A Day in the Life – 2 Months (+ a 5 year old)

Today Bjorn is two months old, and during this past month we’ve had some major lows but also learned a lot about sleep training and are hopefully moving towards having a much happier baby–despite the look on his face in this picture.

Weeks 3-7 of Bjorn’s life were some of the most challenging weeks ever as my baby seemed to cry inconsolably all day long. The first three weeks of his life were great–he napped a lot, Craig was home to help, and people were bringing us food nearly every night. But alas, all of those things stopped: Bjorn stopped napping–and not just stopped taking naps but turned to crying all day long; Craig went back to work; and people stopped bringing food by (rightly so).

Craig would often come home, and I would be in tears at the end of the day after spending my entire day trying to soothe my baby and get him to calm down. The Germanic, stoic-type blood runs deep in my veins, so for me to break down in tears says a lot. Luckily my sister was here for the first week of November, so I had someone else to confide in, ask for suggestions, and frankly just give me a break when I was about ready to break. After three weeks of this, Craig and I had finally had enough and took Bjorn to the pediatrician late one night desperate for any help we could get. He checked Bjorn over, asked us a lot of questions, and finally gave us three options/thing we could try to help with the crying. One, Bjorn may have a dairy allergy. Two, he may have acid reflux. Three, he could have a bladder infection.

We decided to start with me eliminating dairy from my diet since I had actually started the day before thinking that this is why he was so fussy all day long. Over the course of the next week, we didn’t see any improvement, so we started the acid reflux medicine. While it hasn’t been perfect, I think the medicine is helping?? I also know that by this time, I have been dairy-free for about 3 weeks now, which is apparently how long it takes to get it out of your system. Or maybe he hasn’t been as fussy because we just got past that 6 week mark, which seems to be the peak of colic and general fussiness.

All I know is that this last week or so has been going much better, and I hope and pray it continues because I was not enjoying life when Bjorn cried all day long.

So here we are, two months into his life and in some ways his birth day feels eons away. Through all of the crying and fussiness, I had still worked to sleep train Bjorn or really just set up some good sleep habits now for when true sleep training starts at 3/4 months old.

For kicks, I went back to the blog posts I wrote about Cullen at this age, which was actually a 12 week ‘a day in the life’ blog post, and I saw so many “mistakes” I was making in terms of Cullen’s eating/sleeping/awake schedule and where I went wrong for having a baby that sleeps well. For instance, I indicated that Cullen would be up for 2 hours and then sleep for 1 hour. In reality, a newborn should be up for 1 hour and sleep for 2 hours. I also never did a dream feed, so I was up every 2-3 hours with Cullen instead of doing a dream feed when I went to bed to align my sleep schedule with the baby’s longest stretch of sleep. There were a few other *face palm* moments I read in the blog post, and if you are interested, click HERE for the link to that train-wreck of a schedule.

So here’s our schedule from today, starting with last night, so you can see Bjorn’s night schedule as well. I would say this was a pretty typical day when I have both boys at home with me. We usually try to get out in the morning, and then spend the afternoon at home. I aim for one nap in the bassinet for Bjorn, and second usually happens in the car seat, and a third in the Ergo.

Tuesday, November 26

8:00 p.m. Bjorn goes down for the night. He usually goes down between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. most nights.

10:15 p.m. I do a dream feed before I go to bed. After not doing a dream feed one night, I will always do them now on.

Wednesday, November 27

3:25a.m. Bjorn wakes up–5 hours since his last feeding. Taking Cara Babies says that at 8 weeks old, your baby should be able to sleep 8 straight hours since his/her last feeding. We haven’t gotten that long of a stretch with Bjorn yet, but he only eats on one side when I nurse him during his dream feed. He gets too tired despite my attempts to wake him up enough to eat, but I have seen his longest stretch of sleep lengthen out as he has gotten older, so hopefully it will be at 8 hours soon.

4:00a.m. Back to sleep for both of us.

7:00a.m. Nearly right on the dot, Bjorn wakes up three hours later to eat, which is to be expected. I feed him, and I thought he might fall back asleep right away, but he doesn’t, so I change his diaper, clothes, and hang out with him for a bit, but a little before 8:00a.m., I notice he is showing sleepy signs, so I get him swaddled back up, and he immediately falls asleep again.

8:00a.m. Bjorn sleeps, and I start to get ready for the day. I hop in the shower and start getting ready.

8:20a.m. I come out of my bedroom and Cullen is just hanging out in the hallway with his two stuffed animals. I say good morning, and he says, “I didn’t want to come into your bedroom if you were trying to put Bjorn down.” Wow, he can be sweet if he wants to. I tell him to get changed and ready for the day while I go downstairs and set out his breakfast. I started dong this on days he has preschool to speed up the process of those mornings, and now he wants me to do it every morning. Since it motivates him to get changed out of his pajamas, I oblige.

During the next 40 minutes I finish getting ready, tidy up the bedrooms, make the beds, and start a load of laundry.

9:00a.m. Time to make breakfast for myself while hanging out with Cullen and telling him what are plans are for the day. I make myself an English muffin with mashed avocado and Trader Joe’s ‘Everything but the Bagel’ Seasoning and a beet smoothie. I also tell Cullen that he can earn 50 cents if he empties the dishwasher because he wants a dollar in order to buy something from the dollar section at Target. It works!

10:00a.m. Once again, almost to the minute, Bjorn wakes up, so I feed him.

10:30 a.m. I get all of our things together for our errands. I pack a few snacks for us, clean up the kitchen, have Cullen start putting on winter gear for our walk, and before we get everything together, Bjorn starts getting fussy, which means it is nap time. Perfect timing.

11:15 a.m. We are finally pulling out of the driveway with everyone (including the dog) for our walk. I was hoping to catch some pretty views of the mountains at our favorite spot to take scenic photos, but it is too cloudy, and once we get to the park, I realize just how windy it is, so I forgo that option and pick a more wooded trail for our walk.

11:30 a.m. I get everyone out of the car, Bjorn in the Ergo, Cullen in the rest of his gear, Sadie on her leash, and the whole time wonder if it is even worth the trouble. (It was a bit much.) But Sadie hasn’t been walked in a couple of days, and I try really hard to get Cullen outside every day, so I avoid the temptation of just throwing in the towel (like I did last month).

12:15 p.m. We keep the walk on the shorter side since Bjorn fusses through most of it. He fell asleep in the car, and I was hoping he was stay asleep and just go back to sleeping in the Ergo, but the wind and his hat getting in his eyes probably didn’t make it too comfortable for him. Finally everyone is back in the car, and we head to Target to warm up.

12:30 p.m. Cullen shops the dollar section looking for something to buy. I tried to get Bjorn to sleep as he is fussing again (because he is tired). Cullen finds and then purchases the item, and we then get some drinks at Starbucks. Cullen is obsessed with the pink cake pops, so for his birthday I gave him a Starbucks gift card, which he uses that to purchase his apple juice and pink cake pop. I get a matcha latte as I have been obsessed with them lately. Craig and I were making them daily while he was home during his paternity leave.

1:00p.m. We wrap up our trip because I need to feed Bjorn again as it has been three hours since he last ate. I drive to Skinny Raven and feed Bjorn when we get there. I also register Craig for the Turkey Trot and chat with my coworkers.

2:15p.m. Somehow an hour has passed and Bjorn is ready for his next nap. He falls asleep in the car on our way home, and I transfer him out of his car seat when we get home as I try to avoid him sleeping too much in it. I make a very late lunch for Cullen and I–a snacking plate since dinner will be soon.

3:00 p.m. I start prepping dinner, which seems crazy early, but I want to have as much done beforehand, so I can go out for a quick run once Craig gets home. I also transfer the laundry to the dryer and pick up around the house. (A never-ending job for me.) Cullen plays with his toys. Luckily he has always been a great independent player.

3:30 p.m. Bjorn wakes up from his nap and indicates he is hungry, so I nurse him.

4:05 p.m. Craig gets home. We catch up on each other’s days and chat about various things.

4:30 p.m. Bjorn starts showing signs he’s tired, so I ask Craig to put him in the Ergo since I want to go for a run shortly. He gets Bjorn in the Ergo and within a few minutes Bjorn is out. I finish prepping dinner, and then get dressed for my run.

5:10 p.m. I run for 20 minutes. It isn’t much, but it is nice to get a break from everything. Plus I am keeping my runs between 20 and 30 minutes for the time being until I feel stronger and ready to run longer distances.

5:30 p.m. As soon as I get back, Craig has dinner on the table, and it is ready to eat.

5:40 p.m. Bjorn wakes up and indicates he is hungry, so I nurse him while trying to eat dinner, which is kind of difficult with the meal we are having.

6:30 p.m. Bjorn is going back and forth between being content and fussing, eating and not eating, so by this time I figure I’ll just start the bedtime routine. I give him a bath, massage lotion on him, put a clean diaper on, and dress him in his pajamas for the night. I try to nurse him one last time (as cluster feeds at night are normal and to be expected), but he isn’t interested.

7:05 p.m. I lay him in his bassinet, and I thought for sure he was down for the night. Within a few minutes though he is up again, so I try two more times to put him down. By now, we know that if he is tired, but he isn’t going to sleep, it is because he is still hungry, so I try to nurse him but he just crys hysterically. I have no idea why he does this becuase then as soon as we offer him a bottle, he drinks that. My only guess is that my milk supply isn’t enough, and he can get a lot more from the bottle. (??) Anyway, this back-and-forth of Craig and I trying to put him down but him still being hungry goes on for the next two hours. He has done this in the past, but usually he’ll eat what he wants and then pass out. However, for some reason tonight he only ate a little then didn’t want the bottle, so we would try to put him down again, but then after 15 minutes, he would eat again. Goodness gracious! Thankfully Craig was here tonight otherwise I might have lost it again.

9:00p.m. Bjorn is finally down for the night, which is later than normal for him.

9:15 p.m. I read to Cullen and then put him to bed. During this time, he was playing with his toys, and then Craig and him watched a couple episodes from Lion Guard that we rented from the library.

9:30 p.m. I finally start this blog post–much too late. Now I’m off to do a dream feed for Bjorn and then get myself to bed because I am wiped.

The lack of blog posts this past month is definitely a reflection of how much busier I’ve been with two kids now. However, I feel like I’ve gotten in a better groove these last couple of weeks, so hopefully things will feel a little more back to normal now. I have another blog post coming with Black Friday deals, and I want to do an update on my postpartum running, so stay tuned for those two blogs posts coming soon.