Day in the Life: 4 month old Cooper

Day in the Life posts are some of my favorite to read.  So I thought it would be fun to do one to look back on life with 4 month old Cooper.  My plan is to try to do it again when he's 8 months and 12 months and then go from there, but we will see.  Our days aren't all that exciting, so this post probably won't be either, but sometimes it's fun to see the everyday things.  So here we go!

A Day in the Life-- Monday, August 21

5:00 am

 I woke up around 5:20 and heard Cooper stirring.  I decided to go ahead and get up to feed him.  He is doing really well sleeping through the night, but he still usually needs one feeding in the middle of his 11-12 hour stretch of sleep.  Sometimes he wakes up around 2:00 or 3:00 and wants to eat, others it's closer to 5:30.  He has occasionally slept til 6:30 or 7:00 without waking up, but then he doesn't seem to eat enough during that day, so it's easier to make sure he gets a feeding in before that.  So I fed him and then put him back to bed.  He was back to sleep by a few minutes after 6:00.

6:00 am

I usually pump after Cooper's morning feeding to have a stash of milk.  Since he's been on the lower end for weight gain, we typically give him a bottle every evening before bed to give him a few extra ounces and this morning slot is the time of day I get the most milk for him, so I try to make it happen as often as I can.  A lot of times I go back to bed after I pump, but I'm trying to get into a routine of using that time better--at least some days.  So today I worked on the Bible Study that Erin and I just started while I ate breakfast.  Sunday night I cooked a batch of scrambled eggs and divided it into 4 containers with some precooked sausage so I could have some ready to go breakfasts which helps a lot.  Around 7:00, I went back and laid in bed and read a book.  I have lots of goals to workout, clean and do other things in this time before Cooper gets up, but for today I was almost done with my book, so I read until I finished it.

8:00 am

 Today Cooper slept until a few minutes before 8:00.  He is still not on a super consistent routine, but we have been working on his schedule over the past week or so.  Since then his wake up time varies from 6:45-8:15.  So today we enjoyed a little bit of sleeping in.  I always love getting to see him after this long stretch of sleep-- and he seems pretty happy to see me too.  We did a quick diaper change and then he nursed.  Usually he nurses for a long time (like an hour sometimes) for this first feeding of the day, but today we had to get Lily to the vet so it was shorter than normal

9:00 am

 I loaded up Cooper and Lily in the car and took her for her vet appointment.  She goes every 6 months for a check up, heartworm protection and vaccines.  They do drop off between 7 and 9, and we got there around 8:50 :)

Lily's vet is right next door to Target, so Coop and I went in for a few quick groceries.  I did my bigger grocery trip earlier this month so we just needed a few things to round out this week.  We were in and out in less than 20 minutes!

10:00 am 

 Nap time for my sweet boy.  We are working on some sleep training now that Cooper can't be swaddled and he is doing really well with it.  Our nap time routine (before all his naps) is: turn on his lamp, turn on his clock that turns blue and makes white noise, put on a sleep sack. Then I rock him and sing 2 songs: This Little Light of Mine and the Chorus of JJ Heller's I Dream of You.  We rock for a few minutes and then I lay him down.  He goes to sleep within about 5-10 minutes of being put down for naps.

 Cooper almost always naps for 30 minutes.  Almost on the dot.  Some naps it's 29, some it's 32.  But it's rarely longer than 35 minutes.  So since we'd been on the go this morning, I decided I'd take it easy for this nap time.  So I sat down with a snack and the baby monitor and checked email and Facebook.  I also did a few exercises-- I didn't work out as much as I need to, but I am trying to at least do a few core exercises every day.  My core is pretty weak from my c-section and I feel it in my lower back by the end of the day, so I'm trying to focus more on that.  But otherwise, I was pretty lazy for this hour.

11:00 am

 Cooper was still asleep an hour after he went down.  He had stirred a little, but kept going back to sleep.  I assumed that he would wake up at any moment so I didn't want to start doing something only to get interrupted.  So I turned on the NASA coverage of the solar eclipse and got sucked in to that.  Cooper ended up sleeping 2 hours and didn't wake up until 12:15.  So I ended up pretty much wasting my long stretch of free time.  But that truly is life with a baby--the unpredictability of our schedule is one of the themes of our lives these days!  And the complete eclipse only happens so often, so it was interesting to watch some of the coverage

12:00 pm

 After Cooper woke up, he spent the rest of this hour eating.  Sometimes we listen to music while he eats, but I typically listen to podcasts.  I have a whole list that I am working my way through and today we were listening to an episode of Extraordinary Moms Podcast.

1:00 pm

After Cooper ate, we finally changes him out of his pajamas and into some other clothes for the day!  Since we were in a hurry after he ate breakfast I didn't change him then.  Good thing his pajamas are cute and he can get away with wearing them out in public.  But he seems more comfortable in something a little cooler!

We headed out to the living room just in time to catch the dimmer sky from the partial eclipse here.  Cooper played while I ate lunch and then we played together and sang some songs.

2:00 pm 

 Cooper started getting fussy a little before 2:00 and it wasn't quite time for a nap {He usually falls asleep and sleeps best when he's been up for 2 hours between naps and he had only been up about 1 hour and 40 minutes at this point}.  So we went to his room and read a few books.  Once we were done, it was time for the naptime routine again.  Cooper went to sleep pretty quickly after I laid him down this time too!

My current free-time project is our 4 year photo book.  I've made one for each year since we've been married.  Usually I have it done right around the time of our anniversary, but this year I've got a few extra distractions.  So I sat down to work on our photo book and my blog while Coop napped.

3:00 pm

Cooper ended up taking another long (for him) nap and slept until about 3:45.  So I worked on our photo book until he woke up and then I got him up.  He ate and we did a diaper change and then we got in the car to go pick up Lily.  They had called during his 12:30 feeding to say that Lily would be ready after 2:00, but this was the earliest we could get to her and not mess with Cooper's naps.

4:00 pm 

It was so good to have our puppy back!  She got a clean bill of health and they cut her nails and gave her a heartworm medicine injection to last for the next 6 months.  We brought her home where she promptly fell asleep.

5:00 pm

I fed Cooper again since his last feeding was (again) cut short by having to go pick up Lily.  Most days we are home and there is no problem with him taking forever to eat, but today we happened to have a little bit more rigid schedule, so we cut short a few feedings and offered a few extras to make up for it.  He was acting pretty tired, so I put him down for a short nap around 5:30.  I grabbed a quick shower and when I got out, Cooper was still awake and playing in his crib.  So I went ahead and got him up around 6:00 so he didn't nap too late and mess up his bedtime.  He was happy and ready to keep playing!

6:00 pm

David got home right around 6:00 and we were all happy to see him!  He played with Cooper for a few minutes while I got dinner together.  I've been trying to do more meal prep on the weekends or one weekday to make evening easier.  So it only took about 10 minutes to reheat a few things and get dinner on the table!

6:30 pm

We were at the dinner table.  David and I had BBQ beef, macaroni and and cheese and some rolls.  Cooper sits in his high chair during dinner so we can have a family dinner time.  Right now he just babbles and smiles with us.  Probably soon I'll start giving him a spoon, bowl, and/or cup to play with while we eat.  We'll probably introduce some foods around the time he turns 6 months--when we went to his 4 month check up, the pediatrician recommended waiting and that works fine for us!

7:00 pm

We give Cooper a bottle (of pumped breastmilk) around 7:00 and that helps fill his tummy so he sleeps better and also helps us make sure he's getting enough ounces of milk.  After his bottle we play for a few more minutes and then we start bedtime routine around 7:30.  Bedtime routine is a little longer than naptime.  We change diaper and put on pajamas and a sleep sack.  Then one of us holds him and the other one reads a book (this night he was pretty tired since he skipped his last nap, so he was getting upset during the book and we cut it short), then we say prayers and I rock him and sing to him.  We put him down right around 7:45.  It usually takes less than 15 minutes and he is asleep for the night!  If he cries or is upset, we'll do a few check ins on him until he goes to sleep.

8:00 pm

 Cooper is asleep and we usually sit down to talk or watch TV.  This night we had just sat down to watch American Ninja Warrior (one of the shows David and I both enjoy) when they cut in with a speech from the President.  So we watched that and then finished the American Ninja Warrior Episode.

 We also indulged in some ice cream.  I picked up a pint of Bluebell's Cookie Two Step last week and we liked it so much that David said we needed a gallon, so I got that and we are thoroughly enjoying it!

9:00 pm

I usually am in bed pretty close to 9:00 or 9:30.  This night I stayed up a little later to finish American Ninja Warrior.  I got in bed around 9:45 and read for a little while-- I got an advanced copy of Melanie Shankle's new book so I've been reading through that and loving it {blog post coming soon with my review!}.  I only got a little reading done before I was too tired, and I was asleep before 10:00.


And that was my day!