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A day in the life of a new mum – mundane routines, occasional despair, glorious moments that only she cares about and a few perks in the way of cake.
Ask her what she does with her time and she might airily tell you that she had coffee with a friend yesterday and is off to have lunch with another friend today. She doesn’t want to bore you with the actual details… but also worries that you’ll think all she does is swan about having cake (although in truth there’s quite a lot of cake – trust me, we need it).
It’s true. Here’s what I’d tell you about my day: I met up with a mummy friend and we walked to a baby sensory class, with cake on the way and lunch on the way back.
And here’s the blow-by-blow of my actual day:
Wake up, feed baby, change her nappy and get her dressed. Duck to the loo before husband heads off to work, put baby in bouncer, quickly grab some breakfast and transfer the newly washed reusable nappies to the dryer because you forgot to wash yesterday and need them desperately. Play with baby, feed baby, change nappy and put baby down for first nap. Leap into shower while baby is sleeping and try and prepare nappy bag and travel bag for today’s outing. Fetch baby when she wakes (after 30 minutes on the dot), change nappy, feed again before setting off for Baby Sensory class. Put on baby’s coat and hat, find your keys and purse, put baby in pram, remember you haven’t filled your water bottle and fill it (because you’re always thirsty these days). Finally leave the house and meet up with mummy friend at local cafe, grab coffee and a brownie to have on the way because the walk is going to be at least 50 minutes. Hope you’ve timed it well enough for baby’s second sleep (you have – score!), walk up hill and down dale to the sensory class. One hour of baby sensory – including a feed and a nappy change – she’s in really good form though and smiling at everyone. Watch friend’s baby while she goes to the loo, she does same while you go. Walk home a different way so you can pick up a few things from the shops, hopefully while baby has her third nap for the day (she does – score again!). Stop for lunch and eat one handed because baby is awake again – feed her for good measure. Walk home with a baby who is a bit sick of being in the pram but luckily is distracted by the trees – so you seek out every single tree you can find and marvel at how she turns her head to see them all. Get home just as baby is dozing off for her fourth and final nap of the day – you think you’ll be able to transfer her to the cot and she’ll go right off to sleep… NOT A CHANCE! Cue much screaming. Get her up and smile ruefully back as she beams at you (she thinks she’s won). Change of nappy and more feeding. Try again. More screaming. Give up and get her up again (okay, she’s won this time). Plan to try again in 20 minutes but realise it’s probably too late and think about accelerating bath and bed time. Husband is home and takes a turn at entertaining. Bath (delight in her splashes and ‘chat’). Sleepsuit. Feed. Bed. And hopefully she’ll stay down until her middle of the night feed. Or she could be up again in an hour – who knows. Cook dinner with husband (he does it really), put on a load of washing, attempt to write down this blog that you’ve been contemplating for weeks but haven’t had the time or brain capacity until now. Crawl into bed and hope you’ll get three hours before she wakes for her next feed.
Today I was out of the house for five hours to go to a one-hour class, I did more than 13,000 steps, I had coffee and cake, there were no poo-namis and I got my small creature down for three out of four naps. It was a good day.
Tomorrow I’m having coffee and cake with another mummy friend, oh and it’s nappy wash day. And that’s probably all you really need to know. Wink, wink.
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