A Day in the life of an expat mom

5:30am
CRAPS. Connor is still on Malaysian time. Which means he thinks it's 6:30am and it's okay to wake up. No, it's not! Dear Hubby drags himself up from the bed and stumbles over to the cot to pick our little boy up. Connor's the only in the bedroom who's awake and ready to go. Dear Hubby pops him into our bed and I nurse Connor hoping to knock him out. I only succeed in knocking ME out. Zzzzzzzzz....

6:30am
In the past hour, my sleep has been interrupted by Connor's flailing arms and legs and his little whines. Finally Dear Hubby gets up as he has to get ready for work anyway and takes Connor downstairs with him so that I can get some uninterrupted sleep. Connor's quite happy to lie on the carpet and look around for half an hour or so while Dear Hubby eats his brekkie and checks out the financial news online.

7:00am
Guess who's back in the bedroom? Yep, His Royal Boy-boyness. Dear Hubby leaves for work after goodbye kisses all around. The next hour or so is a struggle between Connor and sleep. Why doesn't my baby boy want to talk longer with the curtain!

8:00am
I give in. He wins. I pick him up and we go downstairs, counting the steps as we go. He likes that. He's then tossed onto his playmat to bat at his toys while I hurry off to grab my brekkie. I've learnt how to eat most things and read papers and do whatever with one hand while I nurse him. I've also learnt how to eat things cold as babies and hot food just don't go together. If I were to wait for him to settle so that I can eat breakfast and read the papers uninterrupted, I can wait forever.

9:30am
BATH TIME! Yay! A nice clean fresh Little Monkey is just wonderful. Mummy tries to grab a shower too. I put him on a nice clean mat on the bathroom floor while I keep up a running commentary of what I'm doing in the shower stall. If I don't take too long over it, he doesn't mind. But if he does, I learn pretty quick to hurry up!

10:00am
Another quick feed and play time. I sit him on my lap and we "talk". The maid has arrived a few hours ago and is doing the dishes and laundry by now. Thank god for the maid, I never would have coped if I had to take care of the baby AND this house.
This is also poo-poo time and he soils about 2 diapers with gigantic poops. But it's all good as he then tends not to poop for the rest of the day.

11:00am
We're at the American Club... Mummy has her gym time. This is when I get some Me Time as the American Club has a nanny service. I love my son but it's nice to get some time alone and I really can't bring him into the gym with me! When I'm done, I collect him and we go home for lunch and a nap. He is very difficult to put down for afternoon naps so I take quite a bit of time before he finally zonks out. By then I'm zonked out too.
On the days when I don't do the gym, I take him out to the malls. I've found he enjoys the walks and sleeps better at home after one. I enjoy them too, a mummy can go crazy sitting at home all day long!

5:00pm
He normally wakes up from his nap about now and gets big cuddles and kisses from Mummy. More play time as we wait for Daddy to come home from work. I used to take him out for walks in our compound but it's the rainy season now and it tends to rain in the evenings, so I've stopped doing that. On the days that I cook, I pop him into his stroller and wheel him to a safe place in the kitchen so that he can watch me prepare the meal.

6:00pm
Daddy's home! Connor gets some bonding time with Dear Hubby while I get the meal ready. If Connor drifts back to sleep, we eat together. Otherwise, we take turns to eat. Dinner is generally served at 7pm in our household so that everything's digested by the time we turn in at 10pm.

8-10pm
Connor is put to bed at 9pm. His night-time ritual is a change of diaper, changed into his pyjamas (he knows the difference because he wears short-sleeved clothes during the day and long sleeves means night-night clothes) and a feed. He's usually nodding off by then anyway and I leave him in the playpen in our study room to fall asleep. Every website and book says that you have to teach them to fall asleep on their own and to put them down when they're drowsy. It works fine with Connor at night but not for his day naps, so I've only got it half right.

It's Dear Hubby's job to bring him upstairs and pop him into his sleeping bag before putting him into his cot. Then we get ourselves ready for bed and lights are off by 11pm.

2:00am
The night feed... zzzzz....

4:30am
Another feed... zzzz...

5:30am
Here we go again - a new day!