby is sleeping a long time. I go downstairs and make myself some lunch - ham and cheddar on a whole wheat roll, pretzels, and carrot sticks - and heat her up a bottle.
1:40: I change her diaper. She's in a fabulous mood, grinning up at me in delight. I give her four ounces of mixed breast milk and formula, and she does some more spitting up while she eats.
2:00: It's cuddly smiley happy interaction time again, as I hold her upright for the required 30 minutes after she eats.
2:25: Quite a bit of spitup.
2:30: Time for our walk. I put some essentials into the diaper bag, set the baby in her carseat, haul out the stroller frame, and carry it down the front steps to open it on the sidewalk. Then I go back in for the baby and the diaper bag. Her carseat snaps right into the stroller frame, and away we go. We stroll down our street, watch the children on the playground at the Episcopal school, and make our way to the Washington Monument, where we wander around looking at flowers and people (me) and the trees overhead (Alex). It's a beautiful day, cool and sunny.
2:55: We arrive back at home just as Alex starts to get a little fussy. I give her another 0.5ml of tasty tasty Zantac.
3:00: My mother keeps insisting that Alex needs tummy time, so I spread out the blanket that
pecunium and his partner sent and lie her down on her tummy, stretching out next to her so she isn't so alone. She buries her face in the blanket and screams.3:05: So much for tummy time. I cuddle her and show her her toys for a while, and change her diaper again.
3:25: 3oz formula.
3:45: We both close our eyes and drift off for a few minutes.
4:00: The phone rings, waking us both up. It's someone from church who ushers occasionally but is unreliable, and who wants to get back into ushering and other aspects of church life. I reluctantly suggest that he help out this coming Sunday, and make a mental note to have a backup usher just in case. Alex spits up.
4:05: More smiley eye contact cuddle time...
4:30: ...and more spitting up. Okay, now she's fussy.
4:45: I give her another couple of ounces, because she really does seem hungry, and she spits up some more.
5:00: I call my mother to ask her about all the spitting. She's unalarmed. I change one of the worst dirty diapers I have seen from her yet.
5:20: Alex is fussy and crying.
5:30: She's asleep. Well, asleepish.
5:40: I slip her into the sling and pump.
6:00: I check my e-mail and read the nice comments people have left about the pictures I uploaded. Yay for having a cute baby who garners positive reinforcement.
6:25: I come downstairs to wash bottles and the pump parts. Alex is stirring. Michael comes home and we check in with each other about how the day has gone.
6:45: I put her on the changing table and she looks up at her teddy bear mobile in obvious happy anticipation. This is the first time I've ever seen Alex clearly demonstrate that she knows what's supposed to happen next. How cool! I wind up the mobile for her and she grins at the bears.
6:50: She sucks down three ounces of formula.
7:00: Michael brings us a washcloth, and the two of us sponge her off and change her into a clean nightie. She's a little fussy, so I cuddle her and give her the pacifier to suck. She continues to fuss, and eventually we give her another ounce of food. It goes down quickly.
7:35: Alex falls into the glassy-eyed state which heralds sleep, combined with the general fussiness which heralds her determination to hold sleep off as long as possible. I turn on the Braves game.
7:50: Michael serves dinner: chicken apple sausages with dijon mustard, steamed broccoli, and exceptionally good rosemary sourdough bread from Whole Foods. He cuts my meat for me because I'm still holding Alex, and we eat on the couch in front of the game.
8:05: Fussy tapeworm girl takes two more ounces of food and then falls asleep. I read and watch the Braves game at the same time. My book has turned out to have irritating Christian inspirational themes, when it looked from the back cover to simply be light fiction about small-town zaniness. I am annoyed.
9:45: I hand the baby to Michael and pump one last time. Then I pack up the diaper bag for the night: pump parts, bottle of breastmilk for the middle-of-the-night feeding, clean empty bottle to hold the middle-of-the-night pumping. I go upstairs to brush my teeth and take my medicine, and then tell Michael to bring the baby up. She and I settle down in bed, she in her snuggle nest and me alongside.
10:15: I am asleep before my head hits the pillow. Michael will be by later on to wake the baby and give her one last feeding, and one last dose of Zantac, but I will barely wake up for that. Mmm, sleep.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:40 pm (UTC)I know you won't be wanting me to pass on Alex's tiny little Orioles uniform, what with us being up four games over the Red Sox in the standings, but I can send you her little denim "B is for Baseball" overalls when she outgrows them.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:43 pm (UTC)I've been hoping that you've had time to enjoy the Orioles run, since it's not going to last much longer until the Red Sox take over the league.
Yay for baseball!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 04:12 pm (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 04:54 pm (UTC)I do remember that Linnea spat up *gallons* or at least pints, and was never in the least distressed by it - she took in more than she needed, and got rid of it again very efficiently.
I still think Alex was the most alert newborn I've ever seen photos of.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 07:18 pm (UTC)Me too!
Although I suppose the fact that we so easily forget just what it's like is why people have more than one child...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 05:21 pm (UTC)Isn't that amazing, how quickly they go through clothes? Right before I read this, I had to change Elena's outfit (which she had worn for about half an hour). There are two outfits I really really like, and she knows this and has a major diaper blowout every time I put them on her. Now I just accept that she will never be seen in public in them. *grin*
She is finally getting into the concept of tummy time though. I used to wait and wait till she was in a good mood so I could flip her over without freaking out. Now she will stay there longer and is starting to lift her head.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:37 pm (UTC)My parenting group facilitator says that you can drape them over something like a Boppy (http://www.boppy.com/) for tummy time, so I tried that. I put Alex on her tummy with her arms and chest resting on the Boppy. She picked up her head immediately and held it up for a little while, looking around, and then got tired and laid it down on the Boppy. Once that happened she was no longer into it, but there wasn't the immediate screaming like when I laid her on the floor.
The other thing she's totally into these days is trying to scale Mount Mama. When I'm holding her upright against my chest, she pushes hard with her little feet and grabs me with her little hands, like she's trying to climb right up to my shoulders. It's adorable.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 09:35 pm (UTC)Mountain/parent climbing is another of Elena's favorite pursuits. She used to do a lot of diving from that position too - when on a shoulder, she would lift up her head, look around, and then suddenly throw all her body weight to one side, trying to jump off your shoulder and into the abyss of the couch (or.... wherever). Now that holding up her head (and body) is a little easier, she doesn't do that so much anymore.
*sigh* for the cutest outfits and their messy doom. I guess we shouldn't get too attached.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 06:59 pm (UTC)Two hours later, she peed while I was changing her diaper and utterly soaked the overalls. Off they came, and now she's in an ordinary nightgown again. Alas.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:02 am (UTC)One of Elena's favorite things to do is to wait until we're ready to leave the house - I strap her into her carseat, grab the diaper bag... and she spits up as soon as she's settled. As long as it isn't too bad/messy, I generally just wipe it off her and go. Otherwise I'd never be able to leave the house. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 05:22 pm (UTC)*Kate eyes herself warily* /Some/ people never grow out of this.
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Date: 2005-05-26 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 05:42 pm (UTC)That sounds exhausting, make no mistake, but you don't sound as daunted by the whole routine as you were three weeks ago. Am I mistaken?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-26 11:00 pm (UTC)What pump are you using? The Avent Isis?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 11:37 am (UTC)It is a bit of a pain only being able to pump one side at a time, though.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-01 06:28 pm (UTC)Six-weeks old 38 years ago
Date: 2005-05-26 08:28 pm (UTC)fast-growing first child was 6 weeks old. (He'd increased his
birthweight by 50% at six weeks and doubled it by 12 weeks;
he's well over 6 feet today.)
No wonder I remember very sore nipples.
3:25 am nursed
7 am woke but didn't really want to eat, sat in infoseat
8:45-9:15 nursed
11:30-12:15 pm nursed
4:30 nursed
Also 7:20-7:25
and again 8:15 -8:30
4 oz rice cereal 9-9:30
nursed 10-10:15 pm
Sleep diary:
12 m - 3:25 am
4 am - 7 am
9:30 am - 11:30 am
1 pm - 4:30 pm
7:30 pm - 8:10 pm
10:30 pm on
Total sleep for 24 hours: 14 hours and 5 minutes
Note that it never crossed my mind to write down what I was doing.
I don't remember doing anything for years except taking care of him.
Enjoy every minute; it may seem long now but too short when you look back.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-27 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-02 06:40 pm (UTC)i am so calling the authorities on you!
/me rings up bud selig.