October 20, 2010

a day in the life - lindsay

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today you get to meet Lindsay from A Little Kloep.  Enjoy!

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Hey there! I’m Lindsay from A Little Kloep. DH and I have been married for 5 years and have one little man, Noah who’s almost 8 months old (gah!). We have a 4 year old Vizsla named Macie to round out our little family. We’re back in Northern Virginia after spending 5 years in Northern California (although, we hail from PA originally). Up until September 1st I was a workin momma but my previous employer had other ideas:) Thankfully hubs is gainfully employed and I’m trying to enjoy my forced time off. Unfortunately I can’t enjoy my little man full time due to that lovely thing they call a wait list at daycare – bring him home, lose my spot. It all works out though because I’ve taken an aggressive approach to job hunting and need all the time during the day to network, interview, and convince people that they just can’t live without me at their company. Noey (as we affectionately call him) appreciates the consistency anyways (or so I keep telling myself to make it feel better that I’m home without him). Today I’ll share what our days look like right now…

6:30am – I wake to hear Noah babbling in his crib. Usually, he’ll talk to himself for about half an hour so on most days I catch a few more zzz’s. Today however, I go in and grab him because this is the first time he’s woken up (hello 7:00pm to 6:30am sleep!) and he’s hungry!
7:00am – 8 oz’s down, fresh diaper, time to play! Noah and I head back to bed to hang out. He spends his time just talking and rolling around. He loves to roll over on to daddy and pull his hair or pat his face. Daddy’s trying very hard to pretend to be asleep, but duty calls. Daddy rolls out of bed at 7:30am to relieve the whining dog.
7:45am – Mommy needs a shower so Noah hangs out in his exersaucer chewing and drooling on just about everything. He’s cutting his first tooth and I think by the end of the week it will finally be thru the gum (you can see the gum broken – poor little man!)

Exersaucer Fun!

8:00am – breakfast! We alternate fresh fruit (strawberries and bananas mostly) and purees. How much of each really depends on his mood. Some days he’s all about the puree and will finish the entire 4oz container, other days I can’t get but a spoonful or two. You can almost always get the fresh stuff in him though!



Breakfast!

8:30am – back upstairs for a diaper change and getting him dressed for daycare.
9:00am – time to pack the daycare bag. This means rounding up 5 diapers, wet bag, 3 bottles and 2 jars of food. Today I had to sit down and stuff all of his diapers since I did diaper laundry last night. Noah’s on the floor rolling around and trying to figure out how to crawl!

Daycare Bag

9:30 – everything is ready, time to play some. Today I sat down with Noah at the piano for some banging and singing (him banging, me singing…). I was raised in a very musical family so I hope that all the time I sing and play to him when he’s little will help him develop an ear towards music.


Learning to play

9:45am – we’re off to daycare. He’s always gone in late because my schedule at work was flexible and I wanted all the time I could with him in the AM. I’m not looking forward to losing that when I get this next job.

from 10am to 5:30pm he’s playing away at daycare while I slave away trying to find another job. Today I’m going to try my hand at making baby food too! At daycare he generally takes two naps that last anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours. He has two bottles (6 oz each) and two jars of food. And lots of fun playing and learning:)
5:30pm – DH calls and asks if I can grab Noah since he’s running late. Luckily daycare is just a few min away and off I go.
6:15pm – We’re back home and ready to dive into the evening routine but first some play time with mommy on the floor. He’s soooo close to crawling I want to give him as much time as I can on the floor. Plus, he’s supper happy right now and so much fun to play with. Lots of tickles and tummy raspberries get him giggling. I really wish I could bottle that sound – so amazing!


Crawling maybe

Evening Play time

6:30pm – Dinner, mmmmm! Dinner is usually 6 oz of purees, sometimes if I’m on the ball and have the adult dinner ready he’ll have some of that too but I’m not that on the ball – even with the whole day to get things together.
7:00pm – Daddy arrives home right as we’re getting out of the bath and asks to do the last feeding. Mommy’s off to make dinner for the big people.

7:30pm – Daddy comes back downstairs with an empty bottle proclaiming himself the miracle worker and that Noah’s asleep. I haven’t the heart to tell him that Noah’s been putting himself to sleep for a few weeks now.


Lights Out!

Now it’s time for mommy and daddy to relax! Sometimes, Noah wakes at 2 or 3am wanting to eat. We oblige but then skip the bottle first thing in the AM and go straight to breakfast. Otherwise we wake and start things again at 6:30am the next day!

1. What is the most surprising thing to you about being a mother?
The strength of the emotions I feel. I’ve never been much of a crier but now everything is viewed thru my mommy lens and it affects me differently. Every single thing I do, I do with Noah in mind. Odd how quickly you become second, third, or last in your own life.

2. What are some tips you would give to new moms, or soon to be mommas?
This has probably been said time over time but it bears repeating….everyone (EVERYONE) will have advice. What worked/didn’t work for them. Take that with a grain of salt. This is your child, you know what is best for them and what works for them. And yes, it is a lot of trial and error to figure it all out. If your mommy gut (no, not the pooch left over like some of us – but your intuition) feels funny, something is likely amiss. Trust it!

3. What are your top three baby products?
Today? (this changes monthly)
1. Ergo carrier – we use this all the time! I love how soft the straps are and how quickly we can switch it between me and DH.
2. Teething raspberry. Looks like a giant raspberry made out of paci material. Noah’s not a paci kid but the bumps on this sucker must feel sooo good on his gums because he won’t put it down (and it keeps him from wailing!)
3. Fleece sleep sacks – it’s kinda cold in our house so instead of cranking our heat all the way up only to have it just fly out the terrible windows, we all dress warm. So, Noah gets his normal PJ’s and then a fleece sleeper over everything. Keeps him nice and toasty.

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Thanks Lindsay!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your day-in-the-life posts. What a great idea! Do you just arrange with bloggers ahead of time to write something and then post it? I'm toying with the idea. Let me know!

mjb said...

This was a great daily summary - very helpful as I'm looking forward to my baby's arrival.