Day in the Life Of: Susanne, Mama of One Little Lady

First of all, huge apologies to Susanne, for this was supposed to go up before the holidays, but life got a little insane, so here it is now! I love this Day in the Life Of post because it cracked me up, and also, is so honest and real. Susanne is a mom I met online, but turned out we had "IRL" friends in common! Her daughter, Lucy, is a peanut and so adorable. Thanks for sharing, Susanne! You can follow Susanne on Instagram, too! 

Back to bed everyone!

6:30am: I wake to Lucy's lovely yelling. I guess it's the best you can do when you can't actually talk so I don't blame her. I go in. "Good morning kitty cat!!!" I smother her in hugs and kisses, change her diaper and nurse her in our big comfy beanbag chair. We cover ourselves with a blanket and she hops on and off the chair grabbing new books for us to read, handing each one to me and saying "up up up!"

7:30am: Lucy starts yelling and throwing herself on the floor, now grabbing my shoulders and saying, "up, up, up!" I assume this means she wants me to get up and bring her downstairs for breakfast. Who knows! I sit her in her high chair, while I peel an apple for her to eat and she yells and tries to grab it. I FINALLY (25 seconds?) hand it over and she devours it. This used to keep her busy for a good 20 minutes, but she's suddenly a really efficient fruit eater - ten minutes tops... "Up, up, up!" At this point I have so much in my head that I planned to do while she ate that apple. Cue extreme disappointment. Cue the urge to multitask. Ok. I don't even know what I did with that ten minutes.

7:45am: I put her on the floor and let her crawl around while I attempt to tackle my list of little things I imagined getting done - my quick morning routine (oil pulling, apple cider vinegar with hot water and lemon), making almond milk, cleaning the kitchen, cooking breakfast, getting dinner in the slow cooker and checking email with some unfortunate Facebook distractions.
I look down for about 30 seconds to read an article on why moms are so tired ("hyperawareness" ? Seriously.) I look up and Lucy has climbed on the tv cabinet and is basically sitting on the cable box. Oops. I grab her down and discover she really needs a diaper change. Ugh. No, diapers never got less gross to me. How about you?

8am: Thank god that's over. I take this opportunity (just since I thought of it) to wash my face and brush my teeth while Lucy sits on the bathroom counter and turns the light on and off. I count this as learning. Side note: I just started using a Clarisonic on my face every day and oh my god can we talk about amazing results? Have you tried this?!)

8:15am: back downstairs to have our breakfast (oatmeal with almond butter/blueberries and chia seeds - it's our new favorite).

8:45: After breakfast we play on the floor with some blocks and I straighten up the living room and get my computer ready for a 9am call with work.

9am: Lucy hangs with dad upstairs in her room (sounds like they're reading books) and I take my work call. Nap time (for Lucy) is 9:30 so dad puts her down then and I finish up my work call shortly after so I have some free time (!) meaning I have some time with out baby at my feet. I finish prepping dinner (a loose rendition of this recipe) and begin to clean the kitchen - by this point in her life, Lucy has got to think my favorite hobby is doing dishes. It's not.

10am: She's up! We nurse. It’s funny, breastfeeding has been the hardest thing I’ve done in life so far and once it started to get easy, everyone started asking me when I plan to stop like I’m a crazy weirdo. She’s only a few weeks past one… we’ll see what happens.

10:15: More playtime for Lucy. I open up "her cabinet" where I keep lots of baby safe kitchen stuff and she sits and plays for a while while I get chicken stock cooking. I roasted a chicken last night; I always make a stock with the bones to get the most out of the chicken - it's also so nutritious and delicious! Then finish up making almond milk.

11am: We hop in the car and run to Value Drugs to grab hand soap and some other essentials we ran out of before vacation. Lucy reaches for every stuffed animal in the store and I stop the cart, introduce her "hi da!" And she hugs each one like its her long lost, best friend. These moments make me wonder "how is she this cool?!??"

12pm: We're home... I get some laundry done while carrying Lucy on my hip. Then she hangs out in my bedroom with me - crawling up and down on the bed while I straighten up. She goes to my night table drawer, takes out my Chapstick, and then puts it back over and over. I guess this counts as learning too. We relax. Somehow we're ahead of schedule and for a little bit we just hang out on the bed; she gets lots of tickles and kisses. She makes me laugh hysterically doing her new routine of standing up on the bed, putting her hands over her head and diving on to me. She. Is. The. Best.

12:45: We nurse. She gets a new diaper and turns off the light (while on my hip) and I put her in her crib for a nap. (1pm is nap time, but she always spends some time babbling and getting comfy in her crib. We started using the 90 minute sleep solution around two months and it has helped more than anything else I've tried. I highly recommend it!) I take advantage of nap time to take the fastest shower ever, get dressed and get her lunch ready (roast chicken from last night, a banana and a kale/cashew/mango smoothie - made six of these - one for Lucy, me, my husband, the babysitter, and a few for tomorrow.) I chug a smoothie and throw my laptop and wallet into my bag.

1:55: She's up! And in a great mood. Hallelujah. The babysitter will be here at 2pm so I get Lucy out of her pajamas (finally!) and into some semi normal clothes - we're still waiting for clean laundry because we just got back from vacation two days ago...

2pm: Charlotte (our amazing babysitter) arrives. Lucy and I answer the door and I tell her, "Charlotte's going to play with you for a while while I go do some work!" I sit her in her high chair and take lunch out and say bye! Thank god she loves Charlotte. My husband and I leave (he's been working in his home office all day) and we go to Starbucks to work for a very short two hours. Somehow, I get a ton of work done. I'm looking for a lighting designer and figuring out the best place to order 2,000 balloons from for an event I'm planning. I'm feeling very grateful to have this new project because work has been kind of slow for the past few weeks and also, this project is super fun.

4pm: We're home. Lucy hears me say hi and crawls over to me with the biggest smile I've ever seen anyone smile. We say bye to amazing Charlotte and nurse on the couch till Lucy flips off my lap, says, "up up up" and hops down off the couch (she's still figuring out up and down). She's entertaining herself on the floor doing lunges saying, "up, da" so I take this time to finish up a few emails for work and peak at Facbook/Instagram. She crawls into the kitchen and I hear her say, "up, up, up" to my husband who is standing at the counter working at his laptop. He is pleasantly surprised because she rarely asks him to pick her up. So that's cute! It lasts for about five minutes and somehow she has landed back in my arms haha.

4:45: I crawl onto the floor and sit in Lucy's elephant chair and tell her to pick some books for us to read. She gets "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and sits in my lap and we read... Well, I read. Spoiler alert: The caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. She climbs down, grabs her baby (a birthday present I gave her last week) and hugs her and says, "baaabaae!"

She comes back over to me and it's "up, up, up!" So I grab her and head back to the kitchen (because that's where I live!) I have to get her dinner ready and finish making dinner for my husband and I, but I quickly realize this is not going to happen with my hip baby. I sit her in her high chair with an appetizer (a spoonful of coconut oil - yum! I don't know, she loves it.) Throw a bunch of cubed sweet potatoes into the oven and grab some Lima beans out of the slow cooker. I should have done those last two things earlier, but I didn't. She's done with her "appetizer" and climbing out of her high chair so I grab her and sit her on the counter and let her examine the spinach (learning!) while I'm tearing radicchio and slicing tomatoes. Lima beans have cooled! Sit her back down and hand her a bunch. She eats some, but feeds half to the dog. Grr. I throw him into the backyard so I have a better chance of her eating. Sweet potatoes are served! She loves them. But I'm still worried she hasn't eaten enough so I grab the blender and make her a quick dessert smoothie (almond milk/coconut cream/blueberries/cardamom/turmeric) she downs it. Yay! This is delicious. I instagram it. (I've been working on getting some kids recipes together and planning a "real food workshop" to put my health coach license to use, but just haven't gotten there yet. Small steps.)

6pm: Bath time has arrived! I grab a glass of wine. We climb the stairs - Lucy in front of me, climbing on all fours, start the tub and go into her room to clean up. I ask her to help me clean up all her books and she hands me them one by one - then hands me a sock, which makes me wonder if she knows what books are. Well, one day she will figure it out. Into the bath. We talk about the day. Well, I talk about the day. She says, didididididididaaaaa! Speaking of daaa! Dad come upstairs to say goodnight and hangs out for a few in the bathroom with us. Lucy says, "up up up" which means bath time is over and it's time for bed. We nurse. I put her pajamas on, we say goodnight to every stuffed animal in her room, goodnight to the sun (which has already set), I let her switch off the light and put her in her crib. Aaaaaah.

6:40: By now, dinner is ready to go so I make some plates up for my husband and myself. Now we get to relax. I love Lucy's early bed time because I get to spend all day with her and then have time with my husband at night, which for me is totally necessary to stay sane. Also, going to bed early gives her the best chance to get a full 12 hours... Babies wake up with the sun no matter what time they go to bed. They're like senior citizens. (From my experience.)

8pm: We sit on the couch, have some more wine and watch American Horror Story (that show is getting to be really disturbing), SVU and I work a little more on my phone researching caterers and lighting artists - I'd love to stop this habit and turn my phone off at night... Maybe one day!

11pm: I pour us both a "Calm" magnesium drink and it's time for bed.

Sometimes I think I have the time management skills of a teenager at a Grateful Dead concert, but this day went pretty well! Success! Now I pray that she sleeps through the night.