Day in the Life: Winter 2018

It’s time for a winter Day In The Life post!

You can read more Day in the Life posts by clicking here.

Day in the Life: Winter 2018

Monday, January 29th

Chris is 35, Risa is 32, Olivia is 26 months, and Toby is 9 years old.

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2:30 am- I wake up and have to pee. Luckily, I fall back asleep fairly quickly.

6:13 am- I wake up again. Chris has already left for work and I completely missed him getting up. I kind of have to pee again and I debate getting up, but try to go back to sleep. Currently, the hormones for my premenopause diagnosis aren’t working again and I’ve been waking up almost every night to pee (more on this in another post). Fall back asleep.

7:01 am- I hear Olivia start talking. I keep my eyes closed wanting to sleep a little bit longer. I need to stop going to bed after 11:00 pm.

7:20 am- I check the monitor and she looks suspiciously like she’s trying to undress so I get up to grab her, planning on bringing her back to bed to nurse.

She hasn’t taken off her sleeper, but she did pull off of her diaper and is proudly babbling about her success. I ask her if she has to go potty and she shouts, “Yeah!” Take her to the bathroom and she pees. We clap. I bring her back naked to her room to put a new diaper on and dress her. We head out to the living room and I get some Honey Nut Cheerios in a snack cup, turn on PBS, and bring Toby downstairs to go outside.

7:33 am- I get in the shower while Olivia is watching TV. Olivia comes in and gets up on the bed to jump. I finish getting dressed and we make the bed together before heading out of the room. I fill up my Yeti with ice water.

7:55 am- I shut the TV off so she doesn’t get distracted and while she’s nursing, I catch up on notes for this post on my phone.

8:05 am- Her doll wants to nurse. I’m telling you, the joys of nursing a toddler. I survey my living room and conclude it’s probably never going to be clean again. Olivia is done and gets off the couch, flipping my shirt down as she metaphorically closes up shop. I don’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed, but we still have a long day ahead of us, so I choose joy.

I turn the TV back on (don’t judge) and head to the kitchen to make smoothies for us.

8:26 am- I take my smoothie downstairs and go do my hair and makeup, checking on Olivia periodically. Then I pack up the laptop and fill up my smaller bottle of water to take with me to the gym. I get upstairs and Olivia has finished her smoothie, so I asked her to take it to the sink. She’s been loving helping and being useful around the house, so I have to take advantage of it.

She wants to watch “Goo Mee!” which is Olivia for Goofy and Mickey, which also means the Three Musketeers on Netflix. So I turn it on for her and sit down to finish my smoothie. My cell phone casts a light on the ceiling and Olivia shouts out “White!!!!” It’s a game we I play. We call it our light friend that visits sometimes, and I have some fun wiggling my phone around while she talks to it. Because it’s the simple things in life, right? After I finish my smoothie, I head to the kitchen and quickly do the dishes, give her her probiotic, and then start the car because it’s freezing out. She’s asking for the last banana. We need to go to the gym today because I have some work I need to get done. I tell her she can have it later and we bundle up and head out to the car.

9:08 am- Buckled up, and heading to the gym.

9:20 am- We arrive, but the parking lot is packed, and I drive around for 6 minutes, finally parking in the other lot, the one for the community center, and a longer walk to the gym check in, but at least we’d be walking inside. She’s taken off her socks and shoes, so I spend a few cold minutes putting those back on while she exclaims, “Coh!! Coh!! Brrrrrrr!” No shit, kid. Too bad this is an everyday occurrence in the winter. We get inside and check in after hanging up her coat and hat in the cubby outside the child care. She hangs back uncertain while I check her in, but they are opening up the toddler gym and she sees the other kids line up. She gets her name tag sticker and goes to join the line. I say goodbye and wave to her and she waves back. One of our better separations.

9:37 am- I head back down to where we came in, hoping the one table with the outlet is open and luckily it is. I sit down, set up my computer and spend some time drafting this post to save time later.

10:05 am- Start working on the edits for an article I’m working on that my editor requested. Upload it to the site and submit it.

10:43 am- I’m wishing I had made coffee to bring with because I’m feeling a lull now. Go back to my website and start writing up my Microblog Monday post for publishing today on Olivia and her language development, which if you missed it, you can read it here.

11:19 am- Decide to stop and pack up so I can get Olivia, since I’m going on the max time of the two hours she can be in the childcare. She comes flying out of the kid’s gym, babbling excitedly and I give her some sanitizer (which she is not a fan of and I didn’t get a good job in) before bundling her back up for the car. She wants a snack, but I have to tell her I didn’t have anything, kicking myself for not always having a snack with me.

11:45 am- Arrive back home. I have to take a deep breath when I see she’s taken her socks and shoes off yet again. We go to the bathroom so she can wash her hands, and come out to the kitchen. She asks for the damn banana again. I grabbed an egg and the leftover pancakes from the refrigerator and fry her up the egg and heat up the pancakes, spreading peanut butter on them for her lunch while she watches me.

12:00 pm- I cut up her pancakes, and her egg and wash up some raspberries. It’s not pretty but she loves it. I start making a sandwich of ham and swiss with lettuce on sourdough and put some BBQ chips on the side. I grabbed some containers of vegetables from the fridge and see that Olivia has finished her lunch in the time that took for me to make mine. Girl loves to eat. I cleaned her up and she hung out with me while I ate.

12:25 pm- I finish with my lunch and do the dishes. I only have about a half hour before we have to go to her GI consult. After I do the dishes I bring Olivia to the bathroom and she pees on the potty again. We clap. I get a new diaper on her and then I start packing up for the car ride. She wants to nurse so I settle her down while I look up the directions to get to the clinic. When she’s done, I get us ready and out the door.

1:04 pm- We’re on our way! I use my GPS to get there and Olivia eventually falls asleep in the car, thankfully. It’s about her nap time, but this was the first available appointment I could get. It’s still only 16° out, but at least it’s sunny.

1:29 pm- We pull into a spot right in front of the door. She’s passed out in the back seat, but luckily left her shoes on this time. We check in and Olivia finds the play area. I see a text from Chris asking how our day has been. He’s been busy and it’s the first time we’ve talked all day.

We get called back soon after and Olivia plasters herself flat on the floor with her face pressed into the carpet. I have to go into the room and put my stuff down before I can pick her up, having gone completely limp, only like a two-year-old can. She screams during the height and weight check which gives us completely inaccurate information. More on this visit in another blog post.

2:27 pm- We’re waiting to get orders for blood work and Olivia has fully recovered from the trauma. When we are checked out, we make our way back to the car, with Olivia asking pitifully for a snack, the banana, of course. Of course, I didn’t bring a snack. Again.

3:00 pm- We get home, wash our hands and I get her a little bowl of Veggie Chips while I read her some books, hoping she’ll take a nap, even if it’s a late one. She wants to nurse after awhile, so I pull the shades and turn on her lullaby and we settle in the glider to nurse.

3:37 pm- After I leave her room, I get downstairs and eat my Juice Plus while I set up the laptop and turned on the TV. I blog while watching a Netflix movie “47 Meters Down.”

5:00 pm- Olivia is awake, so after I let Toby out, I head upstairs to get her and start dinner. She helps me pour ingredients. We’re making a macaroni and cheese in the Instant Pot and for my pothead friends—this one is a keeper! I got the pasta in the pot cooking and shred cheese. Olivia sits at the table with some cheese shreddings and uses her stamp markers we got from Ikea.

5:18 pm- Chris comes in the door and Olivia runs to greet him. I continue making dinner and Olivia plays. Chris and I chat a bit and he goes to feed Toby and gives him his medication.

5:45 pm- We sit down to dinner. Olivia eats her tomatoes and strawberries but did eventually eat her serving of mac and cheese. She’s a weirdo toddler who usually doesn’t eat it, but this one she does. Then she begs for the last banana and I’m so sick of her asking that I give it to her. And then she gives me this face and I’m all, “You can have ALLL the bananas!”

6:10 pm- Olivia is done first and Chris and I finish soon after, clearing the table and Chris and Olivia empty the dishwasher. Olivia wants to nurse again. She’s had a runny nose and cough that’s gradually gotten worse the last few days, so I oblige, to get as many antibodies as she can. We sit on the couch while Chris finishes up.

6:30 pm- Bath night! While Olivia is in the tub, Chris attempts to remove our toilet seat to set up the new one, that has a second lid with a smaller hole for Olivia to use.

We’ve been using the travel seat, but it’s a pain to take it on and off. He has a hard time with the bolts, so leaves it loose to finish tomorrow. Somehow, I know I’m going to regret telling him to do this when I forget and go to sit down. I finish up my post and reply to some comments, emailing a friend I had plans with tomorrow that we may need to reschedule with Olivia’s cough. I read a book I got from the library.

When Olivia is done, she comes running out and we take some pictures together.

I give her her Juice Plus I almost forgot about and her second probiotic dose, hoping to kick this cold. Chris calls her back when he’s cleaned up the bathroom for her to brush and floss her teeth. I keep reading.

7:37 pm- They’ve finished reading books in her room and Chris tells me she’s ready for bed. We turn off the lights, she chooses the color of her ladybug that casts stars on the ceiling, Chris says prayers, and we sit in the dark nursing. She’s been in this stage at night where she strokes my throat over and over in the same spot and it drives me batty. So I can’t be on my phone because she feeds off my distraction. After a while, she stops and actually tells me she’s done. I bring her to her crib and snuggle into her for a moment before laying her down. She drinks some water and lays down so I can cover her. I brush her hair and tell her I love her.

7:45 pm- I go to my bedroom and change into pajamas and take my magnesium, vitamin D, and reflux med. Then I head downstairs where Chris is watching some documentary on Netflix. We talk about our days and pour a glass of wine. I take out the laptop again and work on this post. I pitched some articles ideas to an editor last night, so I don’t have any more pressing work to do and allow myself this time to blog.

9:00 pm- Debate getting the Chicken in a Biskit crackers and cheese from upstairs and take a blogging break. I cave and Chris and I eat some while watching “The Crown” on Netflix. I keep working on this post and edit the photos to put in.

10:10 pm- I call it a night and log out, filling out my bullet journal and planner for the next day.

10:30 pm- Head upstairs and get ready for bed. I spend some time reading on the couch until I feel tired.

11:07 pm- Get into bed. Write in my journal and shut off the lights. Chris comes to bed about 20 minutes later, but I’m still having trouble falling asleep.