Can we just give it up for Melissa Conner? This mother of two girls under three (with another gal on the way) is something of a scheduling wunderkind. Between the daily laundry, the meditation AND working as a highly in-demand publicist all from the comfort of her bedroom, she is hustling every second of the day and we love to see it. Here, in our first-ever Making It Work is Melissa’s take on her day. Who’s doing what, when they’re doing it and how they’re making it all happen.
5:00 am: My husband’s alarm goes off. It’s the only time he can work out so as much as it interrupts my sleep, I know it’s his form of self-care and I encourage it.
6:30 am: I hear my one-year-old daughter rising on the Nanit app on my phone, so that’s wake up number two. My husband does her wake-up so I usually roll over to get 20 more minutes. I worship sleep and need as much as I can to survive – this is not news to anyone. If I am feeling ambitious, I get up and likely start checking my email immediately.
6:45 am: My husband and youngest daughter come in. This is our morning 1:1 time with her and it’s so fun. Hearing her say “Hi!” all bright-eyed is adorable. We spend about 30 minutes just cuddling and hanging in our room. My husband usually grabs a shower during this time because he starts his day right at 8:30 while I start a little later and wait for the shower until we hand the girls off to our nanny.
7:00 am: Our oldest daughter wakes up and I take our one-year-old in to greet her and get the day started. I usually get them dressed at this time and ALWAYS try to coordinate them. I remember making fun of my mom for matching my sister and I and I definitely have become my mothers daughter.
Until 8am is purely family time. I don’t allow myself to get caught up in email or Instagram. I don’t even bother changing out of PJs. I am typically hyper efficient and productive but decided that this time didnt need to be that. So YEP, my nanny arrives at 8 am and then I hand them off while in my PJs. What I am not great at is getting myself a balanced breakfast but luckily my husband is obsessed with food and making sure we are eating well so he usually makes me something to take upstairs to my bedroom/office/sanctuary to start my day.
Most people hate working in their bedroom all day but I LOVE it. Mostly because we are SO lucky to have a proper master bedroom so I have a seating area and a desk area where I spend most of my day. I’ve really created a space that is calming, bright, and peaceful to work in and also to wind down to sleep. The bed is reserved for later.
8:00am: I move into hyper efficiency mode. I quickly eat my breakfast, take a walk for 25 minutes and then come home to get my day started. I usually throw in laundry in the morning, switch it at lunch and put it away at night. One load a day, ladies. You do what you can. I shower, get dressed and log on to work. Soon I will be heading into the city once or twice a week once our office is open again so my morning routine will be a lot shorter so I can be in the office by 10ish. But for now my commute is about 10 seconds to my desk.
8:00 am- 8:45 am: I try to get my workout in after my walk. I do light weights and some barre work.
9:30 am: I log on to work.
11:45 am: I try to go out 2-3 times a week to grab lunch just to get out of the house. I did the same when I was in the office everyday so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t inside for 10 straight hours.
5:00 pm: I start to wind down work so I can decompress for an hour before my other job starts again. MOM. Here I tend to just rest, meditate a bit, catch up with my own mom so I am reset mentally and refreshed for the evening routine with the girls. They are high energy all day every day so getting that extra mental boost really makes a difference.
6:00 pm: I grab the girls from my nanny and we do puzzles and I give them a post dinner snack.
6:30 pm: Bath time! We used to bathe them separately because Grace, my baby, was too little and Reese, our toddler, is quite energetic in the bath. But now that she’s a year, they love to bathe together in our master bathroom. They’ve completely taken over the bathroom and I love it. One day I’ll get it back and actually take a proper spa bath. Having them bathe together also cuts down on the time so we are more efficient. My husband and I divide and conquer with moisturizing and PJs and then it’s time for baby #2 to go to sleep. After I put her down, our oldest gets 2:1 time with just my husband and I. This is REALLY important for her to feel a sense of connection and focused attention from us since she is still adjusting to having a sibling. We read books in our bed for 20 minutes or so and then she is off to bed.
7:45 pm: We are child-free. My husband has become the chef of the house so usually during our puzzle time, he gets dinner started so we can eat at a normal time after the girls go down.
8:00 pm: It’s just us. We have dinner together and have recently started watching past seasons of Survivor, which has been really fun. In my first trimester I wasn’t feeling great so I was going to bed super early, but now in my second trimester I have more energy and can stay up a little later, like 9:45 hahaha. Getting a good night’s sleep is my number one self-care priority. It is so important to be a good mom and wife, to be productive at work and to make sure I’m taking care of my pregnancy.
