Another month has come and gone in the blink of an eye and I had to refer to my calendar to remind myself what we’ve been up to because needless to say, it’s been a blur. At the start of this month, we were on our journey home and I have to say it, it feels so good to be back. We caught up on tons of puppy kisses, loved having the sweet nursery back, and getting into a routine again felt oh-so-good!
We settled into our new normal back in the northland and vowed to never leave again in the middle of summer because being by the lake and family trumps everything, even the beaches of Hawaii.
It’s been amazing being back by family! We’ve gotten to soak in special time with our cousins, aunts and uncles, nana and papa, even great grandma and pa! Being close to family is the best thing ever. I sent my mom a text on a day that she had spent helping us out and loving on Conley and I said, “You alone were worth moving home for.” I am so thankful to be close to family and have that love and support, it’s irreplaceable.
Speaking of family, we had our first overnight sans bebe when we jetted to Vegas for 24 hours and it felt so weird to travel light again. Coco was an angel for Nana and it went so smooth! It gave my mama heart confidence that we can still enjoy that couple time knowing she’s loved and cared for and it was fun to have a little time just us two.
Newness
There are many new updates on baby girl, I feel like she’s a whole new human since my last post. She’s loving all kinds of foods and giggles as she shares it all with Chloe who has the saddest little begging eyes that anyone would cave for. She hasn’t tried a type food that she didn’t like and we’re approaching the food front in a relaxed way mixing it up between giving her our food in her little silicone feeders and bite-sized bits of things like bananas, pancakes, eggs, and more. She even had her first bites of mac and cheese at Nana’s, safe to say she’s a girl after my own heart.
She’s also on the move. Gone are the days when we could lay her on her playmat and she wouldn’t move an inch. She’s rolling, sitting, and in the early stages of crawling. She’s a girl on the move and I’m pretty sure she can hold a plank longer than I can. We’re excited for the next stage but also in full-on baby-proofing mode because our house needs to get ready for a girl who loves to explore.
Conley is growing and developing in leaps and bounds. She’s drinking out of her sippy cup, reaching for all the things, putting her pacifier in and out of her mouth. She’s starting to crawl, she can pull yourself up in your crib (we had to lower the mattress) and she loves to be on the move. She’s finally sleeping through the night (most nights) and I’m reminded what it’s like to wake up with energy again. We’re doing all the things we swore we’d never do, like having a sleep schedule, but we’ve found it’s worth it because we all sleep so much better. Our routine revolves around naptime and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Things we can’t live without:
- The Ergo Baby Carrier: We literally use this multiple times a day whether it’s a family walk or having our hands free while at home. Having Conley face out is a great way to keep her engaged when she’s getting groggy before nap time and it helps us to multitask with her.
- Taking Cara Babies Sleep Course: We took her newborn course before Conley was born and it was fantastic, so I don’t know what took us so long to take the “ABC’s of Sleep!” I actually bought it for my brother and they took it and it transformed my nieces sleep and so we finally listened to the whole thing on a road trip and started implementing and we went from getting up a few times each night to having a baby that sleeps from 7PM – 6AM, it’s been lifechanging for sure.
- The Lovevery Toys: Conley will likely go to a Montessori school part-time when she turns 16 months old (whoa, we’re halfway there!) and these toys have been amazing for both her and us. They are educational, aesthetically pleasing and age-appropriate. For us as first-time parents, it helps equip us to know how to keep moving her forward developmentally!
- Solly Swaddles and PJS: Pssst, I got you 10% off of these, use JENNA10 and enjoy! You’re probably familiar with the Solly baby carrier (which we love) but they also have blankies and PJs that are oh-so-soft. Whenever Conley wears them, people feel them and say they wish they came in adult-sized. She sleeps with her blankie every single night, it’s the softest ever and their colors and prints are divine.
- Our Baby Monitors: Yes, we have 2 of them and we love them both for very different reasons. We were gifted this Project Nursery one and it has come in clutch for us and it’s been a blessing because we bring it whenever we travel and we love that you don’t have to have your phone to watch your little one. We bring the monitor around the house with us all the time. We’ve relied heavily on this one up until this point. Now that Conley is in her crib, we’re finally using the Nanit monitor and it’s so fun for when I’m traveling for work. It syncs to an app on your phone and will shoot you notifications when sound or movement are detected in the crib.
- This Breast Pump: I was lucky enough to test out a few pumps and this one is the one I tell everyone about and it’s worth every penny. In fact, I just had to pump on a plane and I was so thankful that this is just a little bigger than my cell phone, discreet, and easy to pack along. When I am home, I 100% breastfeed but when I have to be away for a work trip, this pump is my must-have.
Work Front
We’ve found our groove lately and it feels so good. The biggest struggle in motherhood for me is balancing work and life and since coming home from Hawaii, Drew and I have found a flow and a system that has helped me feel like I’m juggling between the two with a little more ease. We’ve found that it’s a lot of handing off and scheduling to make it work but I feel like we’ve finally settled into a flow that leaves us saying, “That was a good day!” at the end of each day.
I also made the decision to hire a full-time, salaried integrator on my team because the biggest stressor that accompanied work was the fact that when I was logging in, I was having to make a lot of decisions on the fly and do a lot of follow up and for a girl with mom brain who’s only working part-time hours, it was leaving me feeling frazzled and a little off my game. I am so pumped to have a sidekick to help me run the business so I can get out of some of the day-to-day operations and rise up to truly be the visionary of the brand and where we are headed.
What has surprised me the most lately is that my true desire is to really work part-time and I didn’t expect that. I love being a momma and I love what I do but I also want to jump back in slowly and not miss such a precious time in my daughter’s life. Time is already flying on by and so protecting my time with her and helping me claim hours back with a new hire was the best and easiest decision I’ve ever made.
Breastfeeding
Earlier this month, my milk supply tanked out of nowhere after a beautiful storm of events (traveling for the weekend, not drinking enough water, a few margaritas with the girlfriends and voila!) where I wasn’t paying close attention to it and it totally stressed me out. It was also a little scary because I was preparing to be gone for 24 hours on a trip and I worried that would perpetuate the problem. I’ve been so fortunate to not have any supply issues in our journey up until that point and it made me realize how tender and hard breastfeeding can be for so many and how much I truly enjoy it and I’m not ready for it to be done.
I drank brewers yeast, consumed the milk teas, had the fenugreek, power pumped… I did allll the things for 4 days straight and thankfully my supply returned to normal. I’ve taken for granted how lucky I am to be able to exclusively breastfeed my girl and I’m definitely cherishing it more these days. My original goal was to make it to one year and I think we’ll be just fine to do that and then we’ll go from there.
My Health
If you listened to this episode of the podcast all about menstrual cycles, you might have heard me mention that I still hadn’t gotten my cycle back since birth and right after that episode aired, it showed up. I am actually pretty pumped because I am super interested in cycle tracking using my Ava but so far, it hasn’t been on time or consistent. We shall see, sounds like pretty much anything goes with your period after giving birth.
Around the time my cycle returned, so did my desire to start working out again. It was so weird for me to really not have the urge to work out for months, especially since I love working out but I really honored my body in that season and chose more gentle ways of moving my body like long walks with the babe. I had a Peloton bike on my wishlist for awhile and while we were on vacation in Hawaii, I got to try one at our hotel and I fell in love.
I made the leap, bought the bike, and invested in it – because honestly, I don’t blink twice about investing in my business but for some reason investing in my health was feeling like a splurge. I finally got it delivered to our house and I am obsessed. I’ve been getting in 30-minute rides daily usually after we all wake up in the morning before work and I’m a huge fan of it. It feels like the perfect solution in this busy season where it feels impossible to get to an actual gym or class and having that steal two precious hours of my day. I can definitely make room for a 30-minute workout in my home and I’m feeling stronger every day.
This month can be summed up by:
Feeling at home in all ways possible from enjoying our Duluth house to feeling more at home in my role as a working mama to feeling at home in my body. It was a big month in terms of milestones and something tells me every month will only get bigger and bigger. I’ve loved settling back into a routine and savoring the joy of both being a mama and working towards my dreams with the help of my little fam.
Family Photos by: Indigo Child
Check out old Monthly Round Ups Here
Month 01 | Month 02 | Month 03 | Month 04 | Month 05 | Month 06 | Month 07
