October 20, 2024

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, meal plan.

Our nanny was on holiday this week which meant I took annual leave from work to do what our nanny does for a job.  It actually was nice to spend a few days with the twins - on Wednesday we went to baby sign language and on Thursday we went to a friend's house for a play date.  I do have a bit of the Sunday Scaries at the moment as I have a very busy week in work next week - my handover/mat leave return period is over and it's time for me to do the running I intended to hit the ground with (weird sentence structure but it's staying).

While I enjoyed my twin days, I was honestly pretty burnt out on parenting by the weekend (I'm allowed to say this right?) and was definitely not on my best parental behaviour this weekend.  TGIS - Thank God It's Sunday - and I can get some me time (ie work) next week.  

We still packed a lot into the weekend - on Saturday I did a 5k run, we did a split parent and 1 kid 1 baby trip to the park (1 baby and 1 6 year old is so easy!), and I got my hair dyed.  On Sunday I took the kids to a Sukkot party at the Synagogue, then took Isaac to a scouts meetup, and managed to make a chicken and mushroom pie and chips for dinner.  Basically the weekend was busy, we did a lot, and I was mostly grumpy.

How cute is this weekend morning reading?

Reading

I am slowly reading The Stand In by Lily Chu.  It's cute.

I am sort of giving up on You Only Die Once because I am not in a headspace for a person with no kids to tell me how to be awesome or how to avoid wasting my life.  Watching four kids this young feels like both a total waste of my own intellect/goals/ambitions and fundamentally important to my own intellect/goals/ambitions and I just can't connect with her premise right now.  However I think it's a good book and I bet I'll enjoy reading it in a few years.

Kendra's book "The Plan" is just as lovely as her podcast, but much like Cal Newport's work I feel like I have listened to the buildup so much that I don't really need to read the book now (which was the same for Slow Productivity).  I am, however, really enjoying her pep talks.

Sports
It was a great week for sports! I managed to get exercise back into my life while on my baby-watching days.  I am also sort of obsessed with getting a Peloton.  The main hindrance at this time is whether we can get a Peloton up two flights of stairs, including skinny loft stairs with a switch back.  There's even someone 3 streets over who I sort of know who is selling a Peloton.  

Monday: 20 Minute Full Body Strength, 10 Minute Postnatal Core, 10 Minute Focus Flow: Back, 10 Minute relaxation (all Peloton)

Wednesday: 15 minute Hip Hop Barre, 10 minute postnatal core, 10 minute full body stretch (all Peloton)

Thursday: 30 minute run/walk.  20 minutes Arms and Shoulders with Callie (my first live class), 5 minute upper body stretch, 5 minutes post run stretch. (all Peloton)


Friday: Gym with gym buddy! Legs.  Fun. Hard.

Saturday: Parkrun 5k (also another 1.5 miles there and back). 10 minute full body stretch (Peloton)

The 5k is somewhere in the middle here.

Sleep
This section probably isn't very interesting anymore, but I've been averaging 7.42 hours of sleep this week.  Twice I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep, which is extra annoying considering how much exercise I've been doing.   The babies are waking up between 5:30 and 6:30am which is causing middling anxiety about whether that means they will be waking up between 4:30 and 5:30am after the clocks go back next week.  I hate hate HATE clock changes.  Also, they are sometimes waking up grumpy and I think getting new teeth and/or learning new skills and/or just being babies which is a whole thing.  I feel very tired, more tired than perhaps 7.42 hours of sleep should indicate.

Food
Monday: Slow Cooker Veggie Spag Bol.
Tuesday: Scrambled Egg Wraps
Wednesday: Nanny makes dinner
Thursday: Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup (& tomato soup for the kids)
Friday: Pizza (maybe.  Or maybe leftovers.  I failed to make Jacket Potatoes last friday because it was too ambitious for a friday so Pizza may be way too ambitious)

Do you like it when the clock changes? Do you get an extra hour of sleep on this one?  Or do you spend a week feeling confused or have small children that negate any joy in time changes?

2 comments:

  1. I hate the time change, but also would not want the dark mornings we would have without it, so I grit my teeth and bear it.

    Wonderful how much exercise you are fitting in! That's wonderful. I laughed at the truth that is Sunday Scaries (not wanting to go to work) and being worn out by kids (not wanting to stay home anymore). All so relatable.

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  2. Hi Rachel, I don't have small kids anymore (mine are 6 and 9 y. old now), but back when I did, it was the most difficult time of my life. I came back to work when my second one was 12 weeks (we are in the U.S.), and everything up to about the first 8 months of his life was a blur. I had no idea how I functioned, I was constantly exhausted and sleep deprived. I work as a Scientist in a large research hospital here in the U.S. so before I left for maternity leave, I applied for a huge grant, and surprisingly...got it. So when I came back to work, I had to manage this huge grant and all responsibilities that come with it (budgeting, hiring people, etc) all of this while sleep deprived, it was scary! I also had the kids a little later in life (I am 45 now), so maybe it was my age catching up with me :) My only advise, if possible, give yourself some grace and more time to adjust going back to work. It would take a few more weeks, at least, to settle into new routine both at home and at work, and master a new "normal". You are an awesome mama, thanks for sharing some glimpses of your life with us :)

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