A Day in the Life of a 5-month-old (and his mom)
I don’t remember where I first heard the idea of recording a day’s events at different life stages for your child, but it stuck with me. A couple weeks ago, I finally did it. If you’ve ever wondered what fills the hours of a stay-at-home mom’s day, here’s the answer. Or at least an answer.
Note: I chose to record our day as bedtime to bedtime since the nighttime hours so inform the daytime hours at this stage. We start on a Tuesday night.
8:00 pm – Jeff takes Sam up to the nursery to get him ready for bed.
8:18 pm – Lights are out and we rock as Sam eats before sleep.
8:50 pm – Baby falls asleep and I lay him down in his crib. I go downstairs to serve up dinner (baked ziti) and we eat in the living room while catching up on the latest episode of Downton Abbey. We take a break in the middle for some tea and to let the puppies out.
10:30 pm – I switch laundry (we need fresh bath towels in the morning!) and tidy up the downstairs and kitchen, finish sorting mail, etc.
11:25 pm – We head up to bed and read aloud together.
11:43 pm – Sam wakes up to eat only a page into Jeff’s reading. This timing has become a regular pattern as of late. I read and (slowly) respond to email on my iPod Touch as he nurses in the dark.
12:15 am – Baby is done eating. I put him back in bed, transfer the towels to the dryer, and put myself to bed.
1:45 am – Sam is up again and I’ve only been asleep a little while… not sure how long, but I remember seeing 1:00 am. I pick him up (he’s again rolled onto his belly) and start feeding him only to realize I was too groggy to do math (and I didn’t check my iPod tracking app like usual) and he probably wasn’t hungry again so soon. Normally I would have tried the paci first. Oops.
2:04 am – I’m able to pull him off and it’s back to bed for both of us. This time I try rolling him onto his belly to start out in hopes that it might make a difference.
2:20 am – I hear him again over the monitor but it’s not sustained. Maybe he found his fingers!
4:34 am – Sam again. Try (new, 6 month) paci and he takes it. Once convinced he’s actually back to sleep and keeping the paci, I visit the bathroom and then go to the basement to bring up towels. Back in bed by 4:48.
5:36 am – This time he seems legitimatly hungry. He nurses and I catch up on Facebook.
9:15 am – I wake up to baby noise. I’ve hit snooze in my sleep on my 8:30 alarm several times (nothing new here). He quiets down, and I drift off again until 9:40 at which time I shower and get dressed for the day.
10:20 am – Sam’s awake again, but making happy noises. I quietly check on him and decide I have time for a quick bowl of cereal before getting him up.
10:30 am – I’m greeted with big smiles and laughs. I’m pretty sure he’s got a dirty diaper (finally! after three days!) so we attend to that first rather than eating first like usual. After airing out a bit and some play on the changing table, he’s starts to lose it. Time to eat! I check Facebook and email while he eats.
12:00 pm – Downstairs at last. We watch the doggies play outside for a bit then it’s time for some solo playtime (for baby) and laundry (for me).
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/35856298]
1:00 pm – Laundry is sorted and the first load is in. By now I have a hungry and tired baby on my hands. He eats for about 35 minutes and is still awake. When it’s clear he’s not going to immediately fall asleep, we gather up a few books and head up to the nursery to get a fresh diaper and start the nap routine.
2:00 pm – Books finished. We rock together, Sam with his head on my chest. I sing a lullaby then start his CD of sleepytime music while shh, shh, shhhhhing in his ear. After 20 minutes of this, along with some of his “grinding”, he is glazed over and nearly asleep. Then I hear and feel him filling his diaper. Experience has taught me to wait for more. Experience proves right again. Just as I think he’s done and I’m debating changing him (at the risk of waking him and starting the process over), he conks out hard. I set him in the crib and carefully roll him to his belly. I leave the music going on repeat for insurance.
2:45 pm – Back to the laundry and it’s lunch time for me (though I did snag an orange earlier).
3:15 pm – As I’m sitting down to eat lunch and read my Bible, I spill half my water glass over my notebook, iPod, and phone in an attempt to pick up my phone to check a voicemail message. Nice.
4:15 pm – Sam wakes up happy (not usually the case after naps) from a long nap, maybe the longest he’s taken in his crib. Diaper change. He’s happy so I let him play while I stuff diapers.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/35855734]
5:15 pm – Time to nurse. I check email, Facebook, blogs, and read my book.
6:00 pm – His gourmet meal finished, we have some playtime together then feed the dogs, switch more laundry, finish up some odds and ends, and then work on sitting and grasping skills.
6:50 pm – Jeff gets home after his weekly racquetball game. Sam is always excited to see his daddy! We all enjoy some time just hanging out together.
7:30 pm – We have a quick meal of leftover ziti before the kiddo melts down. I realize part of his fussiness is hunger so he has a quick 15 minute snack before getting ready for his bath and bed.
8:00 pm – Bath time! I get Sam ready while Jeff gets his bath ready. After the bath and lotion starts the nightly bedtime routine: sleepytime CD, diaper change, pjs, and a book. Daddy says goodnight and it’s time to turn out the light and nurse.
9:08 pm – Sleep comes after eating for about 20 minutes. Goodnight, sweet baby.
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That picture with Jeff reading with the baby is so cute.
This was an awesome post. All kinds of awesome. I’ve always wondered what moms get up to all day. Thoughts from me: (Warning: personal opinion here!) Wow, I am never having a baby. I mean I already thought this, but this just confirmed it. Holy mother of God, I am never having a baby. I think I understand postpartum depression now. Also, I feel a ton of gratitude for my mom, haha.
Okay so maybe I could HAVE a baby, in theory, but only if I were doing what Jeff is doing. Unfortunately being female this is largely impossible, unless I were in a lesbian relationship I guess. Give me the 9-hour straight job over the constant interruptions any day!
It’s good that you know now you don’t want a baby rather than figuring it out after the fact! I know moms who can’t wait to go back to work once maternity leave is over. They love their kids, of course, but they also love the the stability and structure of an office-type job. There’s even a couple at our church where the mom works and the dad stays home and they both prefer it that way. Sure, that’s the exception, but it works for their family.
It’s totally worth the craziness though (at least for me). And more experienced moms tell me I’ll look back at the time when my kid(s) were young and super needy and it’ll feel short.
Also, I have a ton of respect for nannies. It’s one thing to take care of your own kid sacrificially because so much mama love is built in. Not that nannies don’t like/love the kids they take care of, but it can’t be the same.
I had this babysitting job in high school. It was with this family that would. Not. Stop. Having. Kids. One of those that don’t believe in birth control, PCC graduates both. Anyway, I was babysitting 4 kids all under the age of 5 at 13-15 years old, and it was insanity! Then they had a 5th kid, and I was like, “Um, could you pay me more than $5/hour because I’m dying here?” I’m not kidding. That’s what I was paid. This was in 2000-ish.
But after a while, it was like they could have paid me $15/hour, I wasn’t doing it anymore.
ah yes. Sounds familiar! Amazing how much things change in a year. My struggle was in the transitions – when he needed to eat less, or sleep in a different schedule. It would begin changing and I wouldn’t know if it was a temporary thing because he was extra tired or not tired, extra hungry or not hungry…. etc. It happens eventually, but at first it would always throw me for a loop!
Yes! I totally hear you on the transitions. Just when I think I’ve got a good routine figured out, his needs change. We’re going through a phase like that right now, as a matter of fact.
Thanks for sharing this, Sarah! You’re such a great mother, and your posts are a real encouragement to me. I’ve always been a little apprehensive (though excited) about life with baby one day since I haven’t spent a great deal of time around infants and small children–it helps to get a picture of what life might be like at this stage
Love this idea … and your actual post. Fun to see a glimpse into your everyday life. I would love to do this but with Baby #2, I think I’d be super depressed at how crazy my day was and how little time I did anything productive (well, other than keep 2 human beings alive all day long!).
I also love that you use your iPod touch like I do during feeding times. What would I do without it?!! I would never get to check email, or blogs, or facebook, etc unless I had that handy while nursing. It’s also great to hand to the toddler who wants to play “games” on the “iPad” and have “fun” while little brother is taking up all of mom’s time.
This was a lot of fun Sarah! Thanks for the glimpse into your day.
Sarah that is so awesome that you did this documentation. Also helps us who don’t have kids to understand what goes on in a day in the life! I like seeing the Jesus Calling book by your lunchtime reading! : )
I also appreciate the grogginess factor and not totally being able to get the times right – it is probably a blur most of the time esp if you’ve only been asleep for a short period of time.
Sam looks like such a happy baby – I esp. liked the video of him testing out his vocal cords. Here’s to more happy days!