Daily Rituals

Nolan and I are pretty steady creatures of habit, him more so than me, but our days are normally pretty much the same every day.

Now, life with a 2 month old is a far cry from any resemblance of a routine but I try to stay on course for the most part.

Right now our day looks like this:

Whitlee wakes up for the day around 6:45 to 7:30. If she wakes up before Nolan leaves for the day around 7:15, then we play with her in the bed while I heat up her first bottle. Then I feed her while I watch the Today show.

She goes to sleep for a nap around 8ish and sleeps until 10 or 11. During that time I usually clean the house, do laundry, and get a shower. I also watch The Price is Right while I’m doing some of that… ya know, that game show addiction I mentioned. 😉 I’ve also started working out again during that time.

My shower routine is exactly the same every time. I turn the shower on and while it heats up, I brush my teeth. We have old cast iron tub that is freezing if you get right in it. Then I do normal shower stuff, but I only wash my hair every three days. If you haven’t experienced the magic of dry shampoo, you’re missing out. My fave is the Garnier Volume Boost. I’m telling you – must have for new moms! I’ve always been a quick shower-er, but not washing my hair every time cuts wayy down on my time. And it’s actually healthier for your hair.

Whitlee eats again around lunch sometime, then I eat lunch, and she naps again. Sometimes I nap with her. She eats again later in the afternoon.

Nolan gets off work at 5 and calls us every day on his way home. He gets home about 5:45 and we play with Whitlee for a little while if she’s awake.

Then I cook dinner and we eat. Whitlee gets a bath every other night and we try to plan it for before her feeding at around 8 or 9. We’ve tried to get some kind of bedtime routine going so she’s used to it, so we bathe her, get new clothes on, new diaper, eat a bottle, swaddle her up, and let her lay on one of us for a little bit until she’s basically settled and drowsy. I have a post in the works soon because at 8 weeks old, our girl is sleeping in her crib! She’s even napping in there.

Video Monitor Picture

So I’ll go into more detail separately about the how’s and why’s but the gist of the situation is that she now kind of gets that her crib is for sleeping and whether she’s awake or asleep, once she’s laid down in it, she’s usually asleep in less than 5 minutes! She’s not sleeping through the night or anything but our goal was to get her used to her crib and not being held to go to sleep every time. I still hold her sometimes because I want to and she’s my baby, but for the most part she gets the whole crib thing. She’s growing up so fast!

Nolan and I are usually in bed by 10 and through the night Whitlee typically wakes up twice – once around midnight/1 AM, and again round 3/4 AM. Occasionally she has gone longer without eating but I don’t push the issue too much since weight gain is such a high priority. I’ve been toying with the idea of a dream feed but I try not to change her routine until we have a weekend to dedicate to it.

Then around 6:45 to 7:30 we start it all over again! So that’s our daily ritual.. not quite as concrete as it was pre-baby, but it’s not too shabby, all things considered!