A Day in the Life of a Stay-at-Home Mom

3 a.m. — Hear Noah whimpering in his crib. My husband is somehow deaf during the night and continues to sleep. Pick Noah up and nurse him until he falls back asleep. Shouldn’t be nursing a 6 month old during the night? Mind ya business.

6 a.m. — Hear dance party noises. Go to Noah’s crib to find him busting a move even though his diaper is straight up full of pee. Change massive diaper and nurse Noah.

6:45 a.m. — Ummm why did I even change that diaper? He just peed again. Well if I hadn’t changed it, it may have full on exploded? Plus I can’t let him get diaper rash. Okay, good thing I changed it. Welp, now it’s time to change him again.

6:45 a.m to 7:15 a.m. — Make & eat breakfast. Noah sits in his rock'n'play (best thing ever) in the kitchen and watches us. This is a daily routine for him, and he loves it. He’s still pretty tired at this point, so he doesn’t mind chilling in his recliner and watching the mom and dad cooking show. I decide to officially stay in my pajamas the entire day because this romper from Target is life.

7:15 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. — Things start to get interesting after breakfast. I juggle work and keeping Noah entertained before his first nap. This could include him continuing to chill in his rock'n'play, having him play and roll around on the floor, playing in his activity gym, or even watching a half hour of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse — #momoftheyear

10:00 a.m. — Around this time I work on getting Noah down for a nap. Sometimes it’s a little earlier, sometimes it’s a little later. Just depends on what time he woke up for the day and how he’s acting. The struggle of the work-at-home mom starts to feel super real when he won’t go down for his nap.

10:15 a.m. — Hot damn, why won’t he nap? If I were him I would totally nap. Oh man . . . his crib even looks comfortable to me at this point.

10:20 a.m. — I say a silent prayer to the nap gods that Noah will nap for at least an hour or more so I can go into crunch mode. I prepare a cup of coffee and sit down at my desk.

10:25 a.m. — Whenever Noah wakes up, I sit down at my desk (whether that’s on the floor, the couch, or actually at my desk) and work like a crazy person. This is total focus mode. No distractions. Get as much done as humanly possible during nap time. I silently think to myself- why did I ever take advantage of silence before? I think I could have had 7 jobs before I had a baby.

11:25 a.m. — My stomach starts growling, but there’s no time for lunch just yet. Snack on a granola bar. Obsessed with the ones from Oat Mama!

12:30 p.m. — (If I’m lucky) Noah wakes up from his nap, I feed him, and then we go back to the juggling act until his next nap.

3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. — I will feed Noah again and he will take his third nap. I will go back into crunch mode getting as much work as possible done. Usually I’m thinking about crashing at this point in the day, but I try not to.

5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — Try to get in some family time and not talk about work or business. Take Noah for a walk or go to the pool. It’s been over 100 degrees everyday lately so we have been opting for the pool.

7:30 to 8:30 p.m. — Bed-time routine for Noah. Bath, feeding, book. We usually read him a story on our bed and I have to try not to fall asleep while doing so.

8:30 p.m. — Oh wouldn’t it just be lovely if as soon as we put Noah in his crib he would drift off to dream land?

8:35 p.m. — Noah starts whining and either wants to be walked around the house more or wants to have a dance party in his crib again.

8:45 p.m. — I walk to the fridge, look at the wine, think about pouring a glass, stare at it, feel too tired to open the bottle. Shut the fridge. Sit down on couch. “Ohh I don’t hear him, he must have fallen asleep.” I proceed to get really comfy on the couch. Grab a cozy blanket, put on an episode of Friends. Ahh finally. He’s in bed and I can relax.

9:00 p.m. — I hear Noah start to cry again. Oh hell no. Please just go back to sleep. Crying continues. I can’t let him cry. I failed miserably at the cry-it-out method. I get up and go comfort him until he finally passes out.

After Noah is finally out for the night the struggle of whether I should go to bed or actually do something for myself begins. I know that I will be up with him again in about 4-5 hours so I realize that I need to go to bed, but man oh man I just want to do something. I’ve been on baby duty all day and I feel like I’m supposed to celebrate my freedom at this point. The hubs and I will hang out for awhile and then we head to bed.

3:00 a.m. — Repeat. A new day begins.

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