Week In The Life 2012: Friday

Friday, April 27
Stay-At-Home-Mom Day


12:23am
I hear Tory crying and a second later feel Andi BOLT out of bed to get her. He told me he was going to get up with her tonight and I guess he means it! I look at the clock and realize it's only Midnight so I tell Andi to lay back down; we're going to see if Tory will go back to sleep on her own (she's only been asleep for 4 hours so she's not hungry yet). He give me a deer-in-the-headlights look (I think he was still half-asleep!) and lays back down. After a few minutes of fussing, Tory is quiet.

3:23am
Tory starts crying from her crib and I start to sit up, only Andi darts out of bed faster than I did can manage. He looks at me and asks "Should I get up with her?" and I give him the go-ahead to make her a bottle. I listen to him fumble around in the kitchen for a minute or two and then fall back asleep.

3:45am
I hear Tory cry again and Andi walks into the bedroom. He tells me she was asleep in his arms, but woke up when he laid her down in her crib. We listen to her fuss for a minute or two and then I hear Andi fall asleep. Her sounds must not bother him but I'm lying in bed wide awake while she tosses and turns and turns in her crib.

3:55am
UGH! I throw the covers off and jump out of bed. Tory's still awake, I'm awake and Andi's sleeping. I realize I won't be able to sleep until the baby does so I might as well get up and rock her back to sleep. It takes me all of five minutes of holding her before she's sound asleep.

4:02am
I crawl back into bed and quickly fall back asleep. That'll teach me. I want Andi to help with the night feedings but I'm basically up listening to them anyway because it's impossible for me to relax and let him handle it until everyone's finally back to sleep. Logically, it probably makes more sense for me to quit nagging at him to help and get up with her myself. No use in both of us being awake.

6:32am
Andi wakes me up as he's leaving for work and I'm completely out of it. I must have been sleeping HARD. He tells me "see you at swimming" and I have a brief panic attack as I rack my brain for the answers to "what day is it?" , "what time is it?" and "where are we going today?" I say an internal prayer he's quiet as he leaves the house and even though he tip-toes out of the house quiet as a mouse, Tory still starts to whimper from her crib just as he shuts the garage door. Dang. That girl is such a light sleeper!

6:40am
I drift in and out of sleep as I listen to Tory babbling to herself in her crib. She isn't crying so I decide to leave her in there for a few minutes longer. In the meantime, I have a quick dream that we're at swimming class and I leave Tory there with Andi while I go next door to Panera to have coffee by myself. In my dream I feel so stressed and I finally have a moment to breathe by myself. When I wake up, I wonder why I felt like that when really I'm not feeling very stressed at all. I think it might be because Andi's leaving for another work trip next week and I'll be solo-parenting for 7 days. Maybe subconsciously, I felt like I need to squeeze in so "me time" before he leaves?

6:52am
Tory's getting restless and has apparently decided she's had enough with the toys in her crib. I get up and walk into her nursery to greet her good morning.

I give Tory a few hugs and kisses, change her pants and carry her to the kitchen to feed her breakfast.

7:01am
I warm up a jar of bananas, peaches and raspberries and mix 1/4 cup of rice cereal together. Surprisingly, Tory eat it all and doesn't seem phased by the taste of the fruit I've mixed into the cereal. I'm shocked! Good job, Tory Bean!

7:20am
After breakfast, I clean Tory's hands and face and plop her into the activity center so I can wash bottles and make a cup of coffee. Tory isn't very interested in entertaining herself this morning so I dance around the kitchen a little bit and give her a cold teething ring to suck on to buy myself a few more minutes of chore time.

7:30am
I pull out the baby food blender and puree three bananas about ready to over-ripen on the counter top. I also puree some leftover pears in the refrigerator. Tory is very interested in watching me and I warn her each time I turn on the blender, otherwise she nearly jumps out of her seat at the sudden sound.

Oh no! First lift-the-flap book casualty. Tory rips the mitten flap directly off the page and I catch her with the paper piece in her mouth. Oops! We're definitely entering the stage where Tory wants to eat anything she can get her little hands on. I can no longer turn my back for a minute and assume she won't be eating something she shouldn't be.

8:00am
After I clean up the dishes in the kitchen, I take Tory back to her room to pack her bag for swimming class. I dress her in a cute GAP sweatsuit my aunt Cindy gave her for Christmas. This is such a weird season / stage for clothes. One day she's wearing short-sleeve shirts and the next she's wearing sweatsuits. Good thing we have a range of clothing in 9 month size!

Next, I carry Tory to my room and get dressed myself. No time for a shower this morning. As I hurry to apply make-up and brush my hair, Tory's fussing and rolling around on my bedroom floor. She's getting really tired and unfortunately, we're heading out the door to swimming class so she won't get much of a nap.

8:20am
Back in the kitchen, I warm up a bottle to feed Tory before swimming. She's ready for her morning nap, but unfortunately swimming class falls during it. I usually try to leave a few minutes early and get her to take a nap in the car on the way there. I load up all our bags, put Tory in her car seat and head out the door.

8:30am
Once in the car, I crawl into the back seat and feed Tory her bottle with the car still parked in the garage. I don't trust her to feed herself (I tried that once and she dumped the entire bottle of formula down into her car seat). I feed her half the bottle now and will give her the other half after swimming class. I don't want her tummy to be too full right before swimming, but I don't want her to be hungry during class either.

As soon as we pull out of the drive-way, Tory's already falling asleep in her car seat. This means she'll get a half hour of sleep or so before it's time for class. Better than nothing, I decide.

8:50am
Once at swimming, I pull into the parking lot and check Facebook and Twitter on my phone while I let Tory sleep in the back seat. She is O-U-T. Why does it always happen that babies fight and fight you to sleep at bedtime but times like this, when you don't necessarily want them to sleep because you have to go somewhere, they're out like a light?

9:17am
I wait until the last possible minute before I have to wake Tory up from her nap. Class starts at 9:30am and I need a few minutes to change her into her swimming suit in the locker room. Andi arrives at swimming as well and helps me carry in Tory's car seat while I grab the bags. We both scramble to get changed (him into his swim trunks; me getting Tory ready) and rush out to the pool before class begins.

9:30am
Swimming class starts. I love that Andi makes time in his busy work schedule to take Tory to swim class. It's one of my favorite parts of the week watching the two of them together in the swimming pool. Andi's the perfect parent for her in class because he cares for her, but he doesn't baby her. I think Tory learns a lot more in class when Andi takes her vs. me because of this.

10:00am
Class is over and Tory is DONE SWIMMING. She's fussed the last few minutes of class after Miss Amy dunked her head under water while they were "zooming." I know the instructors know what they're doing and it's the only way Tory will learn to be in water but it doesn't change the fact that she doesn't like to be dunked. Maybe "dunked" is a harsh word, it's not like they dump her under water or anything. She just doesn't like to have her face in the water and unfortunately that's a part of swimming, kiddo.

10:05am
I spend the next 10 minutes or so quickly drying Tory off and dressing her back in her clothes. Poor baby is tired and keeps fussing and rubbing her eyes. She usually falls asleep on the car ride home and then I can never get her to lay down for a nap afterwards. It's like her car cat-nap gives her just enough energy to push on through.

10:30am
Back at home, Tory is suddenly wide awake. I'm starving so I put her in her activity center to play for a minute while I make something to eat. I warm up some leftover taco meat, make a taco and sit on the floor of the kitchen next to the activity center to play with her while I shovel food in my mouth. This is usually where I eat most of my meals on stay-at-home mom days.

While I'm sitting next to Tory and eating my taco (which wasn't very good, by the way), I make a list of the things I need to buy today. Mostly a few groceries, formula and several bridal / baby / and wedding gifts for various friends and family.

11:36am
Since Tory's still in full play-mode, I decide to run to Baby on Grand in Hopkins, a baby specialty store, to pick up a few gifts for Andi's cousin's baby shower we're attending tomorrow, for my friend who's just announced she expecting and my other friend who's having a baby any day now. At the store, I find several cute things (which I won't document here as I'm giving them for gifts to some of you!) and I treat myself to a new Chew Beads necklace since Tory has been loving on my red one lately.

12:30pm
Back at home, I feed Tory some peas for lunch, give her a bottle and lay her down for a nap. She's pretty tired from all our excitement this morning, so she allows me to rock her to sleep. I sit in the chair and rock her for 20 minutes or so. For once, I don't have anywhere to be, I'm not starving, itching to take a shower, or anxious to change the laundry. Today I quietly hold her and stare at her peaceful face as she's sleeping. It's absolutely quiet in our house - not a sound to be heard - and I'm enjoying this moment with her.

1:30pm
I lay Tory down in her crib, grab the laptop and finish writing my blog post recap of yesterday.

3:00pm
Tory's awake. She took a nice little rest which she desperately needed. Ever since she was sick last week, she hasn't been on the greatest sleeping schedule so I'm really hoping to get back into our routine. I get her up and change her diaper. I grab our shopping list, load her up in the car seat and drive to TJ Maxx and Target to grab the last of our bridal / baby gift items and a few groceries.

5:00pm
Back at home, I warm up some baby food for Tory and feed her. Andi calls and says he's about 30 minutes away from home. Unfortunately, he has a work event tonight so he's only coming home to see Tory for a few minutes before she goes to bed.

I decide to give Tory a bath while we wait for him to get home.

5:45pm
Bath time!

6:30pm
I dry Tory off, dress her in pajamas and read her some bedtime stories. Andi brings us in a bottle and kisses Tory good-bye before leaving for his work event. I rock Tory to sleep and thankfully, she goes down without a fight.

7:00pm
Since Andi isn't home, the truth comes out on what I usually eat for dinner. I remember I have a mini frozen pizza in the freezer and throw that in the oven. Good or bad, I open a Fat Tire beer too which has shamefully become my nightly dinner ritual lately.

7:15pm
While my pizza is cooking in the oven, I call my sister and we talk on the phone for the rest of the night. I eat dinner while talking to her, fold some of Tory's laundry and write a few thank you cards all during that time. Suddenly it's after 9pm and I'm exhausted so I say good-night to her and turn off the lights.