After Piggy was born, I was so shrouded with love that couldn't care about how the house looked. My parents and my mother-in-law were at the house with us and helping out by cleaning, doing the dishes, and making dinner. I kind of got into the grove of my dad doing the dishes, my mother-in-law cleaning, and my mom cooking dinner. I pretty much forgot that at some point, they'll all be back home. That time finally came and my mind was thinking "The house is still clean so there's no need to clean. You can do it next week." Every week was the same thing.
Once Piggy hit four weeks, I realized that the house was a complete wreck. There were dishes overflowing the sink and onto the counters, trash piled up the wall being balanced onto more trash like a crazy game of Jenga, the couch was covered in random stuff, every piece of clothing was needing to be washed, the bathroom was a maze, the hallway became an obstacle course, and the bed was no where to be found. Things needed cleaning and they needed cleaning now.
I put my cleaning pants on and dove into the piles just to be interrupted ten minutes late by a cry Piggy. Once she started crying, it would take her between half an hour to two hours to calm her down. By then, I'd be too tired to clean. I got the idea to let hubby watch her while I got to cleaning. It worked...but only for a little while. She would either get tired of being held by him or she was hungry making me stop what I was doing and come to her rescue.
I hardly getting anywhere with cleaning. I had to do something else. I got to noticing a pattern. I would go to clean, Piggy would want attention, Piggy Baby would get attention, she would calm down. I had to give her attention while I cleaned. What better way to give her attention than to wear her! So I got a Moby Wrap.
After the first week of wearing Piggy around while cleaning, I was able to get so much done. The entire house went from looking like fifteen tornadoes, three hurricanes, and an earthquake struck to being nice and pristine. I was loving it so much. Unfortunately though, Piggy eventually got bored of me always wearing her that she would fuss whenever she was worn around for longer than half a hour. So I had to think of something else.
I made a cleaning schedule with times of when I was going to do what. I made sure that every hour, I had time to feed and change Piggy. I also made it flexible incase she decides to go on her own schedule instead of mine. I had my days starting at ten in the morning and going until Piggy fell asleep or midnight, whichever came first. From ten to two, I had everything that I needed to clean and then from three to midnight was catch up time incase I missed something because Piggy was being fussy or needed an extra change or threw up and needed to be cleaned up. This was going great...until she decided to keep me up until four in the morning making me not wake up until one in the afternoon. Even though she did go back to going to sleep around midnight, those few days of staying up until four hit me hard and I couldn't wake up before noon to save my life unless she was hungry or needed to be changed.
Since I was getting up around noon, I was going to use it to my advantage. I would wake up and give myself no more than fifteen minutes to fully wake up. I would change Piggy Baby if she needed it, then before she could fully wake up, I would put her in her swing to lull her back to sleep. I'd then do a load of dishes, eat me some breakfast, then get to cleaning.
I am normally able to get a hour and a half of good cleaning done before she wakes up. Once she does, I usually have thirty minutes before she wants attention of some sort. By then, I'm either entirely done with cleaning, or almost done.
When Piggy starts demanding attention, I give it to her. I'll feed and change her and keep her happy until she decides she's tired again. At that point, I just put her in her bouncer and bounce her to sleep then go back to finish my cleaning. If she decides that she doesn't want me to leave her, then I just hang out with her until Daddy comes home. Then I let him spend time with her and finish up my cleaning. If it's after six though, I just go straight to cooking dinner and do what cleaning I can while it's cooking. If Daddy doesn't get home until late (after eight), I just take her with me and bouncer her with one foot while I clean, do dishes, or cook.
And that is how I get my cleaning done with Piggy. It might take some experimenting, but eventually, you'll find a system that works for you!
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