My days with a six-month-old

6:30 a.m. (optimistically): Wake up and feed the baby. This is later than I would have woken up before Lissie was born … and I often exercised in the morning back then, too. Ahh, that was a different time in my life. It’s easy to wake up at 6:30 if the baby’s stayed asleep since at least 3, but I don’t think that’s happened in two months now.

SO AWAKE MOMMY.

SO AWAKE MOMMY.

7 a.m.: Shower, eat breakfast, read the paper. Lissie can sit on her own now, so I put her down somewhere with some toys, or in her doorway jumper, and her father keeps an eye on her while he’s working and I am in the shower. I like to try to take this time to connect with her — read her the paper, talk to her about what she is going to do that day. We used to go for a run at this time, but since the snow came down and the temps are regularly in the single digits in the morning now, I haven’t run with her.

It used to be the bouncer, but we have outgrown that now.

It used to be the bouncer, but we have outgrown that now.

8:30 a.m.: In a perfect world, her naptime routine is complete and she’s snuggled peacefully in her bed with Penny, her stuffed penguin. Usually, though, I’m running around the house looking for my running clothes/pump parts/car keys/laptop and thinking “if I am not pulling out of this driveway by 8:47 I am going to be LATE” while she is vocalizing her opposition to sleep.

*the perfect world*

*the perfect world*

8:55 a.m.: Hopefully, I am sitting at my desk writing the right time on a post-it note.

10:30 a.m.: The first time I pump at work. At about this same time, my husband is dropping Lissie off at daycare.

11 a.m.: Lunchtime run for about 40 minutes. I’m loosely following the schedule for a half-marathon I set up at Your Training Calendar.

If I don’t get this run in, there is no other time to run today. That’s been kinda hard for me, but it’s all part of being much better at sticking to a schedule.

1:30 p.m.: Second time of the day I pump. My husband Tony (who also works with me) pointed out I don’t spend a lot of work time at my desk each day. Thanks, honey. I don’t know how working women survived without laptops.

2:30 p.m.: Tony goes home to pick up the baby and I send the milk home with him.

4 p.m.: The third time of the day I go sit in this room and do this. I used to only do it twice a day but I found that I needed to do it three times to cover everything she eats when I’m away from her.

5:20 p.m.: I arrive home and sometimes Lissie is thrust into my arms and sometimes I swoop her up before I can take my coat and shoes and bags off. We cuddle, she eats dinner, and I ask her father about her day.

She totally gets taking selfies.

She totally gets taking selfies.

5:45 p.m.: Bath time! This got a lot more fun once she started sitting up.

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6 p.m.: More snuggling and a bed time story. The goal is to get her asleep by 6:30 p.m. …

7:30 p.m.: … but usually I am still frustratedly pacing around her room rocking her and patting her back, thinking, “have I really been doing this for an hour already?” Then her father comes up after he’s finished making dinner and gets her to fall asleep in 5 minutes.

8 p.m. until 11 p.m. Adult time. sigh

11 p.m. The first of a half-dozen late night attempts to soothe the baby back to sleep.

Oh, how it’s changed from a three-month-old. And a newborn. I think if I knew then how little sleep I’d be getting now … well, my head might have imploded. The difference is that now my body has adjusted to the lack of sleep, and my hope that it’s going to be over soon is completely crushed.

We had good sleep for awhile. I could put her down in the early evening and she’d stay asleep until 2, 3 a.m. That changed after about five months old, when we were sick and there was a death in the family and our schedules got all upended. Now I don’t remember the last time she slept 5 hours straight.

Keeping a fitness regimen among all this is hard. Basically I have come to terms with myself that I am not able to get up early to do it (it’s very touch and go whether or not the Lissie will sleep long enough that I even could)  and I am just NOT going to do it at night because I’m exhausted. And I’d much rather run outdoors, and running outside in the winter at night is not usually a safe (or warm) proposition.

But this. to. shall. pass. I love the smiles and the kisses and the giggles at this age. I love how she hugs me back and she laughs when we read books and thinks the pugs are hilarious.

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And for that, life is pretty good right now.

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.