A Day in the Life of a Working Mom

Happy Monday all! I’m so excited to be wrapping up our Day in the Life of a Mom series! When we started planning this series, I knew immediately that I’d be representing the working moms out there. My second thought was that my day is boring – I just go to work and come home, right?

 

Well, then I actually documented my day and realized just how much I do. So if you’ve ever been curious how working moms do it all, you’re about to find out. Spoiler alert: it’s busy!

5:30am

Yep, our days start that early. Chris’ alarm goes off and he hops in the shower. The goal here is for Ella to still be asleep so I can get myself ready first and on this day, she is. Score! I head downstairs to start my morning. I make myself some breakfast, pack my lunch, make sure my pump bag is packed, and pack Ella’s bottles so everything is ready to go. I don’t have any labels, so I put one of Abbie’s Shimmer and Shine stickers on the bottle I want used first (it has the oldest milk). I prepare almost everything the night before, so it goes pretty quickly. I scarf down my food and head back upstairs to get dressed.

6:00am

Ella is still sleeping (score!) and Chris is done in the bathroom. I get dressed and take about 5 minutes to put on my makeup (I do pretty much the same thing every day so it goes quick). Once Chris is ready, he goes to wake Abbie up. She’s not always ready to wake up and it’s one of the things I hate about working – getting her up so early. Chris gets her up and dressed for the day. I’m not 100% ready so he and Abbie go ahead and wake Ella and change her. I make sure she has everything she needs in her diaper bag and bring her downstairs. I usually just leave her in her pajamas because it’s warmer and easier.

6:30am

Abbie gets one TV show in the morning (Today it’s Shimmer & Shine) that she watches while she eats her breakfast – usually pancakes (I make a big batch every few weeks and freeze them). While she’s eating, Chris makes his breakfast and packs his lunch, and I nurse Ella. She’s slowly getting quicker at nursing, so I caught a little sister time this morning.

7:00am

Time to go! We all put on shoes and jackets, and Chris takes some of the bags out to the car – and there’s six of them total. He gets the diaper bag, bottle bag, and Abbie’s backpack. I get my lunch, purse, and pump bag. I give Abbie a hug and get Ella into her car seat. I pump in the car on the way to work, so I situate my Freemie cups (best thing ever for pumping in the car) before I head out the door. Chris gets the girls in his car and I give everyone kisses. Finally, I get in my car, get the pump hooked up to my Freemies, and start my commute to work.

8:00am

By this point, I’ve arrived at work and my first stop of the day is the Mom’s room. I take out my Freemies and collect the milk in a storage bottle – today my commute got me 5.75 ounces. It’s a good start toward my daily goal of 16 ounces. I get myself situated and head upstairs to my desk. There I log in to my computer and check my email for anything pressing before starting to tackle my to-do list for the day.

9:00am

I make sure to have my morning coffee at this point- waiting until I get to work allows me to drink it hot! More work. I work in administration for an accounting firm, so it’s different every day – sometimes I help with client communication, sometimes I help partners directly and sit in on meetings, I help with sending things our, special projects – it’s never the same and that’s one of the things I like about it. At 9:45am, I head back to the Mom’s room for a pump session.

10:00am

I’m in the Mom’s room, pumping. I take my laptop with me and continue working on what I can while I’m in there. This is my longest pump session of the day since I tend to have the most milk in the mornings, so I’m in there about 45 minutes before packing up and heading back to my desk. I got 7 ounces this time, and I’m pretty happy with that. When I’m done, I stick my parts in the mini fridge. Did you know that you can just refrigerate your parts in between pumps so you don’t have to wash them each time? This saves me so much time!

11:00am

One of my daily tasks is to go get the mail from our PO Boxes. We handle bill pay for some of our clients, and most of them send the bills to our PO box at the Post office across the street. I take the stairs down to get a little bit of exercise since this is the only exercise I’ll get all day. It’s a quick walk to the post office and back. When I get back, I sort the mail and hand it out to the people who handle each client.

12:00pm

I’m starving. I eat my lunch at my desk if I haven’t already – nursing hunger is no joke. Since I’m pumping during the day, I tend not to take a dedicated lunch break these days since I’m away from my desk so much. At 12:30, I go to the mom’s room to pump again. 

1:00pm

I finish up in the mom’s room by about 1:15 – 3.75 ounces this time. I tend to get a ton in the morning before it drops off in the afternoon. I head back to my desk when I’m done. 

2:00pm

Various work things going on. This isn’t anything too exciting… so no photo here.

3:00pm

I head to my last pump session of the day at 3:15. This is the shortest session since I tend to get the least amount of milk now. (I got 3 ounces). When I’m done, I bring my bag, milk, and parts upstairs. The milk goes in the cooler section of my pump bag with a few ice packs, and I wash my pump parts. I keep a full set at work just to make things easier- this way I don’t have to worry about forgetting them. 

4:00pm

I start to wrap up whatever I’ve been working on today. I finish up what I can and mark what I need to do tomorrow. Email flags are my best friend.  I leave for the day at 4:30 to go pick up my girls.

5:00pm

Daycare pickup! I’m usually there by about 4:50. I ask how their day was and get them ready to go. We somehow get shoes on, get Ella in her car seat, gather their bags and get in the car. Abbie gets her Kindle to use in the car and we start our drive home. Abbie is used to the drive now, but Ella is still adjusting. Sometimes she’s fine, sometimes she cries, and sometimes she falls asleep. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. Thankfully I get to use the HOV lane because of the girls, so typically the ride home is about 45-50 minutes. 

6:00pm

We’re usually home around now. I get the girls (and all SIX bags) in the house, put my pumped milk and any lunch leftovers away, and start dinner. Ella typically gets a diaper change and a bottle shortly before I pick them up, so she’s usually content to play right now. I start on dinner right away. Today we’re having pork tenderloin, roasted Brussels sprouts, and leftover baked potatoes. Chris gets home shortly after me and we catch up from our days while he plays with the girls. If I’m. It making a dinner Abbie likes (miss super picky), we make her something quick – a sandwich, easy mac, and scrambled eggs typically fit the bill. My goal is for us to eat by 6:45 – sometimes I make it and sometimes I don’t. 

7:00pm

Ella is getting cranky, so Chris takes her upstairs to change her and get jammies on. Right now she only gets a bath every few days, and tonight is not a bath night. He brings her down to me and I sit down to nurse her one last time before she goes down for the night. Abbie and Chris head upstairs between 7:15 and 7:30 to start her bath and bedtime routine. Ella either falls asleep nursing or is sleepy but awake when I bring her upstairs. I bring her over to the bathtub for Abbie to give her a kiss – she won’t let Ella go to bed without it! Chris gives her a kiss too before I rock Ella for a bit to get her down. She’s almost at the point of falling asleep on her own, but not quite yet.

8:00pm

Time to finish Abbie’s bedtime routine. After her bath, she gets jammies, her hair combed and braided, and a story. Right now she’s obsessed with the Pinkalicious books. We get her snuggled in and say goodnight, and aim to be out of her room by 8:30. Then it’s finally adult time… I mean prep for the next day time. I head downstairs to wash and prep bottles for the next day and make sure my lunch is ready to go. I bag and freeze any extra milk and head upstairs to take a shower. Chris goes to the gym a few times a week at this time.

9:00pm

This is my little bit of time to myself before bed. I blog, schedule pins on Pinterest, read… whatever it is I need to do. Oh, and usually throw in a load of laundry. Tonight it’s the diaper laundry, and I remember in the nick of time… because we’re almost out of diapers! I throw that in and start getting ready for bed. My goal is to be in bed by 10:30, but time gets away from me far too easily and often it’s later. I have really been trying to work on it, but sometimes I just can’t help it.

And that’s a wrap on our day in the life series! Hope you all enjoyed it and let me know what you think of my crazy day!