Monday, April 14, 2008

The life of a SAHM

Okay so I'm not really a SAHM (stay at home mom) but it sort of feels like it. I only work 2-3 days a week and some of those days are on weekends, so I am home with Anthony for several days out of the week. I have been trying so hard in the past month to get Anthony on a schedule, so that I can have some sort of an idea of how my day will go. Now that he is 4 months old, I think we finally have routine that repeats enough that we can now call it a schedule.
7:30 -8 Wake up, eat and play
9:30 Naptime
11:30 Wake up, eat and play
1:30 Naptime
3:30 Wake up, eat and play
5:00 Naptime
6:30 Wake up, eat, and play
9:00 Eat, and in bed by 9:30
These times are always subject to vary by 30-60 minutes, but for the most part, this is our day.
During the night he eats again usually twice at 2am and 5am. On a good night only once.

So my dilemma now is that I am stuck at home, unless I want to mess up his naptimes. Because as you see, my longest stretch of his awake time is 2 hours, so if I want to do something involving leaving the house, its a big rush to feed him, get him in the car and go where ever it is we're going and get back before he falls asleep in the car. So unless I have something very important or very fast to do, we just stay home.

Staying home all day is not all bad. Often times one or both of us end up staying in our jammies all day. I figure if your not leaving the house, why get all dressed up. So make-up and fixing hair obviously get skipped often as well. But we play all day, and it's surprisingly really fun. I say surprisingly because I never thought playing with a baby all day would be fun, but when it's your own, it actually is. Other babies are fun too, but not all day.

Anthony is at the age where he is alert enough to want to play with things but not really able to do it by himself. So I have to help him. Which means, when he is awake, I am pretty much dedicated to entertaining him. Yes, sometimes I can read a book or get online while he's watching a video, but it's for such short amounts of time, I really can't do anything productive. So if I want to be productive and clean the kitchen or do laundry, or take a shower and actually get dressed in something other than jammies, I have to do it when he's napping. The problem is, when he is napping, I want to nap too. Sometimes I let him lay in my bed with me for one of his afternoon naps and we nap together. I love doing that, I'd do it for all of his naps if I could, but then I'd really never get anything done.

Sometimes I get a little stir crazy being in the house all day. So yesterday just to get out of the house, I decided to go get an estimate on some new tires for my car. I felt kind of bad because it was taking an unusually long time for the guy to find the right tires for my car. I started to notice a pretty long line of people all dressed up in their work clothes waiting to be waited on. I felt kind of guilty because here I was holding up the line, when I was just killing time to get out of the house. Sort of, I really do need new tires, I just wasn't in any hurry, other than the fact that Anthony's 5 o'clock naptime was approaching. Anyway, turned out to be a waste of my time, because the "discount tire" store estimate ended up being $40 more per tire than the dealership wanted.

I feel really lucky to be home with Anthony as much as I am, he is so fun to watch grow. Everyday he seems to be able to do something new. He talks all the time now. His favorite words are eh, gah, and uh. He can play peek-a-boo with his blanket which is adorable. He smiles with his whole face and you can't help but smile when you see it. I think I kiss him and tell him I love him and how cute he is about a hundred times a day. I'm making up for it, because I'm sure when he's older he wont let me do that.


And guess what else?? He is starting to like tummy time, and he is so close to being able to roll over. Here are a few pictures I took of him last night.




Here my little Superman has all arms and legs and head off the ground.

9 comments:

Rachael said...

Is that drool on your carpet? :)

I am trying to imagine you with TWO kids. I can't picture it. (yet). ha.

Sounds like a pretty fun schedule right now. I could live with a little nap/eat/play cycle, for sure. However, I hope you stretch out those cycles a bit before summer. How are we gonna do pool and beach on that schedule?

And P.S., just so you know, I DID make it to the gym this a.m., but not til 11:00.

Tina in CT said...

Will he sleep if you are out and about?

He has grown so much. Adorable pictures.

Your mom will be bringing something out for him that I saw at the consignment shop and couldn't pass up.

Mandy Lou said...

I am so jealous of that schedule - eat, sleep, play. Sounds good to me.

As for your end of it, I'm sure it must be tough to get things done. I know that my sister felt house bound for a good long while, but eventually she got the period between naps a bit longer and she was able to get out.

Paula said...

I can totally relate to the not getting out of the house mode. I think I'm actually saving us money in groceries now because I really only go if I HAVE to. If it weren't for online purchases I would be able to save a lot of$$
The schedule sounds good. It does get better and not too far in the future. Now at 8 months, Hannah is taking on big nap a day (2-3 hrs) all at once. so I can either go out with her between 8-11 am or between 2-6, so it works out well.

Natalie said...

tractor bottom pants are super cute on him! This might make you feel better about being up to feed the baby early in the morning...when you rolling back into bed after feeding the baby at 6:30am...just think of me pulling into the parking lot at work...with 10 hours of work to go.

Yeah So said...

He's doing so great with tummy time! Rolling over wont be long now.

When our guy was a baby, we tried to get him used to taking his naps out of the house so we weren't stuck inside. If you can be out already just before nap time, and then let him sleep in the stroller or car, you'll be a much happier mommy. And as he gets older he'll be used to the coming and going. Just a thought.

Yeah So said...

He's doing so great with tummy time! Rolling over wont be long now.

When our guy was a baby, we tried to get him used to taking his naps out of the house so we weren't stuck inside. If you can be out already just before nap time, and then let him sleep in the stroller or car, you'll be a much happier mommy. And as he gets older he'll be used to the coming and going. Just a thought.

Yeah So said...

He's doing so great with tummy time! Rolling over wont be long now.

When our guy was a baby, we tried to get him used to taking his naps out of the house so we weren't stuck inside. If you can be out already just before nap time, and then let him sleep in the stroller or car, you'll be a much happier mommy. And as he gets older he'll be used to the coming and going. Just a thought.

PrincessGreen17 said...

He is cute!