Day in the Life: Full Time Working Mom edition

Every now and then, I like to document a “Day in the Life” to look back and see how our lives are changing and have stayed the same. I knew I wanted to document a day after I returned to work from my maternity leave, but certainly wasn’t expecting our house to fall apart like it has. (By the way, it’s still a wreck. We’re hoping and praying that it’s completely resolved soon. We’re closer than we’ve been that’s for sure. Cabinets have been put back in, floors have been repaired, everything's dry, new flooring has been picked out, I guess now we’re just waiting on the new flooring to come in and schedule the install. When that happens, all of our big furniture will be moved out and stored for 2-3 days or until the new floor is done and ready for our use. We’ve been making the best of it, staying at my parents’ house on days/nights that our house was just unlivable, trying to keep positive attitudes, but it’s been a month now….and I want my house back.)  Anyways, my motto during all of this has been “life goes on” and it does.

I documented Wednesday, as best as I could remember, #twinmombrain took over for most of the night and I realized at bedtime I hadn’t taken a single pic of anything that night – oh well. (and  yes, I play this “album” on my phone throughout the night for the girls to sleep to…heck, we all sleep to it, ha)

Technically my day started at 3:19a when Amelia started getting fussy in her rock and play next to our bed. It took a while but she finally calmed down and went back to sleep. Then naturally, she started waking up at the same time I needed to get up. (They still sleep in our room in their Rock and Plays…a MUST for any new or expecting parent! We’ve slowly been trying to transition them to their cribs, because, well, they’re almost 6 months old and they’re starting to outgrown the Rock and Plays…it’s just time.)

Usually they’ll sleep just long enough for me to get up around 5am and get myself ready, then I’ll be totally ready to change, feed, etc before leaving for work. Instead, Amelia woke up early, so it was just me and her for about 45 minutes.

We chatted, laughed, changed a diaper, ate a bottle, watched the news and rocked back to sleep for a while so I could get a quick shower.

While I was getting a shower, Stephen got up with Mae Parker, changed and fed her. His mom was still gone on her big two week trip, so we’ve been toting the girls around every day to different family and friends who have so willingly offered to keep them. To help our mornings out these past two weeks, I pack bags and make bottles along with packing my lunch and laying out my clothes the night before so everything is  just ready to grab and go the next morning.

We buckled the girls up in their pj’s and headed across town to my cousin Sarah’s house.

I just love driving through “the old part of town” every day!

Once I unloaded at Sarah and Robert’s their daughter Arabelle was PUMPED to say the least about playing with “her babies” that day!!

I left the girls and got to work later than normal because of A LOT of school traffic in that area that I’m not used to. (And I might throw in Sarah text me before I even got to work telling me both girls were already asleep!) I settled into my cozy little corner of the hospital and got to work on some orders I had left behind from the day before.

 I won’t bore you with 8 hours of what I do for work, but I was in a Kenny Chesney mood yesterday, so non-stop KC on Spotify it was!

My dad came by to visit a lady from our church who was here as a patient and he swung by my office. Just like old times! I miss our daily chats since he retired.

Before long it was lunchtime, and again in preparing as much as I can for a day, I packed up some leftovers the night before. Pot roast, green beans and mac & cheese. It may look like a hot mess but it was a tasty lunch.

Sometime around 1:30, Stephen finished work for the day and picked up the girls. They made a trip to the bank and then headed home. I didn’t leave work until 3:30. I made a quick stop by Aldi for a few things and made it home just in time for the girls next bottles.

 They were getting fussy so we plopped them in their Bumbo seats until we unloaded my car started a load of “sink water” to let their bottles from the day soak, and started new bottles.

After bottle time, Stephen washed all the bottles from the last 24 hours. We typically wash all bottles and bottle parts we’ve used from the previous night and throughout the day between the 4:30pm and bedtime feeding.

While he did that, I packed the girls bags for the next day, made bottles, got my lunch and clothes ready.

Both girls were awake and happy and I took advantage of it! Over the weekend, I had washed the next size up of clothes, and pulled out all the remaining newborn size clothes in their closet and dresser. Needless to say, there were clothes EVERYWHERE in their room. I mean, what’s one more mess in our house right now anyway, right?! I knew I could occupy them long enough with Disney music, toys and sitting beside them to play and talk while I bagged everything up.

My parents also dropped by during this time (the beginning of my photo failures) to pickup a couple things for the next day since they were keeping them yesterday, and then around 6:45 Amelia and Mae Parker went down for a nap.

They slept for about 45 minutes when we decided we were starving and had to eat something.  I was able to put MP down and throw together a leftovers’ smorgasbord dinner. Sometime around 8, Stephen’s mom and dad stopped by. She had just returned home a couple hours earlier from her nearly two week trip to Israel and Jordan…it goes without saying she was READY to see her grandbabies! She gave them both their bedtime bottles, they stayed through bathtime and then left around 9:15 while we were rocking them to sleep. 

(No, this is not the same photo as the previous one, but yes pretty much is. And no, we don’t normally do the same babies. We try to switch them up between us, but sometimes you just grab one and go. It’s survival mode at times.) MP goes to bed at night like a champ and sleeps all night. Amelia usually does too, and with me getting bags ready for the next day, bottles, my lunch and my clothes laid out for the next day..I’m typically ready to go to bed as soon as the girls do. I probably haven’t gone to bed before 9:30 since I was a kid, but hey, no complaints here! Haha

HOWEVER, Amelia had a hard time on this night. Stephen tried twice putting her to bed and both times she wasn’t having it. I tried the third time. She was pitifully whiney, so I gave her some gas drops and patted her back while I held her. She burped two more times and after that settled right down for the night, and so did I…Bedtime Beethoven and all. 

You can see into other Day in the Life posts here, here and here - oh life has changed!