A Day in the Life: Maternity Leave

Ever wondered what I'm doing all day these days? Here is a somewhat typical day in the life of Kelly on maternity leave :) The only major difference is that because I wanted to go to yoga at 1, Max's feeding schedule was nothing like normal. Also, Max has no nap schedule yet so sometimes he is awake all morning and sometimes he naps. Plus on a real typical day my mom comes over, brings me lunch, cleans up my house and entertains me for a bit. So I guess, there is no typical day in the life of me at the moment.

Full disclosure: If the day starts at midnight, we were already wake at 1:30am and 5:00am. I'm totally okay with this since the night before was a big mess of inconsolable crying. 

6:50am- I hear Max crying on the monitor. I go get him and we get downstairs just in time to say bye to Eric :) 

7:00am- Max gets a diaper change. Max eats. I read my book. I'm reading Rules of Civility. 

8:00am- Now, I eat an egg, toast and an apple. I make faces and talk to Max while I eat. 

8:30am- Max takes a nap and I go into crazy productivity mode. I pick up around the house (seriously, being home all day creates SO much mess!), I put up Max's 6 week blog post, I e-mail back and forth with Caroline about birth announcements, I FINALLY order them, I finish a couple of thank you notes, I pay two bills. I start a load of laundry. 

9ish- Max squirms around and gets a bit fussy. I pick him up and we dance around the house to the country music Pandora station. He enjoys this and then promptly falls back to sleep, ha ha. Productivity continues. 

9:30am- Max gets another diaper change. Max eats again. I read blogs on my phone. 

10:30am- We have Max and Mom reading time for a little bit. You can see below Max finds reading time VERY interesting. I don't know if reading to babies at this age has any advantages (it must though!), but I miss reading to 5 year olds every day, so Max and I read instead :) Then I try to convince him how fun tummy time is. I didn't take a photo of his tummy time because I am now doing planks while he does tummy time, lol. Max finds this amusing and it helps convince him to lift up his head so he can see mom trying to find her abs again. 

11:30am- Max eats again (seeing a pattern?). I eat a bagel with peanut butter while I'm feeding him. I hope getting peanut butter crumbs all over your child does not contribute to peanut allergies...

12:15pm- Max takes over Eric's bed spot while I get ready for yoga. Then, Max gets a diaper change and I put him in clothes. I pretty much only put clothes on him when we are going out because he is always HOT. He gets this from Eric, not me. But I do appreciate that he heats me up every time I feed him!

12:40pm- Max and I head out to postnatal yoga. I'm allowed to bring Max :) 

1:00pm- I get my butt (actually my abs) kicked in yoga while Max sleeps peacefully in the car seat. When he starts to make noises I rock the car seat with my foot. It makes yoga poses interesting :) 

2:30pm- We head home and I decide to push my luck and see if Max will let me take a nap before I feed him again. He rewards me for the frequent feedings this morning by letting me sleep another hour. Best baby ever. 

3:30pm- Max gets a diaper change and pees on his nice blue outfit. He gets naked again and then eats. I read People magazine and catch up on the important gossip of the world. After awhile I switch back to my book. Max slow plays this feeding big time. 

4:45pm- I take a shower and put a new outfit on Max. 

5:00pm- We take Max out to dinner with Eric's parents at Not Your Average Joes. For the second time today, he sleeps peacefully in his carseat. Am I going to pay for this later? (hint: yes, he was a fussy pants all weekend). 

6:30pm- We arrive home and Eric's parents give Max a bottle while I pump. We try to give him a bottle once a day so he is used to it when I go back to work. He is happy to take it as long as I don't give it to him, then he gets extremely angry. Apparently this is common? 

7:00pm- My college roommate Ashley arrives for a weekend visit and cuddles with her new buddy Max for awhile!

8:30pm- Max gets another diaper change and I feed him. 

9:15pm- We start to wrap up the feeding and swaddle him up. Max hates to not have access to his hands, and he busts out of the swaddle if he try to put them in, so we let him have them out now. After we swaddle him I usually feed him a little more and hold him up/burp him for awhile. 

10:00pm- Max goes into his crib and goes to bed. Yay! 

10:30pm- I check in on Max on the monitor. Is he picking his nose? Oh well- I'm going to bed! 

Another night begins!