A Day in the Life.

Someone asked me a while ago what our daily routine was like since Adelyn (thank God) sleeps from eight until six. I've also gotten a few e-mails asking similar questions.
And to that I say, "Ha! What's a daily routine?"
I'm all for giving and getting advice, but let me be clear, whatever Adelyn does or does not do during the day has nothing to do with me. I think Jason and I might have had a little to do with her nighttime sleeping habits. Thanks to great advice I received in the beginning, we always, always, kept it bright and loud during the day. From the first day home from the hospital. We put her in her own room when she was about a month old and started a pretty strict bedtime routine from there (bath every other day, baby massage with lavender lotion, Jason plays guitar or we sing, put her down and feed her the last ounce of her last bottle). Her angelic nighttime sleeping could have everything to do with our actions or it could just be the kind of baby she is. Whatever. I'm not second guessing it.
But during the day, that's an entirely different story.
I'm not really the kind of person or mother to buy books about parenting techniques and to structure my entire life around an intended "schedule" for an infant. And this might make my life a lot harder, because for all I know buying and using The Baby Whisperer or Baby Wise could change everything. But I don't have the energy or the patience for any of that, so I'm stuck with figuring it out on my own.
I did read a lot about Baby Wise in the beginning, and though I don't think I'll ever buy the book I think some of its tenets make a lot of sense. From what I understand it suggests a stringent bottle, play, nap schedule throughout the day, in three-hour intervals. And if that's all it is I guess the rest of the hundred-odd pages are filled with various ways of saying this, and again it reiterates the fact that mothers will buy anything and buy into anything if they think it will make their lives easier, myself usually included.
That's always been the idea I have for Adelyn's daytime routine. When she wakes up between six or seven, she eats her biggest bottle of the day (five, sometimes six, ounces). Then we play for an hour or so. Around eight she's usually tired again, so I put her in the swing. She'll then sleep for anywhere from an hour to two hours. Then it's another bottle.
And then the rest of the day is a jumble of spit-up, poop explosions, trying to get her to laugh and me trying to squeeze in brushing my teeth, writing, working, eating and being a human.
The only constants are in the morning and right before bed. The rest changes daily. The past week she's been in a funk of only eating an ounce or two at a time, and then begging for more an hour later. I called her doctor about this yesterday and she suggested putting rice cereal in her bottles to satiate her for longer periods of time. And I am, of course, nervous about this because I google and go on Baby Center way too often.
The picture above sort of says it all. The trash desperately needs to be taken out in the background, which is a perfect depiction of our daily lives. I took that this morning, after her first big bottle and before her first nap. And now that she's napping, I'm writing. This is the only consistency I can look forward to during the day. This beginning.
And it's not so much of an issue right now since she is my sole responsibility, but soon I will be--hopefully--working from home full-time, and if that job doesn't work out I will be going back to school for my master's full-time or finding another compatible job. At the moment her infrequent napping is only a nuisance as far as my ability to clean myself up and spend an hour doing freelance work or writing. When I start working, it will become an actual issue. One that will need a solution.
So for those that asked about the daily routine, this is your answer. Adelyn eats, sleeps, poops, and plays, and I just try desperately to keep up.