My baby boy turned three weeks yesterday. Unbelievable!
I feel like I’ve learned a lot in these last three weeks, but that I’m also completely clueless. In some ways, becoming a mom is not nearly as complicated as everyone made it out to be…but in other ways, it’s more complicated than I thought possible.
Anyway, since I used to share my bump progress on Saturdays, now I want to share Ezra progress on Saturdays. And what better way to start this out then how a typical day with a newborn plays out for us.
Of course, every day is different. But there are some things that stay the same. Here’s what our day looks like:
We start our days, every day, with an early morning feed – usually around 6:30 or 7:00am. I pick Ezra up from his Rock n Play, lay him beside me and let him nurse (the side lying nursing position is amazing when you’re laying in bed!). He usually will feed for about 25-30 minutes. When he’s done, I pick him up, flip on my back and lay him on my chest. We snooze like that until around 9:15, when Alex leaves for work.
When Alex heads out the door, Ezra and I let Aslan out of his crate and settle on the couch for his mid-morning feed. He nurses in the cradle position (love my boppy for that!) for 25 minutes or so and I check my email on my phone. After he’s finished, we go into the nursery for a diaper change and to get Ezra dressed for the day. Then I make myself oatmeal while Ezra hangs out, looking handsome as usual.
He won’t stay in that outfit, though. We usually go through about three outfits a day, thanks to either a spit up explosion, diaper leakage…or some mixture of the two.
Usually after eating, Ezra is awake for 30-45 minutes, just hanging out and looking around. We do different activities, like tummy time. He likes lifting his head up and looking around, then plopping back down. Although usually tummy time turns into fart time, since he’s on his belly. In the pic above, it was his first day of tummy time and Aslan popped down to supervise.
After those 30-45 minutes of activity, Ezra starts yawning which means it’s time to put him down for a nap before he gets too tired and starts belting out what I fondly refer to as the pig cry. Have you ever heard a baby pig squealing? If not, you should hear my son cry when he’s overly tired or overstimulated.
He likes to spend his morning nap in his Little Lamb Swing. He’ll hang out in there anywhere from one to two hours, depending on how much free time he feels like mommy should get. 
During that time, I try to get as many chores done as possible. But if I haven’t gotten much sleep the night before, usually I just sit on the couch, take a shower or try to relax. Lately, though, I’m trying to build up a milk supply in our freezer since Alex has taken over some of the nighttime feedings. So, I try to set aside some time to pump while he’s napping.
The times that he wakes up before nap time is over, I pop him in the Moby wrap so I can get a few more things done.
Before he eats again for lunch, it’s time for a diaper change and, usually, an outfit change. Unless we got lucky and there were no major spit ups or other mishaps.
After his outfit change, Ezra eats for another 25-30 minutes. When he’s done, I make myself lunch and try to eat it without getting crumbs all over him. Once, I was eating chips and salsa and dropped a giant blob of salsa on his head. It didn’t phase him…and I didn’t feel guilty because it’s payback for the many instances of spit up down my shirt 
I try to get out of the house at least once a day. Lately that’s meant taking a car ride. Ezra normally hates his car seat, so we’ve been working on trying to change that by having him spend time in it that’s fun and enjoyable. This picture is from Ezra’s first car ride with mommy – we kept it simple and went to the library to drop off a book in the drive through then headed over to Starbucks to visit their drive through so I could get a drink. I don’t have to watch my caffeine intake as closely as when I was pregnant, but since I’m breastfeeding I can’t go that crazy. But at least I can enjoy regularly caffeinated Starbucks drinks again!
On this particular trip, Ezra was an angel baby and napped the whole time. When we got home, he kept napping in his car seat so I left him there until it was time to eat again – usually around 3:00pm or 3:30pm.
After his mid-afternoon feeding, Ezra is usually pretty conked out. He will nap for about two hours. Sometimes I nap with him, but usually I take that time to work or write. I let him rest with me for about 20 minutes to make sure he’s good and asleep, then I carefully and slowly put him in his swing or Rock N Play.
This nap marks the end of good naps for the day, usually, but sometimes we get lucky. He nurses again around 6:00pm or 6:30pm and after that transforms into Mr. Fussypants. I read babies usually are fussy around this time of day because they’ve been stimulated all day long and just reach a breaking point with it. Ezra is usually like that for an hour or two, then calms down. It’s really not too bad … unless he decides to turn on the pig squealing cry.
Since I’m home with Ezra during the day, when Alex gets home around 6:30pm, it’s daddy time. Alex eats his dinner then takes Ezra so I can eat my food. After that, Alex and Ezra either go on a walk or play or do some other activity so I can have some time to do whatever I need to do that didn’t get done during the day. I treasure these couple hours to myself. A mom needs to take care of herself to be able to take care of her baby.
Around 8:00pm it’s bath time for Ezra. Until yesterday, this meant a sponge bath. Well, more like a washcloth bath. We had to wait for his cord stump to fall off (which it did at 2 weeks), and then for his belly button area to heal (which it did yesterday!). As you can tell, he isn’t a fan of bath time… yet. I really hope that he’ll enjoy it more since we can now immerse him in warm water. Yesterday was his first time in his little bath tub and he enjoyed it, until he peed and spit up on himself. Then he was done, haha!
With the bath done, it’s time for jammies and a story. Right now, Ezra has no idea what we’re reading to him. He just likes to be rocked and hear our voices. He gets one final feed before bedtime – around 9/9:30pm – then he gets put in the Rock n Play.
We keep him in the living room with us until Alex and I go to bed around 11:30pm. I try to dream feed Ezra at that point, then it’s back to the RNP with a prayer he’ll give us more than a 3 hour stretch of sleep.
Usually, he will feed and get a diaper change again anywhere around 3am-5:30am. I don’t know why it’s sometimes shorter or longer other than the fact that he’s a baby and babies are unpredictable!
And, before we know it, it’s morning and we start again! With Ezra going into being 1 month this upcoming weekend, I’m sure our “routine” is in for some changes, especially in the napping versus awake time. I’m looking forward to him being more alert but I’m also a little nervous. But, one thing I do know already just from these three weeks is that it will be a fun adventure
