A Day in the Life of a Working Mama

Last week, my friend Katie shared a day in the life with her 16 week old daughter. I love, love, love these kinds of posts because, well to be honest, I’m nosey and I thought it would be fun to share my version as a working mother. I’ve never done one of these before because my day to day life wasn’t that interesting before Baker, but now that she’s 16 weeks old, I feel like we never stop. On Wednesday, I made to sure to capture what a typical weekday looks like in the Sloan household.

Be warned though…there is a lot of milk in this post and this is an unedited version of our life. Don’t be jealous of our glamorous it is. :)

5:15am: My alarm has already been snoozed once and I hit the snooze one more time. I finally drag myself out of bed by 5:25am when I don’t think I can wait any longer to pump. Charlie is waiting in the kitchen, jumping in circles to go outside so I let all the dogs out and back in before I start to pump.

5:30am: Since I slept in a little, I have to do my makeup while I pump. I made myself comfortable on the couch, had the monitor since Baker was still sleeping and turned on This is Us from the night before.

Bottle Warmer

6:00am: My makeup is finished and I’m done with my first pump of the day (about 12 oz which isn’t as much as I normally get). I go ahead and put a bottle in the warmer in case Baker wakes up. She normally is hangry when she gets up in the morning so it’s best to be prepared.

I made her bottles for the day the night before so I go ahead and put my freshly pumped milk up in the fridge, get my pump bag and parts ready for the day, and feed the dogs.

Swaddle

I head back to the bedroom to start on my hair and get dressed, and just as I turn the curling iron on, I hear Baker stirring. By the way, if you read my newborn favorites post, you probably are realizing this isn’t the same swaddle we’ve been using on Baker. After not liking her arms swaddled the first three months, we realized this past weekend that Baker no longer minds and sleeps much more soundly with her arms swaddled. Isn’t it funny how babies change?

I found this swaddle in her drawers, tried it out and she really likes it!

6:15am: She’s awake and needs a clean diaper before she eats!

She was unusually happy this morning and I got all kinds of grins while changing her. Normally, she’s screaming at this point!

6:25am: I give her a bottle and she is taking her sweet time! She was super distracted this morning and took the bottle slower than usual.

6:40am: She has finished 3 oz of her 4 oz bottle and doesn’t seem interested in the rest so I lay her on our bed while I get dressed and finish getting ready.

Nursery 

7:00am: By 7:00, we are both dressed for the day!

Baker’s Top | Baker’s Pants | My Top

I put Baker in her carseat, finish packing my pump bag and her diaper bag and throw a quick lunch together ( I really should have done that the night before!).

7:15am: I load all 13 bags I have to tote every day in the car, kennel the dogs, and load Baker into the car.

7:20am: 5 minutes later than I needed to be, we are on the way to the sitter’s.

7:30am: I drop Baker off at the sitter’s, steal one last kiss, and head on to work.

Like most days, she is asleep when I drop her off.

I realized my car was on empty and even though I didn’t have time, stopped to fill up anyway because I’d rather not be stuck on the side of the road.

8:00am: I’m at work, heat up my breakfast, and check my email while I finish my pumpkin pie cold coffee and eat my sausage, egg, and cheese croissant and banana.

10:30am: I take my first pump break while enjoying a snack and Chicago Fire.

11:00am: I am done pumping and putting my milk into the small cooler. Back to work!

1:30pm: I eat lunch at my desk since I used my actual lunch break to pump. Today it was a Sargento Balance Breaks, an apple, and some Chex Mix. And this is why I should really pack my lunch the night before!

3:00pm: My second (and last) pump session at work is done!

4:30pm: I’m off work and have to stop by PetSmart to pick up some dog food.

5:15pm: I’m finally home and able to snuggle my sweet girl who just had a bottle from Daddy.

I’m immediately surrounded by dogs and babies…I love it!

6:15pm: After some play time on the couch with Cory and Baker, I get up to put my milk for the day up, make bottles for the next day and freeze the left over milk.

The inside fridge is full so I move 55 ounces (in a gallon ziplock bag) of milk to our deep freezer. I’ve got about 1200 oz so far!

6:30pm: Cory has started on supper and is washing all the bottles and pump parts from the day.

While supper is cooking, we try Baker out in this seat  for the first time and as you can tell, she loved it! I pump again at 7:00pm while Daddy gives Baker another bottle.

7:30pm: I was starving so I forgot to take a before picture of dinner but it was Chicken Florentine, White Cheddar Mac-n-Cheese, and Peas.

Cory had to go pick up a new guitar so we were on our own for the evening after dinner. We threw on our pj’s and snuggled while catching up on a few shows.

She’s really into Chicago Med, apparently.

8:35pm: We are in our swaddle and get ready to rock. I read her a book and we listen to praise and worship music until she falls asleep.

9:05pm: She’s asleep and I lay her down in her crib. I grab a laundry basket, get a load of her clothes out of the dryer to start folding them, and when I closed the dryer, I woke her up.

9:45pm: I realize she isn’t going to go back to sleep without her last bottle so she eats 4 oz and is really asleep this time.

10:00pm: Cory’s still not home from picking up his guitar so I grab the monitor and take a bath. My hair hadn’t been washed in a good three or four days so it wasn’t waiting another day! Cory gets home as I’m getting out of the tub, so I pump again at 10:30pm while Cory is folding the laundry I never got around to.

11:00pm: I collapse into bed and I’m sound asleep within minutes. Baker normally requires her pacifier be put back in one-two times a night but thankfully, Cory takes care of that! And we start all over the next morning…except Baker decided she was going to wake up at 4:30am on Thursday morning!

Whew…I’m tired just typing all this out! I hope you enjoyed a real peek into a day in the life at the Sloans!

What do your days look like? Are they similar to ours?