Day in the Life: SAHM version of a bad day

We all have bad days, and bad days have a way of feeling like the worst day ever…until the next bad day.  Luckily, time softens memory about those days.

I realized I hadn’t done a “Day in the Life” post for a long time…mostly because I’ve barely gotten around to posting much at all.  It wasn’t going to be a standard Tuesday because Lo was going to a hockey game after work with a good friend, so I was on my own from morning until night (yikes!).  I’m so glad he got to go because 1. he doesn’t get to see this friend often 2. he’s a big fan but hasn’t been to a CBJ game this year and they are doing really well 3. I get to see my friends at volleyball 1/week, he never goes anywhere after work in the evening because he rushes home to spend time with the kids and help me since I’ve been with them all day.  Yes, I’m lucky with that…and people remind me all of the time and I know that I am, but the kids are really the lucky ones.  Kids may not remember everything about their childhood, but they remember how involved their parents were and how much they were available to them day-to-day.

Little did I know it REALLY wouldn’t be a standard Tuesday at all.  Our days are usually pretty smooth…nope, not today.

before 7 am: Marlowe starts crying though it’s too early for her to be up for the day.  I go in to feed her quickly so I can lay back down, but she’s soaking wet.  I grab a diaper and new pjs from downstairs (note to self, keep some upstairs) and change her and quickly nurse her and lay her back down.  It’s about 715, so I still have a good 1/2 hour before Jenson’s alarm turns green and he’s ready to get up (this alarm has saved our mornings because it works for him and he no longer wakes at 6am).  Green means get up, red means go back to sleep).

7:40 am: I hear him stirring, but even after the light turns green at 7:45 he doesn’t stand up or call for me, so I doze until I hear him.

8:20 am: He’s awake, but just laying there so I go in to investigate.  He seems very lethargic and says “Mommy, I’m not feeling very good”.  This is not an unusual thing for him to say (he says it randomly when he doesn’t want to nap or eat or whatever), but I can tell he doesn’t.  I pick him up and bring him downstairs.  No fever, but he was not himself.  After he puts on underpants, I get him milk and dry cereal so he can watch a show.  Shocker, he picks Paw Patrol (thumbs down).

8:35 am: I’m in the bathroom brushing my teeth thinking about how I hoped he wasn’t getting the nasty stomach virus that was going around.  The kids JUST got over 3 weeks of a cold virus that was brutal.  I hear some coughing that doesn’t sound quite right and I ran into the room to see that he’s throwing up a little bit.  It wasn’t much, but I grabbed a blanket and a nearby pail that had some toys in it and start wiping him up with the blanket.  He gags a little more, but nothing much comes out, so I cleaned up, changed his clothes and laid a towel on the floor around him in case it strikes again.  He starts eating his cereal like nothing happened and I envision cleaning up Cheerio-filled vomit in an hour.

Meanwhile, I get my coffee and settle in for some blog work on my other blog until Marlowe wakes up, which ranges from 8 am – 9:30 am.  I had a giveaway that I needed to get posted that morning, so I emailed with the company to get the details.

9:39 am: Marlowe is awake so I go up to get her.  Often Jenson wants to help me get her, but he was engrossed in his show and I was just thankful he wasn’t vomiting.  She’s usually pretty happy when I get her up, but not today.  I bring her down and she looks for Jenson and then Boof and says “Hi Boof”, as usual.  After I change her clothes, I put her down to play for a few minutes while I finish the post.

She’s a big fan of her binkies and prefers to have one in each hand and one in her mouth when she’s sleepy or just waking up.  Her hands were full and she really wanted that binky that she dropped, so she picked it up with her mouth.  Or she was doing yoga.

She fusses at me to nurse and since she hasn’t quite jumped on the cow’s milk bandwagon, I nurse her before breakfast since she’ll end up spitting out most of her cup of milk.  Jenson turns off the tv when his show is over and they play for a minute on the couch.

10 am: We finally go to the kitchen for breakfast – later than normal.  Jenson says he wants a ghost banana.  I don’t know what that means, so I make a face on a banana with raisins.  He loves it, but only eats the raisins and 2 bites before he wants a “ghost” yogurt.  So I wrapped a paper towel around a yogurt stick and that seemed to satisfy him.  Marlowe ate some yogurt drops (just little dollops of plain yogurt that I freeze for her), some O’s, a couple of bites of banana, and part of a waffle.  Jenson agreed to a waffle after his yogurt, and ate most of one.  I’m running around the whole time getting food ready for them and picking up her dropped thrown milk cup, but manage to eat about a 1/2 cup of Greek Gods Chocolate Strawberry yogurt.  (side note: I bought it because I love the brand and it was marked down – I don’t usually eat very sweetened yogurt and didn’t have high hopes for it, but actually loved it.  It tastes like a cross between pudding and yogurt).

I try to get a pic of Marlowe’s top teeth coming in, but she’s private about them.

10:45 am: After I clean everyone up after breakfast, Jenson goes potty and brushes his teeth.  He wants to do a new puzzle that he got at his cousins’ birthday party, so Marlowe plays with a few toys while I help him with the puzzle (he needs very little help – he’s awesome at puzzles) and clean up in the kitchen.

11:15 am: Even though she slept late, Marlowe is ready for her morning nap, so I change her diaper and Jenson starts on another new puzzle while I take her up to nurse her and lay her down.  When I come back down, Jenson wants to play Honeybee Tree and Sneaky Snacky Squirrel – these games have little chocking hazard pieces, so we only play when Marlowe is sleeping.  I’m able to finish the last details on that blog post while playing the games, and post on my Norwex Facebook page about a Norwex flash sale that’s about to start.  Honeybee Tree doesn’t really have a winner the way he plays (its just for the excitement of the bees falling), but he beats me at Sneaky Snacky Squirrel several times.  After the games, we do a few puzzles together.  He seems fine, so I stop worrying he’s going to puke everywhere.

12:30 am: Jenson has to go potty so we run to the bathroom.  We are trying to get him a little more independent with this because he peed his pants recently while I was upstairs nursing Marlowe before her nap and couldn’t get to him in time.  Sometimes he wants our help, sometimes he says “I don’t need you” and refuses to let us be in the bathroom.  This time he didn’t need me, so I was in the next room while he went.  He starts crying and I know we have a problem.  He couldn’t get his underwear down and peed in them before he could ask for help.  He was upset and crying because he peed his pants and then couldn’t pee in the toilet.  I cleaned him up and calmed him, and stuck the pee stuff (including bath mat) with the vomit stuff for washing later.  We headed out to do more puzzles.

1 pm: The Norwex flash sale on limited edition Envirocloths starts and I try to log on to place the order for a few customers…and the website isn’t working.  Jenson is still doing puzzles so I hope onto the Norwex group facebook page to see that everyone is having problems with it because it’s overloaded.  It’s a really good sale that is expected to sell out, so everyone is in a rush to get the orders placed.

1:20 pm: Marlowe wakes so I get her and change her.  I try the Norwex site a few more times, get mad and give up for a bit.  Plus, its (past) time for lunch.  Lunch is a crazy as breakfast (I never get to sit to eat in between getting food for them, keeping Boof from being fed, and cleaning up).  Jenson eats crackers, cheese, blueberries, a little bit of leftover pizza, and an orange.  Marlowe eats pizza, broccoli, blueberries, cheese, and a little bit of shredded chicken.  I eat crockpot fajita stuff with chips and salsa, while also trying the Norwex site on my phone.  People in the group swear its working, but warn you have to be consistent and keep refreshing.

2 pm: After I wash the dishes, I jump on the computer while the kids wind down for nap..it’s going to be late today since Marlowe took her first nap late.  I’m making some progress  with the site and then suddenly our wifi isn’t working.  I try everything I can to make it work and am SOOOO frustrated, so I get back on my cell to try to do it mobile again, which is difficult because it involves lots of scrolling and switching screens (which require refreshing because the site is so overwhelmed)  I just want to close out this damn order, so I’m determined to get it done.  I text with Lo and after asking a few questions, he gives me the standard IT solution to reboot the computer, router, etc.  I’ve done this already, but I try again because things like that only work after an IT person tells you to do it and you swear you’ve already done it.  And then you look dumb.  But not this time.  He says it doesn’t make sense why just the wifi is broken.

2:40 pm: Marlowe is looking sleepy (I know she just woke from her nap, but who am I to question?), so I start getting them ready for nap and we go to Jenson’s room for books and songs.  We read Count to 10 with a Mouse, Poky Little Puppy First Christmas, and The Christmas Mice (I’m slowly putting away the Christmas books, but too many at once, and he notices).  After we sing songs (today it was Do-Re-Mi, Supercalafragalistic, and Bibbidy Bobbity Boo) he goes potty and I put him in his crib.  I go to our room and nurse Marlowe.  Once she finishes, she falls asleep and I put her in her crib in her room and head downstairs to deal with the wifi problem/Norwex nightmare.

3:15 pm: Marlowe starts screaming so I give her binkies again and go back.  She continues to cry scream, but she’s obviously tired so I have to leave her go.  It sucks because she doesn’t cry…she screams for several minutes until she falls asleep.  I text more with Lo and he tells me to get the network cable and I’m back in business.  I finally can get through with the Norwex site, place the order.

4 pm: Marlowe wakes up and I get her.  Her afternoon nap is typically shorter than her morning nap. I’d love to get that reversed so she naps the whole time Jenson does, but I don’t want to screw things up or end up switching her into 1 nap, so I just deal with it.  It gives her some 1:1 time with me too, so that’s nice.  We play on the floor for awhile.  She’s getting more brave about trying to walk. She did take 2 steps from the couch to the coffee table while Lo was sitting there on Sunday, so she’s close to ready, even though she’s not brave enough to stand by herself for more than 2 seconds.

4:45 pm: Jenson’s clock turns green and he’s ready to get up so I go up to get him.  Before I pick him up, he asks if he kept his underwear dry (which I know means that he didn’t).  I check and they are not dry and tell him that he didn’t, but its okay because he’s still learning.  He starts crying because he knows that means he won’t get “something special” after his nap.  We give him a small treat (usually a piece of leftover parade candy) if he keeps his underwear dry. I tell him that its okay and that he’ll have a treat with dinner.  I want to give in now, but I don’t because I think sometimes he pees after he wakes up, and thus can control it.  Once we get downstairs I change him and he calms.

5:10 pm: He usually watches a show after nap and picks Paw Patrol again.  I would have made him pick something else because he already watched it today, but it had been a rough enough day for both of us.  Marlowe and I keep playing and reading.

5:40 pm: Jenson turns off the tv once his show is over.  The kids play for a bit while I pick up a little around the house and get things ready for dinner and stress eat 2 salted caramels from Costco (and narrowing avoid getting busted by Jenson). Boof is being all barky and stupid because Lo isn’t home yet.  She keeps barking and running towards the door, which bugs me, so I set the security alarm so I won’t have to think about her barking while I’m upstairs putting the kids to bed.  This area is safe enough, but we are pretty isolated and its really dark around our house, so sometimes when I’m home alone in the evening I just set the alarm for peace of mind.

6 pm: Dinner is leftovers for all of us, so not much prep required.  Jenson eats some pizza (which he fights me about, but eventually eats it), cheese, crackers with peanut butter, peaches, and blueberries.  I know his diet sucks, but it’s a real struggle these days.  Marlowe eats chicken, broccoli, peaches, yogurt drops, and a few baby puffs.  I eat more fajita chicken stuff with chips and salsa (well-balanced diet here…), but all I’m thinking about is a glass of wine after the kids go to bed.  Dinner was non-dramatic, which seems amazing.

6:45 pm: I get everyone cleaned up and put Marlowe’s pjs her since she soaked her shirt at dinner with the milk she spits out.  They start playing for a bit while I wash the rest of the dishes and are playing so well together with the car that I don’t want to interrupt.

7:05 pm: Jenson asks if its 700 yet, which means he can use the ipad, but I tell him he has to help clean up, pick up, put away first.  He refuses, but once Marlowe starts helping me throw the ball pit balls in the play car, he gets in on the action and cleans up everything I ask him to.

7:20 pm: I give him the ipad and take Marlowe upstairs to nurse her and lay her down.  Luckily she goes to sleep on her own well enough (because she sure doesn’t stay asleep all night!).

7:35 pm: I sit with him for a bit while he finishes a game.  We head to the bathroom to get ready for bed, and then upstairs to read books and sing songs.

8:15 pm: After he’s finally in bed, I head to the basement with the vomit/pee laundry and get to the bottom of the steps….and the security alarm starts blaring.  It’s a super high-pitched loud alarm and I’m so confused what the noise even is.  I run upstairs and remember that I’d set the alarm, but I’m trying to figure out why it’s going off!  Was Lo home early, or was someone trying to get in a door?  As I’m fumbling at the alarm keypad (I swear it’s so loud that I can’t see, which doesn’t make sense).  We rarely have to turn it off like that, so it takes me a minute to figure out what to do after just randomly hitting buttons in a panic.  As I’m working on this, I remember that the system includes motion sensors in the basement, so I set it off when I went to do laundry.  Lo texts because he got an email about the alarm and I tell him it was me.  I’m still standing by the box waiting for them to contact me to confirm the cancellation, but they call instead.  Once I give them the info they need, I try to settle myself and hope that it didn’t wake Marlowe or terrify Jenson.  I text with Lo to confirm that I cancelled it because they’d been calling him too.  It was a crazy stressful few minutes that was entirely self-inflicted at the end of a not-awesome day.

8:35 pm: The alarm doesn’t seem to have bothered Jenson, but I hear him stand up in his crib (it’s squeaky) so I go up to check on him.  He has to poop so I bring him downstairs to go.  We have an upstairs bathroom, but it’s through Marlowe’s room (awkward set up, but her current bedroom isn’t actually a bedroom).  He takes FOREVER and I try to clean up some stuff nearby while he sits there, pleading with him to finish because I’m so ready for ME time.  35 MINUTES LATER, he’s back in his bed.

9:10 pm: I finally get to throw the pee/vomit laundry in the washing machine (I double-checked that the alarm was off before I went downstairs this time).  And then, this.

And after a glass, a Jr. Frosty that was languishing in the freezer from Sunday.  And when I was rescuing that, I noticed a Bake Me Happy oatmeal creme pie in there that I was worried about getting freezer burn.  Obviously I didn’t eat enough during the day annnnd I was maybe stress-eating because I didn’t have time to stress eat when I was still stressed.

I plopped myself on the couch until Lo got home, chatted with him, changed the laundry, did some blog work, nursed Marlowe at midnight since she’d been screaming for awhile and Lo couldn’t settle her, wrapped things up downstairs and headed to bed.

To recap: unexpected early morning diaper change, bout of vomit, potty accident on bathroom mat, broken Norwex website, unrelated broken wifi, screaming baby, potty accident in crib, set off the security alarm, 35 minute potty break for Jenson while I stare longingly at the bottle of wine in the kitchen.  Somehow I managed to keep it together.  I wasn’t perfect…I snapped at Jenson out of frustration more than I would have liked…I had my attention on the computer more than I normally do during the day.  But I had some really sweet moments with the kids too.  We laughed a lot.  Marlowe gave me tons of kisses and was in a great mood other than the nap situation.  I played lots of games and did puzzles with Jenson.  Marlowe and Jenson danced in their own ways while I sung songs before naptime.  Jenson got lots of hugs and reassurance when he was upset from his accidents.  All of the dishes were clean and the house was relatively neat at the end of the day.  Nothing truly bad happened…no one got hurt, no one was “really” sick, everyone was safe…but so many little things.  While I can’t say I’d want many more days like this, I know I can handle it and I know I’m meant to be home with my babies.