A Day in The Life...

I read a delightful blog the other day about the day in the life of a stay at home mom. I thought it was hilarious, and I wondered what my day would sound like on paper/blog. Being a mom is hard, whether you stay at home or work. Each type of "mom" is quite equally challenging. All of the moms out there can relate to this schedule, but the non-moms should read carefully and be afraid... Here is my typical day, although every day is different:

4:30 a.m. Drag self out of bed/off sofa when baby wakes to eat, make bottle, change baby, feed baby, rock baby back to sleep, go back to bed/sofa: 45 minutes.

6:00 a.m. Try to wake up for the day: 30 minutes.

6:30 a.m. Drag self out of bed/off sofa when Jerry calls me for the fifteenth time. Trip over cat in the dark. Change baby’s diaper and clothes: 15 minutes.

7:00 a.m. Shower, dress, brush teeth, comb hair quickly because now we’re behind schedule. Dig through clean clothes pile for matching socks, look for other shoe: 30 minutes.

7:30 a.m. Bundle baby to go out in the elements. Get baby in car, run back into house to get pacifier, run back again to get Thumbie, look for pacifier that fell on ground, lick the germs off pacifier, calm baby down, and pull out of the driveway: 20 minutes.

7:50 a.m. Turn around and go back to house to get forgotten computer: 10 minutes.

8:00 a.m. Scheduled to arrive at work. Pull out of driveway again and off to daycare. Realize that I will never make it to work by 8 a.m. ever again during drive to daycare: 15 minutes.

8:15 a.m. Arrive at daycare. Take baby out of car, take him inside, and tearfully say goodbye. Explain to daycare provider everything she needs to know for the day, and go back out to car to get Thumbie/pacifier/other sock: 20 minutes.

8:35 a.m. Writhe with anxiety because I’m going to be really late for work as I pull out of driveway of daycare and arrive to work 45 minutes late: 10 minutes.

8:45 a.m. Stumble into work, take off my coat, and run to the coffee pot. Work like a dog for the next 8 hours. Drink two more cups of coffee before lunch. Eat lunch at my desk. Call daycare to check on JJ. Drive home inebriated from frontal brain hyper stimulation: 8 hours, 15 minutes.

5:40 p.m. Arrive at daycare. Put on JJ’s coat, talk about his day, say hello to all the kids, get baby outside, get baby in car seat, calm him down: 25 minutes.

6:05 p.m. Arrive home, carefully take sleeping baby out of car seat, and put him in crib. Figure out what I’m going to fix for dinner. Let dog out. Start fixing dinner, fix a bottle, go soothe, change and feed baby. Go back to dinner and put in oven/on stove: 60 minutes.

7:05 p.m. Finally put baby in jumperoo. Pull dinner out of oven/off stove. Take off coat and shoes and toss them in the general direction of coat rack. Pick up bottles off floor from the night before, pick up toys and baby things and put them away. Put clean dishes away from dishwasher and put dirty dishes in dishwasher: 30 minutes.

7:35 p.m. Get baby in bath and dressed for bed. Sing songs in rocker and read two books: 35 minutes.

8:10 p.m. Eat dinner: 5 minutes.

8:15 p.m. Clean up living room floor, put jumperoo away, put rest of dirty dishes in dishwasher. Empty out Roomba for the next day. Feed dog, feed cat. Clean up random messes and clean up kitchen. Maybe run a load of laundry or put away laundry in basket that has been sitting there for a week, or accomplish other random chore that’s been waiting too long, or think “Screw it all” and spend some time with Jerry: 90 minutes.

9:45 p.m. Make bottles for nighttime and early morning feeding, clean up spilled formula, and run dishwasher: 20 minutes.

10:10 p.m. Fall down on sofa: 10 minutes.

10:20 p.m. Change and soothe baby. Feed baby. Rock him back to sleep on sofa, carefully move him to crib, calm him in crib: 25 minutes.

10:45 p.m. Put on pajamas and refill humidifier in baby’s room. Soothe baby back to sleep after accidentally waking him up by replacing water tank into humidifier: 20 minutes.

11:05 p.m. Lay down on sofa. Either get on the computer for a few minutes or fall asleep immediately. Depends on the day. Potential computer time: 20 minutes.

11:30 p.m. Either I’ve been asleep since 11, or I am going to sleep now. Yay.

2:15 a.m. Get up and soothe baby back to sleep, and go back to bed/sofa: 15 - 25 minutes.

4:30 a.m. Start all over...