i was just reading back on my 3-month & 6-month baby A blog posts & things have really changed around here! atlas now sleeps in his own room, is standing up cruisin’ around the house holding onto things, our breastfeeding journey ended and he is babbling non-stop. if you want to follow more of our day-to-day, here’s his instagram account. yes, i’m THAT mom!
i’d like to share a snippet of our daily schedule/routine along with about a bazillllllion photos because i just can’t stop photographing this little boy! he’s growing up right in front of my eyes. i am thankful to be a stay-at-home-mom right now. it has its challenges, as any “job” will, but i feel so lucky that this is my place right now and that i can spend this time with him, just being with him. i am soaking it up!
the decision to start letting A sleep through the night in his own crib in his own room was just a timing thing. we would have let him be our roommate for longer, but our room is so small he would hear us & wake up when we would get ready for bed so it just seemed like it was time for him to have his own space and get better, deeper sleep. and that’s really worked for us! he sleeps through the night great, waking once or twice if he losses his pacifier in his crib but he will usually find it and put it back in his mouth on his own.
as for breastfeeding, we were exclusively breastfeeding until 7 months and right around that time i got these terrible lower stomach cramps & had to go to the doctor & get a CT scan to rule out kidney stones. since they injected me with blue dye in order to see kidney stones on the scan i needed to pump & dump for a few days & on top of that, i was taking antibiotics and felt like shit. pumping seemed like a chore so i didn’t do it enough and then when i was finally healthy and could breastfeed again atlas seemed to prefer a fast-flow bottle, so i would offer breastfeeding in the morning and at night but that only lasted another month or so before he learned to bite me with the two bottom teeth that came in…and that shit hurt! plus, he just seemed super bored and would get distracted while breastfeeding and would just pull off, look around and then re-latch and continue, which was cute but also annoying. it was just our time to stop breastfeeding and move on to start solids and supplement with formula which i was a little anxious about but it’s been going great!
7:30am:
good morning! A wakes up anywhere between 7 and 8 and dek will change him while i get up, get dressed and make the bed. i’ll meet them in the living room and prepare a bottle for A & dek will leave for work. i’ll hold A while he has his 8 oz. of formula breakfast. he eats so fast now, he’s done in like less than 5 minutes & ready to play!
he loves hanging out in the living room! we usually have tv on in the background or music. it’s different than just a few months ago in that he’s so mobile now! he’s getting into anything he can & he’s all over the place! loves to explore, crawl around (he’s SO fast!), stand up on things, poke around & literally gather dust from all corners of the house & crevices i didn’t even know existed. he can entertain himself for good chunks of time with toys or anything new i set in front of him (pots & pans, egg carton, pillows, water bottle…) which is so cute to watch.
my little mohawk dude
toys & pillows are always all over the place right now!
new things like pots & pans provide endless entertainment
always chasing down peanut trying to mess with him
…or my pants strings…or buttons or tags, anything little or hanging off.
he loves standing up & holding onto things like the couch, coffee table, dining room table bench, toy walkers, windowsills and me! he loves trying to balance & is doing it every chance he has.
9-11 am:
he’ll start getting tired & is ready for nap #1 of the day. he’ll rub his eyes or just start getting grumpy & whiney so i’ll take him to his room, shut all the blinds, change him and have alexa start a bedtime playlist to get him in sleepy mode, which works like a charm. it’s like the second he hears these songs he knows he needs to relax and that it’s time to sleep. i used to rock him to a few songs horizontally, like a baby, and now that he’s so big and heavy i hold him upright resting his head on my shoulder and rock him for about a minute & then sit down on the chair we have in the nursery and just rub his head and back until he falls asleep. i will caress his hair and close my eyes and take those moments in to cherish them forever. about about two or three songs, i will carefully get up, kiss his little lips and forehead, tell him goodnight & place him in his crib. these moments that i can put him down for naps are so special and i know so valuable. i hold them close to my heart and feel blessed i get to do this daily.
his morning naps are the best and will last anywhere from 2-4 hours! i’ll just do stuff around the house but i try to keep noise level down, so i’ll chill and watch a show, blog, work on writing, do yoga, sit outside, hash out chores like dishes, laundry & cleaning or be on my phone until i hear babbling from the monitor and/or see him standing up waiting for me to come get him.
11-12 pm:
lunchtime! look at those teeth! we start with about a tablespoon or so of oatmeal cereal mixed with water or defrosted breastmilk mixed and a little fruit or veggie puree of some sort. i will feed that part to him with a little spoon (we use these at home & i keep this one in my diaper bag) then ill suction-cup his plate on the high chair tray (we use this 4-piece set) and he’ll feed himself things like pancake pieces with yogurt, cut up strawberries, melon, steamed veggies, avocado, etc. while i have my lunch! it’s such a cute little lunch date, we usually listen to reggae and chit chat with each other while shoving face.
we use this high chair & this bib and like both. we like that the high chair folds up partially so we can roll it right into our pantry/laundry room when mealtime is over so it’s out of sight and he can’t climb on it. both things are easy to wipe down and seem comfortable for him. i set him up by our kitchen island and that’s where we eat together or he’ll chow down while i do stuff in the kitchen.
if i see he didn’t eat a lot & i see that most of the food fell in his bib i will offer ~4oz. of formula in a bottle after a while and he will just lay on some pillows on the floor and enjoy every last drop.
1-1:30 pm:
we usually book ourselves something to do every day, whether it’s getting out to walk around stores (target’s our fav!), go to the pool, the mall, a park, a play place – anything just to get out of the house & do something so i don’t go stir crazy at home all day!
3-4 pm:
after watching the ellen show together for a little bit, atlas starts getting tired again & is ready for nap #2 of the day. his afternoon nap will last anywhere from 1-3 hours. it’s really crazy how unpredictable naps are. you never know if you’re going to get a “good one.” you always want them to get good, long stretches of sleep to be well-rested but there’s no formula to achieve that.
5 pm:
A will usually wake up a little before dek gets home at 5:30, and i will start dinner. it’s the same routine as lunch – equally as messy, but just as cute. once dek is home we either head to the pool altogether, have dinner together or sit outside with coffee (hot for him, iced for me) and A will jump in his jolly jumper (he looooooves this thing but is sadly about to outgrow it)
7 pm:
we start bath time & getting A ready for bed. once he’s clean we’ll hang out a little bit longer dancing, jumping, playing or reading until we see the first signs of tiredness
8 pm:
bedtime! dek usually does bedtime and he will change him and give him an 8oz. bottle of formula in his room with the lights off, blinds shut and his sleep music playing. we’ll do the same routine we do for naps and he sleeps through the night like a little angel.
hope you enjoyed catching up with us! thanks for reading!
