Saturday, July 15, 2017

A Day in the Life

As part of my year-long online photography course, this week we were asked to complete a day-in-the-life photo project. Starting at the moment we woke up for the day, we were tasked with taking one photo every 10 minutes. Whew! I wasn't able to capture a picture every 10 minutes, but I got pretty darn close. I decided it would be fun to turn the day into a blog post as well, so here you have it. A day in the life of our family . . .


July 14, 2017

12:30am
John returns home from a long night at work and peeks into the guest bedroom (where I'm sleeping with Jude) to give me a kiss. Since he takes calls through the night for work, we sleep separate to make sure he doesn't interrupt baby Jude's sleep.

3:00am
Jude wakes up for a feeding. It takes 30 minutes to feed him and get him back to sleep. I play on my phone and watch a few minutes of the most recent episode of Married at First Sight to pass the time.

6:00am
Jude starts making noise in his bassinet, sorta fussing, but sorta just vocalizing. I let him hang for a little while I slowly wake up.

6:15am
The sorta fussing turns to real fussing, so I decide he's ready for another feeding. I text John, who's sleeping upstairs, to tell him Jude is up. He comes down to hang with me while I feed Jude. When I wrap up the feeding, he takes over on Jude and I go upstairs to our master bedroom to catch a few more morning zzzzzzzs.

8:50am
I wake up to a text from John saying Jude is awake again. He must've gotten him back down after that 6:15am feeding! I look at John Paul's monitor and notice he's fussing and standing in his crib. I feel a little mommy guilt as I wonder how long he's been up and ready to start his day. I must've slept through all the noise he was making! Oops.

I go to grab him from his room and ask him if he's been awake for a while or if he just woke up. He tells me, "I just woke up! " Who knows if it's true, but it makes me feel a little better. Then he says, "I was saying wahhhhhhh in my crib!" Ha! I love how toddlers just tell it like it is. Thanks for the heads up that you were fussing in your crib, babe.

9:00am
I make my way down to the guest bedroom with John Paul and we meet up with Daddy and Jude! I finally start taking pictures.


Jude gets a diaper change and then we head out to the kitchen to start working on breakfast.

9:05am
John Paul tries to make a tower with some of the breakfast ingredients. I love his shocked face as the avocado fails to balance on top.



John's having avocado on toast and John Paul and I are having jelly and butter on toast, all with some blueberries, pineapple, and blackberries on the side. Oh, and coffee for the adults. ;) John was straining the cold brew coffee while I was preparing breakfast, so it's wonderfully fresh.



9:30am
We wrap up breakfast and Jude is just being the cutest baby ever at the table, excitedly smacking the wood surface with his hands and coo-screaming and smiling.



9:40am
Jude sends me some hunger cues, so I go off to the guest bedroom to nurse him. He nurses best in dark rooms with minimal distractions, so the guest bedroom is where we usually nurse these days. (The dark lighting is terrible for pictures though, btw, so ignore the poor quality.) He only wants to nurse for a few minutes though. He's more interested in playing than eating. Oh well! We'll try again later.



9:50am
Back to playing. He loves this Ikea play gym.



10:00am
I call our good friends (who live approx. 1 block away) and ask if they want to join us for dinner tonight. They accept! We spend several minutes on the phone meal planning around what we already have on hand and what Sarah can easily grab at the store. We decide on burgers and waffle fries and veggies with hummus and homemade coconut milk ice cream! (Sarah and I are both dairy-free right now since we think our little nurslings are having issues with dairy thru our breastmilk.)

While I'm on the phone, John and John Paul are outside tending to the garden.



10:20am
John and John Paul are back inside and John plays with Jude. This smiley boy loves being lifted into the air!


10:30am
I work on a sink full of dishes for a while and dang it feels good to get it all cleaned up and put away.


And look at all the veggies we've gotten from our garden in the past few days! A ton of pickling cucumbers and several cherry tomatoes.


10:40am
John is reading to the boys. Shout out to Usborne Books for making this 1000 Things That Go book; John Paul is officially obsessed.



10:50am
John Paul needs a diaper change. Jude hangs out on the floor while I change him. Poor second child. :P




11:00am
John builds a new chair for our sunroom and John Paul loves "helping." I change Jude's diaper and then head back into the guest bedroom to try nursing Jude again and this time it works. Plus he's super sleepy so he falls asleep in the process and goes down for a nap.




11:20am
I leave Jude napping in his bassinet and exit the guest bedroom to find John and John Paul playing video games on the desktop computer. Like father, like son! (Goofiest-Grin-Ever award goes to John Paul.)


11:30am
I take some time to work on writing this post for a while. Blogging about blogging. Meta blogging. :P


12:00pm
Then I take a moment to admire the new sunroom chair.


12:10pm
I start heating up lunch -- leftover pumpkin chili. John Paul is playing in the the play room right off the kitchen. Jude is still napping.


12:20pm
Lunch is on the table! We chow down and enjoy each others' company. John Paul is quite the picky eater, so all he eats is the chips. But he's intrigued by us squeezing lime juice on our chili, so he tries to do the same on his.


12:30pm
We supplement lunch with a few cherries. It's cherry season, y'all! So good.


12:40pm
John Paul and I play his board game, First Orchard, while John cleans up the lunch mess in the kitchen. John Paul's only interested in playing for approximately a minute before he gets distracted by another toy: his foam blocks. He usually loves it though.


12:50pm
John Paul gets another diaper change and then we head upstairs to get him down for his nap.


John reads him a few books and sings a few songs and gets him down right after 1pm.


I hear Jude waking up as John starts John Paul's nap routine, so I go downstairs and grab him and change his diaper.

1:00pm
I decide I want to shower, which I don't usually do when boys are awake, but since Jude has just awoken, I figure he'll probably be ok in the Mamaroo while I get clean. I nurse him for a few minutes to be sure his tummy is full before I jump in the shower. He barely eats, so I take that as a sign that he's good and full and will cooperate with playing alone for a little while.

1:10pm
John tries to take a nap while I'm hopping in the shower. He's still recovering from having worked a week of nights.


1:20pm
Shower is over and Jude is just starting to get cranky. Perfect timing!



1:30pm
We head downstairs and I attempt to get Jude playing on the ground so I can turn some of our garden cucumbers into pickles. But he's not having it, probably because he played alone while I showered and now he wants interacty time. So we switch gears and I decide to finish watching my episode of Married at First Sight while he plays on the floor next to me. I take pictures of how cute he's being every 10 minutes while I watch my show.






John decides he can't sleep (maybe the delicious morning coffee is to blame?), so he heads outside to do some yard work instead.

2:45pm
My show is wrapping up and Jude is starting to get cranky. So I change his diaper, nurse him, and he passes out for another nap. I love how predictable babies can be sometimes. :)

3:15pm
I exit the guest bedroom and hear John Paul starting to wake up. I give him a few minutes to really wake, then go upstairs to get him.

3:20pm
John Paul hams it up with a frowny face when I go to get him. I grab him out of his crib and he instantly wants to show me the foam robot that he constructed with John right before nap.



Then, as we're attempting to head downstairs, John Paul runs off into our spare 2nd floor bedroom, where we're airing out his newly purchased big boy twin-sized mattress. He's SO PROUD of his new mattress and can't wait to sleep on it. We're slowwwwwly warming him up to the idea and we're still waiting on the bed frame to arrive, so for now, it'll just sit and continue to air out.



3:30pm
John is finally finished with the yard work! And then the skies open up and it starts pouringggg. John Paul sits by the window and watches the rain fall.



3:40pm
I love how he lines up all his trucks and cars on the couch.


3:45pm
A huge thunder clap wakes Jude. So I rush off into the guest bedroom to nurse him back down. It works for a while, but as soon as I attempt to leave around 4:15pm, he wakes back up. Nap fail. I decide to leave him to fuss for a few minutes to see if he can settle back to sleep.

4:15pm
And deja vu! As I exit the guest bedroom, John and John Paul are playing Rocket League together again. I swear this never happens. We are not "toddler gets to play video games" people at all.



4:20pm
Wait, not nap fail! Jude put himself back to sleep. Boom chicka boom! *mom does happy dance*

4:30pm
I decide to make those pickles after all! I run out to the garden to grab some dill for the recipe.



John changes John Paul's diaper and then John Paul joins me in the kitchen to oversee the pickle process.



4:50pm
We finish making the pickles and John Paul asks, "You wanna make a train track with me, Mommy?" Of course, kiddo. You got it!



5:00pm
John notices a chip in our new chair! Super glue to the rescue. He glues the chipped piece back on and it's good as new. Then the boys goof around for a bit and pose for a silly picture.



5:10pm
Our friends arrive! Sarah and I get straight to work in the kitchen preparing our dairy-free feast. The boys, John Paul and Owen, play around us and the husbands, John and Bobby, chill in the sunroom with the babies. (Jude decided to wake up and join the fun around 5:20pm.)








6:00pm
Dinner is ready and the babies, Jude and Lily, both decide it's time for a feeding. So we tell the dads to run the dinner show with the toddlers while we nurse in the family room. Jude is too distracted to properly eat, but Lily chows down for a little while. We eventually join the dads and toddlers for the meal.


6:25pm
The boys are back to playing and the adults clean up and bit and lounge a bit.




6:35pm
Jude is exhausted at this point but it's too early to put him to bed. He just needs a mini nap. I go into hiding in the guest bedroom and finally get him to eat. He always eats best in a dark, quiet room. He keeps rubbing his eyes but he won't pass out. He wraps up his feeding and I put him in his bassinet and leave the room to see if he can pass out on his own.

6:50pm
He doesn't pass out. John goes in to help him settle and take a mini nap while Sarah and I scoop our homemade ice cream into small bowls for all to enjoy.




7:05pm
The boys play a little bit more and we clean up around them. They chip in here and there. :)

7:20pm
Our friends head home to start their bedtime routine. We walk them out and wave goodbye from the driveway.


Somewhere in all the fun I lose track of all the diaper changes that occurred, but I promise there were several others. I just can't remember them to document them. The life of a parent with two kiddos in diapers. :P

7:30pm
I encourage John to play with the boys while I finish cleaning the kitchen and playroom.





Jude is smiling and captivated by something John Paul is doing.


8:10pm
We head upstairs and change the boys into pajamas and disposable diapers. John, John Paul, and I all brush our teeth. In order to get John Paul to cooperate, he gets to brush Daddy's teeth as Daddy brushes his. Once that fun wears off, I tell him I'm going to tickle his teeth with the toothbrush and he lets me brush the teeth in the way back. Toothbrushing with a toddler should seriously be an olympic sport., amiright?



8:20pm
John snuggles both boys and reads Goodnight Moon to them while I run downstairs and wrap up a few chores -- mostly laundry and cloth diaper stuff.


8:25pm
Jude and I leave John and John Paul to wrap up John Paul's bedtime routine. 2 books, 2 songs, prayers, and some snuggles usually do the trick.

8:30pm
I take a second to snap a picture of Jude in his Zipadeezip sleep sack and then nurse him until he falls asleep. I mindlessly scroll on facebook while he passes out.


8:50pm
Jude is officially out and I place him in his bassinet.

9:00pm
John and I watch an episode of The Young Pope while I get my first progesterone-in-oil shot (to treat my postpartum anxiety/depression). Since I've already watched the series once, I'm only half watching while I spend some time catching up on this post.


10:05pm
Our episode ends and we're off to bed.

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Whew, what a day! Thanks for following along. It was a bit of work to keep up with, but I imagine this'll be fun to look back on as the years go by. Perhaps I'll make a yearly tradition of it? :)

Camera: Nikon D3200
Lens: 35mm f/1.8G


7 comments:

  1. I think day in the life posts are a lot of fun. Love that this one had photos in it! Way to keep up with it. That's difficult to do.

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    Replies
    1. It was challenging, but a fun challenge. And the next day it felt weird to *not* take pics every 10 minutes. Ha! You should do it sometime. I'd love to see a day in your life!

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  2. What a fun crazy day! Although, what day doesn't seem crazy with kids? haha. I love all the little glimpses of your house, especially that sunroom -- looks so cozy and I love the new chairs. Props to you for sticking through the whole day, too, very impressive!

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    Replies
    1. YES. Always crazy with kiddos. :P Thanks for the house love! As it turns out, it's sloowwwww progress putting a house together. Whew! You must know this too though. You need to do a day in the life post now too!

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  3. I'm tired just reading about all you do in a day, let alone doing it!

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  4. Wow, your day sounds perfect for a young family! I hope you have a lot of these days and enjoy the time. :) My little girl woke up in the night, too. We used good night formula from https://myorganicformula.com/Hipp/sorts then and it worked really good. She slept then untill 5am without an extra feeding in the night. Perhaps it works for you, too :)
    I whish you much love!

    Cass

    ReplyDelete

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