24 Hours in the Life of the Lactivist
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Now, first let me be clear that this is not a mommy-martyr post. I am far from the busiest mom in the world and I’m the first one to admit it. This post was more just an interesting way for me to get a glimpse of how timing works out in the day. It’s also a post to put things in perspective for me after I have conversations with my mother.Now to note, I have the world’s best mom. She is absolutely amazing and I couldn’t adore her more. Seriously, I am incredibly blessed. The ONLY issue I ever have with my mom is her constant refrain that if I’d only “schedule my time better” that I could manage to have a clean house. ;) So…with that in mind, I decided to keep a log of what I did today. (I guess instead of the 2 minutes at a time that I spent updating my list I could have spent those 2 minute bursts cleaning…lol)
So here we go…from midnight to midnight, this was my day. (Estimating what will happen in the last hour or so, since it is 10:30 pm as I post this)
Midnight Nurse Emmitt
4:30 am Nurse Emmitt
7:00 am Nurse Emmitt
8:00 am Wake up, go get Elnora and get her changed and dressed
8:30 am Pump milk for milk bank freeze milk, clean pump parts (read emails while pumping)
9:00 am Get Emmitt up, change and dress him
9:15 am Get breakfast for Nora and I (waffles! Mmm)
9:30 am Finish catching up on email while Nora eats, scan forums (work ones and the BabyCenter forum I host)
10:00 am Nurse Emmitt
10:15 am: Work on Search Engine Guide while Nora watches cartoons
Noon: Nurse Emmitt
12:15 pm Go to basement, check food stock for lunch and pull meat out of freezer for dinner
12:30 pm Feed Nora lunch, unload and reload dishwasher while she eats
1:00 pm Play the “let’s pick up the living room” game
1:15 pm Put Elnora down for a nap
1:30 pm Take a shower
1:45 pm Work on Search Engine Guide
2:15 pm Nurse Emmitt
2:30 pm Visit with a work friend that showed up for a surprise visit
4:00 pm Nurse Emmitt
4:15 pm Talk to a reporter from the Washington Post
4:45 pm Get Nora up from her nap and get her a snack and something to drink
5:00 pm Start thawing out chicken for dinner while working on Search Engine Guide
5:30 pm Take a break from work to go make salad, get chicken ready to fry and get pasta ready to cook
6:00 pm Nurse Emmitt
6:20 pm Start cooking dinner
7:15 pm Pack dinner, delivery to friend who just had a baby while Greg feeds Elnora dinner
8:10 pm Get home, eat dinner
8:30 pm Nurse Emmitt while Greg puts Elnora to bed
8:45 pm Finish up Search Engine Guide work
9:30 pm Nurse Emmitt
10:00 pm Here I sit working on The Lactivist
Add in about 15 total diaper changes between the two kids, a few snacks here and there for the kids or I, random phone calls, letting the dog out, feeding the dog, potty breaks, you know all that random fun stuff. Nora was supposed to get a bath today, so was Emmitt. I was supposed to grocery shop today, but Greg’s truck is broke and he had the car. Didn’t get any laundry done either.
What’s between now and midnight? I’ll likely watch an hour of TV while I visit a few forums, read through the last of my emails and unwind for a bit. At 11ish, I’ll pump again, then get Emmitt settled into bed clean up the toys in the living room and go to sleep myself around 11:30 or midnight.
Now, when exactly is it that I’m supposed to clean?
Labels: Life as a Mom, Pumping Milk
While I am on your side as far as cleaning the house, I couldn't help but be jealous of your kids' sleeping habits. 3 1/2 hour nap for Elnora? Emmitt wakes up at 9 am? That's like my definition of heaven. ;)
Yeah, yeah, I know. I keep hearing from friends about how their one or two year old only naps for an hour a day.
In reality, she doesn't sleep that long. I was blessed with a kid that happily plays by herself for awhile. I put her down for her nap at 1:30 and she takes a book or two with her. I can hear her on the monitor happily talking to her animals and flipping through the book. She falls asleep around 2:30 or 3. So she really only sleeps for about 2 hours a day, she's just content to stay up there longer.
I honestly have no idea how I'd hold down a real job if she didn't do that. She's been an incredibly independant, easy-going kid since birth. It's why Emmitt's been such a shocker.
On the 9am front...that's a new thing. Up until about 3 weeks ago, he was up at 5:30 for the day. Two weeks ago he started getting up at 7:30 for the day. In the last week...he's suddenly started going back to sleep after his 7:30 feeding and sleeps until 9. After that, he's AWAKE for the day until about 10 at night. He might catnap for 20 minutes here and there, but that's it.
I have been reading your blog for a while now ! I love it ! It is great to read while I wait for my 2 year old to fall asleep in the bed next to me.
I wish she still napped ! She stopped napping about a month after her second birthday !
I go to school 7am-12m, take care of her 12-7:30 and then do homework 8-1am. I never find time to clean or do laundry or sometimes to shower !
Just wanted to let you know I read and think your blog is great :)
Jen,
Hey, thanks for outing yourself! It seems like there's been an influx of new readers in the past few weeks. I don't know where you'll all coming from, but I'm glad to see you here and appreciate so many of you taking the time to comment.
Let me just say that I think you (Jen) are amazing. Going to school, caring for your two year old and then doing all your homework? As someone who remembers college as four years of "Holy crap, let's get this OVER with already!!!" I simply can't imagine doing it with a kid at home.
You rock! Hope you stick around. :)
Hi Jen- its amazing how it all works out... eventually. Basically as a mom you can never get sick or sleep more than 6 hours a day til they're all over 5 years old.
With your second I am wondering if you have wavered on any of your "I would never do this..." list. For example my first daughter had only organic fruits and vegetables painstaking grouns in a home made baby food mill. First french fry at 18 months old and first choclate at 2 years. My second.. first fry at whenever he could grab it out of some ones hand - which I think was around 6 months.. and his first chocolate was probably an M& M found in a couch cushion around 8 months as well.. I may have even my mother to give him his own box of Smarties at one years of age.
My idea of what constitutes a "clean" outfit has also shifted in the last 9 years. Daughter #1 had co-ordinating Baby Gap outfits for all occasions and were changed at the first sign of crease. Son has been wearing the same Spider man pajamas ( day AND night) for past three days ( because he wants to not- because I am too lazy to change him!).
Mt own clothing cleanliness has also slid... a lot.
Wonder what others have done with arrival of 2nd, 3rd, fourth kids that they though they never would?
Some call it lazy, I call it laid back. ;)
But with my first, I was like a third time mom. ;) I'm like the least paranoid person ever about germs, being spotless, matching, etc.
Thus far the only thing I think I really went lax on was TV. Nora never watched TV at all until she was about 18 months old. Then she started getting to watch a big of PBS. (We have Noggin now so that works too...basically, I just want it commercial free.)
Since Emmitt is in the room with us and NOra is watching, Emmitt gets to see TV too.
Other than that...I don't think there was anything I was "hyper" about with Nora but not Emmitt. He's actually a more demanding kid (he gets held more than she did and he still sleeps in our room whereas she was in her crib after a week) so I think I've maybe gone the other way.
I did start Nora off on all organic homemade food, though it soon progressed to all homemade but only some organic. Probably the same thing will happen with Emmitt. I like using organic for the kids, but it's just SO expensive...so I pick and choose. Organic dairy products are a must, organic produce? Not so much.
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