The morning:
The alarm goes off, I need to un-swaddle baby to wake him up. He’s not happy about this. We change his diaper to help him wake up, and then have our first feeding. It’s a small one; he’s not really a breakfast person. Semi- alert, I put him in the rocker and give him a steam bath- a.k.a. mommy’s shower. By the last couple of minutes Baby realizes he’s been put down, and starts to fuss. So I get out and we dance together. Calm again, Baby gets put in the Moby and I get to have breakfast. If everything went quickly we might hang laundry or do some dishes, but not too much because it’s time to feed again. By this time Baby is hungry and the feeding take much longer. Half-way through we have a changing, and then he’s out for a nap. I get to check my email/pump/have lunch and before I know it, it’s time to feed again.
The afternoon:
Assuming the lunch feed didn’t take 2 hours, now is a good time for a walk. If it did and Baby is alert, then we play. Sometime between now and the evening we’ll have an explosive poop, which will trigger a bath time. Usually Daddy is home by now, so we have some 2 parent back and forth, and before we know it, we’re feeding again. Daddy likes to take “Family Nap Time”, but usually only he sleeps; sometimes Baby joins him, but usually by the time I’m ready to doze it’s time to get up for the evening feed.
The evening:
I dread this part of the day, for about 4-5 hours between 6pm and midnight, Baby is feeding on and off. I can’t even figure out where one starts and the next begins. In between we have frequent bowel movements and incessant fussiness. I’ve been up since 5 or 6 in the morning and I’m beginning to loose it. Daddy’s in the office trying to study and the crying doesn’t help. At some point we, the adults, try to have dinner. Either Daddy has to cook, or we order a pizza, or defrost a meal; either way, Daddy still has to do dishes, and I still have to clean bottles and pump parts to get ready for the night.
Night:
When the never-ending feeding ends, we can all go to bed. We carefully do a 2-parent (=extra tight) swaddle on the just-sleeping baby and pray he doesn’t wake up. Once he’s down we have 3 blissful hours before my alarm goes off; sometime I cheat and give us a 4th because parents need to sleep too. This is the easiest feeding, Baby is super sleepy, so I pump and give him a bottle at the same time; it’s the only way we can be done in less than an hour. I change his diaper, and put him on my chest to fall asleep, hoping he will burp so that he doesn’t later choke on his regurgitation when I put him down. Once he’s asleep, I swaddle him, put him on his side of the bed, and set an alarm because in 3-4 hours we have to feed again.
