Stay at home Mom

It is 1:45 and I am typing while Keeley naps and Kayden fights sleep. I tried to nap with them but Keeley has been asleep for over an hour and Kayden is too intent on sitting up and playing with her turtle to sleep. Much like her sister at this age, Kayden has amazing willpower. She woke up at 6:30 and has napped for a total of 35 minutes since then. For those of you without kids, 7 hours awake with 35 minutes of naps is unaccepatable for a 6 month old. Couple that awake time with the fact that she was awake from 9:30 -10:30 because of a stuffy nose and you have one seriously overtired kiddo that has been fighting sleep since 12:30. That's right she has been in her room, in the dark for almost 1.5 hours and is still not asleep. Good times. Keeley is likely to wake up at any moment so I have given up on trying to sleep (even though I'm beyond tired).

I digress. This is a bit of a "reality check" for all those people that think I must sit home and watch tv all day. All the people that think being a stay at home mom is an easy job. Those people are dead wrong. This is BY FAR the hardest job I can imagine. Perhaps it gets easier as the kids get older; however, since mine are still under 2 that is all I have to go by. That being said, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy, that I would be sleep deprived, etc. going into this. Fortunately, the job of staying home is a million times more rewarding than it is challenging.

For all those people that wonder what I do all day long and how I can possibly fill my time. I will recap the last 8 hours for you.

5:15 - Keeley starts moaning. I lay in bed and ignore her - but am not able to sleep. When Kelly gets up, I ask him to check on her. He gets her calmed down for a little bit. She decides 6:30 is time to wake up. That is fine except for2 things 1. she woke me up at 5:15 and 2. she takes about 30 minutes to get out of her crib once you go in there. During that 30 minutes, she wakes Kayden up.

6:30-7:45 - Feed Keeley and Kayden and grab a bite for me. Then I have to pump because Kayden isn't interested in nursing anymore but I'm not ready to put her on formula. Get all of the pump pieces clean and get the girls diapers changed.

7:45- Play with the girls for a little bit and then try to put Kayden down (she's only supposed to be awake for 1.5-2 hours at a time). I put her down and then get in the shower with Keeley. Keeley gets into the least amount of trouble in the shower with me - but it does make showering harder. She used to play on the floor but lately she has just weaved in and out of my legs the entire time. I get of the shower and realize Kayden is still awake. Get her up and move to the living room. Start laundry.

9:00 - I put Kayden down again. Grout guy shows up. Kayden still deciding she is too busy to sleep. Keeley wants outside so I get her all bundled up and then she decides it is much better to be inside - but needs to stay all bundled up. We hang out in the living room until almost 10. This is when she decides she can finally take off her coat. At this point I decide that it is time for Kayden to try to sleep again. I tell the grout guy that I'm going to be back with the girls for a while and ask if he needs anything. He has me check the grout color which is SO wrong. I tell him it is wrong and so he says he'll go get some more (that is the right color) and be back in 30minutes - an hour.

10:10 - Get a bottle ready for Kayden. Feed her and put her down. She actually goes to sleep this time around 10:15.

10:20 - Go in Keeley's room and shut the door with her so that I can pump. Normally I do this ata table but I didn't want to be exposed when the grout man came back. I sit down to pump and Keeley "helps". She likes to help. This time she helped by turning up and down the power, pushing the let down button a lot, and trying to pull the breast shields away from their intended location. Needless to say, I didn't get much milk because I was a little stressed. I finish pumping and clean the parts and Kayden wakes up. Awesome nap.

11:00-12:20 - Grout guy is finishing up so I work on entertaining the girls while keeping them away from him and all his stuff. Keeley and I also eat lunch and she tells the grout guy hi and bye no less than 50 times. Finally he leaves.

12:30 - I feed Kayden and put her down. I then rock with Keeley for a bit and put her down. Keeley falls asleep or at least is quiet right away. I just got Kayden up at 2:10 after having her fight her nap for that long. She's staring at me with a long gaze right now. Every time I pick her up though she arches her back to get back on the ground and play. So we are going on 8 hours of sleep with 35 minutes of naping right now.

Here are some pictures of how Keeley kept busy.

She laid out each changing pad very intentionally all around Kayden's room. After she used them all, she turned around and said "more". I'm not sure how many babies she thinks we will be changing at one time!!

Putting a dishrag on her dog as a "hat". Why would you not want a dishrag as a hat?

The puppy and all the dishrags abandoned.

Oh wait, I can use it as a skirt too!

Kayden just being cute.

It is now 2:45. That is a full 2 hours after I initially tried to put Kayden down. She is still awake. Maybe she'll nap now. Or maybe we'll go for a ride to lull her to sleep once Keeley wakes up.