milestones – Love. Laughter. Life. Medicine.

I’ve been working out regularly (“regularly” is going to be a loose term as my goal is to workout 3-4x/week) using Alexia Clark’s workout plan. Let me tell you, she has an incredible network of followers (her queenteam) who do her workouts and they are super supportive #queenteam #alexiaclark #fitforareason @alexia_clark. It makes it much more motivating for someone like me to get on board, start a workout and/or see the workouts from some of her hard core followers. But I need that kind of motivation. Right now, I wake up at 6:22am to get ready for work or 4ish am to feed our daughter. Sometimes, I get home in time to help put Arden to bed by 6:30p. After that is when I would start my workouts. This is incredibly tough after a long day at work.

So what’s the solution?

The genius light bulb went up and it would make more sense for me to do the early morning feed with Arden and then workout. So, I will be trying this very soon and maintaining this through the weekend as consistency is key. Now there will be ZERO reason for me to not workout on the long days!

Arden has been in daycare for almost a month. It was a rough start at first because of the change in her routine. But with daycare, came another set of changes. We changed her room configuration to be similar to daycare… meaning she sleeps on a mattress at school, so we have a mattress bed for her naps at home. At first, she fought her naps at school and we would start a slow transition of only leaving her at school for about 2 hours. Now we’ve gradually worked up to 4 hours over almost a month. Her naps are more like 30 minutes in length every 2 hours. She used to sleep in a swing/rocker so that was a big change for her. Additionally, she used to use her “Nuk Nuk Binky Binks” (pacifier) for naps and sleep time. Well, we’ve been able to transition away from it and she’s soothed herself to sleep in as little as 5 minutes (she kinda gives herself a hickey on her arm to self-soothe). She also refused her bottle at school… but that has gotten better and she’s now taking her normal amount (anywhere from 2-6oz/feed). She has her bottom two teeth in (erupted) and we’re excited to continue rice cereal and oatmeal. I ordered this Kiddo Feedo BPA free silicone mold for her organic purees that I will soon make!

While at daycare, she got her first cold. No fever. Just a runny and stuffy nose, and congestion. It lasted for about a week and Ross and I got acquainted with our saving grace: the Nose Frida and a cold humidifier. She made it through her first cold as a champ and survived all the changes that were thrown at her. She’s quite the resilient one.

She’s learned new moves since her 4 month bday. She rolls from back to front on her tummy, but she hasn’t learned how to roll to her back yet. She loves copying her mama and papa blowing air out our lips and letting them vibrate. She started doing bridge pose — not sure where she picked that one up. Maybe from some of the Alexia Clark workouts? She’s also started grabbing her feet and legs similar to happy baby yoga pose. As far as food, she’s taking around 30 oz of formula/day and she’s tried and liked rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. Overall, it’s been a great progress from just a month ago. She still dislikes baths… so we’re going to try getting into the shower with her and see if that helps. Well, we tried a new system of getting into the shower with her and she absolutely loved the water and didn’t mind that the water splashed into her face. We also got into the pool with her as it was incredibly hot this weekend — and she seemed to have fun splashing in the water while we held her. Looks like she could end up liking the water!

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BTW, she loves looking at the TV. She’ll arch her back and even try and look at it even if it’s behind her. We’re trying our hardest not to let her watch it. We usually face her away from the TV. Yep, we’re fans of NO SCREEN TIME. There’s multiple studies out there that say it’s bad for developing brains. Example here. And here. And here.

WebMD 5 month development

The Bump 5 month old development

The Baby Center: how to care for your baby’s teeth

These are all the things that Arden absolutely loves: