What is my average day like?
It has changed over the past seven months here and there, but, for the most part, here is what my typical weekday (assuming Jack sleeps through the night) looks like:
- 5 or 6 am — Get up, check e-mail, figure out what work is ahead of me, make some coffee and maybe grab something to eat.
- 7 am — Usually get Margaret up and out of bed, take the dog out.
- 7:30 am — If Jack isn’t awake by now, I’ll likely go and get him out of the crib, change him, then sit with him until Margaret is ready for first morning feeding. When she takes him, I go wash bottles, feed the dog and then go back to work.
- 9 am– Up to this point, I’ve been working for the most part. Margaret will usually leave for work around now. I take the dog out again. Jack is either in his swing or in his exer-saucer watching Despicable Me. This won’t last forever. Around this time I’m wrapping up the most critical jobs and get ready to settle in with Jack.Over the next few hours I’ll monitor my e-mail on my phone in case I get an important e-mail from British clients.
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Too much play and excitement… time to pass out…with all the dignity it implies.
9:30 am or so — I’ve settled down with Jack. We play with toys, there may be a book being read assuming it’s not going into his mouth. We do this until he falls asleep. We nap.
- Noon — give or take depending on when he had his last feeding before Margaret left for work, Jack gets his first bottle. He sucks it down. We sit and play or read. I may slip him into his exer-saucer for a few minutes so I can find some food and check my e-mail, check snail-mail, return e-mails if necessary, take the dog out, and other little things until Jack makes cranky noises. I will often dress Jack in his daytime clothes if I haven’t already.
- 2 pm — Jack usually gets sleepy sleep again and we take a short nap.
- 3 pm — Give or take, Jack gets his second bottle. We hang out. Play and whatnot. We keep this up until Margaret gets home. If she’s getting home later than usual, he might nap a little.
- 5 pm — Margaret often arrives home around now. After settling in, she’ll take over Jack duties. I’ll do some household chores, take the dog out, maybe take a short nap depending on how much sleep I’ve had. If I have to go run errands, I’ll try to do those around this time.
- 7 -8 pm — I’ll make dinner around this time. Margaret is giving the boy some food in the high chair. We then eat dinner–often quickly because the boy is bored and the dog is hungry. After this, we let the dog out one more time, feed him and the cat, get Jack into his PJs.
- 9 pm or so — I start my evening shift of work. This is usually more meaty work than what’s done in the mornings. Layouts, photo editing, book or journal constructing.
Sometime between 10 pm and midnight — Jack, after being topped off, gets put to bed. I turn on the baby monitor. Margaret and the dog go to bed around this time as well. - Depending on my schedule, I may take an hour to work on some writing–a blog post, a review column, a story, a piece of nonfiction– something. I try to do this every day. Then it’s back to freelance work. What’s nice about this time of day is that it puts me closer in synch to clients in California and Japan.
- Around 2 am or so — Time for me to catch some sleep. I snooze with the baby monitor next to my head.
That’s a typical day. I sleep in shifts–sometimes with Jack laying atop me. My weird sleep schedule predates Jack by quite a bit, so it’s not a huge burden or anything. It seems to work for me and I rarely have trouble getting started on work. Stacks of bills will do that.
It’s not a bad schedule, and it has flexibility. Tonight, for instance, is our bi-weekly Pathfinder game. Jack will likely end up at grandma’s for a few hours, or he’ll be sitting in the game store with us watching mom and dad pretend to be elves or wizards and fighting off giant spiders and goblins.
Sometimes Margaret has a church thing which Jack may or may not also go. Some nights it’s chores like laundry or groceries… but for the most part. This is a typical day–for now.
As the weather gets nicer, Jack will get to swing on his new swing. I may put him in a stroller for a… um… stroll. What’s nice about our base schedule is that it can be fluid without causing a lot of chaos.
So… parenting win? Yeah, I’ll take that. Things will change over the next few months, I’m sure. We can handle that.
Cheers!
–John
