Typical Day (5 1/2 Months)

A Typical Day

So what is a typical day like for a stay-at-home Dad?

First off I need to stipulate that my wife is still breastfeeding so she wakes up during the night to feed our son. I consider us lucky because at two months we transitioned our son to his crib and he took to it right away.

These times are all approximate, so 5am-6am means between 5am and 6am. 8:30am to 9am means for that 30 minute span of time.

• 5am-6am: My son wakes up to eat then goes back to sleep. My wife handles this feeding then either stays up to get ready for work, or goes back to sleep for a bit longer (if she can, she for sure has the worst end of the deal here).
• 7:45am-8:15am: Son wakes up for the day. He usually wakes up blowing raspberries or cooing. This passed week he has just played in his crib, occupying himself for 10 or 15 minutes which allows me to finish getting ready (shower etc).
• 8:15am to 8:30am: Change diaper, play with son. He is SO happy in the morning! He loves looking at himself in the mirror and loves lights…
• 8:30am to 9am: Prepare bottles for the day, heat up bottle for his first meal and prepare rice cereal. Also feed him rice cereal.
• 9am to 10:15am:  Play time. This is light play time, no tummy time for at least 30 minutes so he doesn’t spit up all of his food. We play on his back, he sits supported on his Boppy Tummy Time Honey Bee 123
• 10:15am to 11am: This is roughly nap time, give or take about 15 minutes. This isn’t dictated by me but the boy is just tuckered out, slightly fussy and rubbing his eyes by this time.
• 11am to 11:15am: I usually prepare his second bottle of the day and he has it around this time. He is still eating roughly every three hours unless he is going through a growth spurt which increases the frequency that he eats to every 90 minutes or two hours.
• 11:30am to 2pm: If there are errands or shopping to be done, this is the time period that I complete them in. When the weather is nice we also go outside during this time but it is currently winter and the rainy season so there haven’t been too many hospitable days outside. My son will typically fall asleep during the car ride home. Every few weeks we will also go surprise mommy at work too, that always brightens up her day
• 2pm to 3:30pm: Put away groceries, do a diaper change if necessary, some more play time, usually tummy time.
• 3:30pm to 4:30pm: Afternoon nap time. While my son sleeps in his crib at night, we haven’t been good about getting him to take his naps in there. We use a standard Boppy Pillow and nap him in our laps with a blanket and pacifier. This means we can’t get anything done while he naps, but we are working on it, I swear!
• 4:30pm to 5:15pm: Mommy’s home! She takes care of baby, gives him some more rice cereal in his Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat. I usually take care of something around the house that was neglected, do some laundry, take out the garbage, get the mail, or relax for a bit before starting dinner. Of course I do not always cook. I would say I cook dinner 25% of the time…
• 5:15pm to 6:30pm: Mommy and baby play, we talk about the day, have dinner and wind down. If this is a bath night we prepare the bath. There are more bath nights than non-bath nights as every-other day is bath night…
• 6:30pm to 7pm: Bath time.  Our son is quickly out-growing his First Year’s Infant To Toddler Tub. He is probably close to 22 lbs at 5 1/2 months old and the last time he got weighed was the first week of  the year. He cannot quite sit up unassisted yet to go into the real tub so we have to bear with him splashing like crazy on our kitchen counter.
• 7pm to 7:15pm: Mom dresses baby in pajamas, does a bit more tummy time, some mirror time and reads a book to our son. The go to bed ritual is almost purely mommy’s at this point as I am with him all day. They get that special bond.
• 7:15pm to 7:30pm: Mommy feeds son and puts him to sleep in crib.
• 7:30pm on: Mommy and Daddy do dishes from dinner, pick up the house, do bottles for the next day, fold laundry and relax with an hour of TV or so before bed.
• If our son wakes up to eat during the night it will be around 11pm, or 1pm (or not at all). Then a feeding between 5am and 6am.

That is our standard day, everyday. I’ll have to have my wife go over this and see if I missed anything and I will update accordingly.