I don’t know about you, but my days are crazy. A typical work day for me looks a bit like this:
6:00 am – Wake up and take shower
6:15 am – Wake baby up and get us both ready
7:00 am – Drop baby off at Nana’s (only a day or two a week) or trade off with hubby
7:30 am – Head to work (I have a bit of a commute)
9:00 am – At work
1:00 pm – Lunch
5:00 pm – Leave work
6:00 pm – Pick up baby from Nana’s or arrive home
8:30 pm – Baby bedtime
9:30 pm – Bed
That seems like a nice little daily schedule with what seems like a lot of white space, right? Well, let me open up some of those tabs:
6:00 6:10 am – Wake up and get ready
I always set my alarm for 5:30 with very good intentions of getting up early, but let’s face it – that rarely happens, especially if the baby keeps me up the night before. Also – I am just not a morning person, I’ve tried. So let’s make actual wake up time 6:10 am. Also, I forgot I have a meeting today with a big client – rats! Add a few minutes to rummage through clothes to find something that fits my very different post-baby body. It’s now 6:27.
6:15 6:27 am – Wake baby up and get her dressed and fed
Since my offspring inherited my genes, she is also not a morning person. I wrestle with getting her chunky baby arms in a onesie and try to tame her cute little brown locks. Change and feed – actual baby wake up/fed/dressed appropriately for the Indiana weather…how about 7:00 am.
Last minute check of bags.
- Diaper bag [check]
- Cooler bag with bottles [check]
- Pump bag with cooler [check]
- Purse [check]
- Lunch bag [check]
- Laptop/work bag [check]
7:00 7:12 am – Drop baby off at Nana’s or trade off with hubby
get to Nana’s around 7:12.
7:30 am – Head to work
We visit for a couple minutes and make faces at Baylee to distract her from the fact I am leaving. Morning feeding schedule briefing – I jump in the car and head off to work.
(Let me preface this part by telling you that I commute 53 miles one way to work)
I typically use any extra time before work to grab some breakfast and coffee. If I’m really efficient in my driving tactics, I can sit down at Starbucks for a minute and catch up on a chapter of my latest read, ‘Grace not Perfection’ by Emily Ley (thanks, Jessi for the reccomendation!)
9:00 8:45 am – At work
I usually arrive at work about 15 minutes early, just to be able to catch up with co-workers and warm up my coffee. Then the real craziness begins…
Emails, meetings, custom design/print projects with insanely quick deadlines, negotiating supplier contracts, proofing, editing, printing, phone calls, sales proposals… you name it.
1:00 pm – Lunch
Usually skipped or used to fill up on gas or pay some bills. Then back to proofing, editing, emailing, saving the world one creative solution at a time.
5:00 pm – Leave work
I am so anxious to leave right at 5:00 because the traffic will get gnarly. I also always have this image of the baby screaming non-stop and wreaking havoc while whoever has her does everything in their power to console her, so I buzz through traffic almost panting by the time I arrive at my destination. Of course, I always manage to get stuck at the same spot, causing my departing commute to be more like 75 minutes.
6:00 6:15 pm – Arrive home or pick up baby from Nana’s
If hubby is on baby-watch that day, he is exhausted and ready for a break…like an hour ago (understandable since he also helps out with his Grandfather a lot and does chores outside). The house is…well, let’s just say I spend the first 30 minutes of my time back home cleaning bottles that we need for that evening, figuring out what happened to cause 4 opened cracker packages and socks to litter the couch, and throwing some sort of dinner together, which can vary from leftovers, pizza or something else less nutritious (cereal anyone?).
Catch up with hubby, play with baby, help water cows, then look at the clock to realize it’s 7:30 – cereal and bath time for baby to get her wound down. Then try to get all the loud things done that I can’t do after baby goes to sleep like make baby food, vacuum, put laundry away (not a loud sport, but our closet butts up against the nursery wall). I wholeheartedly believe in training your baby to sleep through noises, but when you have a 900 sq. ft. ranch home, even brushing your teeth can be heard in the farthest part of the house.
8:30 pm – Baby bedtime
After family Bible time and prayers, Hubby and I trade off putting baby to bed depending on work schedules and who will be “on night shift” that night for any baby-related wake up calls.
Re-stock baby bag, find missing socks/pacifiers/bottle nipples, run dishes and other miscellaneous things to get ready to do it all over the next day.
This is also hubby and me time where we can spend watching favorite shows, catching up, sipping hot chocolate, or eating popcorn.
9:30 pm – Bed
1:10 am – Potential baby wake-up time
It seems crazy, because it is. I know it looks like I have time management issues, but I would like to think there is another woman who’s schedule looks like mine (or even similar). I have a feeling there are working momma’s that know how I feel when I talk about the lack of margin in their day and…my goodness, All. The. Bags.
I am scheming several ways to be able to be at home more (stay tuned!), but for now, it will be a busy season.
I am beginning to realize the challenges that come with being a new mother – those little time slots that used to be white space are now filled with all kinds of baby things or even sharing a giggle-tickle fest with my family which, in my mind, is completely worth the crazy.
