Parenting

Ever wonder what it is like looking after a 4 month old baby and an 18 month old toddler for 50 hours by yourself? Well wonder no more! As you know it’s been a busy weekend for me with both the kiddies whilst the husband has been away and I managed to keep an hour by hour diary of just how much work it involved!

Friday

3pm Oscar has bottle (well half of it), he wasn’t due for one yet but hubby home shortly and we will have to take him to the train station so tried feeding O earlier to fit in with our plan.

3:30pm Hubby home and just has time for a quick shower and to grab his bags before we load O into the car and head to the train station. Say a quick goodbye, hubby dashes for train and I head back home.

4:20pm Home from station, just time to give O the rest of his bottle and make some dinner for Zara before going to pick her up from nursery. Tonight she is having dairylea sandwiches and some fruit. On nursery days she has a big cooked meal for lunch so tonight I don’t feel guilty for just giving her sandwiches. Pop sandwiches in fridge.

5:15pm Load O into car seat again, set off to pick up Z from nursery. One of the girls from nursery helps me to carry Z back to car as I’ve got O in the car seat and not enough hands for a car seat, a toddler and her bags.

5:30pm Home, pop Z in high chair, pop O into Tripp Trapp newborn seat, give Z her sandwiches and have some myself. Have lots of giggles and follow sandwiches by yoghurt.

6pm O has fallen asleep so make most of opportunity to go bath Zara. Lots of splashing and laughing before time to go downstairs and have her evening bottle.

6:30pm O still asleep so give Z her bedtime bottle, O wakes around 7ish so give him a bottle whilst Z is playing in the living room with us.

A little time playing on the playmat together before bed

7:30pm O finishes his bottle, change his nappy, pop him on sofa, change Z’s nappy take her up to bed.

7:45pm O has fallen asleep again so take him up to bed (Wow both children in bed by 7:45pm – extra brownie points for me!!)

Come downstairs, clean kitchen, tidy up dinner pots, load dishwasher, wash and sterilise bottles, sort out washing, make a cup of tea.

8pm sit down with a cup of tea and watch Eastenders!

9pm I go to bed as been up since 5am and I’m exhausted!

11:30pm Z awake and crying. Take her downstairs, change nappy, she doesn’t want medicine but obvious her teeth hurting her (she has 4 coming through at the moment) so offer her a bottle (3fl oz) and lace it with nurofen. Take her upstairs with bottle and lie in my bed whilst she has it. Wait for nurofen to kick in, she falls asleep in my bed so I transfer her back to hers. As much as I’d love her to sleep with me, she’d just wake up when O wants a bottle later.

Lying in mummy's bed waiting for nurofen to kick in

Saturday

12am Back in bed, both babies quiet again, time for a bit more sleep.

5am Oscar awake, take him downstairs, change nappy, give him bottle. Once he has finished pop him on sofa and go feed the cats.

6:30am O asleep on sofa so grab a quick shower, empty dishwasher, litter tray, put a load of washing on, hang another load on the line outside.

7am Z and O both currently asleep, have some breakfast and go to make a cup of tea, realise I have no teabags! Bugger! Will have to venture out to shop at some point this morning to go get some.

7:15am Zara awake, go upstairs to get her, change nappy, sit her in high chair and give her some breakfast (banana and shreddies), O wakes up so pop him in Tripp Trapp whilst Z finishes her breakfast.

8am Breakfast over, O crying, take Z upstairs to get dressed then pop her in the playpen to play for a while whilst I go get Oscar another bottle (he isn’t interested!)

8:30am Desperate for a cup of tea. Quick nappy sniff indicates no immediate nappy changes required so load both of them into Phil & Teds and walk up to the shop. O cries all the way there (he must be working on his morning poo, always cries until he has done it)

9am Back home from shop, O asleep in pram so leave him there, give Z a bowl of grapes and pop her in playpen whilst I go tidy the kitchen and hang another load of washing out.

10am O awake, change Z nappy, change O nappy, give O bottle whilst Z sits with us. O does a poo mid bottle so change his nappy again, just finish fastening his clothes up and he does another, change his nappy again. That’s 4 nappy changes in 10 minutes!!

10:30am Sit and have a cup of tea whilst Z & O are entertaining each other on the playmat, well Z is entertaining O anyway. Have to keep a close eye to make sure she doesn’t drag him off anywhere or squash him.

11:20am Lunch for Z whilst O is asleep, Z looking tired so lunch is earlier than usual today. Whilst Z is eating I grab a cup of tea and make up the bottles which I sterilised earlier.

11:45am Lunch over, change Z’s nappy and take her up for a nap. O awake again so pop him on playmat for a while so I can go and tidy up lunch dishes in kitchen.

12pm O unsettled, he shouldn’t be hungry yet, grab some lunch myself whilst its semi-quiet.

12:30pm O throws up all over playmat, change his outfit and nappy, clean up baby puke.

1pm Give O bottle

1:30pm O throws up entire bottle, outfit change needed for both of us needed, also wipe down sofa cushions which are covered in baby puke

2pm Both asleep, fetch in washing, put dishwasher on, have 3 cups of tea in a row as desperate for caffeine

2:30pm Z awake, change nappy and play in playpen with her for 1.5hours whilst O is asleep. We have grapes and snacks in there as a picnic.

4pm Give O bottle whilst Z sits with us and watches TV. Change O’s nappy

5pm O settled so go and cook Z’s dinner in kitchen with her. Forget to shut kitchen door, realise my error when Z vanishes in the 2 seconds I have my back turned, find her sitting on top step of the stairs #badmummy (we can’t find a stairgate to fit the bottom)

5:30pm Sit down and eat dinner. O is in tripp trap and crying, Z throws her food all over the floor, then O throws up all over it for good measure. Give up trying to eat, go change O and pop him in living room, give Z a yoghurt and whilst both quiet tidy kitchen and sort out dishes.

6pm O asleep on sofa so go take Z for a bath. Get soaked to the skin, Z screams when I take her out of the bath

6:30pm Sit and give Z her evening bottle whilst O is still asleep.

7-7:45pm Sit and play in playpen with Z, then change nappy and take her up to bed.

8pm O still asleep so finish cleaning up in the kitchen, wash and sterilise bottles and boil kettle. Tidy up in playpen.

8:15pm make cup of tea and sit down

9:15pm O still asleep so wake him up to give him bottle , change nappy and he is in bed by 10:20pm

10:30pm I’m off to bed whilst both babies are quiet.

Sunday

6:07am O awake, change nappy and give bottle.

7:15am Z awake, take her into my room whilst I get dressed (no time for a shower this morning, will have to have one tonight when hubby home). Take Z downstairs, change nappy, have breakfast. Put O in tripp trapp as he is awake.

8:30am get Z dressed, put washing in machine, tidy kitchen

9am O has half a bottle, change both nappies, load pushchair

9:30am Both children loaded into pushchair and we are off out. We go for a walk down the road, past the horses and baby horses, onto the field where we spend 45 minutes playing football whilst O is asleep in the pram. Then we walk up to shop and buy a couple of fab lollies which Z and I eat on our way back home.

11:15am Home again, make Z some lunch, put O in tripp trapp.

12pm Lunch over, change Z’s nappy and take her upstairs for a nap, change O’s nappy and attempt to give O bottle (falls asleep after 1fl oz) so go tidy up kitchen and hang out washing.

12:30pm attempt to give O rest of bottle, he throws up everywhere, change his outfit, continue with bottle, he does explosive poo so go change nappy and outfit again. Place O on playmat and have a cup of tea

1:50pm Oscar wanting another bottle seeing as he threw last one up, go get him a bottle and just about to start giving it him but Z wakes up crying.

2pm go fetch Z down, she is crying which is unusual but figure it’s because she has done a poo so change her nappy, give her a bowl of grapes and a drink and then continue giving O his bottle

2:10pm Z comes to me crying wanting more drink, put O down for a minute mid bottle, pick up Z and head to kitchen. Make it to hallway and she throws up all over me and hall carpet. Make hasty detour upstairs and change us both, leaving a trail of sick all the way up the stairs.

2:20pm come downstairs, sit down with Z and she pukes up all over the sofa, the rug and both of us. Take up both back upstairs and change us, put Z in bath and hose her down with shower as she is feeling hot, take temp and its 39 degrees.

2:30pm O still wanting rest of his bottle but has been temporarily abandoned on sofa, Z throws up again, this time most of it was caught in towel and only my top needed changing.

2:45pm text hubby, he is still at least 2 hours away. At this point I hit the panic button and phone a friend. Mandy arrives 10 minutes later and takes over giving O the rest of his bottle whilst I get puked on again by a screaming Zara.

3pm O finishes his bottle so Mandy puts him down and heads off around the house cleaning up sick for me whilst I look after Z who has nothing left to puke.

3:30-5:30 Mandy and I sit on sofa with both children waiting for hubby to get home.

6pm Hubby arrives home, I hand him Zara and take Oscar off Mandy, thank her a million times and let her go home.

So there we have it, 50 hours of flying solo with the two of them. I almost made it all the way without help but thanks to a tummy bug it all went pear shaped at the end. The puking continued all night and Z was off nursery on Monday but is much better now thank goodness!