A Day in the Life {of Maternity Leave}

Not that most of you care, but I thought I’d document what a typical day with an (almost) 7 week old baby looks like. We follow Moms on Call, so our entire day really revolves around a strict schedule. I didn’t think I’d ever be that mom who is crazy about following a minute by minute routine, but I tell ya, it works and we are sleeping so I don’t mind. Now, every day doesn’t quite look like this, but if all the stars align, this is what it should look like (which happens maybe 4 days a week).
Between 6:00 – 7:00 am: Caroline is up and a bottle is in her mouth. I prepare this bottle the night before so I can sleep in until the second she cries for breakfast. Usually Matt does this feeding so I can sleep in a bit.  
 
7:00 – 9:00 am: Matt fixes me a cup of coffee and kisses us goodbye. Caroline is either fussy for the next two hours on a bad day, or she’s quietly playing on her play mat or swinging so I can stir some instant oatmeal together, pump and reheat the coffee I haven’t sipped on yet. If Caroline dozes off, I’ll respond to emails and run through my blogfeed. 
 
9:00 – 10:00 am: Feed Caroline pumped bottle, followed by another 30 minutes of play time or swinging. 
 
10:00 – 12 pm: Caroline hopefully naps (in her swing or rock n play sleeper). This nap usually ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Depending on the length of nap time, this may actually be when I eat breakfast if I couldn’t sneak away for 1.5 minutes earlier (which happens more than you’d think). Other things I try and tackle during this time is getting dressed (usually in workout clothes), laundry, clean the bottles from the previous night, blog, meet some mommies in the neighborhood for a walk or squeeze in a quick workout DVD. 
 
12:00 – 1:00 pm: Caroline is awake and eating again. After she polishes off 4 ounces or so, I’ll pump before we jump in the car and meet Matt or a girlfriend for lunch and run some errands (Target, Harris Teeter, etc.). 
 
1:00 – 3:00 pm: Ideally the munchkin should nap for another two hours. Depending on what we were (or weren’t) able to do during the 10 am nap this may be the time we meet our friends for a walk, blog, do laundry, finish lunch, run errands, etc. 
 
3:00 – 4:00 pm: Another bottle and 30 minutes of playtime. I’ll read to Caroline, play with her on her activity mat, take a million pictures of her, etc. 
 
4:00 – 5:30 pm: Nap time! Matt walks through the door around 4:30 pm and takes over so I can pump and start prepping dinner (which is usually something super simple these days). 
 
5:30 – 6:30 pm: Matt feeds Caroline a bottle, plays with her for 30 minutes and starts rocking her to sleep for her next nap. I shower. 
 
6:30 – 8:00 pm: Caroline is usually pretty fussy and doesn’t want to nap so Matt rocks her in the rock n’ play while he eats dinner with the other hand. After dinner I’ll clean up the kitchen and prepare bottles for night time feedings. Matt gets bath time ready. 
 
8:00 pm: Caroline is in the tub and Matt does bath duty while I pump. 
 
8:30 pm: Matt and I alternate nights rocking Caroline to sleep in her room so we each get that quality time with her. This is one of my favorite parts of the day because she smells so yummy, is tired and just wants to cuddle while she takes her last bottle before bedtime. 
 
9:00 pm: Caroline is swaddled by daddy, white noise is blasting and we tip toe out of her room, finish off a glass of wine and collapse into bed. 
 
Between 1:00 – 3:00 am: Caroline wakes to feed. I take this shift, which usually lasts anywhere between 25 minutes to an hour. 
 
Between 3:00 – 5:00 am: Caroline wake again for another bottle. Matt takes this shift and puts her back to sleep.

Throw in somewhere between 9-12 diaper changes and that’s pretty much it. The days are long but somehow also fly by. Most days I get into bed and wonder what I did all day. Some days that’s nothing and we stay in our pajamas, other days I can get a whole lot done and feel somewhat accomplished. Regardless, I wouldn’t trade these hard, long days for the world.