That is today's revelation. Not profound by any means, but today was my first real day all on my own with zero help. And it was a good test because I had to put real clothes and get Cam ready and out the door for his circumcision in the afternoon. I'm still figuring out my daily routine, but I'm starting to get into a nice groove. Here's how my schedule went today:1:45am - 2:45am -- Change diaper, feed baby, swaddle baby, soothe baby (many nights, this takes awhile! He's fussy at this feeding a lot of times. Sometimes I have to soothe him for 30 min to an hour), pump (As I'm doing now! This is my 1-2am daily routine. I also use the time I have to pump at this hour to write blog posts), clean pump accessories and feeding bottle, store breast milk, prepare water/milk for Brian's next feeding.
4:30am -- Brian changes diaper, feeds baby, swaddles baby, soothes baby back to sleep and prepares water/milk and pumping equipment for my next feeding. Then he goes to work.
7:15am -- Sometimes if I'm not too tired, I get up and pump. Since I'm on my own, I need to pump at every chance I get and of course when baby's sleeping it's the best time. Who knows how he'll be AFTER this feeding. So, I try to do 10 mins here.
7:45am-8:45am -- Change diaper, feed baby, swaddle baby, soothe baby, pump again for another 10 minutes. Longer if I missed the above pump. Clean pump stuff and feeding bottle. Go back to sleep!! This has been key. Sleeping this extra hour or so saves me.
10:00am -- Anticipate that baby will probably need to be fed around 10:45. Change clothes, get ready, put on makeup (makeup!) all while pumping. Rush downstairs to clean pumping accessories, make formula and quickly get back upstairs before baby sets off his "cry alarm." Success!
10:45am -- Change diaper, feed baby (do you see a pattern here??), swaddle baby. After this feeding Cam is usually up. Go downstairs, put baby down in Pack 'n Play. I've been experimenting with what to do with him at this point in the day. On other days, I don't wake up before he does to pump so I try to pump at this point while making breakfast. When my folks were here, I'd hand him off to one of them to hold. No such back up anymore. So, I've been putting him down and running the mobile that plays music above him to keep him distracted. Then, I hurry to eat some cereal, down my fenugreek and other supplements with some OJ and as of today, make coffee.
10:55am -- Camden has been a good boy (the last two days anyway!) and doesn't fuss too much for these 10 minutes. I go get him and take him to the living room.
10:55-12:00pm -- Unswaddle baby. Cam's been consistently up for about an hour at this time of day. I've been doing some "tummy time" and hanging out with him here. Put him on his tummy to strengthen his neck. He's getting better at it! Then, he starts to get a little fussy cause he gets tired. Rock baby to sleep. Once asleep, I put him in his jumper. Right now, he hates being in that thing otherwise.
12:00-12:50pm -- Get all his stuff ready for our day out. Put formula and water in diaper bag, make sure I have extra diapers, burp cloth, swaddle blanket, wipes, tylenol drops (for after circ), circ forms and a bunch of other stuff that I can't recall at the moment. Do all this while pumping. Then clean pumping accessories, bottles, etc. Sigh.
12:50pm -- Cam starts stirring. Perfect! Diaper change, feed and dress him to go outside.
1:15pm -- Get him in car seat and we're off!
2:00pm -- Pick Brian up at work.
2:15pm -- Arrive at Swedish for circumcision. On time and everything!
From here on out it was back to a tag team effort with Brian. Thank goodness. I seriously do not think I could do this all on my own. I am thankful for my husband every day.
But I have to say, I'm quite proud of myself. Like I said, today is the first day I really felt like a mom. :)
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