Work-at-Home Mom-me: Part 4 - This WAHM's Typical Day

This is the last in a series of four posts about my life as a work-at-home mom (WAHM). The first post tells you about how I started working from home, the second tells you about the challenges I faced as a WAHM and the third talks about the things I love about being a WAHM. This last post will describe a typical day in the life of this WAHM.

I get up from bed at around 6:30 am, but I'm usually awake by 6-ish. The first thing I do, when I wake up at any given time, is glance at the monitor to see what J is up to (we have a CCTV system that lets me see into his room in lieu of a baby monitor). He's usually still asleep at that time though, so I stay in bed and plan my day. General questions I ask myself upon waking up:

• Any pending projects from work? (If there are, I sort through them in order of priority to decide which one I work on first.)
• What should we prepare for our lunch and dinner and J's lunch and dinner?
• Any errands to run today? (bank, groceries, laundry, doctor's appointments, calls to make, etc.)

At about 6:30, I get up and savor the quiet time in the morning to check my mail for new assignments and surf for a bit. Of course, this includes my Facebook time.

Around 7, I go downstairs to prepare breakfast for Big C, who will also be getting up in a bit. This only usually takes me 10 minutes at most and while I cook, I ask Yaya to give me a recap on J's activities the night before (i.e., how much he ate, if he woke up during the night, how many diapers he went through, etc.). By this time, Yaya has eaten breakfast already and is working on J's laundry from the day before. Like me, she likes to take advantage of the uninterrupted time when the munchkin is still asleep to get a headstart on her chores.

Big C and I sit at the table together and have breakfast and talk about what our schedule for the day is. Mostly he asks me what I have planned for the day since his schedule pretty much stays the same on most days. When he leaves, I go back upstairs to make the bed and get started on work, while the maid cleans our room.

Just woke up!

J's wake-up time varies from day to day. It can be as early as 6am on some days, or as late as 8:15 on others. Whatever time he wakes up, I make sure I'm still in my jammies, because he loves seeing my jammies. His wake-up time is my favorite time of the day, because he likes to roll around in his bed a bit before he gets up and he usually asks me to lie down with him for a few minutes and we just hang out there for a bit until he's ready to start his day. I try to make sure that I'm the first person he sees when he wakes up, because I think that it's a really special time and I love seeing him all rumpled and sleepy and his hair sticks up all over his head.

Once he's up, we take off his diaper and make him pee in his little urinal. That's part of our efforts to potty-train him (more on that in a separate post).

While Yaya gives J a bath, I try to squeeze in some more work. Once he's done, I take him for a walk, usually to visit his grandparents who live in the same complex as we do. He likes to hang out there, because his Angkong loves to feed him and he just putters around there for about 45 minutes or so, then we head home. By the time we get home, Yaya is done with her chores and takes over watching J.

For a pregnant mommy in the summer heat, the mornings with an active toddler are nothing short of a gym work out. After a cooling shower, I sit back down at my desk and get to work on whatever projects are due for the day. If there's no work to be done, I usually write a few blog posts to clear my head. I usually have 2 or 3 ideas on topics that I want to write about floating around and I work on that until it's time for lunch. Around 10 or so, I go down and check on J's lunch. He eats at around 10:30, so by 10:15, lunch needs to start cooling so he can eat on time. At 11, it's my turn to eat and Yaya puts him down for a nap.

Depending on my workload, I take a nap with J after lunch. If it's a busy day, I go straight back to work and periodically check in on him through the CCTV. If not, I lie down next to him and take a nap for an hour, which really helps with the third trimester fatigue. I stay with him until he wakes up and we repeat our morning ritual until Yaya comes to get him and play and I go back to work. If I have errands to run, I usually take care of them right after eating lunch. That's pretty much how it goes until 4:30, when we go for a swim or a walk. (But with my due date looming in about 3 weeks, I've had to skip our afternoon walks. I'll probably go with him again when I hit my 38th week, to avoid the risk of premature labor.)

We get back home by 6 pm, and J eats dinner while I prepare dinner for me and Big C. After dinner, Big C and I watch J and play with him and spend family time with him while Yaya eats and has some time to herself. By 8:30, Yaya comes to get J for bedtime. I say his prayers with him and kiss him good night. After that, it's quality time with my one and only and that's pretty much how my day ends.

Tomorrow morning, we wake up and do all of that all over again. :-)

So that's it! A typical day in the life of this WAHM. How about you, mommies? How does a typical day go for you?