These are the Days of our Lives: Spring 2013

Look!  Two of these in a row!  I am so proud.  Laura over at Navigating the Mothership is doing her quarterly Day in the Life (or for some people, Week in the Life round up) this week and for the first time ever I have managed to document two seasons in a row.

I opted to do Wednesday, April 17.  As soon as I started the day I wanted to do a take back, but honestly, I don’t think any of the other days this week would have been much better.

4:50 am: Jonathan starts yelling.  I drag myself out of bed six minutes later mumbling something about darned kids who are still breastfeeding at 18 months.

I walk into his room and he sits up like a Jack-in-the box, saying: “Mama!  Mama!” and promptly closes his eyes and opens his mouth.

5:15 am: I stumble back to bed where my alarm goes off at 5:50.  I hit snooze until 6:10, when Husband enters to wake me up.  I manage to open my eyes at 6:15.  I tentatively swing my legs out of bed at 6:20.  Isaac, of course, is already up and sitting in his room.  I pour an inch of coffee and try to wake up as Husband rails against the mess that is adult education.

6:45 am: I slowly get ready to run, popping a single shot block that is left in the package.  Because there is nothing like 33 calories to fuel a run.

7:15 am: I finally make it out the door.  It is 32 degrees, windy, and sort of rainy/lightly sleeting.  Who needs coffee?  Running in this weather is bracing enough!  I am hoping to do 6 miles and am enjoying myself so much that I do 8.  It takes me an hour and 13 minutes, fully 6 minutes more than a slow 8 miles would take me when I’m not pregnant.  Pink and Fallout Boy see me through and I actually enjoy the run.  I am finding more and more that the constantly slow runs bother me.

I just want to get through the distance in a normal amount of time!  But when I enjoy the process and the scenery it’s so much better.  If you try to tie in life lessons here, I will probably smack you.

8:30 am: I return home and jump into the flurry of getting people dressed and fed.

Isaac gets dressed and then watches part of The Sword in the Stone, one of his current favorites.

9:00 am: I take Isaac across the parking lot to preschool.  After I make my escape I come home to the horrendous mess that is our house and pop a Zofran.  I make some eggs, which I eat every day without fail.  I crave eggs.

I consider taking a prenatal vitamin, but having been unable to stomach one yet, I decline.  It’s been 14 weeks of no prenatals, what’s another day?  Husband exits stage left, en route to teaching in Lansing and Dearborn.  This schedule means that he will be home around midnight.

I clean the house while Jonathan hangs out and I change jeans 5 times.  I am at the weird jean stage of pregnancy where all my jeans fit until noon and then they don’t button anymore.  But if I move up to my “fat” jeans, the waist doesn’t fit right and they fall down.  Good times.

9:47 am: I try making cottage cheese with nonfat milk.  Supposedly this should work.  I have had great success with 1% milk but the verdict is “don’t bother” when it comes to nonfat milk.

I promptly toss the results.  I also finish the dishes.

10:30 am: Time for second breakfast!  Followed almost immediately by a graham cracker and cottage cheese.

10:52 am: After reading a few books together, Jonathan finally succeeds in completely getting on my nerves.

I remove him to his crib and take myself to the living room.  I think our problem is the fact that today he hits 18 months and I am 13 weeks 6 days pregnant.

That’s enough to mess with anyone’s relationship.  Ah, quiet.  Finally.

11:30 am: We head out in the stroller to get Isaac from preschool.

By now it is snowing.  Because what else would it be doing in Michigan at the end of April.  I take a line from What to Expect and mentally turn it into our state motto.  Michigan: Where happiness goes to die.  You can’t actually see the snow flakes in the picture below, but trust me, they are there.

11:40-12:10 pm: We decide to hit the library.  Since we can see the library from our house, traveling there through snow and wind with two small children in a stroller is no big deal.  Once there, Isaac plays with the chess set and breaks a knight and Jonathan tries to see how many DVD’s he can remove from their cases while I am not looking.

12:25 pm: We having lunch and I try something I have wanted to try for a while – making microwave popcorn using normal popcorn and a brown paper bag.  It works!

Though I do burn the first batch.  Popcorn, yogurt, and hot chocolate for lunch – works for me.

Lunch is set to the back drop of a really annoying CD that I picked up at the library.

1:15 pm: We discover the sound on my laptop has quit working and Isaac has a meltdown when he discovers he can’t watch Diego.  He runs around the house with his sword while I nurse Jonathan and lay him down for a nap.  I try roasting some garbanzo beans that I saw on Pinterest.

1:40 pm: Isaac and I read a book and he goes down for his “nap”.  I finally get to eat my lunch as well as check email, waste time on Pinterest, and do other nap related tasks.

3:00 pm: The stench from Isaac’s room suggests that I change him.  The kid is completely potty trained, including staying dry at nights, except for the fact that he poops in a diaper almost every day at nap time.  I hate it.  It is nauseating.  Today is special and Isaac has, for the first time ever, stuck his hands in his diaper and then touched other stuff in his room.  I get very mad and say mean things to him.

3:35 pm: I start feeling nauseous and start snacking, hoping to quell the nausea.  I discover Isaac has fallen asleep and I wake him up at 3:58.

4:00 pm: The babysitter arrives.  I try not to think about the fact that we have spent almost the grocery budget in babysitting this month because that has been the only way to survive without family helping us.  With my microbiology final the next evening and a Tuesday and Wednesday where husband works 9 am to 11:30 pm and I am home all day with the kids, some things have to give.  Apparently our budget is that thing.

4:00-6:00 pm: I head out to study, stopping by a bathroom to throw up.  I spend an hour on the stationary bike with my micro notes and then get off and study some more.

6:00 pm: I return home feeling exhausted and nauseous.  I throw both boys in the bath tub where they do a lot of splashing and not listening and I do a lot of yelling.

I get them in pajamas, feed them dinner, and (barely) get through the bedtime routine.

All I can think while trying to get through the last hour and a half is; “Why is this so f****** hard?”  I know I am the only parent out there who has thoughts like that, especially with bad words thrown in for good measure, but there you go.  Day in the life, folks.  (And yes, I realize that the above pictures make them look like adorable and effortless charges.)

7:30 pm: The sun comes out for the first time all day, just in time for the boys to go to bed.  Jonathan nurses and then grabs my hand, pulls it over his face and then pulls it out crowing: “A BOO!”  So we play peek-a-boo a few times before I lay him down.

7:44 pm:  Isaac needs to get out and go to the bathroom.  “Will my shift ever be over?” I wonder.

7:45-9:00 pm: I waste time, I try to study.  I continue feeling exhausted, sore, and nauseous.  The bread that sounded so good when I got home and the cereal that sounded like it would cure the nausea gets thrown up along with everyone else.

9:00 pm: I go in and feed Jonathan praying that he will sleep through the night.  I brush my teeth and get ready for bed.

9:31 pm:  I am done.  There is nothing left.  I realize that I am wearing the same cold weather pajamas that I was wearing back in January for the Winter Day in the Life.  That is depressing.

I climb in bed and sleep the sleep of an exhausted pregnant woman, waking only to roll over to the other side when Husband arrives home sometime near midnight.

The End.