A day in the life

Babies aren't the only ones who thrive on routines. I am very content to slip into a comfy routine day after day. It's taken us a while, but our little family seems to have sorted out a nice weekday schedule. Here's what a typical day is like in our little corner of the world:

5:30 -- Abner wakes up in her crib, TDSH changes her bum and brings her to our bed for a feed before we all go back to sleep until the alarm

6:50 -- We all wake up to The Early Edition on the CBC but TDSH is the only one who actually gets out of bed (even then, he just grabs his breakfast and crawls right back in bed with us)

7:20 -- I finally make my way to the shower after hearing the day's weather report (why I even bother I don't know - every day seems to be rainy, foggy, overcast or some combination of the three. They should just say, "the weather is crappy unless otherwise noted") while TDSH gives Abner her breakfast

7:40 -- Out of the shower and wolf down breakfast so that I can take over feeding Abner and TDSH can wash up and get out the door soon after 8:00

8:00 - 10:00 -- Abner and I spend the morning playing around the apartment (which seems to be getting smaller by the day). Our favorite play activities are tossing Abner into a heaped up duvet, playing with "other baby" in the mirror, practicing walking along the coffee table, playing keep-away from the power cords under the table, and saucer time (which is loudly announced as, "It's sau-cer...It's sau-cer time!" sung to the tune of Flight of the Conchords' Business Time)

10:00 -- Abner goes down for her first nap after a quick feed and a book. Our current fave is The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! Once I put her in the crib, she usually watches her mobile for a while before she actually falls asleep. I never expected her to still enjoy her mobile at this age, but she absolutely loves watching the farm animals spin

After nap -- I never know what time Abner is going to wake up so sometimes we only have a few minutes to play before sitting down to eat lunch at noon...sometimes we have over an hour to kill (those days really kick my butt)

1:00 -- If we're going to go out, this is usually the time we'll do it

2:00 -- Abner goes down for her second nap of the day after a feed (if we're lucky). She's usually pretty good about napping even if we're out of the house. This is a skill of hers I've really grown to appreciate. I don't know what I'd do if she couldn't nap in her stroller or in the Ergo

5:00 -- TDSH plays with and feeds Abner while I do the dishes and get our dinner going. I often get distracted watching them play together though. It's fun seeing the little games and songs that only TDSH plays with her. Little Abby Foo Foo is a popular one these days

6:30 -- I'm usually just finishing my dinner at this point and TDSH begins putting Abner to bed. Our bedtime routine involves changing her bum, putting her in her sleep sack, giving her back her soother and parading her through the apartment saying "night-night" to everything before I feed her and rock her to sleep in the rocking chair.

7:00 -- Lately we've been sacking out on the couch (in the dark) watching M*A*S*H (still a fantastic show after all these years. Try renting it on DVD and watching it without the laugh track - it becomes a much more somber and realistic drama) or playing on the computer (such as this evening)

10:00 -- Give Abner for a little dream feed before heading to bed. I started doing this about a month ago and it's made a world of difference to her sleep.

Sorry, I realize that this post is a bit dull, but I want to make note of these mundane details so that I can tell Abner about it when she's older. Of course, now that I've written out this schedule it's going to go right out the window tomorrow because that's just how things go with babies...once you tell someone about what your baby is up to, the baby starts doing something completely different just to make a liar out of you.