A Day in the Life

We are slowly but surely getting into a routine. I’m not where to start the day so we’ll just begin at 9am…usually he eats around this time and then takes a nap. He wakes up just before lunch. Mark has been working from home in our casita since Cooper was born which has been great.  He comes in for lunch around 11:30 or 12 and we take turns holding him while eating.Mark usually plays with Cooper briefly before he goes back to work. Its nice to have a small break  for both of us.  Cooper eats about every 3 hours except when he falls asleep while eating and then it seems I am a 24 hour buffet and each feeding runs into the next. I am breastfeeding and most of the time it works really well. It’s an ongoing learning process and we continue to tweak the way we do things to make Cooper happy.  The afternoon is a series of short naps and other activities given his mood… We have the Baby Einstein series and try to do 1 DVD a day. He sits in this Baby Bjorn Bouncer to watch. They are just 30 minutes and he is mesmerized by the TV.

I will read my magazines to him or listen to music and sing along to him. My singing puts him right to sleep while we sit in the rocking chair! 

We do “tummy time” once or twice a day. Everyone stresses how important it is but he doesn’t really enjoy being on his tummy. He just seems frustrated that he can’t move the way he wants. That should change as he gets older.  He is pretty strong already…When we hold him with his tummy facing our chest- he is always lifting his head and keeping it upright in the air. I think this doesn’t make him seem very “ newborn” to me!

When he gets fussy I walk around the house with him or sit in the rocking chair and rub his back- both of those usually calm him down. 

While he naps I usually pick up the house and tackle items on my to do list. Its amazing how much there is to do! Those things keep me busy so I rarely sleep when he sleeps. I think I need to work on that! I thought being off work for 3 months would be less stressful than working but its definately the other way around. It makes sense now but its not what I thought going into it. But each day gets a little easier so I’m thankful for that.

 Around 5pm I head to Marks office looking for some “relief” and to talk about dinner. Mark has been doing all the food shopping and makes us dinner s while I take care of Cooper…what a guy!!! Cooper usually wakes up from a nap or is hungry as we are about to sit down for dinner.  Mark usually plays with him at night and talks to him a lot. Its very cute! I am able to take a shower and then we relax by watching tv, reading and doing things on the computer. We start to get Cooper ready for bed around 9pm. Lately, Mark has been feeding him a bottle so we know he gets a good feeding before he goes to bed. He’ll finish a bottle in about 10 minutes whereas it takes me about an hour to feed him because he falls asleep so much! He will sleep for 3- 4 hours and then I get up to feed him around 1am- 2am and then again around around 5-6am. He doesn't usually sleep for very long after that feeding and Mark will take care of him until he wakes me up to feed him again. 

We swaddle him to sleep through the night. He is just so much happier swaddled. He can get really over stimulated and upset and this always cures that. We try to keep him unswaddled during the day so he can move around enough. However, its hard for him to take any solid naps unswaddled because he wakes himself up when its arms flail. 

It was kind of chilly one day so I put a hat on him and he looks more like a newborn!