Hello Friends –

Well I have officially made it through my first day back to work. Surprisingly, it was pretty painless! Besides a few tears that were shed on the way to work, I made it through the day tear free and better yet stress free. I was expecting to come back to 1,000 fires that needed to be put out and major problems to fix, but my team was absolutely amazing and really stepped up while I was out. Honestly, coming back to a pretty lax day in the office was exactly what this momma needed. I know that won’t always be the case but I needed today to prove to myself that I could do it all and having a stress free day at work was the icing on the cake. Now, I don’t want to make it sound like it was all rainbow’s and butterflies, I am sitting here typing these words in pure exhaustion. It literally felt like I just ran a marathon. Having two kids is no joke, it is literally twice the work especially when it comes to the morning and night routine.So here it is momma’s a day in the life of this working momma – hopefully you can take one or two things out of this that may be helpful for your routines.

Morning Routine:

• Alarm goes off at the bright and early hour of 5:30. This is more than likely after Charlie has got up at least once in the night. I try to get to bed by 10:00 so that I can hopefully get 6 to 7 hours of sleep total.
• 5:30 to 6:00 – Get myself ready. This includes waving my hair, putting my makeup on, and getting dressed (hopefully not going through 50 outfits, I managed to just go through two this morning). Remember I shower at night so I don’t have to shower and blow dry my hair in the morning. Time Saver #1.
• 6:00-6:30 – Get the bags packed and ready for the day and eat a quick breakfast. This includes prepping all of Charlie’s bottles for the day, packing Aidan’s backpack, and making sure my work bag is ready. For breakfast, I am drinking an Atkins shake and having a couple spoonfuls of sugar free peanut butter – really packing in the protein for the day. I am also meal prepping on Sunday and taking all of my lunches to work on Monday so I don’t have to make a lunch every morning. Time Saver #2.
• 6:30 – 7:00 – Wake Charlie up, change diaper, get her dressed and feed her a bottle while I watch the morning news 🙂
• 7:00-7:15 – Wake Aidan up, change pull up, get him dressed, and get him a morning snack.
• 7:15 Leave the house for daycare – here comes the real feat! Getting all 6 bags into the car, getting Aidan to put his shoes and coat on and finish his snack, put both kids into their carseat, and lastly triple check to make sure I have everything.
• 7:20 – Arrive at Daycare. Now here comes the tricky part – the dreaded drop off. I will say Aidan did pretty well this morning but there is about 20 minutes and a million kisses involved in getting both kids set up for the day. I really under estimated how time intensive the drop off would be!
• 7:45 – Leave daycare and head to work. Thankfully, I only have a 15 minute drive and as long as traffic and road conditions are good, I pull into the office right at 8:00.
• 8:00 – Take two big deep breaths – it already feels like I have ran a marathon and the work day has just started. Now is the time, I have to put mom mode on the back burner and turn on work mode. This can be difficult to do but I have amazing day care providers who I trust and truly take on that mom role while I am working. If you didn’t already know, raising a child takes a village, and there will be so many people in your children’s life that care deeply for them and help them to grow into great human beings. You can’t do it all momma! Trust me, you will always be your kid’s go-to but it is healthy to have multiple mother figures in their life.

Night Routine:

• 5:00-5:30 – Leave work, hopefully on time, and run to daycare. Grab the kiddos, which includes the packing of the all the bags and the whining by my 2 year old because he doesn’t want to put his shoes on.
• 6:00 – Get home and unpack all of the bags for the day and get the kids settled in for the night. This includes a snack for Aidan and a bottle for Charlie.
• 6:30 – Begin cooking dinner, this is the biggest task of the night. As you will soon learn, I am an absolutely horrible cook. Give me a pot of water and some noodles and I got you but anything outside of that and I am lost. (Ask my husband) So the agonizing task of not only meal planning but preparing literally makes me want to pull my hair out. If money was no object the very thing I would do is hire a chef to cook for me every night. I know…never going to happen but a girl can dream! The only way that I have somewhat solved the “What are we having for dinner” issue is by investing in “Hello Fresh”. This has seriously been a lifesaver. It guarantees me that for two nights a week I don’t have to think or plan what is for dinner. I hope you have #winning running across your mind right now because I sure do.
• 7:00 – Bath time begins. Aidan has really become pretty self sufficient when it comes to bath time so this has been a total blessing. Once the bath is running and his favorite toys are in, he is ready to entertain himself for 20 minutes before I have to wash him and get him ready for bed. Those precious 20 minutes allows me to clean up dinner and get the dishwasher loaded. At this point, I am only giving Charlie a bath twice a week because her skin is still so sensitive and dries out easily. She will have one bath on the weekend and one bath during the week. (That night is chaotic when both kids need a bath)
• 8:00 – Bedtime. I have officially made it through a 14 hour day! I am very lucky both of my kids are great sleepers and most of the time don’t fight bedtime. I am that mom that has had them in a routine since the day they were born so they very much follow a schedule which I truly believe has helped with the bedtime routine.
• 8:00-10:00 – This is me time!! Most nights I am usually writing or working on blog stuff but I also enjoy a great bath and glass of wine on Tuesday and Thursday nights when my husband is playing video games. Those two hours in my day are so important for my mental health and also my marriage. My husband and I do our best to try and set up at least two nights a week where we take some of those two hours for us….most of the time that involves the fun stuff (if you don’t know what that is – let me spell it for you – SEX) but also can include a funny t.v show or a good chat!

Well friends that is my day in probably way to much detail, but let me tell you it feels good to write it all down – I really do feel like a superwomen today! I know that feeling won’t come everyday but that is when I can go back to this blog post and feel accomplished.

All the momma’s out there no matter how you run your family – working or stay at home- this one is for you! I encourage you to take a minute and write down everything you do in a day – it will make you feel good about being the amazing hard working momma that you are.

As always….Ciao Bella

~Chloe~!