My typical day with an 8-month-old

Things have gotten so much easier since the last time I did this post. A lot easier.

6:45 a.m. Lissie wakes up, in her own bed (!), and I come and get her and feed her.

7:15 a.m. Bring her downstairs and I start making three breakfasts: One for me, one for her dad and one for her. She’s eating more food than she was when we started solids, but food is still mostly fun. Dad works from home in the a.m., so he watches her while I shower, dress, etc.

8:40 a.m.  I leave for work. She is supposed to go down for a nap between 8:30 and 9:15 but more often than not it happens after I leave.

11 a.m. Pump at work. On a really awesome day, I go for a run shortly after that. But honestly, half-marathon training be damned, this has only happened 2-3 times a week in the winter. The weather has been miserable.

4 p.m. Pump for the second time at work. When we moved to our new building I cut down to pumping twice a day.

5:30 p.m. Head home.

6 p.m. Be amazed that its still light out?! And yet still so close to the time that she goes to bed?! On a perfect day I’d have dinner for the three of us ready but more realistically I give something to the baby in her high chair — cut up tomatoes, plain yogurt on a spoon, baguettes and cheese, avocado slices.

10923271_10102297576784559_5492570129999783408_o

6:30 p.m. The bed-time ritual starts. Bath, lotion, book, bed.

7 p.m.  Bed time! This used to take so long, but since we did sleep training, she can fall asleep on her own in about 10 minutes and she’ll stay asleep until 3:30 a.m.

Things I’ve learned since the last time I wrote this

Her sleep has got so much better since I stopped nursing her to sleep and let her dad put her to sleep. There have been a few tears but honestly it was not that bad. I agonized over the idea that we had to let her cry to get her to sleep, but it didn’t take too may nights before she was willing to let us leave her in her crib awake again, for the first time since November.

Things that I see are changing

She is transitioning to two naps and stays up later. She’s not crawling yet but she’s scooting around — I thing by the next time I write this post, she will be crawling. And that will make watching her in the morning and the night while I’m cooking much more stressful.

She’s growing out of her car seat and doesn’t need it to sit in the stroller any more. She started sitting in high chairs at restaurants, no longer content to sit under the canopy of her stroller, away from the action.

I miss running. Between the bad weather and her sleep schedule, it has been really difficult to train for this half-marathon. But I am hoping that if her sleep stays good and as it gets warmer, we can start going out running together again.

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.