A day in the life - with a six-month old
Spoiler alert - It's all about her
Hi!
Life with a six-month old baby is different from life without a six-month old baby. If you don’t have kids and haven’t been involved with others’ kids more than being that cool aunt / uncle, then here’s a snapshot of how our day looks like with a toothless tiny tot, a la those “Day in the life of” style TikTok videos:
Our daily routine
The timings are approximate - unfortunately babies don’t run on cron jobs.
6:30 am - The baby’s up! She has started rolling around so my wife and I wake up with a headbutt or a kick to the face. She’s still sleepy, but refuses to sleep. We play with her or take her out for a walk in our apartment complex.
8:30 am - She has a pre-morning nap to get night’s sleep out of her system. If my wife and I are alone, we get started on preparing breakfast and lunch. If my in-laws are with us, they’ve already started preparing, so we help out or eat our food.
9:30 am - She’s properly up now. She’s started on solids so it’s her first solid meal of the day. She is now active enough to play and roll around.
11 am - She has her first nap. My wife and I have a couple of meetings around this time.
12:30 pm - The baby’s up! It’s her second solid meal for the day if she gives us permission to feed her. We play with her and give her a bath.
2 pm - She has her second nap. Her naps are usually a bit longer after her bath. We have our lunch.
4 pm - The baby’s up! We feed her if she didn’t eat earlier. We play with her till the sun’s less harsh so we can take her down for an evening walk.
5:30 pm - We go for an evening walk. The other kids in the complex play at around this time and the baby likes to watch them play.
7 pm - She has her third nap. This one is usually short. We have our dinner.
8 pm - The baby’s up and cranky! We are mostly powering through getting her tired and winding down for bedtime.
9:30 pm - After some effort she goes to bed for the night.
Wrapping up - but where’s work?
Once a baby is in your life, your schedule changes to revolve around the baby. Other things take a back seat. My manager was really helpful in assigning tasks which didn’t need me to be online all the time, so I have been working when there’s some free time or usually at night. This isn’t really sustainable though, now that my wife has also joined back work. We’re both exhausted by the end of the day, and this is on a good day. We’ve had some nights where the baby refuses to sleep, and we’re walking zombies that night which spills over into the next day.
If you have any suggestions, please drop them in the comments. Meanwhile, we're taking it one day at a time. Baby steps.
Until next time!