Weekend 1, Day 1

Whew! What a whirlwind of a day. I don't think I've yet mentioned, but 7 of the next 10 weekends (starting with this one), my husband will be out of town. Oh, and he will be out of town Sunday-Wednesday of one of the other weeks too. So that is practically 8 of the next 10 weeks! This leaves me solo with both children 24/7! I know many of you deal with this regularly, but I thought my life during this time with a newborn and a 16 month old may prove entertaining. Perhaps I'm wrong (in which case I will stop sharing the play by plays with you), but otherwise, I thought I would share the chaos that was my first day!

3:30 ~ DD awake to eat. I doze a couple times, elongating the feeding. Around 4:15 she is done (at least I'm deeming her so). She spits up and soaks her jammie! I lay her down to change her diaper and get her in dry jammies. I have no more diapers in the bassinet! This means I have to sneak into DS's room to get a new pack! Uck! I manage to get in and out without completely waking DS. Change the baby, get her in new clothes and lay out the receiving blanket to re-swaddle her before putting her back down. She spits up again, soaking her new jammie just before I could get a bib on her. I change her again, get her swaddled and finally snuggle back up to my sweet and very awake husband... it's around 4:45! We just can't get comfortable!

7:00 am ~ Alarm goes off. DH has to be at the office early before leaving town later this morning. He doesn't get up though... turns out he never really did get back to sleep after the 3:30 feeding, until DD started fussing at 6:45 that is.

7:15 ~ DD can't wait anymore... time to nurse.

7:30 ~ DH finally drags himself out of bed and heads off to get ready (he needs to be at work in 30 minutes.)

7:45 ~ Get DD changed and put back down. Get up and get dressed.

8:00ish ~ DH leaves for work. I scurry around to pack him up for his trip: clothes, camera gear, and food.

8:15 ~ Sit for a moment to check email... none... no one loves me. Continue packing.

9:00 ~ Suitcase ready (clothes, toiletries and Bible securely packed and by the door), time to get DS up. Change his diaper, get him dressed and get breakfast going.

9:25 ~ Oatmeal devoured by both of us (his with Cinnamon and mine with brown sugar and raisins), DD is ready to eat again! I give DS a banana to round out breakfast and distract him while I sit to nurse.

9:30 ~ Phone rings. It's a client. Instead of picking up her portraits at 3, can she come earlier. "Sure," I said, "I'm around all day." I instantly knew I'd said the wrong thing. "Can I come now? It works best for me." Of coarse it does. I told her I had just started nursing and it would be at least a half hour. "No problem," she said, "It will take me at least that long to get there." Great... I also need to finish packaging up her portraits, but I didn't want to tell her that. (Oh, and DH is coming by at 10:30 to get everything and give me a good-bye kiss!)

9:45 ~ DS is WAY done in the high chair and ready to get down. I get him cleaned up and help him out of the high chair (while nursing DD... I've gotten really good at doing those sorts of things one handed while nursing.)

10:00 ~ Gather finishing touches for packaging portraits. Begin burping DD (sometimes this takes a while). Meanwhile DS is all over playing with everything.

10:05 ~ Change DD's diaper and lay her down.

10:10 ~ Tie up portraits in nice box with fancy ribbon (we try to put forth a fancy image in our business!) Smell something terrible! Change DS's diaper quickly (Cell phone rings... it's my mom, we try to talk in the mornings on her way to work [she's out west], but I miss the call because I'm in the back in the middle of the diaper change.) ... let him run back to the living room without his pants on so I can watch for our client. Client is pulling up... grab DS quickly to put pants on.

10:11 ~ Call mom back so she'll know I'll be right there and will call right back.

10:12 ~ Greet client, visit, show her the baby (she asked)

10:15 ~ Client leaves.

10:16 ~ Mail lady arrives, DD is screaming, DS wants to go out for the mail. I grab both children and head outside to meet the mail truck. The mail lady shakes her head and says "I don't know how you do it." Sweet thing to say, but really... isn't it just a matter of balance at that point? :)

10:18 ~ I call mom back quickly (she only works 15 minutes from home... so we never get to talk long.)

10:25 ~ Return baby to bassinet. Put 3 sets of left-overs in Tupperware and into a small ice chest for DH to have over the weekend (hoping to save as much of the $50 food allowance he gets for the weekend by packing food).

10:30 ~ DH calls to ask me to pack one more thing. He won't be leaving for a few more minutes.

10:45 ~ DD is crying again. DH arrives. They load up the car and we get a minute to talk. I put DD down so I could pick DS up (no socks and shoes on... so if he was going to get to go outside, I had to carry him). I got my good-bye kiss and we waved good-bye to Daddy!

11:00 ~ I sat down on the floor to play with my boy!

11:45 ~ Start lunch

12:30 ~ Put down DS for his nap. Nurse DD.

1:00 ~ Change DD, DS is still awake and playing in his crib.

1:30 ~ I sit down to computer time. DS starts fussing in his bed.

1:45 ~ I go in to put DS back down. (He throws everything out of his bed when he is "playing" then won't lay down without his blankets etc.) He *obviously* needs a diaper change. Changed and back in bed, he begins crying again when I leave.

2:30 ~ I go back in to help DS calm down and put him back down. There is nothing in his crib but the shirt on his back! I show him the diaper (that I picked up from the floor) and tell him he is not allowed to take it off. I punctuate this with a spanking (poor kid... now he was really upset). Picking him up I give him some love and ask for a hug. I put a new diaper on him (this one was wet on the outside thank you very much!) Oh good... the bed sheets are wet too. And because of the diaper incident a couple weeks ago we now only have one sheet. I stripped the bed and tucked a large baby blanket in on the mattress and put the rest of his blankets etc back in. He began crying again when I left.

3:00 ~ I go in to check on him again (DD has been crying off and on for a little more than a half hour now by the way!) Everything is out of the crib again and he is trying to lay down quickly on the plastic mattress (no wonder he's crying!) Everything back in... and I'm out again... leaving crying behind me.

3:30 ~ DD is awake to feed. DS is still fussing off and on.

3:45 ~ All is finally quiet down the hall! :)

4:00 ~ DD is done eating... but I'm so engrossed in the love story I'm reading that I keep going! :)

6:30 ~ DS really should get up now if I ever hope to put him down for bed tonight.


I'll spare you the play by play of the rest of the evening. We didn't get to go on our evening walk because it started raining before dinner was done. :) The evening was pretty smooth! Until bed time got closer... then DS started falling apart again.

Anyway... now the rain has turned to a storm (so fun to see the lightning... and I'm gearing up to one more feeding and then off to bed!) Sigh... and starting again tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great night... snuggled up to your sweet husbands... someone should be!

Labels: As it happens..., Have to Laugh

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:05 PM