A Day in the Life- Maternity Leave

My favorite post to read are day in the life post so I thought it would be fun to document what a typical day looks like in this season of life. I also think it will be fun to look back on as I know this precious time is fleeting. We are following Moms on Call and it's working great for us. 

6am- Anna Claire starts stirring but I give her a paci and try to make it to 7am before we wake up. 

7am- Justin's alarm goes off and we all wake up. Anna Claire is full of smiles when she wakes up and is absolutely adorable to talk to. This is my favorite part of the day! I nurse her then get up to make some coffee and breakfast. 

7:30am- We spend close to an hour playing. Play time right now involves swinging in her swing, talking to her and making sounds/faces, tummy time and looking at things on her play mat. She is generally really happy during this time but towards the end I can tell she is getting tired. 

8:30am- Swaddle, paci, white noise and rock n play for a nap. She normally falls asleep within minutes during this time and will sleep anywhere from one to two hours. This is when I will do my devotional, sip on my second cup of coffee and catch up on blogs. If we have plans that day I'll also squeeze in a shower while she's asleep. 

10am- Wake her up if she is still sleeping and nurse her before we start play time again. We spend the next hour repeating the same play time routine. If I have errands to run we may run those now also. Yesterday we ran to the library and to meet Justin for lunch.

11:30 am Nap time again. She falls asleep easy if we are at home. What I should do is workout during this time but I normally spend this time picking up in the house. 

1pm- Wake her up if she is still sleeping to nurse and play. I'll take a million pictures of her and just hang out.  If I didn't run any errands earlier we may do that now just to get out of the house for a bit. 

2:30- Down for another nap and I may hop back on the computer to check emails and read more blogs. 

4:00- She is up ready to nurse and play for another hour. She is normally more fussy during this time so it's a good time to pull out the Solly Wrap or go for a walk if it isn't too hot.

5:30- Anna Claire takes a short nap and Justin gets home. We start dinner and get as much done as we can before she wakes up. 

6:30- Anna Claire is awake and normally fussy so it's the perfect time for a bath! She loves the bath but hates drying off and putting on her pajamas 

7:00- I nurse her and put her down for a nap. This should be her bedtime but she will normally nap on and off for the next two hours and not really ever fall asleep. We all hang out and watch TV/ eat dinner and relax as a family. 

10pm- We are all exhausted so we head to bed. I nurse Anna Claire one more time, kind of a dream feed and this time she normally will fall asleep for the night. On a good night we will make it to 3AM before she is ready to eat and then at 7 am we start the whole day over. 

Add in lots of diapers changes and that's pretty much our typical day! Of course some days we have plans so things play out differently but we try to stick to this schedule as much as possible. The days can be somewhat monotonous but I wouldn't trade them for anything. I absolutely love staying home with Anna Claire and watching her grow and change each day. I am SO fortunate in the timing of my maternity leave- I am a teacher so I took six weeks of maternity leave and then school let out for the summer so I am able to stay home with her until August when she will be 15 weeks. These days are precious to me and I hope I never take them for granted!