Day in the Life: 2.5 years and 3 months

I really enjoy reading about other people's typical days. I also am kind of mad I don't have more records of what my days looked like with only one baby. I bet I had so much free time! (Yeah, right!) Anyway, here's what a typical day looks like in our household. On this particular day, it was a Friday, the one day a week we have no scheduled activities (no camps, no classes, no appts).

5:00 am -- Teddie wakes to eat. I feed her a bottle and put her back to sleep

6:00 am -- Teddie stirs and needs to fart/get her paci back. Rick takes over

7:00 am -- Rick brings me Teddie who is still really squirmy but half asleep, so I hold her until she wakes up for good around 7:15

7:15 am -- Teddie and I hang in the bedroom, then head downstairs. Change her diaper, put on dry clothes for her (she's a big spitter!!)

7:30 -- Rick gets Campbell and brings him downstairs to hang out with me and T. I'm drinking my second cup of coffee, Cam is playing with his new pizza set from Mimi, and Teddie is in her swing.

7:45 am -- both kids want to eat. Cam gets breakfast, T gets a bottle. Tidy up the kitchen, empty dishwasher, sweep the floors and wipe down counters. I put a load of laundry in.

8:30 am -- I put T in the carseat to snooze because we are going to leave the house around 9:00 am to head downtown. Get myself and Campbell dressed.

9:00 am -- load up the kids in the car and head to Mimi's apartment downtown to say hi. We hang with her and Allie comes by to say hello, too!

9:30 am -- Teddie is awake once we arrive at Mimi's so I feed her

10:30 am -- we head to the zoo across the street from Mimi's apartment. Cam loves the tractor at the farm, so we play and hang around there. Cam eats a snack in the stroller and Teddie nods off.

10:50 -- Teddie falls asleep in the stroller

11:30 -- T is up again, and eats again!

*(she's been catnapping more frequently when we are out and about, but she normally takes a great long nap in the middle of the day when Campbell naps, too!)*

12:00 -- get in the car and head back home. (T screams he entire drive home. Campbell makes me play Let it Go on repeat. Fun times!)

12:30 -- home and Cam eats lunch. I feed Teddie the rest of her bottle (I have to force her to finish bottles during the day or she won't get enough to eat! She's definitely NOT my daughter when it comes to eating!)

1:00 -- both kids are ready for a nap. I wrap Teddie in her swaddle me, put the paci in and place her in the swing. She's out within minutes. Campbell goes upstairs, we read a story together, put on his sleep sack and he's in bed. He is not going to sleep though, he's singing and talking and playing with his stuffed animals. I fold laundry, wipe down bathroom counters, sweep the floors and sort through mail/emails.

2:30 -- Cam finally passes out. This is VERY unlike him. He normally falls asleep instantly. He told me his tummy hurt in the car, so perhaps he's not feeling great.

3:40 -- Teddie wakes up and gets a bottle.

4:00 -- I decide to wake Cam up because if he sleeps much later he won't fall asleep at bedtime. He wants a snack and we play in the living room/outside on the patio while Teddie practices tummy time.

4:30 -- Rick comes home early as a surprise! I fold some laundry and entertain T while Rick and Cam play together and take Maizey for a walk.

5:00 -- Teddie is getting tired (as am I) so we snooze together on the couch while Rick and Campbell play in the basement.

6:00 -- T is awake and gets fed again. Cam gets dinner, too!

6:30 -- I get dressed and ready because we have a babysitter coming! Rick and I leave for dinner with another couple for the evening.

10:00 -- We get home. (Wild ones we are!) Cam was in bed at 8:00. Teddie was awake when we got home so I fed her and put her to bed. Rick and I watch an episode of Breaking Bad (we are officially addicted.)

3:00 am -- Teddie wakes up to eat. She eats for about 10 minutes, then goes back to sleep.

5:30 am -- T wakes up for the paci. Pop it in, and she's back out.

7:00 am -- up for the day... and we repeat everything above.

Right now, at 3.5 months, Teddie is sleeping through the night (9-5) a few nights a week. Some nights she wakes up at 3 am to eat. Some nights she needs the paci. It's really not consistent. Given the fact that Campbell was waking 8-10 times a night (no exaggeration there) at this point, I'm considering ourselves very lucky that we only have to feed her once or max twice a night.

I really feel like I've got a good routine down with both kids. I'm lucky that Cam is great at entertaining himself right now. I'm also lucky that Teddie is generally a happy baby and I can leave her for short periods of time when Cam needs me. The only thing I really am trying to work on is getting home cooked meals prepared more regularly. Right now, I'm able to plan/shop/cook for about 3 days a week. Rick and I both agree that it's going to take a bit more time for me to figure it all out (without any help to watch the kids, running to get a couple of eggs or something last minute is not easy!) Nevertheless, we are making it all work and somehow, we aren't just surviving right now. I'd say we are thriving.

So that's what our day looks like in general. I look forward to more regular nap times and early bedtimes, but for now, I'm taking it all in stride and trying to continuously remind myself that "the days are long, but the years are so short!"

Life with Two

I think the last time I wrote, we were two weeks out from moving into our new home. My how time has flown. And my, how difficult I've found it to write down anything on this blog. But, still, even if it's once every three months, I'd like to document our life so I can look back. So, here it goes!

We moved into our new house on March 7. It was the most chaotic, stressful move I've ever done. 37 weeks pregnant. With a toddler. And a dog. And a husband. Whew! But we did it. And we are so very happy in our new place. The dog has a yard to run in, the kids have a basement to play in, and I have a gourmet kitchen to cook in. (Let's be honest, though, there hasn't been a ton of cooking going on lately!)

On March 26, at 7:20 am (about 10 minutes before Rick leaves for work in the morning), my water broke. I was 39 weeks along exactly. We loaded the car with Campbell, Maizey (our dog) and battled rush hour traffic to the hospital as my contractions began to intensify. One hour later, we arrived downtown at the hospital where my mom and sisters met us. They took Cam and Maizey for us, then came back for the party. When I checked into triage, I was only 3 cm, but I was admitted as my water was broken and we were having a baby that day! So up we went to our room, and after trying to be brave for a couple of hours, I finally decided to get my epidural. I felt great afterward and was really just anxious and bored. I wanted that baby to come, but I was stuck at 5 cm for over 5 hours! At about 7:00 my epidural completely wore off on my left side. I mean I could feel everything and it was brutal!! So the anesthesiologist came in and replaced it for me, and said it would take about 20 minutes to kick in. Those 20 minutes were excruciating, but once it worked again, I started feeling some pressure. I told my nurse I needed to push and she assured me I wasn't ready yet as I had just been checked and was only 5 cm. I told her I needed to push and she said she'd get the doctor and see if she wanted to check me again. As the doctor strolled in (sadly, not my OB) she was smiling and asking me how I felt and I just shouted, "OMG she's coming out!" And, I was right. That baby girl just slid on out and the doctor had to literally leap to catch her. No gloves. No pushing. No nothing. I went from 5 cm to delivery within 20 minutes. It was insane! But at 8:12 pm, our little Teddie Diane was born.

She was 6 lbs 1 oz and 16 inches long (though I really think she was about 18 inches). She's a little peanut and her small size proved to make things a bit complicated at first, but she's been such a great baby! She's got the sweetest personality, loves to smile and coo and talk to anyone who will listen.

Because Campbell was such  nightmare as a newborn, Teddie has seemed like a breeze. Don't get me wrong, we have our hard days, but she eats and sleeps and only cries if she's hungry or tired or needs a good burp. I've never been unable to stop her crying, which is SO different than how Cam was. She was sleeping 8-9 hour stretches up until about 10 days ago when she got a cold. Last night she gave us an 8 hour stretch again, so we're hoping she's back on track, but truthfully, I don't really care. I don't find myself analyzing her eating and sleeping like I did with Campbell. I just don't have time. And I know how quickly this baby phase passes by, so I really am just enjoying it.

If there are moments in the middle of the night when I get frustrated that she won't stay asleep, I repeat the following sentence to myself, "It is a privilege to be rocking/feeding/snuggling this baby right now." And it's so true. I know so many people who wish they could be in my position -- awake at 2:00 am feeding a baby. And I am privileged to be able to do it. 

We've had the best summer so far. Tons of space in our yard to play outside, lots of play dates with friends, camp, sleepovers and BBQs galore! Our 4th of July was one for the record books. It was such a perfect day of family time, friends and fireworks.

Our days are chaotic. So very chaotic. But it's beautiful chaos. I look forward to 6:00 when Rick comes home, but I also don't find myself waiting at the door like a little puppy like I did when Cam was a baby. It's just so different. I am more confident, more in control of my emotions and thoughts, and just feel all around happier this time around. It has made such a huge difference to just be content with life at this moment, rather than wishing away the bad hours/days. This transition was so much easier than I ever thought it would be. I'm exhausted, but I'm not stressed out. We have really just settled into our new routine so smoothly, and I'm so grateful. Life is good right now. Oh so very good.

Our little peanut is now three months old. I plan to write a post about what our typical day looks like at this stage of life, but for now, here's a picture of the little beauty. Our TBear, Teddlesworth, Teddles, Tedderella... we love you more than you'll ever know. Now stop growing up. It's going too fast!!