My adorable alarm goes off much earlier than anticipated. My 9-week-old baby has been consistently waking at 2:30 am for a quick snack then back off to dreamland until 6:30 am. Not today. My day started at 1:30 am. After a not so quick snack, lots of cuddles, and a diaper change I was able to lay back down at 3:45 am. My normal 5:30 am alarm seems much earlier than normal, so I hit snooze…I thought. I woke up again at 7:21 am in a panic. Confused about that timeline? Imagine living it. I didn’t even know what day it was at first! My husband and I got all 4 kids up and going as quickly as possible, but they still didn’t leave for school until 8:25 am. Oops! Hopefully there weren’t any major announcements over the PA today!
Even with all of that confusion first thing in the morning, I’m still very excited about the day. Tonight I’m taking the three older kids to see the Christmas light show at the Indiana State fairgrounds. I. Can’t. Wait.
Kids off to school, baby off to daycare…it’s time to start work. My industry is slow this time of year, so I’m extra thankful that my company is fully remote. After checking my email, giving my morning updates, and checking in on projects that likely won’t move forward until after the new year I start knocking out some of the chores. (Let’s be honest – if I were in the office, I would have spent time socializing with all of my coworkers who are also waiting on our industry to start moving again. At least this way I can knock out chores and actually enjoy the time with my family instead of stressing about the undone chores at home.) Laundry is the top priority today. With 6 people living in this house, we generate a lot of laundry. Missing just one day makes a huge difference. I’ve missed 3. Laundry, emails, meetings…the rest of my morning goes by uneventfully.
In the afternoon my younger kids visited the doctor. The baby for a wellness check and 2-month vaccines and the other for their first COVID vaccine. Oh, science. So many advances in the medical field, but they haven’t found a way to get a vaccine into a child without a needle. It’s a good thing the Kindergartner is easily comforted with the idea of ice cream on the way home or else it would have been a very long appointment. Mostly a good report from the doctor for the baby makes my husband and I feel good. We still have to watch his weight closely. We are hoping that his setback in gaining weight is only due to his stint in the hospital with RSV at 3 weeks and not due to anything else.
In the evening it’s time to drive to Indianapolis for the light show at the State Fairgrounds. This light show is like no other we’ve seen. There are over 1 million lights synchronized to music. This year our 5-year-old got to stand inside the SUV with her head out of the sunroof for a spectacular experience. (Don’t worry, the fastest we go is 5 mph through the entire show.) At one point she was singing “Let it Go” at the top of her lungs. Our teen later told me that they put their headphones in during that song.
We got home a little past the 5-year-old’s bedtime and I think she was ready for it! Normally we have about 6 tries of getting her back to bed before it finally sticks. Tonight, she said goodnight and that was all we saw of her. My husband had just got home with the baby from visiting his dad. I found them snuggled together while the baby finished off his bottle. Now it was time to put the next kid in bed. Thankfully he was quite milk drunk so it was just a matter of laying him in the crib, turning off the light, and shutting the door. Easiest bedtime ever!
I’m beat, but I still have two teens to check on. As usual, they are in their own rooms, music on, and doing puzzles. They’ve had enough social interaction for the day, so I quickly excuse myself.
Time to lock up the house and get myself to bed.
Dog put up – check
Alarm system on – check
Bottles made for daycare – check
backpacks ready to go (the kids do this, but I still like to double check) – check
Teeth brushed, face washed, hair put up – check, check, and check
Finally, bed. I look over to make sure the alarm is set. It’s currently 11:35 pm. I look over to my husband who is starting to drift off to nicely remind him that it’s his night to get up with the baby. I get a thumbs up from him, turn off the light, and snuggle in for the night.