Back online, with company

It's been a while! First morning sickness kicked my butt, then nesting mania set in, then finally my little bundle arrived and proceeded to wear me out. (Sometimes she is a little bundle of joy, sometimes she is a bundle of other things.) Now Little C is three months old, and I'm slowly starting to find a routine.

Six months old. Until Little C was about two months, I didn't worry about a routine. I just let her sleep on me all day.

I've had to forge my way pretty much from scratch. It seems like most parents are either working parents with a baby in day care, or stay at home parents who are otherwise unemployed. My situation is different - I stay at home with the baby but I also work from home. I don't work for myself, I work for a company, so I have to complete all the tasks that I would complete in an eight hour day before I was pregnant, but with a little baby underfoot. I got only six weeks of maternity leave, so I've been going full speed ahead for a while now.

Here is our basic routine:

• 6:30am - I wake up and get myself ready. I don't get dressed to the shoes, but I do put on presentable clothes, tidy my hair, and step into some indoor slip-ons. I tidy the bedroom and bathroom and kitchen, clean the cat boxes, water the plants, start some laundry, and MAYBE gets a look at today's email and RSS feeds. Sometimes I'll get up at 5:30 just so I can get more computer time, but lately I've really needed the extra hour of sleep!
• 7:30am - Little C wakes up and gets six ounces of formula. If it is still under 80 degrees when she finishes, we'll go for a walk around the neighborhood. But that's only happened once so far. Usually she goes into her bassinet in the living room to play with her rattles. While she plays, I change the laundry and get some computer work done.
• 9:00am - 4 ounces of formula, followed by tummy time on the activity mat. This is basically Little C shrieking and squirming for 20 minutes, even if I'm next to her trying to be encouraging. After tummy time I hold her for about 20 minutes, patting her back and walking around the house, narrating things. Then she does into her swing for a bit, and finally goes into her crib in her room for a nap. While she swings and naps, I put away the laundry and get a bit more work done.
• 11:00am - 4 ounces of formula. Then she lies on her back on the activity mat to swat at rattles, while I work on the computer. When she gets sick of that, I pick her up and dance around with her while her music CD plays a few songs. Or I roll her on my yoga ball. Then back on the activity mat. When she tires out she goes down for another nap in her crib, this time for one hour (sometimes two!). I have my lunch and get lots of computer work done!
• 2:00pm - 6 ounces of formula. If we have any errands to run, this is when I do them. Otherwise, swing, activity mat rattles, or maybe another dose of tummy time. Another walk around the house. Finally, another nap. Computer time. 
• 4:30pm - 4 ounces of formula. Activity mat or bath time. Then vibrator chair, while I start dinner preparations. Once Daddy gets home from work and takes over, the last computer time crunch begins.
• 6:00pm - Change into jammies, then the last bottle of the night, if she stays awake for it. She falls asleep fast and stays asleep all night, thankfully. We have grown-up dinner and watch TV, sometimes with me finishing up computer work at the same time. I clean up the kitchen, or delegate tasks. Bedtime is around 10:30 or 11:00.

These times aren't set in stone. Foe example, today she went down for her lunchtime nap early and woke up after only an hour, so in the afternoon she had two naps instead of one. On Saturdays I clean the house and do any baking or cooking for the week, usually getting done by noon. On Sundays I go to church, leaving the baby home to have Daddy time. Sometimes I have to do computer work Saturday or Sunday to get caught up from the week, and sometimes Little C's daddy has to work over the weekends so I have to keep on pulling double duty. But fortunately that has been pretty rare!