I am woken up by the sound of little bare feet on the floor. Dip dap dap and the owner of those two tiny feet is climbing on the bed and, in her effort to find me, almost steps on her brother who’s left sleeping next to me after his 5 am mealtime. I pull her under the blanket on my other side and cuddle her in checking the time. 7 am. My alarm won’t ring for another 40 minutes but these days it’s seldom that I can sleep that long.
We cuddle for a little while but at the first mention of breakfast Birdy is on the go. We head to the kitchen where I help her to butter a rice cracker and make a drink, while brewing myself some coffee. I grab a yogurt and a banana and we both get back in bed. Breakfast in bed on a Tuesday morning probably sounds a bit decadent but it’s a guilty pleasure that I’m not about to give up on. That extra half hour of lazing around in bed, watching the morning news and drinking coffee, is what I need to properly wake up and start taking care of little humans. These days we eat breakfast at the dining table only on weekends.
Birdy has sat down on a pillow between her dad and her brother, and soon enough both of them are awake as well. The little one is not hungry yet so I place him on my legs to watch me eat. As Birdy is done with her cracker she munches down half of my banana and leaves to find something fun to do. She’ll be having a proper breakfast at the daycare so I don’t bother to offer her something more to eat. Meanwhile also hubby is done with his breakfast and heads to the bathroom for a shower, so I use the moment of relative quiet to feed the baby.
And just like that it’s already past 8 am and my slow time is over. I change Bamm-Bamm’s diaper, dress him, and put him in the playpen, then track down Birdy to get her ready for the day. I let her choose which T-shirt to wear, help her to get dressed and to put on her shoes. Then I kiss her and hubby goodbye as they leave in a little hurry to make it to the daycare before 9 am.
By now the baby is getting tired of playing by himself and requests some attention as well. I have the feeling that he would need to sleep longer but he doesn’t want to miss the morning excitement caused by the rest of the family. So we both get back in bed and I put him to sleep for his first nap of the day. As he drifts off to sleep I ponder how different it was to have just a baby at home when Birdy was tiny. Back then it felt like I have my hands full the whole day, while now these hours with just a three month old feel oddly close to time off.
I untangle myself from the tiny sleeping human and get to work. I switch on the washing machine, unload the dishwasher, then fix myself a big mug of tea. As I contently snuggle back in bed next to Bamm-Bamm I wonder if there’s still time to have a shower but sleepiness wins and I switch on an episode of The Good Wife instead.
Once the little one wakes up from his short nap we move to the living room. I put him back in the playpen and talk with him and sing while folding laundry and cleaning up a little. I usually try to deal with the household chores in the morning while Birdy is in the daycare. This way I’m less distracted when she’s back home and I have two kids to take care of. Once I’m done, I play with Bamm-Bamm a little more but he’s getting tired. This time I pack him in the Ergo Baby carrier and put him to sleep while watching the latest from John Oliver.
Thanks to the magic of the carrier the baby’s asleep in less than 10 minutes and I have some time for myself. I brew another tea and sit down by the computer to check emails and social media, read the news, and work a little on the blog. I browse through my drafts trying to decide whether I should work on one of the ideas or write something new, add a sentence or two here and there, but nothing really inspires me this morning. In the end I fine tune the newborn rituals post and call it a day.
After sleeping a good two hours, Bamm-Bamm wakes up around 1 pm which gives us just enough time to nurse and cuddle before it’s time to pick up his sister from the daycare. Shortly before 2 pm I pack him back in the Ergo and we head out the door.
Continue reading in part 2…