A Day in the Life

I don't know about you, but I can be a nosy individual. I like to know what other people do. Especially moms. When it's your first kid, the "what do other moms do?" question plagues you. Not that there are too many different ways to feed, diaper and make a baby nap (there are a few ways though!), but it's just affirming to read or hear how other moms do things. Having some sort of frame of reference makes me feel much more comfortable. So... because I have, since Jonathan was born, scoured other blogs and websites to find such information, I thought I'd attempt to satisfy someone else's curiosity and share what our day-to-day life is like! (Some of you may need to stop reading before you fall asleep - I don't claim that this is universally interesting information.)

My schedule changes every 5 weeks (and sometimes every day), and Jon's usually every 4, since we are both on rotations. But this is our current schedule (every day has its variations, of course).

6/6:30am   Wake up and feed Jonathan. (He is currently sleeping through the night and eating every 3 1/2 - 4 hours during the day.) Eat breakfast, shower, get ourselves and Jonathan ready for the day.

7:30/8:00   Take Jonathan to his babysitter's house.

8/8:30   I get to the hospital and work up any patients I have. (Jon usually is there by 8 as well.)

9   Meet with my preceptor and go over our patients.

10  Time to breastpump! (for those of you who read my last post, I am still pumping 2-3 times while at work, which usually gives me enough for one or 1 1/2 bottles for Jonathan - I am supplementing what I lack with Similac Advance formula, so usually that means one formula bottle every day or two)

10:30   Rounding with my preceptor and the on-call physician in the three ICU units.

12/12:30   Lunch and/or a random meeting.

1:30   Catch up on my patient workups and/or present my patients to my preceptor.

2   Reattach myself to the pump. Finish any work at the hospital.

3/4   Pick up my sweet baby! (The best part of my day.)

5/6   Make dinner and feed Jonathan. We clean up dinner and play with Jonathan for awhile and then Jon reads a story to him before he goes to bed.

7:30   Jonathan goes to bed.

7:30-9   Jon and I do our respective work, which is usually reading pharmacy-related articles. Plus any chores that need to be done (wash clothes, cloth diapers, kitchen cleaning, pack lunches, mow the grass...)

9-10  Hang out with my husband (we usually eat ice cream and watch FOX News or episodes of The Office). :)

10pm  Feed Jonathan one more time and then put him right back to bed. Then we get to bed ASAP!

(3 weeks old) This is one of my favorite pictures of him sleeping. He rolled over onto his back but it didn't wake him up! His hair is the kicker. :)

We are a Babywise family, so we do the "Feed, Wake, Sleep" cycle. For those of you not familiar with the book, wake time follows feedings so that sleep doesn't become dependent on his feedings. I have been very pleased with this approach - he is GREAT about going down for a nap or to sleep at night. I lay him in his crib while he is awake, give him a paci if he wants it, and he usually doesn't even cry. (If he does, we usually just pat his back a little and he calms down.)  So, he eats every 3 1/2 - 4 hours, and usually stays awake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours (from the time he gets up to eat) before going back down for a nap. Eventually he will move to just two naps a day, but he's not quite ready for that yet.

We are quite busy and exhausted, and sometimes I get grumpy about it. I certainly never envisioned my life looking like this. I would rather be home with my baby, taking care of my family without other stressful demands on me. But, I also believe that God only allows things into the lives of believers that are for their good. So whatever He wants to accomplish in all of this chaos and frequent bouts of tears must be best. And I just hold on to the hope that it's temporary.

I'm off to make some dinner! We are having almond and brown sugar crusted tilapia, grits, and trying brussel sprouts tonight! Never made those before! I'll let you know how they turn out... :)

Breastmilk Woes

So, here's what's going on in the Alligood house. Jon's work, per usual, is busy, but this rotation is slightly less demanding than the last one. (hip hip hooray!) He's learning about pharmacy informatics, which is basically how to utilize computers in the world of pharmacy. It all goes over my head! I am on my last week rotating at Walgreens and will be at the hospital doing critical care for the next five weeks. My bright spot in this is that I will get to see my hubby on occasion during the day! Jonathan will be nearby soon, because we got good news that he's now #4 on the waiting list for the hospital daycare! I have so enjoyed him being with Sandi and will be kind of sad when he's done there. But I'm sure she'll be ready to get her crew down to just four kids instead of five. :)

Playing on his new car playmat from his great-grandmother Mimi.

My current Mommy Dilemma is what to do about Jonathan's food. He is three months old and has been exclusively breastmilk-fed up until this past weekend when we had to give him a formula bottle. Thankfully he didn't seem to mind one bit and gulped it all down. But all the books and articles and opinions ("Breast is best!") produced a small amount of mommy guilt. I've not been able to pump as much milk at work as before, and it was getting more difficult and stressful to have enough for him while I'm away. I've started pumping more frequently to try to increase my supply, so hopefully that will help a bit. I have to say, though, that while I felt sad that he was eating something other than my milk and that I wasn't able to make enough for him, it took some pressure off of me to know that I can scoop that smelly stuff out of the can and he wouldn't be hungry. It was definitely putting a strain on me and my time at home with my boys to feel like I always needed to be attached to a pump. So for now, I am pumping and getting as much milk as I can, and doing the rest as formula.

The next decision to make is when to start "real" food for Jonathan. Several friends have recommended starting with a little bit of rice cereal in a bottle. The only drawback to this, in my opinion, is that I wouldn't be able to nurse him at night (which is apparently the ideal time to give it him so he'll sleep like a rock!). Moms, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. When did you start cereal/food? And what types of food did you start with?

The kid will obviously eat anything!

Lastly, I just want y'all to know what an encouragement it is to me to read your comments. As we go through life in general, but especially as mothers, community and building each other up is so important. And sometimes that means a deep spiritual conversation or prayer time together, but other times it's just nice to know that other people get pooped on too! :)