I've realised that another reason I usually get through these blog posts late at night or in the early hours of the morning is because Ransley's home office is directly opposite my writing spot and he's always on work calls during the day. I can't really think while he's chatting loudly across from me. I end up typing out bits from his conversations instead of my own thoughts. That being said, my nights are becoming a bit preoccupied with trying to find a comfortable position for each of my lanky and growing body parts so I am going to try out some white noise on my Airpods to block out the office disturbance and push through this post.
I wanted to write about my daily routine for the past two weeks and probably the rest of this pregnancy. We've reinstated a strict lockdown of our home due to the peak in Covid-19. We've now had family members infected and hospitalised and the reality of the risk has finally hit home in an unsettling way. As inconvenient as it has been, not being able to just run to the store for the odd food item or go to the mall and browse around for last minute baby prep, it has been very calming to get back into the bubble of isolation where we can wear pj's all day and don't have to worry about commitments outside home. Ransley is swamped with work, trying to manage his team remotely while clients are putting on the pressure to help them increase productivity and revenue in a tough economy. This has left me to pretty much decide on a daily basis what I want to focus my time on.
Baby kicks and moves a lot during the night so I usually get around 4 hours of sleep with all the tossing and turning and readjusting my elaborate arrangement of support pillows. I try to sleep in a little in the mornings because the discomfort and indigestion settles down at around 6:30am. I'm up, out of bed by 9:00 - 9:30am, Ransley is usually already up and in his office working. If it's a really cold day and I look too cosy in the morning he might sneak back in to bed for a quick nap before I get out of bed. If he hasn't had breakfast yet, I make him toast with bacon and eggs and I have a bowl of cereal. Ok, sometimes I have two bowls of cereal if I wake up really hungry. If it's a sunny day, I take my breakfast to the backyard and sit in the sun while I eat and Chef runs around for a while. He's not a fan of the sun so he usually goes back into the house after he's satisfied that all his guard posts have been covered.
When I get back inside I cut up a fruit, usually some strawberries or an orange and pour a glass of water with lemon juice. I also make a cup of rooibos tea as well. I take all these back to my bedside table and get comfortable with my laptop in bed where I will spend the next hour or two working on a website or reading some articles online while I eat my fruit and drink my tea. This is the stage I am in at the moment writing this. After that, I'm back in the kitchen preparing lunch for the day. Yes, so far my day has only revolved around food.
Food prep varies from day to day because sometimes Ransley will decide to cook something or get us takeout, or one of our mum's sends some delicious home-cooked food over, but most of the time lunch is on me. I've been trying to be a bit more creative and adventurous in the kitchen these days. I attempted a few new dishes that I usually leave to the mums and I think my cooking has definitely improved because I'm taking a lot more pride and interest in the process.
I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while I cook and once lunch is ready I either eat some if I'm hungry again or go back to bed to put my feet up and continue listening if I was onto something interesting. After having a bath and getting back into pj's or something comfy, by 3pm it's nap time. Whether I plan to or not, the drowsiness just takes over. I usually sleep for an hour or two if there isn't anything to do during the day. When I wake up, it's time for more snacking. Ransley takes a break from work and we have some tea or coffee and maybe watch an episode of something before he gets back to work and I get back to my laptop. The rest of the evening, we're both in and out of random conversations, work or life related. Either he comes to visit me for a quick chat or I pop into his office. After dinner we sometimes put Chef in the van and all go for a drive to the 24hr Woolworths food store at the petrol station to get ice cream and drive around the neighborhood while we eat it. The nights consist of watching more episodes of tv shows and talking until one of us falls asleep. Sometimes he works into the night and I keep myself busy with writing or listening to more podcasts but I seldom fall asleep before him.
Chef gets more active at night as well and he often needs to be let outside to bark at various perceived threats. He can be very persistent when he wants something and usually targets me to get it done for him. By the time he finally goes to sleep, the baby is on cue with the kicking and rolling around, and thus begins my restless and futile attempts to get comfy and fall asleep.
This post is a bit of a drone but it's important to me to have some record of my routine so I can remember it later on. This period of not having a day job is quite unique for me so I want to be able to reflect on it when things get crazy again, as I am sure they will. I really value the amount of reading and writing time I'm getting now and I know that it probably won't be as readily available when the baby comes. I will have to be a bit more disciplined and make a more concerted effort to allocate time for the things I enjoy doing and the things that keep me sharp and productive. Pregnancy brain has me a bit sloppy on vocab these days so I want to make sure that I train my brain and keep my edge after the hormonal fog lifts.