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Day in the Life (4.5 months)

Hi hi! I never did a 4 month recap/update so I figure this can sort of serve as that too. It just amazes me how quickly she is changing, even after 3 months. I feel like Cam is already growing out of the holding and cuddling stage – she just wants to be moving all the time! Alot of the times, I don’t really know where the day goes so this at least helped me document it somewhat!

3:57 am – Wake up to feed Cam. Normally, she will sleep until 5ish, but on this night (early morning), she was up earlier. I feed her and put her back down.

6:44 – I hear Cam stir again but I can’t tell if she’s up for the day or just wants to eat. I feed her again and pray that she falls back asleep. She’s normally a little chatterbox in the morning. I always joke with Ed that she’s saying to us, “c’mon guys, let’s get up and start the day!”

I’ve been extra tired lately. Since she has started rolling (more on that later), she’s become a belly sleeper. I was so nervous the first few nights – Well, I still am nervous but I’m somewhat used to it now. I still wake up and look at the moniter often though, so I never feel like I’m still not getting into deep, restful sleep. She does go back to sleep, but just for 20 or 30 minutes, so we’re up around 7:30 to start the day. Sometimes she’ll go back to sleep until 8:30, but today is not one of those days.

7:35 – Start the coffee maker and get out my pumping stuff. I’m usually pretty engorged in the mornings, especially if she gives us a long stretch, like she has been. This day isn’t too bad since I just fed her. I just pump the other breast while drinking coffee and watching the Today Show. I put Cam down in her activity center and make my own breakfast.

Breakfast = Oats with bananas, raspberries, yogurt and peanut butter.

In addition to what I feel like is constant movement, she’s all about her hands and feet now. She has mastered “happy baby pose” and does that alot on her back, or on the changing table. She also has her hands (or feet) in her mouth 90% of the time!

8:30 – Put Cam in her carseat and take Tater for a walk. Tater loves to walk first thing, and I like to settle in with my coffee and oatmeal, so we don’t see eye to eye there. Most of the time, Ed will take her, but he’s out of town so the three of us head out!

8:50 – Settle back in. I put Cam on her playmat and quickly realize I can’t just leave her and walk away to do something like I used to. She started in the middle of the quilt, and somehow made her way up. I guess this is early crawling? It’s more like scooting. I lay down next to her and play a little with my 2nd cup of coffee.

I’m wondering if today will be a day of any productivity. I have a few freelance pieces I could write, and a BLT introductory client call scheduled in the afternoon. I know we’re gearing up for her first nap – she usually naps 1.5-2 hours after waking. But, she’s a cat napper.

9:20-9:45 – Cam naps. I manage to get things cleaned up from breakfast, and start a freelance piece for Women’s Running. I don’t get too far in, since Cam is up. She does usually get 11 hours at night (not straight, of course), so I guess I can’t complain too much about her catnaps. But, it does make doing any sort of work from home challenging, especially because things are still so unpredictable.

We have to be out of the house by 10:45 because we’re meeting my friend for lunch. In the meantime, I put her back in her activity center, and then her swing so I can respond to some emails and blog comments. This is her newest obsession with sucking on her hands and toes. She is drooling like crazy these days, so I do anticipate that teething is on the horizon.

Day in the life

10:30 – I feed her again before we leave and we head to the Noda area. We’re supposed to meet my friend Emily and her almost two year old daughter for brunch!

11:15- We were going to eat at Haberdish, but we arrive only to find out they’re closed for some sort of filming. We opt to eat at Crepe Cellar instead, which is just down the street and is supposed to open at 11:30. At 11:25, we saw my friend, Chrissie, a food blogger. She was actually going to the filming event at Haberdish and asked if we could come since we really wanted to eat brunch there. So, back to Haberdish we went!

However, with all the media in there, we learned that they wouldn’t be serving us food until 12-12:30ish. Initially, we figured it was fine and I ordered a bloody mary.

Things kept getting pushed back and eventually my friend took her toddler home because her toddler was starving and had to get ready for naptime. Cam was also getting pretty cranky. If only she was the baby that napped anytime we were out – nope. She can’t miss a thing, so by 1pm, she was beyond tired since she only napped for 20 minutes earlier. I knew if I stayed out she would just keep fighting her nap, so I headed home too.

And then sometimes you drive around for a little extra because the baby actually does fall asleep in the car and you don’t want to wake her if she is actually napping for real. So, I’m starving at this point but just driving around hoping Cam stays asleep. 25 minutes later, she wakes up again so I head home. I know she is due for a longer nap so I feed her when we get home and put her down. She slept for 2 hours!

At this point, it’s like 2:30 and I still haven’t eaten lunch so I make a plate of english muffin, avocado, eggs, banana and peanut butter!

Day in the life

I am also super productive in that time period. I do some work on an upcoming post, finish one of two freelance pieces with a soonish deadline, have a 15 minute introductory call with a client, and write down questions for an interview I’m doing with a local farmer. As far as seeing clients, I have started seeing a few at one of my contract jobs, but only one day a week for now. And usually when Ed’s here since we don’t have our part time childcare finalized just yet. But, with most of my BLT clients, we’re doing skype sessions and/or phone calls so I continue to do that!

4:05 – Cam is up and in much better spirits! I feed her again and we sing and do faces for a little bit. She’s so interactive and loves to make coo’s and ahh’s. She is smiling all the time and starting to giggle, which is beyond cute. She is also reaching for everything these days. If it’s within her reach, she’s going to try to grab it. This includes my hair (have lost lots of those to her), pillows, my phone, etc.

4:30 – I decide I want to do some light exercise, so I put a 20 minute fitness blender on and do it in front of Cam. She’s laughing and smiling while watching me. I can’t wait until I can start running with her in the running stroller, although I’m not rushing that. If you read Monday’s post, you know I’m still finding my own in running too!

5:15 – What I’ve been doing recently is either wearing her in the Ergo or setting her activity center up in the kitchen so she can watch dinner preparation. We also plan to start putting her in her high chair during meals. She can’t hold her head up yet and she’s not ready for solids just yet, but I want her to be included in dinner! Plus, Ed and I are trying to do a better job of eating at our table, not in front of the tv.

I don’t have too much dinner prep tonight (thankful for leftovers), but I do some cleaning in the kitchen and put some baby songs on for her while I do. She is just watching me as I cut some more veggies up to go on my pizza for later.

5:45 – I play with and cuddle some more. We usually start the bedtime routine around 6:40ish, so I like to spend this final hour with her. We read some books and play with Tater. Cam is SO IN LOVE with Tater. Now that she can see normal distance, she always knows where Tater is. She’ll turn her head every which way until she sees her. And she just laughs at Tater, even if Tater is just laying her. It’s so funny.

She’s becoming really good at reaching while holding her head and neck up. That’s got to be hard for babies to do, so I’m impressed! She is rolling belly to back and back to belly non-stop. She figured it out like 2 weeks ago and now can’t get enough.

Around 6:20, I take her in for a quick bath, and then start the bedtime routine and feed her her bedtime bottle. This is her favorite towel, it’s an elephant!

After she goes to bed, I’ll usually wash bottles, maybe do 30-45 minutes of work and reading, and eat dinner. I try to relax a little bit but sometimes this is the only time to get some work done. Dinner is leftover pizza from the night before. I eat it outside so I can throw the ball around with Tater a little bit.

And then I decide I want to read a book in bed, so I pump while I have some ice cream, shower and I’m in bed by 9:15!

Are you a bath or shower person?

Mammas, do you have babies that fight naps? Any tips?

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  1. I don’t have a baby but I do enjoy reading your day in the life posts. I think it’s great that you are able to juggle it all (or at least it seems like it). I honestly hope that one day I will be able to be half the mom you are. In the meantime I will keep up with you by just hanging out in the shower and AVOIDING bath tubs. I personally hate laying in a tub where the water is dirty before I even get a chance to get clean!

  2. It’s so fun to read your posts because my little girl is almost the same age as yours (she was 4 months last week). It’s cool to see that they are doing the same things (“happy baby”, hands and feet constantly in her mouth, etc.). She’s also so happy and talkative in the mornings! I’ve just started putting mine down for a morning and an afternoon nap. I try to get her to go for two hours and that usually means that I go back in 1-3 times to rock her and put her back down. Just trying to start some type of routine. Sometimes I just have to hold her and rock her even though she’s crying because I know she’s tired – after a few minutes she goes to sleep. This is my first baby so I’m just learning what works and going with it!

  3. Oh Sarah I enjoyed this post. I just had two days with my baby niece (about to turn 10 months). She was staying at my house and I even had a half day where I let everyone else go do some shopping while I stayed back and took care of her. Man oh man that was only part of a day and I now have a completely new open mind and appreciation for even a smidgen of what it is like being a Mom. They become your entire focus! I was amazed how, even though I had things I was thinking I “should be doing,” none of them even stood a chance against the importance of wanting/needing to keep this baby safe and happy. I loved every second, but wow. You seem to have found a way to still get in some things you want to do for yourself. Huge applause.

  4. Good luck with the naps! My son (now 2.5) was a cat napper until he turned a year, I weaned him, and he went down to one nap a day. It was at times frustrating and unpredictable and I never did figure it out. I too have a four month old and right now she takes a good morning nap and spotty naps the rest of the day. So she goes to bed for the night at 5:30! No tips but good luck and wow, she sure is cute! It’s such a fun age, isn’t it?

    1. Hi Kelli, thanks for sharing! Yes, 4 months is a very fun time. I can’t imagine doing it with a toddler running around just yet, so kudos to you! I’m not sure we ever figure these tiny humans out – from what I hear, once we think we do, they change again so I just try not to stress about it.

  5. Cam is such a cutie!! Tater is going to be quite the hit when Cam starts to crawl. I bet she’ll want to chase her.

    Typically I shower but I love a good epsom salt bath