A Day in the Life – February 2018.

[I’m sharing another day in the life post! After the one I shared in January, a bunch of you asked to see a non-work day and a day when I didn’t have childcare. I promise that’s coming next month! I documented this day on a Tuesday (again!) when I had childcare for Max for a few hours in the morning. I’m planning on sharing one each month!]

6:45am: Max doesn’t realize that if you wake up really early, you can decide to go back to sleep, so we’re up! Emilia is up too. I’m up, I’m up! I feed Emilia, we all snuggle in bed and then head downstairs.

And I am soooo tired. Emilia is going through what I think is the 4 month sleep regression and waking every 1 to 2 hours. I keep telling my mom that I have NO idea how I did this with Max for two years straight every single night, but I’m so tired and very overwhelmed with this stage! With Max, I would nurse him and he was a big comfort nurser and while it probably was a bad habit, it worked like a charm and was fine and he often went right back to sleep. Emilia doesn’t like to be rocked or snuggled to sleep and she won’t nurse when she isn’t hungry, so she is just fussing multiple times per night, but it’s more than little squeaks and I’m not doing full on cry it out yet. It’s the first time I have felt overwhelmed with life since she was born in November. NEED SLEEP!

7am: I make a big glass of water with apple cider vinegar which I’ve been doing for 10+ years. I swear it saves me from sickness! I’m still doing BBG but did it yesterday so am not doing it today (unless I have a charge of heart come this afternoon). It took me about 6 weeks to complete 4.5 weeks so far, but I still love it!

I get Max breakfast and work on a few quick work things (the ones I like the least!) while he is eating. Emilia is doing tummy time next to me!

7:45am:  I forgot that I didn’t make any coffee and since I’m an absolute zombie, I make some. The minute the espresso brews, Alex (who watches Max! she is so much more than a babysitter though!) texts me and says she is going to stop at Starbucks and asks if I want anything. UM YES PLEASE.

8:15am: I run upstairs super quickly to wash my face and do some morning skincare, change my clothes, set out some warm clothes for all of us tonight because he has skating lessons and come back down. Also make some avocado toast on sourdough! Emilia is snoozing.

8:30am: I have to film a video for a sponsored post and I can’t ever do the videos and photos in the same day. So even though I made the recipe yesterday, I’m making it again today to film. It’s going to take at least 3 (broken up) hours because it’s dough that has to rise so I have to start NOW.

9am: I nurse Emilia. We do a little more tummy time I set her in the bjorn lounger while I set things up.

9:15am: I film the first portion of the video and while waiting for the dough to rise, I do a ton of computer work. I work on today’s blog post, write out my February beauty favorites and my February lifestyle favorites, start to edit six sets of photos (omg what) and write out a bunch of stuff for the book launch! During this time, I have Emilia in the rock and play for about 20 minutes, then we also do tummy time (I have her do a TON of tummy time because I’m so paranoid about her head getting flat since she sleeps for long periods of time.. or err, she used to) and I wear her too.

Her fat little toes kill me. She loves being bundled like this and watching me in the kitchen for a bit!

11am: I finish up filming the video and try not to hate it. Max and Alex have been outside playing since it’s sunny and warm, and they come inside for him to eat peanut butter banana toast! It’s his favorite meal.

12pm: Time to feed Emilia again! Right now she goes 3 to 4 hours between eating. I love this so much! It’s like a little break we get to take together, it relaxes me and resets my brain. So glad this part is not overwhelming for me, so I feel lucky.

12:15pm: I start some beef tacos in my slow cooker. I do it this way since we won’t get home until later after Max’s skate lessons. I can sear everything in this slow cooker and it’s amazing! Barely any clean up at this point. I just can’t stand the way beef tacos make the house smell. The scent sticks on everything.

12:45pm: I half-ass clean up the kitchen which means I wipe down the counters, put away any and all food and load up the dishwasher. This is far from CLEAN though because on shoot days I essentially have to destroy my kitchen. I push the table up against the window, I have tons of props out that I need for food styling but store elsewhere, there are six photography boards propped against my kitchen table and 2 tripods. I’m leaving it cluttered though (which makes me insane) because I have to prioritize. I probably won’t get to put everything away until tomorrow morning! Which isn’t a huge deal, except I will kind of die if anyone decides to stop over and see this mess. Perks of working from home!

1pm: I jump in the shower real quick because Alex is still here. Max is napping and Emilia is also asleep, so Alex keeps an eye on her while I jump in the shower super fast. I get ready at this point too. I can’t stand smelling like tacos.

2pm: Our upstairs is (also) a complete disaster because of the toddler tornado that whips through. I take 20 minutes to clean up what I can and then have 40 more for some work before Alex leaves. I’m wearing Emilia and she is super happy and chill! I listen to some of the WTF podcast episode with Jennifer Lawrence which is amazing.

3pm: Emilia time! She eats and is such a little chunk that I can hardly take her adorableness.

3:30pm: I took a quick break and posted a few insta stories! You might have seen them.

4pm: Max plays with legos and Emilia and I sit on the floor with him while I do a few more work things (and continue to detail this post hour by hour!) before we head to skate lessons. I get us all dressed and everything ready to go so we can leave on time.

5pm: I feel Emilia right before we leave so she is good to go for a few hours.

5:15pm: We leave for skate lessons and since Max is the product of a millennial he asks if we can stop and get a croissant. He is so tiny and I never deny him any snack or food when he asks, so I go through the Starbucks drive thru and get him a butter croissant. He inhales it. I reeeeallly want an everything croissant for myself but resist. I haven’t had anywhere near enough water today so I just get a venti ice water! It’s about 30 minutes away and ummmm right now as a mom of two, I LOVE getting in the car with my babes and driving somewhere. Because it’s nice to be able to sit and drive and feel like I’m having time to myself, but also have them in the backseat with me. It’s like a mini vacation. Am I right?

6pm: Skate lessons! Eddie leaves work a little early to meet us at the ice rink. Skate lessons are SO fun and hilarious and great tonight. Max was excited to go and it is just so funny to watch him out there. He chats up a storm. At one point he was crawling on the ice. At other points he was skating with his buckets waaaay too close to the advanced group. We laugh the entire time and probably act like goofy parents. I leave with Emilia at about 6:45 so I can get dinner fully ready.

7:45pm: Back home and soooo glad I threw that recipe in the slow cooker. Emilia screamed the entire ride home because she lost the pacifier and knew it was RIGHT THERE but couldn’t get it, so I’m tense and feel so bad she was crying. I nurse her and start the bedtime routine! She goes down at about 8.

Everything I read about the 4-month sleep regression says “put them to bed at 6 or 6:30!” but if I do that, Eddie will literally only see her on Saturday and half of Sunday. I’m trying to work the nap schedule towards an 8 o’clock bedtime, which seems to be working. Or at least it was.

The beef tacos are SO good. It’s something that doesn’t taste like “slow cooker” so it’s perfect. I actually made a taco salad with butter lettuce and ten thousand tortilla chips on top along with avocado and am a happy camper. But totally forget to take any photos because we’re running around like crazy people. This looks terrible below, but it was delish! Grass fed bed, sweet onions, two bell peppers, a can of green chilis, tons of spices.

8:30pm: After a little bit of play time and another quick kitchen clean up, Eddie takes Max up to do his bedtime routine. I hate that we didn’t get a ton of snuggle time today. I don’t even know me because all I want to do is snuggle my kids 24/7. I love this more than I ever thought I would.

9pm: This Is Us is on and I am severely sucked into this show. I can’t ever just sit and watch a TV show (I wish I could, but I just can’t!) so I have my computer and am ready to finish editing photos. Goal is: also try not to get sucked into the internet vortex.

9:20pm: Ugh – Emilia is up already. I head upstairs and put the pacifier back in her mouth and wait it out. It’s not the hunger cry. She falls back asleep!

10pm: I make a huuuge to-do list for tomorrow which is probably too ambitious (spoiler alert: it was! hence why this post isn’t going up until 10PM), but I need to do a brain dump of everything that has to be done. I can figure out the priority in the morning but if I don’t get it down on paper now, my mind will race in bed! First on the list: put away all my photography stuff so our house doesn’t look trashed.

10:15pm: I head up to bed earlier than usual because I am dyyyying of exhaustion. But don’t worry, I still suck at life and look at my phone for 25 minutes before passing out. 2018 is the worst. OH WELL.

P.S./next day note: Emilia woke up after four hours which was a little better. But we’re not there yet!