Faking It

I can hear the “I told you so’s” approaching. It has been some time since I last posted, for good reason. Babies take up a lot of time.

Joshua has started daycare and is starting up his fourth week there (more on that in another post). This means that both Janelle and I are now back at work and no one is watching the homestead as their full-time occupation. This means that our time in the evenings is at an all-time premium and that weekends are Shangri-la. I never understood fully why people went so gung-ho for Saturday and Sunday. I’ve never been much of one for partying hard, so being able to stay up late and sleep in late over the course of the weekend didn’t hold much allure to me. The weekend was basically just a longer version of every evening after work. But now I find myself counting down to quitting time on Friday.

He’s only four months old, but we’ve begun what could end up being a decades-long process of ferrying our child(ren) around and spending all time not doing that work prepping for their next event. And Joshua only ever does one thing: sit in a room with other babies.

As part of my on-going effort to give you an accurate view of what child-rearing is like so that you are steeled for the experience (no, I am not trying to terrify you), here is every single day of our week now:

5:00-5:30am – Wake up! Janelle showers. Michael eats cereal and is on-call in case Joshua wakes up and needs tending to.

5:30-6:00am – Shower swap. Janelle is now ready enough prepping for the day that she can tag out on Joshua duty. Michael showers. Baby-permitting, Janelle has breakfast and continue to prep for the day.

6:00-6:30am – If Joshua isn’t awake, it’s time to start waking him up. Janelle feeds Joshua and, if all other prep work is done, we watch something off the DVR while he eats.

6:30-6:50am – Get Joshua changed into his clothes for the day. Pack up necessary daycare items (diapers, clothes, bibs, bottles). Get everything loaded and into the car.

6:50-7:10am – Drive to Daycare, drop Joshua off and wish him a good day.

7:10-7:30am – Leave for work.

7:30am – Janelle at work.

7:45am – Michael at work.

7:30-4:00 – Work day!

4:00-4:45 – Commute to daycare.

4:45-5:00 – Get Joshua from daycare and bring him home.

5:00- 6:00 – Play with Joshua!

6:00-7:00 – Nap-time for Joshua

7:00-7:30 – Feed Joshua. Michael tackles miscellaneous prep for the next day.

7:30-8:00 – Playtime!

8:00-8:20 – Bathtime!

8:20-9:00 – The bedtime cycle (sometimes fast, sometimes takes the whole time)

9:00-10:00 – Relax, go to bed.

During the periods of free time we have (there are about 3 hours total, since I am free to do things while Janelle feeds Joshua), we have to ensure that we do the following: make lunches for the next day, do laundry, clean the dishes, cook dinner, sterilize Janelle’s breastpumping equipment, clean and prep Joshua’s three bottles for the next day and anything else like talking to parents or running errands. That means that, if we’re being generous, we have 90 minutes each day of bona-fide leisure time.