On Monday, I shared a time allocation chart showing how a mother of a 2 month old spends her day. And today, I’m bringing you a chart for a mother of a 10 month old.

At 10 months old, a baby has usually settled down to two naps a day. She likely started eating solids a few months before and has now moved onto mushy finger foods. She’s still nursing and/or drinking formula though. So, it’s not uncommon for a 10 month old to eat 9 or 10 times a day, between snacks, meals, and formula/breast milk.

A 10 month old is also likely crawling and maybe walking and pulling up on things. This is when parents start baby proofing. If Bean could pull up on a table, everything on the table would end up on the floor.

As a stay-at-home parent, you’ve kind of settled into things. You definitely have a routine to your day, nothing really much surprises you anymore. You’ve probably enrolled your baby in classes or go to reading times the library. You have a bouncy, curious baby on your hands, who hasn’t yet turned into a toddler.

You are probably exhausted, even though baby probably isn’t pulling newborn all nighters anymore. Bean’s daily routine included waking up for a 4am feed, that we tried multiple times to cut out with no luck. So, if it was a good night (re: she only woke up that one time), I’d have slept around 5 hours a night. Sleeping only 5 hours a night for 7 months straight wears on you. Add in the curious 10 month old tearing apart your living room, who you have to feed 10 times a day, and you will likely feel just as exhausted as you did when baby was a few months old.

This friend said this was a pretty typical day, although she also takes her baby to swim classes and on other outings. This was a day without any activities.

Let’s take a look.

Just like for the 2-month old pie chart, I color coded her daily activities into four groups. Blue is time she spends actively taking care of the baby. Red is time she spends taking care of household tasks and errands. Green is time she spends on herself. Yellow is time she is playing with her baby.

I was again startled at how much time we all spend doing household tasks, especially since this is not something I considered at all before having a kid.

Also surprising: how much personal time we really get. For this mom, the vast majority of personal time came in the form of her baby’s nap time: two naps totaling 3 hours and 10 minutes total. (I AM SO JEALOUS.)

Of course, nap times are usually spent recovering from the prior few hours. Ten months old are in everything. This mom’s baby went from pulling a lamp off the living room table, to trying to eat the dog’s food, to flinging DVD’s off the shelves, and then finally accidentally locking herself in the bathroom. This all happened in a 7 minute span. And all before 9am.

And, finally, that little wedge of play time continues to be fairly small compared to everything else. Again, I always imagined that staying home would involve a lot more playing and actively engaging with your baby. But, between naps and dressing, changing, cleaning, and feeding your baby…there’s not much time left over for fun.

Let’s compare it to the 2 month old pie chart:

Most obviously, a 10 month old needs a lot less hands on care than a 2 month old. But, the time that you used to spend comforting a fussy newborn is now spent feeding, diverting, and cleaning up after them.

Food has also become more of a factor in a stay-at-home parent’s day. Newborns only need formula or breastmilk; the mother of the 2 month old confessed that she just grabbed things on the go for herself to eat. Food wasn’t a factor in her life. A 10 month old needs 3 meals a day plus snacks, and she usually isn’t yet eating the same food as you.

From when Bean was 8 to 10 months old, I felt like our entire lives revolved around food. As though I was either buying food, preparing food, or serving food all day long. I thought this was due to the elimination diet both of us were on (I had to make special food for myself and for her, or 6 meals a day plus snacks), but my friend says that she also feels like her days revolve around the kitchen table. She spends just a little under 2 hours during the day shopping, cooking, and serving food.

And, with naps cut down to 2 a day, the mother of a 10-month old actually does have more time now to play with her baby than the mother of a newborn. Now is when you cuddle on the floor and sing songs and laugh. The happy, bouncy baby stage has arrived.