I always find it interesting to see how others go about their day to day. I did a post like this awhile back, but as you can imagine, things are a bit different these days. What do my days look like now? Well, a little like this…

Somewhere around 6 am – Braedon wakes up for his last feeding of the night. By this point, I have reached 6-8 hours total sleep and feel well rested. So thankful for a good sleeper!

6:30ish am – Stay awake after baby B eats to pre-write my blog post for the day. Then, catch up on emails and other things waiting for M to wake up.

7:30ish am – Hear Makenzie get up. Bring her downstairs and feed us both breakfast. Oats, peanut butter, and fruit are typically on the menu.

8:00 am – Go wake up Braedon. Situate Makenzie with books to read. Feed the little man his mommy milk breakfast.

8:40 am – Drag everyone upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day.

9:00-10:30 am – Braedon wants to sleep. Makenzie & I chill together. We like to feed Teddy, dance, and play in Hippo tents with books.

10:30 am – Baby B hungry again. Feed him. And read some blogs while nursing. When sitting there with a kiddo sucking away for 30 minutes you have to have distraction sometimes. M usually gets her one TV show during this time too.

More playing follows. Then, lunch. Today featured a pbj sandwich and vanilla Chobani yogurt. We clearly needed to go grocery shopping.

12:30 pm – Get Makenzie settled for her nap. Oh, nap time how I love you. Especially since after B eats again their naptimes overlap. Mommy time!

1 to 3 pm – Pre-write evening blog post, relax some, get things done. Enjoy!!!!

The remainder of the day cycles much the same. Feeding, playing, etc. If an errand needs to happen we fit it in between feedings. Like today – we did in fact make it to the grocery store!!

7 pm – Time for dinner. Tonight my friend Ann brought us over a meal of a brunswick stew with brown rice.

7:30 pm – Time to get the kiddos in bed. Makenzie gets a bath, prayers, and a Bible story. Braedon gets the boob, a swaddle blanket, and the bassinet. Although he did have his first bath the other night.

8ish to 10ish pm – Come downstairs and chill with the husband. Tonight will involve watching Parenthood, talking, and chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of Ann as well).

10ish pm – Hit the hay…just to wake up around 2 to feed baby B, fall back asleep, and repeat the whole thing yet another day. It may not be the most adventurous life, but I sure love our little days. 🙂

Question of the Evening – What is your favorite part of your typical day?

Weekly Reminder: Still time to enter the $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway!

After the interest in my “What ‘They’ Don’t Tell You About Pregnancy” post a couple months back, I knew I had to follow up with one about labor, delivery, and the early post-partum days. If you’re a man reader…you may want to avert your eyes. If you’re squeamish in any way about body parts and personal topics…you have been warned. Now for yet another post pushing the TMI boundaries.

Your boobs will hurt. And not just a standard ouch kind of hurt either. Whether breastfeeding or not, a few days post-delivery you will feel as if you carry 2 bowling balls on your chest.  2 bowling balls that are also ticking time bombs about to explode and rip in half from the pressure. Milk engorgement is fun, no?

Even better? If breastfeeding, your nipples will feel as though someone rubbed them raw with sandpaper. And that “let-down” feeling that lets you know your baby is sucking out the good stuff? Burn, baby, burn!!!! I do promise it all subsides after about a month and then is so much easier. Plus, it truly is worth it.

Ice Diapers. I briefly mentioned these in my previous post. They intrigued you all. And yes, they are very much real and very much useful.

Let’s put it this way. You know how long distance runners take ice baths after tough runs? You just gave your hoo-ha the workout of its life. It needs its ice bath. You will stuff a baby’s diaper with crushed ice and wear it as a pad without shame.

Tears. Sometimes things just don’t pop out so easily. Rip. You can use your imagination for the rest. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it does heal.

I still look pregnant?! The uterus takes awhile to shrink back to standard size. This means for a solid couple of months your body will inevitably have a pregnant looking pooch. You will likely still look 6 months pregnant coming home from the hospital. I looked like this 3 days post-partum…

And you saw my 1 week photos yesterday (in the bikini no less). Just remember how wonderful the body still is…even if it does mean some idiot will ask you when you are due, despite the obvious newborn baby you are holding.

Scared to poop. The first time or two after delivery is purely frightening. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe the thought of having to push anything out again?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The baby-blues are very real. It is standard for them to last two weeks. Any longer is when you need to consider talking with the doctor about post-partum depression. But for the first two weeks…fully expect mood swings you have never seen before. I haven’t faced them too much this time…but I can tell you I went from yelling at Peter that he was NO HELP to crying over how much I loved him and he was the BEST FATHER EVER in minutes last time.

Hospital food may actually taste good. After delivery and when trying to prep your body for breastfeeding, you want food. Any food. This actually looked and tasted good to me post-delivery.

Nothing like a bowl of congealed oats!

Babies trick you. It is very standard for newborns to sleep a lot in the hospital. They just went for the craziest ride ever after all. They don’t do this when they get home. You come home and it’s time to push limits and see how often they can wake up. I warned you.

And I’m likely forgetting some important things. Things like is baby pooping enough, sleeping enough, spitting up too much, going to be colicky, etc, etc, etc kind of make the rest of your mind a jumbled mass.

Thank goodness I knew what to expect this time! I can actually function! Good thing too because I have a very exciting post for tomorrow. Any guesses? 😉

Question of the Day – Totally random question…but color combos have been on my mind…what is your favorite color/color combo?