A day in the life, in words rather than pictures. Warning: the day starts out rough, and I try to be honest about it all, but oh god do I want to edit it. The day does get better though, so it’s not all gloom and doom. Highlights: snowcones, splashpad, dinner with friends, margaritas, grandma taking the girls for the night. Lowlights: well, everything between 7 and 11am.
6:30 am – Tom wakes me up on the couch. I slept there with the baby last night because the air conditioner is in our bedroom window, so it was too cold to sleep there, but too warm to turn it off.
7:00 – Tom leaves to work.
7:15 – Alice wakes up screaming because she didn’t get to see daddy. I yell “MORNING RULES” which is supposed to mean “get in your room and be quiet so you don’t wake up the baby” but my yellng woke her up, so now we’re awake. I nurse Becky on the couch while the girls talktalktalktalk.
7:30 – I’m trying to pee, Becky is screaming, Alice is asking for a snack and Ella wants to show me a book.
7:35 – I’m trying to make breakfast (cheerios and milk), but the girls are fighting over a pen, and Becky is trying to squirm out of my arms. She’s hot, I think she has a fever.
7:30 – Girls are eating, I’m microwaving a cup of cold coffee, Becky throws up.
7:45 – Girls are done eating and fighting over who gets to put away the bowls, and then whining because the sink is full of dishes and their bowls won’t fit. I’m trying to find a clean shirt. Becky is on her changing table naked, and poops.
8:00 – I put Alice back to bed because she hit Ella with a book, and has been whining nonstop about her dad. Becky is hungry, so I try to nurse her, but Ella won’t stop telling me that Alice is still crying in her room. I yell “I KNOW, I HAVE EARS” and everyone is quiet for 3 blessed seconds, and then everyone is crying.
8:30 – I go back to bed with Becky.
8:32 - Alice is up and banging on her bedroom door, asking “Knock knock?! Knock knock!” I pull out the Rescue Remedy.
8:35 – I cuddle with Alice for two minutes while Becky screams. Ella tries to get Becky to stop crying. I yell at Ella to stop singing to loudly. I turn back on the air conditoner because it’s 80 degrees in the house already.
8:45 – Ella goes to cuddle with Alice while I change becky’s diaper and try to nurse her again. We’re stuck in the living room, since the air conditioner is in the bedroom, and the girls keep asking “CAN WE COME OUT AND WATCH TV NOW?” right as Becky is falling asleep. I yell. It doesn’t help. Chamomilla for all of us.
9:00 – The girls are playing in their room quietly. Becky is finally asleep. I check email and eat sunflower seeds by the handful for breakfast.
9:10 – Alice has an accident in her room, because she didn’t want to tell me she needed to come out.
9:15 – Ella accidentally rips a library book and has a panic attack that the won’t let her check out more books. Becky wakes up, I use the opportunity to use the coffee grinder. I know caffine can make depression worse in the long run, so I feel guilty about overloading, but it’s a lesser of two evils thing at this point.
9:25 – Becky is back asleep. Alice steps on a lego and hurts her foot. I snarl for Ella to get an ice pack and for them to go back to their room. I take a dose of RR.
9:30 – Becky wakes up because her belly hurts. I start typing this out because I’m stuck at the computer nursing.
9:45 - Becky definitely has a fever, so I give her a tiny dose of tylenol, and then feel guilty because “fever has a job”, but I can’t handle a miserable baby right now. Diaper change, and I realize I need to start a load of diapers. Ella pulls out the dress up stuff and the girls play “giraffes and princesses”. Alice whines about her dad.
9:50 – Alice smashed her finger in the toybox. I give her a bandaid even though there is no blood. Becky cries. I tell Ella they can watch TV is they pick up their room. I cancel plans with a friend to go to the kids concert, because I’m overstimulated like whoa already. I start taking sepia. I decide we can go to the splashpad instead.
10 – Diaper change, still haven’t started new diapers. Ella is bossing Alice, so I tell her she’s “not the mom” for the 396736th time. Tom calls, and I unsuccessfully try to sugarcoat our morning. The girls talk to him and then go make a bigger mess in their room.
10:10 – I make a snack for the girls (cheese sticks and grapes), and turn on the TV. Alice is mad that we’re watching Cat in the Hat, not Diego. Becky is angry that her thumb keeps moving. Ella asks 18 questions in two minutes.
10:15 – I put Becky in the plastic monstrosity for the first time, even though I’m not sure she’s ready. She is quiet and plays with the toys. I peel off the last of my fingernail polish and put on new coats. I dose with RR, and sip water with sepia again. Feeling okay.
10:20 – I yell at the girls to stop dropping their plates on the floor over and over. Ella asks me to read the Cat in the Hat book, but I ask her to wait until naptime. I figure if we are going to go to the splashpad, we should go now. I start gathering things/getting us ready.
10:25 – I tell the girls to go potty so we can go somewhere fun, and they ask “OLD MACDONALDS?” when I tell them where we are going, Ella yells “YES!” and Alice begs to stay home.
10:40 – We’re finally out of the house. Becky in the sling, girls in the stroller.
10:45 – I forgot the damn water. Going back.
11:00 – We get to the splash pad, find a slightly soggy shady spot, change the girls, nurse the baby, convince Alice to go near the water. Run into a few friends.
11:30 – Move spots (soggy place was getting soggiers), drink all the water, realize we forgot sun screen and the kids keep taking off their hats. I stop fighting with them about it and chat with more friends. Both girls fall down multiple times, but amazingly they calm down and go play again.
11:45 – Friends and I play pass-the-baby until she is hungry again. Nursing and diaper change. We notice some kids selling snow comes for .75 cents, and I promise some to the girls.
12:00pm – We leave the park, soaking wet, with snow cones. Life is good.
12:02 – But man it’s hot. And pushing a stroller while wearing a baby and holding a snowcone is hard.
12:05 – Feeling grumpy again.
12:10 – Stop at a garage sale, don’t find anything. Becky is asleep in the sling, but is flopping her head around all over, so I have to abandon my snow cone and hold her head with one hand while pushing the stroller with the other.
12:15 – Home. Air conditioning kept the house at 82, which is at least better than 95. Baby wakes up when I take her out of the sling, and cries while I get the big girls dressed in dry clothes and make a quick lunch (PB&J, cheese stick and cantaloupe).
12:30 - Girls eating, but yelling in the kitchen, which keeps Becky from falling back asleep. I yell. Not sure why I think this is ever going to work. I threaten to send them to bed without lunch, and Ella points out she’s already eaten most of hers.
12:45 – Girls finish eating, so they go to their room for “quiet time”. I try to type quietly since Becky is asleep on the couch.
1 – Girls are arguing in their room, so I institute naptime. I eat half a PB&J and a spoonfull of homemade ice cream.
1:15 – I lay down on the couch with Becky for a few minutes, and hope I can fall asleep.
1:30 – I get up to do a quick pickup of the house while it is quiet. I check messages for the first time in a week and realize I missed a call from my dad, and also an invitation to a Girl’s Wine Night, the night before. I shake my fist at my lousy message checking skills.
2 - Becky wakes up and is hungry/miserable, so I give up on the house and play on the internet while nursing her for a while.
2:45 - Crazy good news in my email box. Wowza! Becky goes to sleep in her chair, sucking her thumb.
3 – Ella wakes up, we cuddle on the couch. I tell myself that reconnection balances out all the yelling.
3:10 – Alice wakes up, and squeezes in on the other side. We talk about their dreams (Alice always dreams about Diego, Ella’s dream ws about a mountain that had a door, and a dog who wore sheos)
3:15 – Becky wakes up, so Ella goes to play with her, and I turn Diego on for Alice. Tom calls to see if we’re still alive.
3:30 – I drink the last of my second pot of coffee. Diaper change. The girls draw, scattering their art stuff all over the house. I take deep breaths to try to remain calm. Di
4 – Becky smells like cotton candy, and it takes me googling “baby smells like cotton candy?” to realize it’s the tylenol from earlier, not a metabolic disease (that’s maple syrup.)
4:15 – Tom brought home stuff to make margaritas. I hand him the baby and offer to make the first one.
4:30 – Tom tackles the mountain of dishes. The girls trash their room again. I nurse the baby.
5 – Diaper change. It’s the last cloth diaper and I haven’t started a new load. Crap. Use a disposable.
5:15 – Start getting girls’ clothes together to spend the night at grandma’s. Go out to the stroller to find shoes and chat with Ana, my awesome neighbor. My girls run through her sprinklers in the front yard, and then we move the party to the back yard.
6 – Tom’s finally done with the dishes (there really were that many) and I finally get that first margarita. We sit in the driveway between our neighbor’s house and ours and relax. Girls are still running in the water.
6:30 – Becky is ready to go to sleep, so I go inside and nurse her, and lay her down. Peter and Ana BBQ’s outside, so when i come back out there is food waiting for me.
7:15 – Becky wakes up and is happy to sit with Peter while I drink another margarita.
7:30 – Pam shows up to get the girls. Alice promises she will stay at grandma’s all night this time. Ana feeds Pam as well.
7:45 – The girls leave. I am incredibly anxious, but know how to mask it.
8:15 – Becky’s ready to nurse again, so we go back inside. Diaper change, nursing, playing the bounce/dance game with Becky.
8:30 – I spend a ridiculous amount of time reading webcomics. Becky falls back asleep in her bouncy chair.
9 – There’s nothing on TV, so I knit and Tom plays on the computer.
10 – Tom finds the newest harry Potter movie on TV. I fall asleep on the couch after about 15 minutes. Tom wakes me up, takes me to bed, and put’s Becky’s bouncy chair next to the bed.
2am – I wake up to Becky whining,but can’t find her in bed. I have a mini-freakout. I can’t fall back asleep once I figure it out, so we go out and nurse in the living room. History Detectives is on, so I watch one segment and feel sufficiently tired, so we go back to bed.
Theeeee End.
