A Day in Life: 3.5 Months Old

This post is mainly for my own sake to look back on as to what life is like for us now with Elsie.

On days I have to go to work, this is what our day looks like.  5:30 AM the alarm goes off.  If I am to get in the hours I want to get in on the three days I work this is the sacrifice I have to make :).  It is so early for me. Before Elsie was born I had a hard time getting up at 7:00 so now with her waking up in the middle of the night again 5:30 is difficult.  So in the first 1/2 hour I try to pump, eat breakfast, and shower.  Meanwhile, John-the wonderful husband that he is feeds Elsie whenever she wakes up, will wash the bottles and pump parts if I haven't gotten to it yet, and will get Elsie changed and ready for the day.  I really miss spending time with her in the morning but to get out the door this is what we have to do.  I have to remind myself that I get all day with her 4 other days of the week.

If we are out the door by 7:00 we are doing great!  So far it has happened once :).  I drive the few minutes it takes to get her to daycare, drop her off and then head to work.  Throughout the day I get in three pumping sessions.  While at work I read while pumping.  45 minutes of reading a day is the most I have gotten in for the past few months.  At 4:20 I head out of work to pick her up by 4:30 and then we head home.  She has not been sleeping much at daycare so she is pretty tired.  We get home, I wash all the dirty pump parts from the day, get her a bottle and then we snuggle in on the couch together.  If she is tired I will lay her down for a nap.  If not we will play on the floor with her toys.  I LOVE this time.  John gets home around 6:00.  Either he or I will get dinner going.  The other is playing with Elsie.  I will pump at least one time during the evening.

We are trying to do get into more of a nighttime routine.  I think we need to ignore what time we do it but just get all the steps in order.  Prior to this new routine we would just feed her, change her into her PJ's and rock her to sleep and then lay her down on the couch with us or fall asleep in the swing and she would stay with us in the family room.  Now we go upstairs, do lotion, change her clothes and diaper, read some books, give her a bottle, and sing some songs.  Then we lay her down in her pack and play.  The first night it only took her about 5 minutes to fall asleep once we laid her down.  No crying at all, she just was laying looking around until she fell asleep.  She does go to sleep pretty well and I am so thankful for that/

Before, when she was sleeping in the family room we would carry her up to the bedroom when we would go up to bed around 10:00.  Of course this almost always woke her up so we would feed her and she would go right back to sleep.  We are trying to eliminate that feeding and see how long she will sleep from 7:30ish on. This seems to change every night.  Last week she slept from 7:00pm-5:00am.  It was awesome.  She has had a couple other nights with long stretches of at least 7 hours and every night she goes at least 5-6 hours.  Last night it was feeding at 10:00, then again at 4:45.  so about 6 hours and 45 minutes.

After she goes to sleep I try to get stuff done.  John helps out quite a bit with this too.  I try to make sure everything in the kitchen is picked up and all the dishes are washed or in the dishwasher.  And that the family room is picked up.  I wash any bottles or pump parts used in the evening and then gather feeding bottles, mixing bottles, and pump parts that we will need throughout the night and bring up to our room.  I refill her diaper caddy:  I have at least 2 diaper covers, 3 fitted diapers, and 5 pocket/AIO in there at all times.  Then we crawl into bed, watch the 10:00 news and I get in one more pumping session in for the night.

We sleep and it all starts again the next day :)  This is my life!