A day in the life of Jen: Post baby

A little over a year ago Colleen gave me the idea to blog just about a normal day for me. I had forgotten about that but reading it again I thought it would be nice to post a day that would be considered normal now just to see how much or little it has changed. Here's the pre-baby post. This was actually my day yesterday (8/12/13).

My alarm went off at 5:00am. This is actually a little late to get to work when I want to but I have a hard time getting up earlier. Last night Neil was coughing a lot; he has a cold. So we left the video monitor on so all we had to do was lift our heads to see how he's doing. He threw up a lot yesterday, mostly in the morning but once in the evening. I think it's more from being congested and the coughing than anything else so we decided to send him to daycare and see how he does. (Not allowed to send them to daycare if they are vomiting. But he didn't vomit this morning according to Dave.)

The first thing I do now when I get up is pump and then prepare a bottle for Dave to feed Neil. Then I took a shower (weighed myself beforehand although my weight seems to fluctuate more now in general). Since it's a Monday I wanted to make sure I got everything I needed- I have all my pumping stuff for work to take in and we changed from 5-6 oz bottles at daycare to 8 oz bottles, which worked well the first week. So I am shifting my work pumping schedule from 3 pumps a day to 2 pumps a day and I need bigger bottles. This is more for me to remember. So today is actually a trial with the bigger bottles, a different cooler bag, and fewer pumping breaks.

Because of that, my routine was a bit off, but I blow dried my hair, checked work email really fast, fed the cat, and kissed Dave goodbye. I was out the door around 5:45.

I got to work around 6:20am, which is pretty typical at this point. It's a longer walk to my desk though (to get the key for the mother's room from a different building) and I stop in the mother's room on the way to my desk to drop off my pump parts and cooler. I do have two pumps so I leave one pump at home but I take the tubing home on the weekends to wash it, as well as the hands free pumping bra (to wash). So I need to remember those in addition to the normal bottles, pump parts, and ice pack. I always feel like I'm forgetting something. I try to remember snacks as well.

Workwise the morning was quiet. My manager was holed up with other management; some big decision are being made and it's been even more meetings than usual lately. I brought some snacks so even though I was hungry I waited until my first pump to have anything to eat. I did drink water though- I try really hard to stay hydrated to keep my milk supply up. Anyways, so I sat at my desk and caught up on work email, which I'm sorely behind on. I keep getting notifications that my mailbox is too full and I've been trying to delete things for a few weeks now. I also watched Dave get Neil ready in the morning- just the diaper change and giving him some medicine (reflux and then cough medicine because he's been sick) which is one of the highlights of my day and a reason I'm so glad we have actual video cameras for a video monitor. I can watch from my computer if I know the IP address and have the password.

At 9:00am I went to the mother's room to pump. It takes me about 15-20 minutes of actual pumping and less than a half an hour total away from my desk. It used to be 15 minutes but now if I do only two pumping breaks, if I think I need some more milk then I let it go a little longer. Today it was 18 minutes and I got almost 10 ounces. I need to get 16 total for the 2 8-oz bottles the next day. If I don't get everything at work though I usually have a little extra from my first pump in the morning.

I got back to my desk and had a bunch of emails and started remembering tasks I have to do that I had forgotten. So much for being a relaxed day.

Because I take breaks to pump I don't take a lunch right now. Most of the time I grab something in the cafeteria downstairs and whatever I eat, it's either in the mother's room (while pumping) or at my desk (while working). Today I was hungry so I grabbed an Italian hoagie in the cafeteria but ate it at my desk.

My second pump session was at 1:00. I pumped for 15 minutes because I got there late and had a meeting at 1:30 and got 5.5 ounces. Usually I get less the later in the day it is.

Once I hit 1:30 I was in meetings the rest of the day. That's pretty typical for me at work though.

I did leave the office around 3:45- I usually aim for between 3:30 and 4:00. Some of this is to get Neil from daycare but it's also really because I need to keep myself on a schedule pumping/nursing.  If I pump at 1 I'm due around 5 again. Sometimes it can take me an hour to get home so I have to account for that. Today it took me about 40 minutes to get home; traffic was really light.

I picked up Neil at daycare on my way home and talked to the woman who cares for him in the infant room in the afternoon. I like to communicate with her a lot and with him being sick and the transition to the bigger bottles the week before, I wanted to see how things were going. She said he did fine and didn't cough too much. (He seems to cough more in the evening and at night anyways right now.)

When we got home Neil wanted to eat even though he had just had a bottle at 3:15 according to the daily sheet I get. He always wants to eat and I think it's more of a bonding thing than anything else (although I know he gets milk too). It's gotten to the point that I even have a hard time changing out of my work clothes. I put him on our bed and he used to be fine with that and look at the fan but now he just starts crying. And I used to change his diaper and give him reflux medicine but he's so impatient he just cries. I can usually calm him down by singing to him but not right after work when he decides he wants to nurse. :)

Neil fell asleep while eating, content. When he was done though I tried to put him in the crib and he instantly woke up. So I carried him around and did my typical things- loaded the dishwasher because I'm out of bottles to take for pumping, got the rest of my stuff ready to bring to work (I usually get all the bottles, lids, and pumping gear ready, set out my clothes for the next day, and get the pump ready for in the morning since I'm so bleary eyed when my alarm goes off, etc.). By that time Dave was home. He cooked on the grill for dinner. I wanted to make Neil some carrot puree; I've been trying to make his baby food instead of buy it at least to start out. So I put him in the exersaucer right next to me and started peeling and chopping carrots to steam them. Neil handled that for a little bit but ended up fussing and wanted one of us. Dave finished the hot dogs as I finished the carrots, so we took turns eating, watching the carrots in the microwave, and holding Neil.

After I ate, Neil seemed hungry again and the carrots were a little too warm (but ready and pureed) so I nursed him. When he was done he was still wide awake and I put him in the high chair. Dave fed him and I forgot what I did but I know I was still just doing little things.

When Neil was done, it was time for me to run an errand. I counted my frozen stash of milk a few days ago. To my surprise I had about 450 ounces! Oops. You aren't supposed to be making that much extra. The milk content varies based on the time of day and age of the baby. But there was someone on Facebook who had asked for milk to help with her baby so I offered mine. I packed up about 150 ounces in a cooler and drove it over to her. She was willing to pick it up at our house, but that wouldn't be until Friday and she didn't live too far away so I offered to just drive it over.

I drove the milk over to the other mom, got gas on the way home, and when I got home Dave had started the bedtime routine and was reading Neil a book. I need to disappear while Dave is reading a book or Neil decides he's hungry and won't pay attention to Dave or the book (and fusses a lot). So I went downstairs and checked work email. Neil was actually falling asleep while Dave was reading to him, so Dave never finished the book anyways and I took over and nursed him. Tonight Neil went down REALLY well in the crib. He didn't even wake up when I put him in. Sometimes he will cry but it's not for long since we did sleep training. I was a bit nervous just because he's been sick, that he would be more clingy. But everything was fine.

By this time it was almost 9pm and I'm just tired. I wanted some me time though so I played some Sudoku and Scramble on my phone (love both of those games) and then I put my phone on the charger and went to bed around 9:45.

So this is a long post and I don't know if anyone will really read it- no pictures either. But wow yeah my life is different. I hope it illustrates just how different it is and how busy we are. And this is also why I have such a hard time fitting in exercise. It's a lot better though now that we do get Neil to bed around 9ish even though I usually go bed myself around 9:30 or 10.