August in Review
August 1 was not noteworthy. Just a day of work for me and a challenging day for Matthew as he tried to work from home with a baby that refused naps.
August 2 I had therapy. My mom watched the baby for a few hours so Matthew could go to the office.
August 3 I worked from home. It was another day of crap naps for baby. That evening, we just ate leftovers. I went on a walk. AJ had a blowout in his floor seat. Thankfully Matthew walked in right as I needed to clean it up.
August 4 I was pretty busy at work. I had to take a work car to the DMV for new plates. I was mostly feeling in adequate this day. I had a good cry to my supportive husband. I also started watching some videos from the Thompson method.
August 5 I started the cleaning. Our SIL Melinda came over to say hi. I got a postnatal workout in with several interruptions by a fussy baby. I went and got blood work done for my thyroid, and of course the baby had to poop while we were out. I picked up milk from our donor and got Dutch Bros. We started trying to do the 3-4 month method of Taking Cara Babies.
August 6 I had a massage. Matthew finished the cleaning. I did laundry and watched the Handmaid's tale. I set an appointment with a Thompson method specialist and did their questionnaire. I made a social media post for world breast-feeding week. It was emotional to write.
Sunday, August 7 was a good day even with lack of sleep. AJ and I went to get donuts and Dutch Bros while dad was asleep. We did our family handprints. We went to the farmers market; there were some really cute puppies there while we were checking out. Baby’s naps were great all day. We went on a walk. I made my baked oatmeal breakfast for the week and finished laundry. I made brownies. I pumped. We watched Pocahontas and Face Timed my dad. Matthew made spaghetti for dinner.
August 9 was just a regular (not so great) workday with lots of pumping. My baby was really hard for Matthew on this day. So I relieved him of duty, and he took a shower and went to Walmart; bonus: he brought home In N Out. I successfully got the baby down before 8 PM so that was a huge victory. And I was in bed by 10 PM. Another huge victory.
August 10 I worked from home. Busy day. Thankfully the hospital pump I am using gets the job done way faster than my Spectra. Baby was pretty good during my pumps and took some good naps, swaddled with one hand by his face and one hand down. The swaddle situation is getting challenging. He fights the swaddle but also doesn’t want to sleep without being swaddled. So we are trying to navigate the transition.
August 11 I took my car for an oil change and to get emissions and registration done. I picked up a laptop for the marketing person who started back at work.
August 12 I was the recipient of a lot of generosity on Instagram. Someone sent a gift card on Amazon for us to buy a magic merlin sleep suit for the baby so we can transition out of swaddling. I took the boy to visit Whitney after her knee surgery. She took some awesome photos for us.
August 13 was a hard day with the baby. I tried to start cleaning and laundry. Matthew worked that night, so I did bedtime by myself.
August 14 I did some meal prep and went on two walks. I had a meeting with a Thompson method practitioner online. We watched only murders in the building and Handmaid's Tale. Matthew worked this night as well.
August 15 work was busy. I picked up oxytocin nasal spray to see if it would help with milk supply. Matthew and I used a coupon to get Wingstop.
August 16 was just a normal day of work. I picked up breastmilk. I ate some leftovers and froze some chicken breast. Matthew sent me photos of baby boy in his Merlin sleep suit. So cute.
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| Just hadn't taken a selfie in a while |
August 17 I worked at home. It was busy. I made a freezer a crockpot meal. I went on two walks. I tried not to freak out because my milk supply had a weird drop.
August 18 was just a normal workday. I sorted through pictures of the baby. He turned four months old! So of course I took pictures of him as well. Matthew had a rough day with him. Of note, I cleaned pink frosting that had been on the stairs outside for too long. It wasn’t my mess, but it was bothering me so I cleaned it. Matthew worked again this night.
August 19 was my day off of work. I was ready early and took the baby on a walk since it was cool and cloudy. We got lunch with our milk donor, her baby, and his dad. The boy took a short nap after that. I waited too long to run our errands. I needed gas and had to return some clothes to Old Navy. Unfortunately, they did not have the smaller size in the jeggings that I returned. So that was disappointing. I got myself a Swig. The baby‘s next nap was only about 15 minutes in the car unfortunately. He ate again, and then we left the house again to go pick up milk from our donor. Three outings in one day is probably a record for us. Matthew worked security late again.
August 20 I tried not to panic about a drop in my (already low) milk supply. I got a massage and Dutch Bros. Kevin & Brionna brought their kids over to come visit baby AJ. It was fun to have them, and I know what an ordeal it is to cart ONE kid around and try not to have it disrupt naptime. So I appreciated their sacrifice.
August 21 we just hung out at home. I got groceries. I watched Handmaid’s Tale. We watched the first episode of House of the Dragon. I did some meal prep. My mom came over that night to take care of the baby on Monday.
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| These overalls though! |
August 23 I reached one month of pumping eight times a day including once overnight. Work was decent. We just had a calm evening at home. The baby was fussy most of the evening and did not take naps during the day. This was after he slept all night amazingly. I guess we cannot have it all. Naps or nighttime sleep, but not both.
August 24 I worked from home, and baby slept like an champ for all his naps. He rolled over for the first time! I only saw the last bit of him landing on his tummy. We went on a date to Cheesecake Factory while my mom babysat. We had gift cards for dinner which is why we chose cheesecake. We got dessert at The Scoop and were home pretty early.
August 25 I realized with the help of my friend that I was not letting my baby nap adequately. I thought I had to cut his naps off in order for night sleep to work. But that was my misunderstanding.
August 26 was my day off. Practiced long naps with the baby. He had three almost 2 hour long naps. I had therapy which had been rescheduled. I did a little bit of cleaning and picked up some KSL goods: a bottle warmer and an Infantino baby carrier. Since Matthew was working, I got myself pizza, and the baby blew out in his car seat while we were out.
August 27 was one of those hard mornings in motherhood where we had some really beautiful moments, but I also felt indescribably exhausted and unable to carry on. I dropped off some soup to our milk donor. I got crave cookies. I watched Outlander and Handmaid.
August 28 we Face Timed grandpa. Baby boy took great naps. I did lots of meal prep. I had a follow-up appointment with my Thompson Method practitioner. I picked up a free floor jumper for AJ, which Matthew put together, and he's still too little for it. We tried the doorway one, which he's also too small for, and only two doorways in our home work for it (bathroom and master closet).
August 29 felt like a long day. Matthew texted all day about the baby being difficult and fussy. I left work a few minutes early to grab breastmilk and get home to relieve him of duty, only to realize that I left my pump parts at work. So a half hour of my precious evening was spent going back to work. The good part is that we ate Taco Bell and watched the Iron Throne. Baby went down for bed easily, and we coslept which worked really well. He squirmed here and there but didn’t do his normal 3am wakeup.
August 30 was a good day at work with R&R for lunch and a good social hour. I was proud of myself because I made dinner while taking care of the baby.
August 31 Was a low-key work from home day. I had therapy where we discussed a lot of useful things like how conflict was handled in my childhood home. And of course baby boy had a blow out for me in his floor seat. He also was fussy most of the day, largely due to gas and a sore bottom. The crying went on into the night as he was hurting a lot, poor baby.
Books I listened to this month:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
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