Hi guys! I haven’t done a day in the life post since Riese was born, so I thought it might be interesting to give a glimpse into what one of my workdays looks like now with the babe in the mix. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are my full days of work when I have childcare all day. We share our nanny with another family who has her when we don’t – it works out well! I’m working from home so I can still nurse Riese, though, and sneak in some cuddles during the workday – such a treat. So, here is what I was up to all day on Tuesday this week!
5:40 a.m. – Alarm goes off. Riese is still fast asleep, but I’m meeting the girls for a morning workout, so I decide to let her sleep and go ahead and pump. This is the first time I’ve gone to a morning workout without feeding Riese before I leave and I miss our morning cuddles, but I’m glad I don’t wake her because she ended up sleeping until about 7 or so! Whoa.
5:45 – 6:20 a.m. – Pump, pack up milk, wash bottles and pump parts. I am able to pump enough to leave a 5 ounce bottle for Riese to eat whenever she wakes up, plus another 4 ounces that I save for our evening top-off bottle. While I’m pumping, I drink some green tea, read my book, and have a snack – a few of my Oatmeal Banana Coconut Cookies. Old photo, same routine.
6:20 – 6:40 a.m. – Get changed and head out the door!
7 – 8 a.m. – Workout! Chelsea, Kathleen, and I do a HIIT class at Next Phase Studio via ClassPass (<- affiliate link for $40 off). It’s a really good one – love circuit workouts because they fly by, and as always I love the social time with my girls too.
8 – 8:20 a.m. – Drop Chelsea back at home and then head home myself. Matt is taking the dog for a quick walk before leaving for work and our nanny is there with Riese.
8:25 – 8:40 a.m. – Make and have breakfast! Still obsessed with avocado toast – with 2 eggs and some strawberries. Plus a whole milk latte that goes unpictured.
8:40 – 9 a.m. – Shower, get dressed
9 – 10 a.m. – Work! Finish writing + publish my Easter weekend part 2 recap blog post (I started it the day before), check in on some emails and reply to blog comments from the day before.
10 – 10:40 a.m. – Riese is hungry… time for breastfeeding! I feed her on demand, but she generally wants to eat every 3 hours during the day (closer to 2 or even 1 hour in the evening).
10:40 – 11 a.m. – Check in on emails and eat a snack – I have a hearty homemade blueberry muffin that actually has riced cauliflower in it. Recipe coming soon – you can’t taste the cauliflower at all!
11 – 11:30 a.m. – AnneTheRD nutrition client call.
11:35 a.m. – Out the door!
11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. – Lunch with a friend at Northside Social – I have the BLT with a side salad and some green iced tea. Yummmm.
12:50 p.m. – Race home because I know it is probably about time to feed Riese!
1:10 – 1:40 p.m. – Nurse Riese. I feel so fortunate to be able to work from home and still breastfeed her during my workday… it’s such a nice treat to have this time with her, even though it can be hard logistically (especially when I have client calls/meetings that have to happen at a set time). Luckily she takes a bottle fine so we can do that if necessary, but I try not to miss feeds because I love that special time with her (and don’t love pumping). Giving her back to the nanny is always so hard… but we LOVE our nanny and so does Riese, so I’m happy that she is happy. <3
1:40 p.m. – 4:40 p.m. – Work! Write and send my morning client follow up email, respond to more emails, share my blog post from the morning on social media, and spend a couple hours writing a partner blog post that I have to send over for review before it is published next week. At some point during this I also make a bowl of my microwave banana oatmeal and have it with some ground flaxseed, cottage cheese, and berries while I continue working. I’ve been more interested in savory breakfasts recently, but having a hearty bowl of oatmeal as an afternoon snack has hit the spot lately, and I think the oats and flaxseed have helped my milk supply… score!
4:40 – 5:10 p.m. – Feed Riese! She went a little longer than she usually does in between feeds because she was having a good nap! While feeding her, I snack on some almonds and a clementine but don’t get a photo.
5:10 – 6:20 p.m. – Finish up work! Taxes are due soon and we hadn’t sent all our info over to our accountant yet, so I spend this time scanning and uploading documents to a dropbox folder. Fun times! I also take one last look at email and respond to anything time-sensitive, and send out reminders to clients who I have calls/meetings with on Thursday (since Wednesday I won’t be working). Matt got home earlier than usual (at 5 – normally he’s not home until 7 or so) because he was out at an on-site client meeting that ended early, so he finishes his workday at home and then takes Riese from the nanny at 6 and has some daddy-daughter playtime while I wrap up my workday.
6:20 – 6:45 p.m. – Head out for a family walk! It’s nice out so we decide to take advantage… Riese loves being outside and so do we. This is an old photo, but you get the idea. 😉
6:45 p.m. – Nurse Riese while Matt makes us dinner.
7:20 p.m. – Dinner time! We have a Blue Apron meal – a really good popcorn chicken with rice and cabbage. Matt holds Riese and eats with one hand – he’s a pro by now because our little lady doesn’t ever want to be put down!
7:45 p.m. – Nurse Riese again. She still cluster feeds sometimes in the evenings… the witching hours! Matt cleans up the kitchen while I feed her.
8:15 p.m. – I can tell Riese is still hungry but isn’t getting much more milk from me, so I give her to Matt and he gives her the top off bottle (she usually takes anywhere from 2 to 4 ounces – we let her decide how much she wants) and gets her to bed while I tidy up around the house a bit and put away laundry.
9 – 9:30 p.m. – Pump, store milk, wash bottles and parts. I reaaaaaally don’t enjoy pumping in the evenings because I’m tired and want to just go to bed, but I’m trying to keep the evening supply up – and I need to make sure we have enough milk on hand for the top off bottles! I usually only get an ounce or two at night when I pump but every bit helps. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I try to make this more fun by reading a good book while pumping. 🙂 I always wash and dry off the bottle parts after I’m done with the evening pump and then bring them back upstairs, along with a snack, so that I don’t have to come downstairs to get them or food in the early morning. Normally, I feed Riese first thing in the morning and then pump right afterwards to save the excess.
9:30 – 9:45 p.m. – Get ready for bed.
9:45 p.m. Lights out! I try to get to bed earlier than this most nights since I never know how early Riese will be up, but it doesn’t always happen with all the evening logistics. Oh well! Matt stays up and relaxes and watches some TV – he’s way more of a night owl than I am! We want to start trying to get Riese to sleep a little earlier so we have more than 5 seconds to hang out together in the evenings before I go to bed, but it’s hard to fit everything in between feeding her and us, pumping, cleaning up the kitchen/house, etc! At least on this day we got to decompress and have some quality time together during our family walk – that was a nice treat. 🙂
—
So there you have it! A current workday in the life with the baby and nursing in the mix. I’d say this day was pretty typical except that I only do morning workouts twice per week (usually Tuesdays and Fridays) – on other days I just get in walks when I can, and then I try to fit in a yoga class on the weekend if it works out. I also don’t always take a long lunch out – most days I just throw together something easy at home and eat quickly because so much of my workday is already taken up by feeding Riese… hard to fit everything in! And some days I’ll have additional calls or in person AnneTheRD nutrition client meetings, too, although I try to limit calls/meetings to no more than 2 or 3 per day because they are so hard to fit in logistically with the baby feeding. If any of my calls are ones that I can take while walking, I take Freyja out for a walk and multitask, too.
What does your typical day in the life look like? It’s always fun to get a glimpse into other people’s routines!
