December in Review

December  1 I had to get to work for a meeting. And then I had a bunch of phone calls in the afternoon. It just felt like a long and busy day. After work, I picked up some frozen breastmilk and diapers from a generous lady my former client connected me with. Matthew had to work, so I put the baby down and did the normal nighttime thing. (Pumping, defrosting milk, making bottles, washing parts, dream feed.)

December 2 I was up at 5:20 with the baby. We watched a lot of Christmas movies. We left the house twice, once to get me some chicken nuggets, and the other time to get me some Starbucks. I stuffed, address, sealed, and mailed Christmas cards. We tried to do a two nap day, but his naps were not long enough. I found myself just enjoying the baby today, trying to freeze time. I adore him even though he puts every thing in his mouth. Matthew came home for a few minutes in the evening to say hi. I did all the regular nighttime stuff including the dream feed.

December 3 I was up at 2 AM and then 5:45 AM for the day. It was a perfect day of wake windows and naps for the boy. He stayed awake for 3 to 3.5 hours at a time and took two great naps. I also had a personal victory in that I took him with me to sit down and eat lunch for the first time ever. I’ve never sat down at a restaurant with him. He did so great. He was happy as a clam, eating a piece of bread I gave him, and made a huge mess. I did all of the housecleaning because Matthew had to work. And of course I pumped, and did client check ins.

December 4 I woke up at 6:30 because the baby slept all night. It was a miracle. I really enjoyed him again today and took lots of photos and videos. It was a pretty productive day as well while Matthew was at work. I meal prepped breakfast, I did a load of laundry, and got groceries. I watched Where the Crawdads Sing (in multiple sittings, of course). AJ took a short first nap, so I enjoyed a short contact nap with him in the evening to get him to bedtime. Also of note, I gave him a spinach, zucchini, and pea purée, and he loved it, probably more than any other food I have given him so far. He’s making this cute howling sound regularly.

December 5 I left work a little bit early to come home and get ready for the Christmas and color drive-through. I had to pump in the car because I booked our ticket at the wrong time, so that sucked. The baby did not love the lights as much as I thought he might. We put him to bed at 7:30 and did all the usual evening chores.

December 6 I nursed the baby and walked. AJ slept all night but called out a few times like he had a nightmare. I ran a couple of errands. Matthew had to leave for work, but he did me up some dinner before he left. I gave the baby dinner and put him down by 7:25 and did all the normal nighttime chores. Two of my neighbors were really thoughtful and brought me some dinner from the church Christmas party that I could not attend.

December 7 I was up at 1:30 with the baby and back up at 6:20. I nursed him and did a short walk inside. AJ was really fussy a lot of the day unfortunately. He did have one really good nap. It has been a struggle trying to drop him to two naps. Matthew worked pretty much all day and all evening, so I did the baby’s dinner time while I pumped and ate my own dinner. I cleaned up and did nighttime chores. The baby was down by 6:50. My neighbor brought me some borscht to try.

December 8 we had a really rough morning. My mom had woken up late to come watch the baby, but the roads were terrible so, even if she had woken up on time, it would not have mattered because the freeway was shut down. We tried to meet at my work to give her the baby, but I was five minutes away, and she was almost 40 minutes out so after loading up all of that baby stuff and getting him all layered up, I had to turn around and take him back home and clock back in to work after losing almost an hour of time. After that, the day was pretty decent. I got a lot done, and the baby took really great naps. I clocked out for an afternoon appointment as well. After work was done, I gave him some chicken, broccoli, and avocado, with hemp hearts, as well as the last of his green purée that he liked. We did his bath in the sink and had him in bed by seven. Of course, did all of my regular nighttime stuff, defrosting milk, making bottles, pumping, washing pump parts, etc.

December 9 we had Matthew’s work party, which we left early from. We went to target. Then Matthew had to go back to work to finish dishes.

December 10 I did Saturday stuff—laundry and cleaning. I went to Tous les Jours—a French Korean bakery that was beautiful and amazing; I got a donut, a milk cream bun, two croissants, and a latte. All of it was awesome. I clocked in and did a couple work things. I did client check ins. We went to Jace’s swim birthday party. AJ fell asleep in the car so I just stayed in the car with him and pumped. I made him dinner: chicken drumstick, peas, broccoli, and applesauce. I put him down by 7:10. With some supply issues since my last period, I bumped my pumps back up to 6/day.

December 11 I prepped breakfast for the week. I cleaned my sheets. I went to Tous les Jours again! I pumped a bunch of times because I can tell that my supply is not doing great since my last period. Matthew got groceries. We went to the North Pole festival at Rio Tinto with Kevin, Brionna, and kids. It was pretty underwhelming to be honest, good thing it was free.

December 12 AJ woke up with a 102° fever. I panicked and gave him Tylenol, even though I have read a whole bunch about how it is best to let a fever do its job and even ibuprofen is better than Tylenol. Next time I will be a little more levelheaded. Matthew was home with him in the first half of the day, and my mom was with him in the second half of the day. Bless his heart, he was still pretty happy, even though he felt really yucky.

December 13 The baby felt a little bit better. I did a treadmill walk. Matthew did not work that evening which was really nice to have him home and have his help.

December 14 I worked from home and was sick, having caught whatever the baby had. We sold our tickets to luminaria since I felt gross and didn’t want to wander in the freezing cold.

December 15. We had a really hard night before with the baby which made the morning more challenging. I had a Christmas potluck at work. Matthew had to work, but he did a whole bunch of things before leaving so that my evening would be easier. I was so grateful.

December 16 I was up in the middle of the night again with the baby. I did some meal planning for the baby and made some meals in bulk for him. I went to Tous les Jours. Of note, AJ pooped in the literal three minutes. It took to drive there. I got myself lunch while I was out. Brittney came by with a Christmas gift for me and for the baby.

December 17 We finally had a really good night. Matthew worked, and I got myself takeout. It was a normal Saturday with cleaning, laundry, and client check ins.

December 18 the baby slept until 7 AM by some miracle. We went grocery shopping. I did all of the Christmas baking. Rachel stopped by; it was good to see her. I dropped off a few Christmas goodies to the neighbors.

December 19 was a stressful day at work for me. I did a really short weightlifting session before work at home. It was another normal evening of feeding the baby, cleaning up, pumping, defrosting milk, feeding animals, washing pump, parts, and making bottles. I also cleaned out the fridge a little bit and did some general tidying. I also did a basic schedule for my mom to babysit the next day.

December 20 the baby slept through the night, thankfully. My bosses got me an awesome gift certificate to moons rare books in Provo. Another boss got me a book and Amazon gift card, and the third boss got me a Megaplex gift card. It was a normal evening routine while Matthew did a lighting project in my car.

December 21 I did a short lifting workout. AJ was a little bit grumpy this day. I tried really hard not to be stressed as I needed to pack for our trip to California. I had to calculate how much frozen breastmilk to bring. It was a lot mentally.

December 22 we were on the freeway by 7:45 AM to head to California. We stopped in Fillmore, a couple of times on small, random exits, stopped in St. George, Las Vegas, and Baker. We ate at Raising Cane's in Las Vegas, and AJ was just so cute looking at everything in the restaurant. There was also really bad traffic in the Cajon pass, which made for a really grumpy tired baby. He was such a trooper for most of the drive. 

December 23 We hung out at home. Brittany Knotts came by to say hello, and it was good to see her. AJ took short naps. We went to Matthew’s brother’s house for dinner with the family, but everyone got there pretty late. I was really happy that the baby did so well with the crowd. We left around 6:40, got him home, and did bedtime slightly later than normal, but not too crazy.

December 24 The baby was up twice during the night. We went on a walk with my dad. We shopped for Christmas dinner with my dad. I did client check ins. I did some basic dinner prep for Christmas day. My dad made us dinner.

Christmas day the baby woke up at 5:30, his normal time in Utah. I went on a walk and tried to run a little bit. It felt really foreign to me. We cooked. Matthew got me overnight hair curlers, Converse, breastmilk jewelry, and sweats. Kelli got me soap and a candle which both smell great. And my brother got us, princess bride, figurines, Wesley and Inigo Montoya. My dad gave us a generous amount of cash. Dinner turned out pretty good. And the baby got some great gifts from everybody, including stackable cups, a teether, a silicone cup with a straw, and a musical ducky. We had a scare regarding the batteries in our lock dying, so our neighbor could not get into feed the cat that night.

December 26 the baby would not nurse, and since he had been really difficult during the night, my dad held onto him for an hour or so I could sleep. It was a pretty quiet day. We pushed back our departure due to weather. Thankfully, our neighbor was able to get in the house and get a key in the morning. I got a short break from being a mom just to go grab Starbucks.

December 27  We were up at five, and the baby finally nursed after three days refusing. I got to take another mom break and went to try classic coffee which was really disappointing. Kristina came by to meet the baby. We went to dinner with my dad at Northwoods inn. We also stopped by the Glendora indoor market/dining hall which was really cool. The baby had another rough night that night.

December 28. I went to the Glendora market to try the Penny coffee roaster place. It was awesome. I did a little bit of work. The baby took two great naps. We went to Red Robin for dinner with my dad. We did laundry and packed. And we heard from my brother that he would be out of rehab on the 31st.

December 29 was another long day in the car after the baby was awake from 1 to 3 AM. We left California at 7:12 AM. We stopped at a Eddie World, in Las Vegas, in Cedar city, and Meadow just before Fillmore due to a diaper blowout. We got home at 6:50 Utah time making our total travel time 10 hours and 38 minutes. I was proud of us. But the baby had a much harder time in the car, on the way back to Utah then on the way down there. He also had another really disrupted night of sleep that night.

December 30 I started to clean up Christmas. I took the baby to Tous les Jours when Michelle from Orange Theory was also going to be there, so we chatted for a few minutes, which was really fun. The baby took a crappy first nap and a really good second nap. I worked on this blog post. Matthew went to work and picked up Dexter. I put AJ down at 6:30 due to his last nap ending at 3:00. I went to Megaplex to get movie tickets for the next day. 

December 31 I did the house cleaning. I did laundry. I took the baby to get groceries. We went to see Avatar. My mom gave us a break from the baby because we had basically been with him nonstop for ten days without either of us going to work or anything. And it had been a while since we had a date. After we got home, I pumped and did client check-ins. Matthew did baby's bedtime. 

In other news, I set the goal to give AJ two solid meals per day (in addition to his bottles), as appropriate for an 8 month old. It's a big commitment because the cleanup takes so much time, and I have to work not to feel bad about a lot of repetition. We aren't big on cooking dinner nightly or eating together at the table, so "just feed him what you're eating" doesn't work for us. I've leveraged some purees to supplement the solids, and that's working well for us. I always feel proud on the days he gets two solid meals, which has been most days (except for the two days in the car). 

Books I read in December:
-The Speed of Trust by Stephen MR Covey (audiobook)

I also started Remarkably Bright Creatures, and I'm almost done, but my Libby loan was up, so now I'm back on the hold list. I recently started Oona Out of Order audiobook, so that should be fun.