One Day: What I do that I take for granted

Okay these are the things I do on a daily basis that should amount to something in my mind 

and slowly I'm realizing that good grief this is why I'm exhausted at the end of the day.

5am- Perhaps a Few fusses

(at this point I can generally roll over and ignore ... like a snooze button)

8am- Crying Baby (Very Loud) Yank self out of bed... slowly gain momentum while stumbling toward fridge, grab bottle & place in warmer, this is the time to run not walk towards the toliet as crying increases in severity (it only takes having part of your morning release in your pants once to make this bump up the priority ladder). Finish in the bathroom in record breaking speed and cheerfully greet the simultaneously most sad and instantaneously smiley-est little pooper. Deal with snaps on sleeper (because I have issues with zippers that really should go the other way so you only have to get out the wiggly baby parts you need) and change the diaper. Crying re-starts (I'm clearly wasting my time blowing raspberries on the belly and kissing toes... ) baby is crazy cranky hungry. Race back to kitchen, grab bottle out of warmer (with towel... duel purpose: dry it off and don't burn hand), shove bottle in waiting open mouth and enjoy silence. Collapse in recliner, let her drink herself into short lived milk drunk state and try to re-coup from adrenaline rush which inevitably ends in falling asleep in chair alongside le babe.

In Chair with The Baby

9/10am- Own snoring wakes me up. Either move sleeping Ara to crib or sit on blanket to play with toys. Grab some "breakfast", take pills, check email/fbook and shower. Showering I have learned is necessary for all other activities. Mostly because showering initiates the real wake up sequence.

11/Noon- Change the fussy baby :) Also try to dress her for the day. Try to convince her that pureed veggies are yummy. Give up and give her truly yummy fruit/cereal. Clean up the messy baby and play with on the floor or put in play center/bouncer while I prep food for dinner (& throw something into my own mouth), do dishes or pick up messy apartment (all of which ALWAYS need done...) Start and re-start chosen task due to adorable child being adorable and needed played with, pictures taken or anything else that a Victorian male would deem "coddling". A short nap occurs somewhere around this time as well.

This is her "Veggies are Icky Face"

3pm- After this diaper change and food throwing competition (aka snack time) get geared up because this is prime errand running time. Grocery, general household shopping, thrifting, mall walking, zoo walking or COSI going (read splashing). Short naps happen in the car seat between destinations. If the weather is not pleasant then errands generally don't happen. In this case we continue our stop and go adventure of getting various projects done (of which I keep an ongoing list: see below). We time errands such as groceries and household shopping so that Daddy will be awake and willing to carry in all the bags upon pulling into the parking lot.

Us at the Columbus Zoo

6pm- Change le diap and shovel more yummy fruit into the littlest hungry hungry hippo (my memory of this game is one minute's worth of entertaining chaos and I feel that this meal of the day is similar). Food cannot enter her mouth fast enough so I make sure to have two containers ready to go. Finish with puffs and water sippy cup. I usually try to invite friends over for my own entertainment and sanity while Husbie works his night shift. If they can come over I try to pick up dirty laundry off of bathroom floor and bathe Ara before they come over. If they can't, I still consider picking up the dirty laundry but inevitably end up in recliner cuddling a fussy pooper into a 20 minute post feeding nap and watch a few tv shows. I may or may not fall asleep instead. If a miraculous surge of energy hits me I continue stop and go projects.

She just learned how to use the sippy cup. Exciting Stuff

9pm- Baby plays on floor/bouncer reluctantly while I get the evening bottle ready. Change and initiate bedtime sequence. If she hasn't had a bath, do that. Put in clean pjs and sleep sack. Read a bedtime story, turn on sound machine and night light. Instruct Ara that "when we come back it's bedtime". Rush back to bottle because now I have a fussy baby (clearly not ready for 2 step instructions). Feed baby in recliner until she is starting to close her eyes (VICTORY!) Lovingly carry pooped pooper to crib, kiss goodnight, lay down, offer rest of bottle or binky until she is just about to conk out. Say quick nighttime prayer and sneak out!

New Year's Eve

10pm- Clean out the day's bottles while boiling water for bottle parts, empty dishwasher/re-fill with day's dishes, lay out bottles/parts to dry, make tomorrow's bottles. Throw dirty bibs, washcloths etc. into laundry basket and decide whether or not sleep is more important than the ever growing project list.

11:30pm- Sleep if it trumps productivity HA!

2am- I realize that I totally made the WRONG decision and crash into bed (no face washing or other pre-bed rituals as I am so only focused on my head and pillow meeting)

This was actually a rare in-bed daytime nap. 

The Stop and Go Project List 

(which while important, is NOT more important than sleep despite my 

brain's continual refusal to process this truth): 

• Big Sewing Projects (ie. the Highball Halloween Costume or other freelance construction projects... I always have something I want to make some of these bring in extra $ others don't)

Highball Halloween Costume Pic by KT Knilans Photography

• Small Sewing Projects (hem someone's pants, alter a pair of jeans, sew on a rebel button)
• Window Displays for Northwest EyeCare Professionals (usually a new one every month, but at least around holidays... I LOVE DOING THIS and get paid fairly too!) 
• Personal Finance Spreadsheet (at least every two weeks on pay day I do all of our budgeting)
• Meal Planning (okay so most times I wing it... but I'm working on being more thoughtful)
• Laundry (in our current situation this happens at one of the grandparents' houses once a week... yep we pack all of it up and haul it. Well Husbie does. Someday, hopefully soon at our pretty new townhome across town with the washer/dryer hook up this will be easier)
• Event Planning (like Donnie's graduation, us moving and Ara's 1st Birthday party all happening in the month of March... We're INSANE)
• House Cleaning (To be quite honest, not much of this is happening. The kitchen and bathroom get the regular maintenance, but there's nothing like the upcoming move to take away all motivation to pick up or dust... this does not help my OCD/my pre-historic sense of control over my life)
• Consigning/Donation of clothes that we no longer use/have need for. 
• Freecycling/Craiglisting household items. Like my Dad's old set of golf clubs (not freecycling quite yet still trying to sell them)
• Random Projects:

• Find a Family Lawyer
• Ara's Uncle wants to set up a trust fund (awesome!)
• We still havn't written our Will (that thing we planned on doing within the two months that Ara was supposedly still going to be inside me... along with the baby basics class)
• Re-season my wok (oops)
• Clean Air Purifyers (sounds a little cray cray... but they totally help our asthma)
• Ara's Shutterfly Book of her 1st year (I do this as we go... yes I'm thinking about doing one every year.)
• Convert old family VHS tapes to DVDs. We bought the converter but good grief where's the time)

Game Changers:

*When Donnie is not working AND does not have school. He is AMAZING. He actually is amazing at all times but truly has been a rock and a great Daddy. He lightens my load greatly. We cannot wait for him to be out of school!*

Husbie & Ara Love

*Mondays, Wednesdays and some Fridays I babysit a 2 year old boy (very good... but still TWO and still a BOY.. read ONERY) On these days we both get extra exercise attempting to keep up with him :) This will change soon as we are moving to the other side of town and I will therefore not be babysitting him anymore.*

*There are times that one of the grandmas offer to watch Ara (or I just ask them to). I greatly treasure these baby-free times (even though I end up crying either from extreme relief, hormone reflex, the realization of exactly how tired I actually am or all of the above).*

With Grandma (Donnie's Mom)

With Gammy (my Mom)

Anyhow: The fact that this post took way too long to write definitely has made me feel like perhaps 

I accomplish something in a given day. It also makes me very thankful that I am no longer attempting to pump or breastfeed our little preemie (that easily took away half of the already slim down time) Also she is not a newborn anymore so this every 3hr schedule isn't day AND night. Being a Mom is definitely getting easier and so is being resilient enough to just go with whatever is going to happen on a given day. For Example: You never know when the "Poo-splosion" may occur. Keeps things exciting.

What is this Day to Day to Mom?

Well this is more realistically what is going on in my life week to week. It is REALLY going to be a way for me to sum up what I HAVE accomplished. Why do I need to keep a record? or why does anyone care?

You perhaps don't care, however I need to keep this record for my own sanity. I mean this quite literally. I am in the midst of "mild postpartum" depression. Amongst the "normal" feelings of inadequacy in motherhood and strong desire to simply run away (don't worry it is NOT so bad that I mean from this world and if I were to go anywhere Ara would come with me.. so I'm pretty sure it would be the worst "escape" plan ever) I am also fighting a bit of OCD. Well-intentioned people have thus told me to give myself a break and that I am actually doing quite a bit as a stay at home mother. I know this but am still working on making peace with it. 

The fact that I am not taking care of le babe, cooking delightful multi-course meals, keeping an impeccable household, doing side projects for extra cash and out looking for volunteer opportunities in the community has sharply slapped reality in my face. Summary: I had completely unrealistic expectations of being a stay at home mom. 

My hope in starting this blog is to not only find some "me time" but to use it to remind myself of the things I HAVE accomplished. (yes that last bit needed repeating)

Also today is Ara's 10th month Bday!!! 

So the first thing I'm going to note that I have definitely accomplished is taking a crap-load of pictures of my baby girl in the last 10 months. I will spare this blog... but you can check out my facebook :)

https://www.facebook.com/shiree.houf