Happy Friday!
September was a whirlwind of travel but now we are back home and settling back into our normal routine. I wanted to share a “day in the life” post because I’m a stalker and love reading them on other blogs! This is what life is like with my (almost) 8 month old, but it changes sooooo fast.
630 – someone wakes up and is SOOO happy when I come into her room! Then we nurse and change her diaper.
7-830 – eat breakfast and play! I keep her in her PJs because she often gets dirty while eating. Right now she is loving blocks!
We use this high chair with a pillow and I added a footrest. (Everything is WAY cheaper at Ikea but I linked Amazon in case you want to shop there instead.) I like to make eggs with spinach, oatmeal, or greek whole fat yogurt for our breakfasts. She loves to use these ezpz spoons to feed herself (with my help putting things on the spoon haha). We took a class from Feeding Littles before we started solids, so we haven’t ever done traditional baby food. This bib is so helpful for this type of eating!
830-1030 – nap, wake up and nurse. I use this time to check my email, get organized for the day, and clean up the kitchen from the night before if needed. I also try to hop on the Peloton if I have time! I am much more likely to workout in the morning than later in the day…
1030-1 – play, go for a walk, or run errands. If we’re at home I will feed her solids again, but that doesn’t always happen. We’ve discovered she does much better eating in the morning or around lunch than at dinner, so we focus on that! Full review on our stroller here.
1 – nurse, then nap. I check my email again and hang out.
230-3 – wake up, nurse. More playing!
5-6 – this is becoming a grey area where we need that 3rd catnap but it’s hard for her to go down. Without the nap she can’t make it to bedtime without a FULL meltdown, so I usually hold her for this nap. Whenever she wakes up I will nurse her again, then we play or go for a walk if we haven’t gotten outside yet.
7-8 – if she had a good catnap we would start bedtime around 745, but if not probably a bit earlier. I just watch her to see if she’s looking tired or starting to get fussy. Our bedtime routine is some playtime in her room while I run the bath, then bath, then nursing then bed.
8-10 – I clean up the kitchen, put away all her toys, then watch TV and blog! I also check my work email if I didn’t have a chance in the earlier afternoon. Then I’ll head upstairs, shower, and watch some TV in bed before turning out the light. I’ve been trying to get to bed earlier because it’s so much better for me, so I’m attempting to have lights out by 10. It doesn’t always happen but I’m getting better!
There you have it – one day in the life! The only day this looks different is when I work Wednesday morning, but then either my husband or her babysitter will go through the above routine. We’ve discovered that sticking to a routine gets us the happiest baby who plays and smiles all day long. (Thanks to Taking Cara Babies for that great sleep foundation!)
Occasionally we get comments about how our routine is too “strict” or that we need to skip more naps. Honestly this routine works for us and I’m the one living it 99.9% of the time! I don’t want to push her to exhaustion because it’s not fun for either of us. So my advice for ALL parents is do what works best for your family, and ignore the rest. This works for us right now, and I’m sure it will look different over time.
Well I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life – happy weekend!
