A Day

A day in my life: the life of a newborn, the life of me, trying to breastfeed, the life of us, with Charlie as co-parent. A day of Milla at six weeks old.

Swaddled with her sweet baby face on. 

• 5:17 - Milla cries out from her bassinet, one last snuggle with Charlie then I get up, go to toilet, drink water and get myself set up to feed 
• 5:30 - start feeding
• 5:40 - Charlie gets up and makes me breakfast and coffee
• 6:00 - finished feed, snuggle on chair 
• 6:30 - Charlie leaves for work, put Milla on floor and do some housework (washing on, dishes away, bench clear), drink more water. 
• 6:45 - Milla grizzles, rides a tiny invisible bike on floor, I change her nappy 
• 7:00 - start writing blog post with Milla in my left arm, trying to keep her out of way of my sore boobs, she falls asleep (and is super cute)
• 7:25 - try to put her down, asleep, and put on washing, creep around
• 7:30 - head to bed. Milla starts crying 
• 7:31 - get up and swaddle, back to computer
• 7:52 - try going to bed again
• 8:55 - alarm goes off, yay, one hour sleep! Milla asleep. Hang washing out, pay some bills, eat sandwich, get dressed for exercise, organise car capsule and nappy bag 
• 9:20 - wake Milla from swaddle to feed before going to exercise class
• 9:25 - feeding too painful, panic, and heat formula that Charlie prepared this morning
• 9:50 - finish feeding formula, race to car 
• 10:05 - arrive exercise class late, Milla grizzly, eventually falls asleep
• 11:10 - back to car after class
• 12:30 - home after running errands (dropping blankets to Asylum Seeker Resource Centre) and getting some groceries (buying pinots from Seddon Wine Store). Snack, toilet, start pumping
• 12:55 - pumping and on computer, Milla in car capsule (guilty mum), asleep and cute
• 1:10 - Milla awake and grizzly, I pick her up, still trying to pump, not easy!
• 1:15 - have pumped 100ml, hope it's enough, head outside to feed in sunshine and talk on phone 
• 1:50 - sitting in sun after feed, do some gardening then ready to pump again, less successful. Milla in bassinet, happy, and I took to singing 'You are my Sunshine', which she liked. Then irate, and I discovered she was wet through, scrubbed mattress, new nappy (first poo since Monday!), rinse on, Milla still grumpy, put her down and found 'You are my Sunshine' duet from the Dylan-Cash sessions, and turned it up. Walked away and cut up vegies for dinner, did dishes, boiled bottles, load of washing on. Crept up hallway to see Milla asleep. 
• 3:25 - sitting to pump, listening to Dylan-Cash on repeat, sweet potatoes roasting
• 3:40 - Milla starts to howl. I turn off potatoes, eat a chia pudding
• 3:50 - Milla still howling, get her into Ergo for (5km round trip) walk to shops to buy formula :( 
• 4:55 - Home and warming up expressed milk for hungry Milla
• 5:15 - finished feed, notice leaking and put Milla down and set up to pump, sterilise teats and turn off potatoes
• 5:25 - Milla grizzling so start to swaddle
• 5:35 - Charlie home, just as Milla starts screaming, pours a beer for us
• 5:40 - I make salad, put Dylan & Cash on, Charlie gets Milla and brings her to kitchen, then cooks steaks
• 6:00 - dinner dished up, sigh
• 6:15 - pump
• 6:40 - shower and dressed to head out, friend comes to join us
• 7:00 - nappy change and into Ergo, head to Substation for art prize
• 9:00 - home from exhibition, cups of tea with friends
• 9:30 - Milla still asleep in Ergo with Charlie, woke to feed expressed milk. I watch them as I pump
• 9:45 - finished feed. Both so tired.
• 10:00 - pumping, Charlie changes nappy and chats with Milla
• 10:30 - settle Milla, head to bed
• 2:15 - alarm goes off, five hours since last feed, I can't hear Milla so snuggle and procrastinate
• 2:45 - get up and warm formula Charlie prepared before bed, Milla starts to grizzle
• 3:00 - finish feeding and reswaddle
• 3:45 - second try at putting Milla down to sleep, start to pump
• 4:25 - after reading lots of 'day in the life of a newborn' blog posts, I am so bored and sick of pumping, I creep towards bed. Pumped 60 ml, not enough for a feed, but enough to stop boobs hurting. 
• 4:30 - asleep! Until we woke just before 7am.