It’s Friday! The last day of the week being on my own with my baby girl. Weekends no longer mean lie-ins or dinners out but with Maia’s daddy at home during the day I can share the baby duty, I have adult company, and we usually do something nice together.
But before the weekend, here is one last post of the “Mum life” series.
Friday
3.50am – Maia wakes up for her night feed an hour earlier than usually. After a quick 10-minute feed we are back in bed.
5.15am – Maia wakes up for the second time and I feed her for 15-minutes. I let her stay in my bed because I don’t want to risk waking up for the third time tonight (and she sleeps for longer with me).
7.15am – Good morning! I wake up next to a very happy girl and we have lovely cuddle in bed and get up slowly. I literally get up slowly – my whole body is aching from yesterday’s workout! I have breakfast on the floor with Maia playing next to me on her playmat. And by playing I mean chewing, waving and batting her toys.
8.30am – Although we got up about an hour later than normally, Maia gets hungry and tired at the usual time, after 8am. She is a bit fussy again but settles down when I walk around a bit while feeding her. This seems to have become a habit (oh dear).
9.00am – Maia falls asleep and I get a chance to book a Postnatal Fitness class at Frame and get ready for it. I try to transfer Maia into her pram without waking her up but don’t manage to. Maia has slept for 40-minutes so the chances are she’ll be fine anyway. She is on a very good mood again and didn’t even mind the walk to the gym. She is usually not that keen on lying in the pram when she is awake but this time she’s just looking around (I lower the hood so it’s less boring for her). I think she’d be happier in a pushchair but she needs to learn to sit up first before I can convert our pram into a pushchair!
10.00am – Postnatal Fitness class. This is a quite fast paced class, unlike many other mum & baby classes. It incorporates simple aerobics and resistance training with body weight, hand weights, and resistance bands. I wear my ankle weights for extra challenge. The class itself doesn’t include the babies, who lie on mats on the sides of the room, but because of the action and music in the room, the babies are usually very good! Maia made it until the very end before letting me know she’d had enough and I have to skip stretching. After the class I sit down with two other mums to feed. We are not rushed out which is nice. Their babies are five months old and they are both returning to work soon. It’s always very interesting to hear how other mums deal with returning to work and arranging childcare. I will have to start thinking about that at one point in the future although I admit the topic makes me feel a bit anxious.
11.30am – Maia falls asleep in the pram for half an hour as I walk home. I grab a chicken wrap and strawberry-banana smoothie on the way for lunch. Despite my tiptoeing Maia wakes up when we get home and refuses to be put down again so I change her nappy and we play for a little while.
12.40pm – No more playing for Maia, she is hungry and tired again. Thankfully this time she calms down to feed quicker and after a good 20-minute feed I put her down for a one hour nap.
1.00pm – Maia is sleeping and I have an hour to shower, moisturise and blow dry my hair. I even reheat my morning coffee in the microwave and sit down for a moment. I feel like I’ve been on a spa break, such luxury!
2.00pm – Nap is over and we sit on the sofa for an hour (!) feeding. It’s a nice relaxed hour with no fighting, wiggling, arching her back or crying. Just a calm feed and cuddle, ahhh…
3.00pm – I fold some laundry and put a new wash on before taking Maia out for a walk. My cleaner comes and I like to give her peace to work and usually try to go out while she is here. I do tidy up every day but it’s nice that once a week someone spends a few (baby-free) hours giving the flat a good scrub. Maia and I go out for a good 1.5h walk. It’s lovely weather again, warm and sunny! Maia sleeps for half an hour in the pram.
5.30pm – We get back home. I change Maia’s nappy and we sit on the floor to play. I’m getting peckish and snack on nuts. I find that the time between 5pm and 7pm tends to be the most challenging time of the day with my baby. Maia is tired despite the fact that she usually has a late afternoon nap, but she is not quite ready to go down for the night yet. Not to mention that I’m usually starting to feel a bit tired too…
6.15pm – I’m walking around the flat again feeding – this is seriously killing my neck and shoulders! I’m watching a recording of my beloved “One born every minute” TV show which always makes me emotional although I have to admit that the howling of women in labour makes me cringe (I have not yet forgotten how it felt like). Maia calms down and we can finish the one hour-feed on the sofa. I text her daddy asking if he’ll be back in time to bathe her as I’d like him to see her before she goes to sleep.
7.30pm – Maia’s bath time with daddy. I get a “break” during which I start preparing dinner and hang up the wet laundry. Daddy gets Maia ready for the night and hands over the bath-warm pyjama baby to me. Amazingly she still wants to feed for another 15-minutes. It’s good though, most likely she’ll need/want less feeding at night. Fingers crossed!
8.05pm – Maia is sleeping in her bed and it’s adult time! We have steaks with sweet potato wedges and roasted green vegetables. I’m ready to crash on the sofa now!
And that’s it! A week of my mum life. Pretty dominated by Maia’s sleep schedule and full of breastfeeding and nappy changing. This week I didn’t have any lunch or coffee dates so I felt a bit anti-social but overall it was a nice week with plenty of activities. Next week will be quite different because we will be going on Maia’s first trip taking the train to Newcastle to visit family for Easter. Oh and we have a less fun event happening on Tuesday – Maia’s 16-week immunisations, eek!
Happy weekend all!
xoxoxo,
Sini