Love it or Leave it: Baby Items of the First 2 Months

When we were registering for baby items I honestly was unsure about 50% of the things we asked for. I searched list after list of recommended items to buy or register for before we actually made our own list and still I wondered if I would use everything or if I was forgetting anything extremely important.

So now that we're 2 months in, here are some items that we've found to be especially helpful:

Love it:

Halo SleepSack Swaddler:

We just swaddled her with blankets the first couple of weeks but as she got bigger she fit better in the sleep sack and it was so much easier in the middle of the night to just zip and unzip.

Rock N Play:

The little sleeper bassinet that Reaghan's in in the above picture is wonderful! Thats what she sleeps in next to my bed at night. It has a rocker base and a bit of an incline which has worked good for Reaghan because she struggles with some reflux. It folds up easily and I move it around the house if I need to sit her in something while I fix my hair or make dinner etc.

Baby Bath:

This tub works perfect for her bath times. I love the sling that attaches on top of it that she sits in right now. It holds her there perfectly. The tub part fills up and she can sit in the sling with her little booty in the water and enjoy the warmth. Once she outgrows the sling she can still recline on one side or sit up with support on the other side. The only down side is it doesn't fit over our sink, so we sit it in our tub, which then makes the following especially helpful!

Bath Knee and Elbow Pads:

These are the exact ones that we have. I wasn't convinced that we needed them when we registered for them but they have been really nice. Obviously, any knee or elbow pad will do, but if you're going to be leaning over the tub every day - it will save your knees to have something!

Seven Slings:

Some days when Reaghan is only happy when she's being held, this thing has been perfect to keep her close to me and still get a few things done around the house. It takes a little practice and tweaking to get it just right, but once we find the perfect position, it's beautiful!

Here she is a few weeks ago, snuggled up real close to me in the sling while I vacuumed. I love baby wearing. :)

Ergo Baby Carrier:
When I need a little bit more support than the sling gives me - I stick her in the ergo! Since my carseat doesn't hook over shopping carts, this is how I go grocery shopping now. It helps to keep her sleepy and quiet too so I can get through shopping without any baby melt downs.

This was before our walk today!

Sound Machine:

Obviously you can use a lot of different things to make some soothing noise for your baby to fall asleep too. We like this one because it had an mp3 plug and a night light on it. I have to admit, I'm getting a little addicted to the white noise! Plus we used this for her newborn pictures and it helped keep her asleep the whole time!

Leave It:

I don't want to add anything to the "Leave it" list just yet, since who knows what we will end up using that we just haven't gotten to yet. I did a thorough sweep of the nursery and I couldn't find anything that I thought we'd have used by now that we won't be able to use in the future. 

I'm sure as we go along some of the things we thought would be helpful will prove themselves to be the opposite and I will update this list as Reaghan continues to grow!

**No affiliations present in this post. As always, I am expressing only my opinions and experiences.**

See Reaghan Grow! {2 Months}

Happy 2 months to our sweet baby girl!

Our 2nd month of being parents flew by just like the first, but with a bit more normalcy filtering back in to our lives. We feel pretty confident taking Reaghan wherever we want to go, it just takes us a lot longer than it used to to get out the door! In fact, most things take a lot longer to get done. I often start the day with high expectations and a long list of things I want to get done, only to accomplish about 50% of it by the end of the day! I've always had a very "Martha" type attitude, so sometimes I have to remind myself that it's okay certain things didn't get done. I wouldn't trade my precious moments with Reaghan for any chore list though!

Here are some highlights from Reaghan's 2nd Month:

• At her 2 month appointment she weighed in at 11 lbs. 7 oz. and was 23 inches long! She is definitely growing. She fell right at the 50th percentile for height and weight.
• She is finally out of her newborn size clothes and into 0-3 months. She even fits in to some 3 month clothes, but they are still a bit baggy. I got a little choked up putting away the little sleepers that she wore in the hospital.
• She had her first true "sleep through the night" night on the 16th. She slept from 10:30pm until 7:30 the next morning. It was fantastic! But her typical night time is about 6-7 hours at a time - waking only once for a nighttime feed.
• Just when I thought she was done with the swaddle, she started struggling at night falling asleep! We brought the swaddle back and it definitely helped! 
• Bath times have become our favorite part of our night time routine. She loves to to stay in the tub and kick her feet in the water.
• She is successfully taking day time naps in her crib, but they are a bit sporadic. We are currently working on getting her into a good routine to make things easier when I go back to work in 3 weeks. {Back to work already?! Insert mommy meltdown here!}
• She doesn't love tummy time - but tolerates it for about 5 minutes a couple of times a day. She is getting more and more control of her head every day and she is constantly moving her arms and kicking her legs, but hasn't mastered more purposeful movements. 
• She likes to look at books and listen to us read to her. We've added book reading to our bed time routine.
• She has become very animated over the last few weeks. We love it when she coos and smiles back at us! She has the cutest dimples!
• Sometimes I will catch her staring at me when she nurses and when I look down and smile at her, her eyes light up, she smiles and she starts "talking". It melts my heart every time.

We continue to learn more and more about our little girl and about being parents every day. Sometimes it seems like we have this parent thing down and other times it feels like we have no idea what we're doing. But Reaghan is still eating, breathing, growing and seems happy so I think we're doing something right. :)

I am looking forward to the next month and all of the milestones she'll be reaching!

I may end up with a crying picture every month. ; )

Post Baby Workouts

Reaghan will be 2 months old next week, which means it is high time that I get myself in gear and start working out to shed some of this baby weight.

Actually, the weight is pretty much gone. I only gained 25 pounds during my pregnancy and the number on the scale has returned to what it was pre-pregnancy (give or take 2-3 pounds depending on the day) but there is just so much flabbiness that I didn't really have before! I wasn't really doing more than walking the last month of my pregnancy so a lot of muscle turned to, well, fat. And then theres the belly.

Oh the belly.

Don't get me wrong. I actually still love my belly now, flabbiness and all. I take so much joy in what my body was able to do this past year - I mean it grew another human! - and I know my belly is a reflection of that. I need to get back in shape because I want to be strong and healthy for my next go-a-round at growing a human, not because I am ashamed of my body now.

With that being said - I made sure to give my body a good 6 weeks of healing before doing anything extremely strenuous. I wanted to give my body a chance to figure out the whole new sleep schedule + producing milk + returning inside parts to where they should be before getting back into running. And having a background in physical therapy I know it takes a good 4-6 weeks for the physiological healing of most things. During the first 6 weeks I did walk a lot around the neighborhood, did lots of Kegels to start strengthening my pelvic floor and squats to get some functional strength back as well. Active healing is always better than just sitting around!

But now it's time to turn up the heat. I am running my first post baby race November 22nd and plan to run my first post baby 1/2 Marathon in the spring so I am excited to start training again and have something to train for! It always helps me stay motivated. Also, nursing burns an extra 500 calories (estimated) a day so I definitely want to take advantage of that! It's the easiest 500 calories you'll ever burn!

So what am I doing now? A little bit of everything - running, some cardio workout videos, and just some general strengthening.

This is what I try to do 2-3 times a week

Homemade Spaghettio's

One time when I went grocery shopping our store was having a 10 for 10 special on Barilla Pasta. Pasta is like a staple in our family. However fattening and carb loaded it may be, we might as well be Italian because we eat pasta at least 3 times a week. So when I saw pasta was on sale I was all over it. I decided to mix it up a bit though and go for some noodles that I have never used before - instead of buying 10 boxes of macaroni and spaghetti noodles I branched out. I bought Stelline, Veggie Farfalle, and Ditalani noodles. I had no idea at the time what I was going to use them for but I figured I could find some recipes on pinterest!

I wasn't quite as adventurous as I first thought I would be when I bought the noodles, seeing as some of the boxes have been hanging out in my pantry for oh, about 6 months now. But after cleaning my pantry out the other day, I am on a mission to use up the majority of the items before grocery shopping again. {Aside from the milk, butter and bread shopping ;)}

The first to go?

I went on good old Pinterest and just typed in Ditalini in the search bar to see what came up. Homemade Spaghettios was the winner! I had most of the ingredients already in my fridge or pantry so thats what we went with. I am not a fan of the canned spaghettios but gave this a shot and it actually turned out good and Mark liked it too. So using food already in my pantry + yummy easy dinner equals a win/win in my opinion. 

Below are the ingredients and directions straight from the Original Recipe that I found on Pinterest. 

INGREDIENTS

16 ounces ditalini pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon red pepper flake {I didn't have any red pepper flakes in my pantry!}
2 tablespoons oregano
30 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar {I didn't see the need to add any sugar}
2 tablespoons butter
¾ cup milk
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt & pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare pasta according to package instructions.
2. Heat olive oil, garlic, red pepper flake, and oregano in a skillet over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add tomato sauce, water, sugar, butter, and milk to mixture.
4. Stir and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes.
5. Mix cheese into sauce until melted.
6. Season with salt & pepper.
7. Pour sauce over noodles.

Original Recipe

Happy Birthday Piper Jo!

Man time goes by fast! It was about this time of year only 2 years ago that Mark and I were on our way home from my cousins wedding in Texas when we decided that we wanted to get each other a puppy for our first married Christmas!

We came home and started searching the papers and soon found an ad for Golden Retriever/Lab mixes. We knew it was just what we wanted. When we went to pick her up she was the only puppy out of her litter awake - and not just awake but also getting into and chewing on anything she could find... we didn't know it at the time but it was definitely a sign of her personality!

Our sweet girl is a high energy, frisbee catching, bone chewing, tail chasing, water loving, tug of war champion and walk fanatic. She has been quite the challenge at times but has grown into a wonderful and well behaved part of our family. You can't beat her slobbery kisses or the frantic wagging of her tail when she greets you - excited as if she hasn't seen you in days! 

For her birthday I took her on a 3 mile run - the first in a long time for both of us and we were both exhausted when it was over! I don't know if you've noticed, but when you have a pup with lots of energy, they're happiest when worn out from doing what they love the most! 

I love my first fur baby and I look forward to the way she will love my real baby as Reaghan grows up. I know they will be best of friends.

Happy November!

Kicked off November 1st with my first post - pregnancy run!

1 whole mile! Its a far cry from the 26.2 miles that I had just finished running about this time last year for the Marine Corps Marathon but carrying a baby for 9 months tends to lower your running endurance just a tad!

I did sign up to run a 5k at the end of this month on the 22nd to help motivate me to get out there and get back into a running routine. I felt pretty good today and probably could've run more than 1 mile - but I wasn't pushing myself to run fast and I didn't want to be away from the house for too long, so 3 miles in a few weeks should be doable!

I'm excited to get back to running! It felt great and my pup was excited to go for a run too! I know she missed it. I wanted to take a picture but it was rainy and windy outside, so no photo to document this special occasion... I am going to be in a need of a running stroller too so I can take Reaghan out with me when she gets a little older and when my runs get a little longer! I've looked at reviews and everyone recommends a B.O.B. running stroller. I especially like the Revolution Flex pictured below...

But the price tag is a steep $479.99! Yikes! Time to start keeping my eye out on craigslist!

How did you start off your November?

Does anyone have any other suggestions for a running stroller?