a day in the life

OK, so I was reading this post on The Stir about a day in the life of a particular mom-blogger that I love. And reading her post made me exhausted. She has two boys, is training for a marathon, works full-time, and is also going to school at night. It all seems impossible, but she made the point that if you schedule accordingly, you can squeeze a lot of stuff into your day. Which made me ponder the fact that some people think I’m a busy person (Seriously! People have said this to me!). Initially I laugh, because I think I was a lot busier before Jane, what with all of the shows I did and social life I had, but I think I just traded in one form of busy for another, because whew, I’m exhausted at the end of the day.



So THEN I remember way back in August 2007, I also posted a “Day in the Life” entry, and if you’ll indulge me, here is part of it again:


(Midnight-2 a.m.: Sometime between here, there is the first of the nighttime feedings. It can last 20 minutes or an hour. I'm half-asleep for this, and watching some crap TV like "The Hills" or "America's Next Top Model" reruns. My brain can't handle any more than that, but it can't handle any less either, or I'd be completely asleep.


2 a.m. - 3:30 or 4 a.m.: Blessed sleep.


4 a.m. - 5:30 a.m.: Sometime between here, there is the second of the nighttime feedings. See above.

7 a.m.-8 a.m.: Wake up for the first of the daytime feedings. This can last quite a while, by the time I get her down for some more sleep (for her).

Somewhere between 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.: Here is when I will usually get a shower in. You have no idea how wondrous a shower is until the prospect of you having one is slim. It's the whole goal of my morning, and when it happens, it's divine. Then I "get ready" in about five seconds, hoping and praying she doesn't wake up. My current uniform is a ponytail, no makeup, shorts and a big t-shirt. HOT. I spend a lot more time making sure she looks cute, because, Lord knows, I don't. During this time I will also try to pick up the house, especially if we are expecting visitors that day, which we have almost every day since I've been home.

Somewhere between 11 a.m.-1 p.m.: More feeding. During the day, I try to keep the TV off. It's become very annoying to me - can you believe it?! - and I prefer the quiet than the loud blathering crap on daytime television. Usually I read (if I can balance the book right) while I'm feeding her during the day. Other times I just stare into space, because, if you can tell by the nighttime feeding schedule, I'm not getting a whole hell of a lot of sleep these days.
The rest of the afternoon is a crapshoot. Like, today, she's been sleeping since about 11:30 - two whole hours! - and I've done some laundry, read some book, played around online, and got the mail. Other days, she might be feeding for hours at a time (yikes!!) and I lose a large chunk of the afternoon to that.

Evening, from about 6 p.m. to midnight: This is Miss Jane's time to party. Either it's feeding time, looking around time, or napping time - but NEVER in her crib. She'll cry and cry if you put her down, so one of us has to hold her at all times. If I'm going to be cranky during the day, this is about the time I am, because the exhaustion creeps up on me and sometimes just plain knocks me out.


And so I read this, and I think, MAN that seems exhausting! How did that lady do it? So I got to thinking about my current life and schedule, and so, for maximum boredom potential, I’ve decided to give you a glimpse into a day in my life, as it stands now (let’s assume this is a work day):


5ish a.m.: The human alarm clock pokes her head in the door. If I am already awake, I can see her do it; sometimes, my first notice that she’s in the room is when I smell her (very wet) diaper. Gross, I know, but it’s true. She’ll climb into our bed with us, and start handing us the things we need to get started for the day (i.e., our glasses, books, her piggy, and once she got Greg a beer out of the kitchen). (Greg does not drink beer first thing in the morning.) As soon as she’s in the room, I know I NEED to get up to get her to the potty, because despite the fact that her diaper is soaked, I have to keep up with the routine of a beginning-of-the-day potty trip (have I mentioned how much I love potty training?).


5 a.m.-7:30 a.m.: I get Jane ready and fed for the day, and then plop her in front of Dora (I will be expecting my Parent of the Year award in the mail any day now) so I can wake up Greg for the day and get ready. Then I hang out with her and Dora for a while before heading off to work. I also typically pick up the house/do laundry/check work email.
8ish a.m.-4 p.m.: Work, aka “Amanda Time.” Sidenote: I think it’s profoundly sad that work constitutes “Amanda Time.”


4 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Pick Jane up from daycare (I hate this. I hate this because it’s a huge drag on my energy to pry her away from whatever fun thing she’s doing there, chase her around the daycare center to get her coat on, often after having to change her poop diaper, because the girl apparently poops at 3:45 every day and no one notices it until I get there, ugh ugh ugh, wrestle her cranky self into the car seat, and get home), find something appropriate for her for dinner, and then these days, we’ve been able to go outside and throw the ball to the dog or whatever. I cannot stress enough how much more enjoyable it is to have it be light outside after dinner, so we can actually do something with our evenings, instead of zombie-ing out in front of Dora and/or trashing the house with toys. I also use this time to pick up the house/do laundry/check work email. It is amazing how much laundry three people produce. I think Greg must change his outfit three times a day.


6:30 p.m.-8 p.m.: 6:30 is officially, as we call it in our house, “Bathtime Specialtime.” I have no idea what prompted this name, but you get the drift: it’s, uh, bathtime. But it’s special! Because there are toys! And bubbles! And hair washing and teeth brushing and why doesn’t she let me brush her teeth? Why? I really need to get her to a dentist this summer and I am afraid. Not because I don’t brush her teeth, because I do, every day, but she clamps her mouth shut and I’m not sure I’m doing the best job in the world. Anyway, after Bathtime Specialtime, I get her in her PJs and then it’s “Couch Time.” This is the time of day when, a month ago, she would’ve gone to bed, but now that she’s free of baby jail (the crib) I let her stay up later, instead of forcing her to go back to her bed over and over and over again. So she sits on the couch with me and reads books or does something else quietly (most of the time) (ok,sometimes) (quite often she’s not quiet at all) and then it’s bedtime at 8.


8 p.m.-?: OK, this is the time I hate. Jane completely freaks out if I don’t lie down on the floor next to her bed while she falls asleep. And I know I’m caving in to her, but at this point of the day, I just want peace. I don’t want to lock her in her room and listen to her throw herself against the door, weeping and wailing. I don’t want to have to herd her back into her room over and over (I tried this, and all she did was cry and cry and get more and more worked up). I know I have to address this issue at some point, but I’m just not there yet. So I lie there for up to an hour (but to be fair, lately it hasn’t been more than 15 minutes) and think about all of the things I could be doing while she tosses and turns and finally, finally falls asleep.


?-10 p.m.: Ah, one more sliver of Amanda Time! I spend this watching TV or reading, inevitably. But this will change soon, as I have auditions and then rehearsals for my summer show coming up in less than a month. So soon I can toss three nights of rehearsals into the mix, plus prep work.
So that’s it! Wow, such a long post, with so little interesting information!