A Day in the Life of a SAHM

I an exhausted. Really exhausted. 

Mentally I'm doing fine - enjoying my time at home and spending it with B, I can't ask for more. But physically, I am crumpling away. Every night as I lay in bed, these aches and pains scream for attention, but thankfully I'm so tired I fall asleep almost instantly. But when I am patting B to sleep and he stares into my eyes, it makes all these worthwhile. Although a foot/shoulder rub will really make me feel so good.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to document down what a typical day for me is like, since I find myself getting asked this a lot.

Morning

I pump four times a day now, supply is dwindling a little, but that's for another day. My pumping times are 5-11-5-11, so everyday by 5-530am, I'm up pumping. If B wakes at 4ish for milk, that's when I sfart my day. I could possibly go back to sleep and wake at the same time as B, but then that makes me very busy. Getting up early gives me time to take a slow, long shower, take my supplements, read the papers and have breakfast.

After pumping, there's much washing to do - the pump parts, milk bottles, pacifiers etc. I've tried Tollyjoy, Pigeon, Kodomo and Pureen liquid cleansers and my favourite is Pureen. For the simplest reason - it has "no flavour". Tollyjoy has such a strong scent its still present even after sterilizing. Pigeon is mild but I find that it can't clean the breastmilk fats effectively. Kodomo is the next best as it is mildly scented and foamy enough to remove breastmilk fats and stains. 

After washing, there's the sterilizing to do. I sterilize the stuff twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

With all these barangs barangs done by 630am, we just wait for B to wake before we head to my mum's place. Sometimes B wakes up at 5ish, sometimes 6ish and occasionally 7. When we get to my mum's, it's all about feeding him, making him sleep, pump, playing. I try to slip in a nap when he takes his first nap of the day, but this is not always possible. 

When we get home in the evening, it's a mad rush again because it will be near his bed time and he gets cranky when he doesn't get his sleep. So we need to give him a wipe down, change into his PJs then get him ready for bed. Once this is done, I'll sometimes prepare dinner, usually a sandwich or one-dish-meal and dinner will be finished by 830pm. That's not over - there's still preparing for next day - stuff that I have to bring to my mum's -  fresh sets of clothes, new sterilized bottles, pump parts. I then take a longish shower and plonk myself on the couch waiting to pump before I call it a night. By this time, I am so tired. Last night, as I was typing this post, I actually fell asleep while still typing. When I finally snapped out of it and read my post, I'm amazed that I could actually "dream type". Crazy.

So you see, every day is the same. That's why I try to take B out often, whether it's meeting a friend for lunch or just a walk in the mall, just the 2 of us. I believe when I stop breastfeeding, my life will be so much better. But B will be 5 months tomorrow, which means I'm this much closer to the goal of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. One part of me can't wait to stop, but another part of me still want to continue. Dilemma.

I guess meanwhile I'll just still sit on the couch and prevent myself from dozing off and think about this question again when he's 6 months.