What a weekday looks like around here
July 3, 2015
We’re in between childcare helpers, still, so these days my schedule is a really weird non-routine routine. It’s not terrible, but it’s a really incredibly full day. I still log at least 8 hours of work, not continuously, but thank goodness my work allows this kind of flexibility.
If we’re really lucky, LB actually stays asleep after we put hir down at least til 8 hours later. Someday, I dream of this someday, maybe ze will even sleep 10 or 12 hours. In the meantime, every weekday is looking something like this:
Between 4-4:30am: get up, change diaper, feed, PiC gets up and tries to get hir back down to sleep, while I collapse in bed.
Between 7-7:30am: If I’m lucky, ze did got to sleep and is still sleeping which means I have time to brush my teeth and get to work. If not, ze probably got me up again and PiC is too beat so it’s my turn to play with hir for a couple hours til the next nap because ze is up for good.
Between 8-9am: Zip through some work before PiC leaves for the day. PiC makes me breakfast, I absentmindedly scarf that down with one hand, the other hand still working. LB lands in my lap to “help” for a while. If ze’s cooperative, ze will play with toys. If less so, ze will attempt to take over typing.
10-12pm: Try to get LB down for a nap. Wash dishes, wash bottles. Work like the wind while ze is sleeping.
If I get a 3rd hour of nap, I can do some household stuff: Pay bills, update tax filing info for 2014, get the laundry going, put food in the crockpot, follow up on weird things with billers.
1-3:30pm: feeding/diapering, play with a very awake Wiggle Worm. Read books, dangle toys. Take hir and Seamus out for a walk. Let hir “crawl” on the floor while I catch any easy to answer emails.
3:30-4pm: feeding, convince The Angry Inchworm to take another nap if ze is tired. Sometimes it’s a 30-45 minute third nap, sometimes this is the second nap of the day and lasts an hour or two. Seamus will start angling for his medications because after he takes them, he gets dinner. Whip through any dishes, knock out some more work.
Between 5:30-6:30 pm: LB will be up and at it again so I’m all hirs. Feeding, diapering, and playing again. Feed Seamus. PiC gets home at some point and takes over for an hour of daddy+baby time. Sometimes they go out for a walk with Seamus.
7 pm: I start gathering a change of clothes and we’re blasting some tunes for hir bath. We’ve got this down to a science, now. Ze was terrified by the big bathtub but with music, toys, and a super efficient routine, ze’s cool with it now.
7:30-8 pm: If we’re in good odor with the baby gods, ze is finishing up the bedtime bottle and nodding off. If not, ze demands another bottle and is wide awake.
9 pm: Adult people dinner. Talk through anything we need to discuss, if we still have brainpower. Sometimes PiC can get in a workout before dinner. Sometimes we BOTH get to take showers. Sometimes I’m still catching up on work. Other times, I’m trying to arrange travel or figure out what’s up with our commitments.
11 pm: Remember that thing called sleep and stumble to bed wondering why the hell we didn’t do this earlier.
My sleeps 7pm – 5am. I’m being totally spoiled these days, he was waking up at 4am for a long while.
Before, he used to only sleep until midnight.. or 3 am so I know how you feel. Those days seem so long ago where I was bleary-eyed and stumbling around trying to find a bottle, any bottle and/or change diapers in the middle of the night.
It’ll get better. Trust me. The CIO method worked for me.. you can also consult sleep experts, they apparently really get the job done for $300.
That’s pretty awesome. Between the time it took me to write that and post it (not that long!) the wakeups shifted to 2-4am. Sigh.
But it’s ok, PiC and I are switching off enough so that it’s not torture, and I know it’ll change again. And go figure, after a really bad time of it with CIO for naps, ze has suddenly switched to only needing a minute or two. Ze is a pendulum!
hahaha – the angry inchworm? I love it.
Thanks for the insight into your days – it is interesting to see how one can do it – and how big of a difference it makes to have a job to accommodate getting the work done in a more flexible way rather than the traditional in-the-office gig.
Precrawling, Angriest of Inchworms 🙂 Especially if ze really wants to move forward but still hasn’t figured out the mechanics.
I can’t imagine what it’d look like if we didn’t have this kind of flexibility in my job. It would probably be a lot more rush and frustration.