Friday Five

Happy Friday! We are gearing up for a category 3 hurricane in Houston so we will be home over the next few days hoping and praying that the flooding/winds are not too severe. Sending thoughts and prayers to anyone living in areas affected by Harvey – hoping your families and home stay safe from harm.

O N E
It occurred to me this week that I haven’t shared an update about my acupuncture experience. I have done about 6 sessions so far and the most significant side effect has been that my cycle has regulated (sorry if that’s TMI, just being real). My acupuncturist says I show signs of a blood deficiency (which makes sense given my postpartum experiences), and my cycles were too long and too heavy. Since I’ve started acupuncture, both the length and heaviness of my cycles has changed for the better. I was shocked since it has been consistent since it returned after I stopped pumping, so I’m eager to see if my cycle will continue this way. I have also seen a slight increase in my levels of patience, but this could also be a result of my ongoing CBT therapy. My plan is to continue to do acupuncture once or twice per month. I do not think acupuncture is a miracle cure. Some people may see immediate results, but when you’re going for something like anxiety, I think it takes a longer time.

T W O
Thank you for all of the love on our family photos with Olive Shoot Photography! I’m so thrilled with them and can’t wait to create a gallery wall with some of our favorite images in black and white (I love this inspiration photo). I think getting art and photos up on our walls is always something that comes last for me when it comes to home décor so I’m really trying to get everything up before the holidays. This month marks two years of living in our new home – can y’all believe it?!

Since we’ll be house-bound this weekend, I bought some massive storage containers yesterday — my goal is to go through our and the kid’s closets and remove clothes that no longer fit or that I intend to donate/sell.

Speaking of our family photos, I got some questions about Harper’s dresser. It’s a vintage Henry Link Bali Hali that we had re-finished,  but I found a similar dresser to Harper’s and OMG I want this in my life so badly but don’t have a place for it right now. It comes in weathered black and the most beautiful baby pink and it legit fills me with delight. I’m also loving this puppy dot rug, bow sheets, sparkle canopy and pom pom bins.

T H R E E
This month I’m celebrating 6 months of consistent workouts at my gym! I’m typically going 3-4 days a week and the workouts are super challenging which is both good and bad (ha). I’ve been seeing improvement in my strength and my body is much more toned. I seriously had a totally flat pancake backside when I was nursing because I had dropped so much weight and now I actually have some shape and roundness – no doubt due to the hundreds and hundreds of squats and lunges we do each week. I would eventually love to be in a place where I have the motivation and comfort level to work out on my own, but for now, the group environment and structured workouts are really beneficial for me. I’m not sure I could stay on track without a “class” to go to. Does anyone else feel this way?

Speaking of working out, this tank is now back in stock and it has been my go-to! I wish it came in 10 colors, seriously. I’m also loving the selection of athletic tanks here! Beyond Yoga has so much good stuff right now including this cross-bank tank.
|  adidas tank  |

F O U R
Some of you asked about the artwork in our playroom – it’s all by Minted and we adore it! Minted has the BEST art for kids spaces – the designs are colorful, whimsical and affordable. Plus they’re lightweight and the front isn’t glass, so they’re very, very kid-friendly.
baby llama print  |  alpha dots  |  three stacked whales  |  sea fever  |  crayon print
F I V E
My question of the week submitted by one of you lovely ladies is: How did we get Lincoln off of bottles?
 Somehow, we found ourselves still feeding Lincoln bottles at 5:30 in the morning when he would wake up crying and before bed at night. It became a habit and he would wake at 5:30 on the dot screaming for a bottle every morning. On the bright side, he would fall asleep again afterwards, but it was definitely a crutch.

We used a multi-phase approach. First, we stopped giving him a night-time bottle. Instead we would offer him a bottle in the playroom before bath time. Then after bath time I would rock him to sleep and sing to him. He would ask for his “baba” but I reminded him that he already had it in the playroom and he accepted that after asking a couple more times. 

Then, when he woke up crying at 5:30 AM, we would give him his paci back (it falls out at night as he sleeps) and pat his back and he would go back to sleep, to our surprise. I think if we’re being honest with ourselves, we perpetuated this routine longer than we should have, so we were in essence keeping him in this 5:30 waking cycle by continuing to provide the bottle. After just a few days of doing this new routine, we then switched to giving him cold milk with his dinner in a straw cup (just like he gets at daycare) and he stopped asking for his baba. To our delight, he now sleeps until 6:30-7 ish and on weekends we try to sleep in a bit and he will just roll around and talk to himself in his crib until 7:30 or so. If he does ever wake up crying, a pacifier does the trick. Clearly, the paci is just another crutch we have, but we’re fine with it. Harper stopped using hers at about 2.5 and we hope to head in that same direction with Linc.

I hope you have a safe & happy weekend!

S H O P  T H E  P O S T