A Day in the Life...

Several weeks ago, Ashley did a post on what a normal day looks like for her. I thought this was a really good idea because sometimes at the end of the day, I look back and wonder what I even did all day?? Plus, our schedule is constantly changing, so I think it will be good to be able to look back and remember what my days were like while Aubrey was little. I actually wish I had done this when she was younger because I'm already forgetting exactly what our routine was. My, how quickly we forget! I think that's a good thing though :o)

So here we go... a day in the life of Carrie and Aubrey.

7:45AM: Wake up. (She's been sleeping later this week --yay!) I change Aubrey and give her her morning bottle.

8-8:45: Aubrey plays in the office while I check my email, read blogs, etc. This usually consists of Aubrey crawling out of the room and me going to get her after a second. Repeat about 20 times. After I finish on the computer, we play in another room.

8:45AM: Breakfast time! Aubrey usually has cereal and a fruit for breakfast.

9-10:30AM: We usually play during this time. Sometimes we look at books in Aubrey's room. Sometimes we play in the living room. Sometimes we do both. Her favorite thing to do though is crawl all over the house while I follow her around. She will pick up the tiniest piece of something off the floor and put it in her mouth before I even know what is going on. I spend a lot of my time these days fishing little pieces of who-knows-what out of her mouth. Guess I need to sweep the floor more!

10:30-11AM: Aubrey usually starts getting tired and fussy around this time, so we prepare for naptime. She's been fighting her naps lately, so sometimes I have to try to put her down a couple of times before she actually goes to sleep. I do let her cry it out, but I can usually tell if she's going to give it up and go to sleep or not. I'll only let her cry for so long until I go get her and try again about 15 minutes later. Usually she'll go right to sleep after that.

11-1PM: Naptime! During this time I usually take a shower, get myself ready, straighten up the house, sometimes do laundry, etc. I'm also lazy sometimes (just keeping it real!) and get on the internet, watch TV, or read a book. I also try to eat my lunch before Aubrey wakes up.

1PM: Aubrey usually wakes up around this time. I feed her lunch. Sometimes I still feed her baby food, but I've been feeding her more and more table foods lately. Table food definitely requires more thought, time, and preparation, but she really prefers it these days.

1:30-3:30PM: We do all kinds of different things during the afternoon hours. Sometimes we play. I usually bathe Aubrey during this time. (I still only bathe her every other day.) If we have errands to run, this is the time we usually go. Aubrey gets another bottle during this time. Up until very recently, she had been taking 4 bottles a day, but now that she's 11 months old, we've cut back to 3 bottles a day. If she seems hungry, sometimes she'll still have 4 bottles a day. I've been trying to give her a "solid" snack in the afternoon instead of another bottle, and that seems to work well. I just follow her hunger cues -- we've never been on a strict eating schedule. On-demand feedings have just always worked best for us.

3:30-4:30(ish)PM: Aubrey takes an afternoon nap. Well, on a good day, that is. She's recently decided that she only needs one nap a day. She's wrong though, because she's in a horrible mood when she doesn't take 2 naps a day. I'm working on getting her back to taking 2 naps a day. She's been doing better lately with her afternoon nap. Usually this nap is shorter than the morning nap, but if she does happen to sleep later, I never let her sleep past 5:30.

4:30PM: David comes home! Aubrey is usually asleep or just waking up when he gets home (if we've had a good day!) so I talk to him and hear about his day when he gets home or we'll talk while he plays with Aubrey.

Ok, here is where it gets different! David and my dad teach Karate at our church on Mondays and Thursdays from 6-7:30PM. I've always gone to the church with David during this time, and I went with my parents before David and I got married. (This is actually where David and I met!) My mom goes with my dad, and so my mom and I just hang out. Most of the time we leave the church and go shopping. Sometimes we just read our books. After Aubrey was born, I have just kept going with David and taken her with me. I feed her her dinner around 6PM at the church, and then she goes shopping with my mom and me or we take her to the nursery and let her play while we chat. It's kind of a weird schedule, but it works for us! It's just what we've always done. On Wednesday nights we have church, so it's pretty much the same thing. Tuesday nights are our nights to stay home and I cook dinner. After dinner we usually go on a walk as a family, or just hang out. On the weekends, we eat out.

8-8:30PM: We start the bedtime routine. David is so wonderful and actually does bedtime with Aubrey! I love this not only because it gives me a break, but also because I feel like it's their special time together. I think this time together will mean more and more as Aubrey gets older. I usually fix her bottle while David changes her and puts her pajamas on her, and then I go tell her goodnight, and he feeds her the bottle and puts her down. (I'm usually preparing dinner for us on Mondays and Thursdays while David is giving Aubrey her bottle -- we eat really late on these 2 days.) As Aubrey gets older, I would like to read books before bed as a family -- read her a Bible story and pray with her. Anyway, at this point, she's not really into books, especially at night when she's tired, so we forgo this step for now. Anyway, we just lay her in bed, and she usually goes right to sleep!

8:30-Until: This is my free time! Unfortunately, David and I usually end up staying up way too late. We're working on going to bed earlier, but we're both night owls.

So, that's our day! Of course, these times are all approximations. I like to say we have a "routine" instead of a "schedule." We may not always do things at the exact same time every day, but we do the same things in the same order. Make sense? I wanted it this way because I didn't want to feel tied to a strict schedule. This is just what works for us. Obviously, when we have stuff to do like lunch dates, we just adjust our schedule to work around our outings. Aubrey loves to get out of the house liker her mama, so she's usually ok with getting off of her routine.

Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! I love to read about what other people's days look like with babies/toddlers, so if you ever do a post like this, let me know :o)