a day in the life... with an (almost) four month old

When I was pregnant, and following quite a few mommy blogs, I read several "day in in the life" postings of the mamas and their kiddo's routines.  I decided to write up a typical weekday for Arlo and I now that he is four months old and we are starting to develop some sort of a daily routine of our own.  Had this been done any earlier than three months, it would have been a list of regimented pumping and feeding times and basically nothing else.  So I will spare you that uninteresting list of activities.  Not sure that this is any more entertaining, however for my own curiosity I want to be able to compare things now with how things are when he is six months or a year old.  

A day in the life with an (almost) four-month-old... 

Monday 4-28-2014:

7:45 am:  Arlo wakes up and starts happily babbling to himself. When he sees that I am awake I am greeted with a large, gummy smile.  I sleepily lay there talking to him until he shows signs of wanting to eat. He has slept almost two hours later than usual today, but this is because he woke up to eat last night around 3 am. He has routinely been sleeping through the night for a while now, but once a week or so he still wants to eat in the middle of the night. Usually we wake up for the day around 6:00 am.

morning baby

8:00 am:  Feed bottle of pumped milk.

8:20 am:  I pump for 20 to 30 minutes. This is the second time today, as I also pumped when Arlo woke up at 3 am.

8:45 am:  Start getting Arlo ready for the day. This involves washing his face and hands, a fresh diaper and getting him changed into his first outfit of the day.  You will see what I mean about that in a minute...

happy to be naked!

9:00 am:  Head downstairs and Arlo sits in his bouncy seat in the dining room with me while I have breakfast. If he gets fussy, which he seems to do quite often whenever we are eating, I will hold him on my lap until I'm finished with breakfast. Usually my breakfast is oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar, but today I felt like something quick so I had cereal.

9:20 am:  A short playtime session that if nothing else, will include some tummy time. At the first sign of fussiness, I know he is ready for his morning nap.

playtime, current favorite toy - his oball rattle

 9:30 am:  I realize that not only is his outfit covered in drool, but his diaper has also started to leak. We head to the nursery for his second outfit change of the day, and a fresh diaper. I also use this time to "top off his tank" with another feeding before his nap. He eats about 2oz, which is half of his normal meal. He falls asleep eating, and I sit in the nursery rocker enjoying some snuggle time with the little man.

sleepy time snuggles

10:00 am:  I put Arlo down for his nap in the rock n' play. He sleeps in our bedroom because the baby monitor is in there and I can hear him if he makes any noise. His morning nap is something that I am always guaranteed, and it is by far the longest nap of the day. He will sleep anywhere between two and four hours and this is when I can get most of my housework done. I start with a cup of decaf coffee, which provides no energy but I pretend that it does and enjoy the taste nonetheless.  Then, I start my daily battle with the ever growing laundry pile, to which I am currently losing.  I might also use this time to catch up on emails, tidy up the house, and maybe even have time for a little sewing or something that I want to do for myself.

1:00 pm:  Lunch for me. Leftover brown rice spaghetti with green peas. Nothing too exciting today. Usually lunch is leftover dinner from the evening before.

1:30 pm:  Pump.

2:30 pm:  Arlo wakes up from an epically long nap. Yesterday was Sunday, and we were out and about most of the day so he didn't really get a solid, uninterrupted nap. I knew he would sleep quite a bit today because of this. Right when he wakes up he wants to eat so I already have a bottle ready and waiting for him.

3:00 pm:  By this time, Lucy is giving me the stink eye and I know she is more than ready for her daily walk.  Arlo is finished eating and I change his diaper and get ready to go. Usually this is done earlier in the day, but waking up later than usual combined with a long nap has pushed back Lucy's walk until later in the day. I quickly eat a snack of a half of an apple with peanut butter before we leave.

3:25 pm:  Head out for our walk. It is a bit of a production to get out the door. I get out the jogging stroller, put on Lucy's harness and get her attached to the stroller, and make sure Arlo and I are dressed appropriately and have all of the blankets, hats, sunglasses, water, etc. that we will need for our walk.  Gone are the days of grabbing the dog leash and my ipod and running out the door...

my entourage. ha.

4:15 pm:  Home from our walk. I set Arlo in his bouncer seat while I put the stroller back in the shed, and when I come inside three minutes later he is passed out again. Usually he is wide awake in the afternoon and we have playtime right now, but apparently he is still worn out from yesterday. I use this opportunity to clean up the kitchen and put away laundry that was washed earlier in the day.

5:15 pm:  I decided to start dinner, but right after I do Arlo wakes up and starts to cry so I put everything on hold and start to feed him.  He always seems to know when we want to eat and seems to try his best to keep that from happening.

5:30 pm:  This is where our day loses any sort of "schedule" and just about anything can happen... Erik gets home from work. He picks up where I left off on making dinner while I finish feeding Arlo and change his diaper.  His clothes are covered in a large spit-up so we put on his third outfit of the day.  Laundry pile: 3.  Kendra: 0.  I then put Arlo in the wrap carrier and help Erik finish up dinner.  Not an easy task however, as tonight Arlo has taken a keen interest in staring at the floor, so between opening the cans of beans and checking the rice, I am also wrestling to keep him from launching himself out of the carrier and onto the floor that he is trying so desperately to examine.

6:30 pm:  We eat dinner, with Arlo on my lap as this is typically his fussy time and he does best if he's hanging out with us.  Tonight Arlo decides to make a grab for the placemat under my plate, and I am given a glimpse of what the future holds for us in these upcoming months. Erik quickly pulls it in the other direction, away from the grabby baby hands.  At least Arlo is reaching in the direction of the roasted brussels sprouts, canellini beans with red peppers, and brown rice.  Let's see if he will actually want to eat these things when the time comes...

7:10 pm:  I attempt playtime again with Arlo, but he quickly gets fussy and I realized that I don't have the next bottle ready for him. I start defrosting some frozen milk.

7:15 pm:  Now I have realized that I should've pumped an hour or two ago, so I hand over Arlo to Erik (who has to stop cleaning up dinner dishes to help) while I go pump. Erik walks around the house with him trying to keep him calm until the bottle is ready, and then feeds him when it is. I start washing a load of diapers when I am done.

8:00 pm:  Arlo is still fussy so I take over while Erik goes back to cleaning the kitchen. We sit in the office on my birthing ball where it's dark and quiet and I sing my silly made-up song called "bouncy baby" while we gently bounce on the ball.

8:30 pm:  Finally he is calm and we make our way upstairs to change his diaper and put his PJ's on. If tonight was bath night we would do that at this time, but tonight is an off night. I feed him a small amount as I know it will help him off to sleep, and tonight we have a phone chat with Erik's mom while Arlo takes his bottle.

9:00 pm:  Arlo starts off the night by sleeping in his rock n' play, and Erik and I can finally have some time for ourselves. I indulge in a frozen sorbet bar and this is when Erik and I usually have some tv time and hang out together. Tonight though, Erik has some stuff he wanted to get done on the computer so I fart around on pinterest/FB/instagram for a bit.

9:30 pm:  Time to start the bedtime routine for me. I gather up all the pump stuff and bottles I will need for the night/early morning and head upstairs to shower. I also finish up the diaper laundry and hang them up to dry. Erik stays up a bit later than I do so he can feed Arlo once more. This is our dirty little trick to helping us all sleep through the night.

10:30 pm:  I have to pump once more then usually fall asleep watching some bad 90's sitcom rerun on tv.

10:40 pm:  Erik wakes up Arlo to feed him once more and change him into a disposable diaper, as I have yet to figure out a cloth diaper that has the potential to adequately hold what this kid puts out during the night.  Whenever we wake up in the morning, whether it's 4am or 7am, I will change him into a cloth diaper, so we are really only using one disposable per day. After Arlo is fed and changed, Erik brings him into the bedroom and places him in the cosleeper next to me.

And that, my friends, is a day in the life with an (almost) four month old Arlo.  He sure keeps us busy but that sweet smiling face is reason enough to want to wake up and do it all over again the next day.  And perhaps, one of these days, I just might win the battle with that laundry pile of mine...