Day in the Life: Spring 2017

It’s time for another Day in the Life post! I wasn’t very good at doing these consistently, but I’m shooting to do one of these every season. You can read more Day in the Life posts by clicking here. This time I thought I would change it up and write about a weekend. I apologize in advance for the horrendous photo quality. Apparently, I just didn’t feel like using my actual camera and my phone is only so so when it comes to certain lighting. So here we go:

Day in the Life: Spring 2017

Sunday April 30th, 2017

Chris is 34, Risa is 31, Olivia is 17.5 months, and Toby is 8 years old.

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5:57 am- I hear Olivia wake up crying. Chris gets up to get her, and brings her back in the room, so I can nurse her.

6:45- I have no idea how this much time has passed, but she’s fallen asleep, so I get up and bring her back to her crib. I’m hoping to get to sleep in a bit longer. But of course I come back to the room and have to pee. I get back in bed, but it’s awhile before I fall asleep again.

8:00- My alarm goes off. I hit the snooze, but get up five minutes later because I need to get going to go pick up a kids’ table and chair at a house 15 minutes away. I saw it on a Facebook garage sale group and it would be perfect for Olivia for her play area downstairs. And it was only $25. I head to the bathroom and decide I can skip the shower for today. (In my defense, I showered the day before in the afternoon.) I brush my teeth, dress and hear Chris get up to let Toby out and feed him. Olivia is still asleep, so I work on tackling my hair with dry shampoo and a straightener.

8:18- Come out of the room into the kitchen and Google the directions of the house where I’ll pick up the table and chairs.

8:23- I need to go wake Olivia (she loves to sleep in whenever I can’t), because I need to nurse her again before I leave. I go in and open her curtains, and shut off her white noise. She sits up in bed and smiles at me.

Toby has joined us and Olivia squeals at him. Toby is overjoyed to see her, too. I take off her blanket, and change her diaper. She gives me a well aimed, but totally undeserved kick to the stomach. I zip her back into her pajamas.

8:30- She hears her dad, so she runs out of her room and I have to chase after her. Tackle the baby, and bring her out to the living room to nurse her. I play on Facebook and reply back to questions about the stuff I’m selling on the same Facebook groups. I’m trying to get a bunch of Olivia’s stuff and some household things sold, because the money is all going towards another FET (frozen embryo transfer) for a sibling.

8:40- Finish nursing Olivia and the two of us join Chris in the kitchen. I lift my phone to take a picture, and he tells me not to take a picture of him, so I take a picture of him (He’s lucky it didn’t turn out). He starts making breakfast for Olivia of eggs and avocado toast, telling me if I wanted, I could get gas for his almost empty car. I gather my stuff and head out the door to pick up the table and chairs.

9:02- I was able to fit the table and chairs into Chris’ car, and even a little basketball hoop for Olivia as well for $7. If it’s something I can do, it’s find stuff for cheap.

I can’t in good conscious come home with his empty tank, since he would gas up for me if it were my car, so I stop at the gas station on the way home and fill up his tank. I have to call him like a moron because I can’t figure out how to open his gas door.

9:25- Arrive back home. Olivia greets me happily at the gate to the stairs in just her diaper. I come up, kiss her (7 times) (ok, 16.) and go say hi to Chris. He’s in the kitchen washing the breakfast dishes. Olivia wants to nurse again (I don’t know if it’s teething or what, but she has been wanting to nurse a ton lately) so I settle on the couch with her while Chris makes coffee. I pour some into a travel mug and relax for a few minutes before I have to leave again. Chris is reading to Olivia.

9:50- Head out again to meet a girl I was matched with for an infertility mentorship through Fruitful Fertility. We were meeting at a coffee shop, so I knew I could grab something to eat there.

10:20 to 11:30- Arrive at the coffee shop. It’s raining, but at least I am not as late as I thought I would be, as we said 10:15. We greet each other in the entryway with a hug and I immediately love her. I order a hot chocolate and a bagel with cream cheese and we go sit in a booth. We share our stories and I feel an instant connection with her. It was totally like Dating Infertiles 101. After telling each other we’d be in touch, I head back to my car. It’s still raining now, but not as hard.

12:00pm- Arrive back home. Chris and Olivia were just finishing lunch (macaroni and cheese, our canned applesauce and cucumbers and tomatoes) and he was washing her up by the sink. I take her to change her diaper and—surprise—nurse her again.

12:17- I put a pepperoni pizza Lean Pocket in the microwave and while it’s cooking, drag Olivia’s big bin of stuffed animals out while Chris gets in the shower, to occupy her while I eat.

12:30- I finish eating the Lean Pocket and tackle the baby to get her dressed back in her clothes after her own lunch. Bring her to her room because she’s starting to get ragey and fussy and rubbing her eyes. I put her in her blanket and make sure her lovie is in her crib. Turn her lullaby on, close the curtains and we sit in the glider and I nurse her to sleep.

12:50- She’s sufficiently passed out, so I lay her in her crib, turn her white noise on, and shut the door behind me. I decide to just go eat the other Lean Pocket, so I heat it up, and bring it downstairs. Chris is watching a game and going through his mail. I sit on the couch to eat, and we talk for a bit. I tell him how much I love my mentee.

1:00- I see I have a message from a girl wanting to buy a pair of Olivia’s shoes and start making plans to meet up this afternoon to sell them to her.

1:15- Go get her table and chairs from out in Chris’ car. Leave the basketball hoop out in the garage. Chris helps me assemble the table legs back together. It’s an adorable set, but the chair arms are loose. We’ll have to figure out how to fix them. Still, for $25 it was a great deal.

1:37- Sit down to write this post. A guy contacts me, wanting to know if the guitar I was selling was still available. I message him back, as well as continue to work out a time with the girl who wanted the shoes. Olivia only ended up sleeping for 30 minutes. That’s it. So she is awake and I can see her on the monitor trying to eat her way out of her blanket. Sonofabitch. Chris and I make plans to head to the mall after her nap for something to do. Agree to meet the girl at Target around 2:30. The guy seems to agree that 4:00 would work for the guitar pick up and I try to see if he’ll meet us at the mall.

2:10- Chris goes to get Olivia up and brings her downstairs. She sees her new table and chairs and immediately goes to check them out. Toddler approved.

I change her and he packs her a snack for the mall and a cup of water.

2:34- We are in the car on our way to Target. Olivia is happy and babbling in the back seat, so I am hoping she is like this at the mall.

2:46- Chris drops me off at the door to Target and I meet up with the girl in the entryway, coo at her baby, give her the shoes, and get back in the car to head over to the mall. Still waiting for the guy to get back to me about selling the guitar, so we’ve brought that anyway.

3:00 to 4:20- We arrive at the mall. It’s still raining, so Chris grabs her while I run inside with the stroller. Our first stop is the pet shop. I hate being there, but Olivia thoroughly enjoys herself for a solid 30 minutes with Chris. I wander with the stroller getting in everyone’s way.

It’s apparently National Pretzel Day, and I have a free pretzel from Auntie Anne’s so you betcha we made a pit stop after for a snack. Olivia scarfed down her crackers and raisons and promptly screeched at me to share my pretzel. She did not do this for Chris. Afterward, we walked to Burlington, because they have a toy section that occupies Olivia for awhile. Today, it’s crawling with kids and inattentive parents and the aisles are trashed. Seriously. It’s bad. Chris and Olivia helped clean up to make a pathway.

So. Bad. I buy some more sippy cups and a pair of size 5 shoes for Olivia and we leave. The guy hasn’t gotten back to me and in a last ditch effort, send him another message. He has yet to respond. I want to be done with selling this guitar. On our way out, we stop in the coffee shop and buy some Vanilla Hazelnut coffee beans for next weekend.

4:37- We pull into the garage. I empty the car, while Chris gets Olivia and brings her inside. We nurse, while Chris preps dinner. He then goes downstairs to grab the laundry and I take Olivia into our bedroom where he’s folding the clothes. I help him, while wrestling around with Olivia, making her laugh like a chipmunk, as only babies can do. He then starts cooking dinner for us, which is a new recipe from my Campbell’s cookbook. Creole chicken with sour cream sauce. Brown rice in the Instant Pot, and steamed broccoli. I put Netflix on for Olivia so I can help him.

5:45- Sit down to dinner. Olivia digs right in to her meal. She loves it. It’s ok. We ate all of it, but I don’t think I’ll make it again.

6:00- I finish eating. Chris finishes and goes to feed Toby and put my new license plate on my car, and I start in washing the dishes while Olivia finishes up.

6:10- She’s done eating, as evidenced by politely clapping her hands. This is an improvement over hollering and whipping food onto the floor. Chris helps her wash her hands, while I finish the dishes.

6:15- Bath night! This is Olivia’s favorite pastime. Besides nursing. She races ahead of me into the bathroom and I grab her pajamas, diaper, and a washcloth. Take some photos while she plays.

Toby joins us, and I try to get a picture with him. He doesn’t really get the concept. Olivia does though, go figure. She’s always willing to get in on a picture.

6:40- Olivia gets out of the tub and I dry her off, dress her (amidst random screams of displeasure), and brush her teeth. Chris takes over, bringing her to her room, getting her blanket on and reading books to her while I pick up the living room. While I realize this is a futile effort, as it’s just going to get trashed the next morning, it still makes me feel better at least going to bed with the living room cleaned.

6:57- Chris says they’re done reading, so I go in to nurse Olivia. He turns her lullaby on, gives her a sippy of water, and turns down the light. We say prayers and he kisses her head while she’s nursing on the Boppy. Then it’s just her and me in the darkened room. I gaze down at her, my heart swelling with love. She swings out a fist and punches me in the face.

7:20- Olivia is asleep. I lay her in her crib, turn her white noise on and shut her door. I change into pajama pants and go downstairs to join Chris on the couch. I get a message from the guitar guy, telling me he “can come get it now.” I mutter obscenities, but of course want to get rid of the thing, so I tell him he can come to our house to get it tonight or I can meet him at Target tomorrow evening, so I can go with Chris. He tells me he can be there tonight at 8:30. I agree. I sit on the couch to start “bumping” all my Facebook garage sale posts.

7:40- Chris gets me a cream soda (we have no cold wine) and I start working on this DITL post.

8:30- The guy is supposed to message me when he’s a few minutes out, so I head upstairs to change back into my jeans and sweatshirt. I’m nervous about the guy coming. I really only deal with women when we meet for sales, so having a guy come to my house is weird. Chris said he’d stand out in the entryway while I went out to the garage to meet the guy. But I’m still uncomfortable with it, and wish he’d do the sale instead.

8:45- The guy did end up showing up with his wife and he was actually really nice. They were Spanish-speaking and his wife translated for him. He was soft-spoken and smiled a lot. I immediately felt bad for being nervous about him coming. Chris ended up coming out with me to tool around the garage. The guy liked the guitar and handed me a 100 dollar bill. We say goodnight to them and come back inside. I immediately tell Chris I felt bad for being nervous about him coming. He then teaches me about the watermarks on the bill. I go back to blogging. We’re watching Jurassic Park on Netflix.

9:00- A friend texts me about some breastfeeding concerns with her new baby and we chat for a bit.

10:07- I have a Cheez-It craving. I’m not proud of it. But I go upstairs to grab the box. Jurassic Park is over, and Chris changes it to a Dave Chappelle stand up. We take a picture together to prove this all happened. The quality is so bad that I changed it to black and white.

10:40- I’m tired, so I save what I had written and head upstairs. On the way up, I realize I haven’t packed my gym bag for tomorrow (see, I’m not all about just eating Cheez-Its), so I assemble it quickly, and go to the bedroom to brush my teeth, change out of my clothes and grab a glass of water. I get into bed and write in my journal after checking on Olivia on the monitor and turning the fan and white noise on. I’ve become as high maintenance as my daughter when it comes to my sleep routine.

11:00- Put away the journal and grab my Nook. I’m reading the 5th book in the Outlander series, The Fiery Cross.

11:10- Chris comes up to bed with Toby.

11:16- Shut off my Nook. Debate having sexy time, but realize I’m way too tired and full of Cheeze-Its. Turn the lights out.

11:17- Think about all the problems I’m currently having all at once. Tell myself to go to sleep.

11:25- Check on Olivia one more time.

11:35- Realize I needed to reply back to a business for a potential sponsored post. Refrain from grabbing my phone. Tell myself to go to sleep.

Olivia blessedly sleeps all night.