Vision Board

So, for the last 4 months, I've been completely into being a momma. My world revolves around my adorable girl and every day is focused on her. I want to give sweet Julia all my time, but I want to make time for other things in my life that are important like my marriage, relationships with others, personal goals.

I was on FaceTime with my momma the other day and she mentioned that she was doing a vision board and I thought, What a great idea! I had been thinking about how I wanted to grow mentally to become a stronger mind who focuses on goals and enjoys the process. Speaking to my hubby about it (who's career focuses on improving the mind to aid performance), we decided that we would make our individual vision boards and share with each other.

THEN, as convenient as it sounds, my awesome cousin posted a podcast with her hubby about determining your family values. We both listened to it and decided it was a great exercise to participate in. We are going to adapt it to create a family vision board to go alongside our individual ones. You can find this great podcast here.

Now to the point. I want to share my vision board with all of you! I want people to know about my goals and what I'm focusing on. Some things are personal so I've opted to leave them out, but you can have just a sneak peak into my plans for the year ahead:

A Canadian flag. Our close friends and family know that we have been in the process of moving back to Canada for just under  a year. We are still waiting for Hubby's Permanent Residence visa to come through, but we know it's being processed now. We have paid the final fee and sent in the last documents, so moving to Canada could happen any day (week, month) now!

Strong Family Bond: Having Julia has made me really think about how bonded I want our family to be. An ever-ongoing endeavour, our family unit will be grounded, strong and dependable.

Eat Real Food: As most of you know,  I ate non-processed foods prior to getting pregnant, but have been struggling since having Julia due to my baby-led days. I know, no excuses! Well, here we go. I will eat only real food.

Positivity: Sometimes, I catch myself being too critical or too hard on myself. I aim to find a positive in every situation to not only be a better example for Julia, but to also improve my mental clarity and happiness.

Yoga: I was very into yoga pre-baby and I have just gotten back into it. It feels great! The best part is that this yoga class allows babies, so Julia gets to come along and meet other babies! I aim to take yoga more seriously so that I can improve my practice. Thoughts have already entered my mind on whether I want to train as a yoga teacher by the end of the year...

I've left out the one about my marriage. I am very happily married, but having a baby shifts your focus. Both hubby and I have decided to make time for each other, but our marriage goals remain private.

Julia is being babysat by her Pops on Friday, so Hubby and I are going out to work on our family values board! Stay tuned!

Have you created a vision board or something similar?

Julia is 4 months old!

Wow. Four months ago, our sweet Julia made her entrance into this big, wide world. I can't believe she is already four months old, but at the same time I can't believe she has only been here four months!

Julia's personality has really flourished this last month. She's such a loveable, cheerful baby who is always open to giving hugs and kisses! She's discovered more of her voice this month and enjoys talking to anyone or anything. It's not uncommon to hear her talking to her stuffed toys or even her hands! More recently, she has begun to coordinate her eyes with her hands to grab toys. She's started to try to grab items that are far away, so we bring them closer to her so she can feel the object.

Here's Julia's 4 month update:

Things she's doing:

- grabbing objects and bringing them to her mouth

- yelling/talking to anyone or anything

- laughing at mommy and daddy

- getting so excited that it shows in her whole body movements

Things she's learning:

- showing some signs of trying to grab something while on her tummy

- coordinate her movements with what she sees

- shuffle on her back around her playmat

What she likes:

- attention from anyone - she loves to socialise!

- putting things in her mouth

- grabbing her stack of clean diapers when getting changed

What she dislikes:

- staying on her tummy for too long

- being left with one toy for too long

I keep saying this, but everyday gets better and better. Seeing Julia's changes and developments is one of the best life experiences we have both had. We can't wait to see more!

Four Month Sleep Regression

When I was reading up on baby sleep during Julia's first days, I felt overwhelmed with the things that I thought I had to do to make sure that Julia slept well. There was so many sleep trainers out there, all advocating a different method and story.

I worried about this. A lot.

Eventually though, we fell into our own groove. I never forced anything on Julia, including a strict schedule. I don't wake Julia up at a prescribed time and I don't have certain times that Julia takes a nap at. Even her bedtime is slightly varied - although I am more strict with this. She generally bathes and goes to bed between 7.45 and 8.30, depending on how tired she is. She's gotten into a good rhythm - she's a very cheerful girl and displays her sleepiness very easily, so it's easy to see when she needs to go to sleep. She still only naps about 30 minutes each time, but she wakes up happy and ready to go. There have been a few times where it has been clear that she was not ready to wake up and I've spent time getting her back to sleep.

As many of you know, we took her out of her swaddle at the beginning of January. She transitioned successfully after about 2 weeks. Her startle reflex was INSANE when she was transitioning, but introducing the soother at this point really helped.

Where are we now? Julia goes to sleep at night in her sleeping bag. I nurse her to sleep, but there are times when she doesn't go to sleep. I give her the soother and put her down in her crib and she usually goes to sleep.

She wakes up once for a feed at night and then again at about 5am. She still comes into our bed at 5am for more sleep until whenever she wakes up!

Anyways, back to the focus. I've read about this four month sleep regression wherein babies become more fussy and hard to put down at night. They wake up more frequently and their sleeping patterns are generally uncharacteristic of their pre-established sleeping patterns.

Julia is 4 months old this week and I haven't seen any of this (yet). There are elements that I have begun to see, being that Julia is much more interested in playing during the day, so doesn't feed as efficiently during the day. The result of this has been that when she gets up for her 2am feed, she has been feeding longer.

Will I see the 4 month regression? Who knows! I'm really starting to enjoy the ever-changing nature of motherhood. As the days go by, I find myself becoming more and more flexible in Julia's changes. The result? I'm not (at this moment) planning on doing any sleep training with Julia as I figure that when Julia is physically and emotionally ready to give up her night feeds, she will do it herself. She's done this for her other night feeds, so we will see if this happens for her 2am feed.

Will I change my mind? It's possible. I'm waiting to see what happens to her sleeping patterns when she starts baby-led weaning at 6 months. Until then, we will carry on!

Have you seen evidence of the 4 month sleep regression?

Post-Holiday Catch Up

Whew! What a few weeks it has been! This holiday season was super busy for us, so I found little time to actually sit down and get my ideas out. I've got a few more ideas about topics now that Julia is 4 months old, including the so-called '4 Month Sleep Regression' (which will be my next blog post). Since I'm using this blog to also document Julia's childhood, I want to give a quick rundown of what our holiday season looked like.

We alternate Christmas/New Year with our families, since Andrew's lives in Britain and mine in Canada. This year it was Britain's turn! Woo! Because we alternate, our activities vary year to year. With this being Julia's first Christmas, we decided to set up some new Christmas traditions that could follow us anywhere we are.

Christmas Eve we went to Andrew's dad's house. It was a great time as Julia's cousins were there and she just loves them! We had a nice dinner and Julia got to play (watch) her cousins play with their new toys! I also found the time to make Julia a Christmas Eve dress, which will be a new tradition for her every year.

Tradition 1: Make a Christmas Eve outfit.

Julia in her Christmas Eve dress! We even got to wear matching headbands (because I'm cool like that).

Christmas Day we spent at home. I always travelled on Christmas Day, but a few years ago I stayed home the entire day and loved it, so I want Julia to have that experience. We spent the day in our (matching) Christmas PJ's and Andrew's mom came over to celebrate! We got to FaceTime my family (Thank goodness for technology), but I didn't get a picture. 

Julia say in her Snug chair for a few minutes during Christmas dinner. She was not as amused as we were by this, so she quickly moved to her rocker while we ate dinner. Hubby makes a fantastic dinner!

We spent Christmas night just sitting around talking and laughing about the year that's past. What a lovely time it was!

On Boxing day we went to Andrew's brother's house for the Cousin Christmas. Again, Julia loved watching her cousins play with toys and REALLY loved it when her cousins would dangle toys in front of her face!

Boxing day was super fun as we also went to the airport to pick up Jodi! She came for a week and we loved every minute of it. While at the airport, Julia decided she wanted to talk to EVERY person that passed her, so she 'shouted' at each passerby. The cutest thing :)

Fast forward to New Years, we had Jodi and some more friends over. We watched the Canada vs USA World Juniors hockey game and were overjoyed with Canada's performance. Go Team! The rest of the time was spent playing card games and eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate.

Overall, Julia's first holiday season was fabulous. We enjoyed spending all the time with family and friends. It's this season that really makes you appreciate and love your family even more. 

 Andrew loved his present from Julia.

 Julia having a ball in her snug chair during present opening.

 Jodi just couldn't wait to meet her goddaughter, Julia!

 Auntie Jodi always brings Canada attire when she visits.

'Just trailing behind'

The Night You Were Born

One of Julia's Christmas presents is a beautiful book called 'On the Night You Were Born'. I found it on amazon and it was available in a board book, so it's going to be able to stand the test of time (and baby dribble). As soon as I read the description, I knew I had to have it. Basically, the book tells the child about the special night they were born and how special they are in the world.

"You are the only You" - I love that phrase and I will be raising Julia to know it well.

I decided to use this book as inspiration and write about the night Julia was born (as I sit and listen to my husband read our daughter stories and Julia responding with the cutest coos!)

On the night you were born, Julia:

It was a warm September. We didn't have the heat on yet and we had just finished setting up your crib in our room. I had jokingly mentioned that I needed to pack my hospital bag, as time was running out. Only 3 weeks left to go, so I had better get prepared.

On the night you were born, I didn't have my hospital bag packed.

We went to bed dreaming of your birth, wondering when you would enter into our lives and bless us forever. I said you would be late, probably an October baby. Your daddy said you would be early.

On the night you were born, your daddy was right.

At around 3am, I got up needing the bathroom (a situation pregnant ladies know all too well). I couldn't get back to sleep because I had to keep getting up. Little did I know, this was my water breaking. At 4am, I woke up Andrew. We called the hospital to describe what had happened and they confirmed my water had broke. Then the contractions started. The whole next day was spent at home with contractions and getting as much sleep as possible between contractions. At 9.30pm we decided to go to the hospital as things seemed to be happening.

On the night you were born, there was a warm breeze and clear skies.

At the hospital, the midwife said I was no further along than I was that morning and to go home and come back for 'formal induction' the next morning. I decided to stay on the ward and have diamorphine to help me get some sleep.

On the night you were born, your daddy went home for some sleep.

A little while later contractions came fast and heavy. I walked my ward room for what seemed like hours. All of a sudden, it was time.

On the night you were born, your daddy had to race back to the hospital.

On the night you were born, I was scared.

On the night you were born, I was so excited that I didn't feel pain after getting to the delivery room.

On the night you were born, we were blessed with life's greatest gift and our lives were forever changed.

On the night you were born, we became a family.

Paleo with a baby

Welcome back, Everyone! I've had a few things on my mind lately, and I've had to start writing down my ideas for a blog post because in usual mother fashion, I forget what I am going to post about as soon as I open the laptop.

What's happening right this moment? Hubby is home until 2pm so he is currently cuddling Julia on the couch while she naps. It's the cutest! I think he enjoys his Daddy cuddles when she sleeps. We've discovered that Julia only has sweet eyes for her Daddy as whenever he is in the room her eyes dart to him and she gives the biggest smiles. Hence, the reason that Andrew always gets the best pictures of her smiling! Here's an example. This picture is after nap time.

Anyways, back to the goal of this post. Something I've really been struggling with since our sweet Julia was welcomed into the world: Eating Paleo.

At the moment, I'm eating about 60% Paleo. Breakfasts and dinners are no problem. Lunch is where I struggle. I'm finding, especially on days when Hubby is out all day (sometimes from 9am-11pm!) I really struggle to eat Paleo. You see, my Paleo choices taken preparation and as anyone with a baby knows, food preparation can be difficult when you have a baby wanting your attention. My Paleo lunch of choice is usually sausages with eggs and veg. Enter first problem, can't cook sausages whilst holding baby. If Julia is particularly fussy then there is no way I'm going to get those cooked. I realise that I can cook these things while she is napping, but our sweet girl usually naps in 30 minute intervals so my time is usually limited.

Eggs don't take long to cook, I realise. But there are only so many times a week I can eat just eggs for lunch.

I love raw vegetables and carrots/cucumber are my usual go-to. They take little time to prepare and I can always go back to them after seeing to Julia.

We always have fruit in the house (I know, not true to Paleo but I love fruit and have never had a problem with it), so that's a nice easy grab too.

My goal now is to always have fresh veg cut and ready to go in the fridge. I'm also aiming to work a 'meal prep' into my schedule so that I can have pricked sausages, slices of bacon, hard boiled eggs, etc in the fridge for those days that I find difficult to get a minute to cook. I'm hoping that this will really help me get back into the Paleo swing of things.

Did you find it difficult to eat healthily with a newborn/infant? What are your quick-fix go-to's?

Julia's first road trip!

I never realised how little you can travel with before having a baby. Throw a couple of outfits into a suitcase, grab the make up bag and shower essentials and you're good to go.

Then comes baby.

We were heading up to Aberdeen on Thursday so we could introduce Julia to some family and friends. I was trying to think/remember all the things we would need to bring for our two day trip and ended up making a list (who would've guessed?). I was unsure of how many bodysuits/sleepers/outfits to pack for my sweet girl and decided that since we were going for 2 days, I had better bring 3 of EVERYTHING. (Guess Julia gets her own bag then!) Julia is also in cloth diapers, so thus sparked another debate of how much to bring (I brought 12, just so you know).

I wish now that I had taken a picture of all our stuff before Andrew loaded it into the car. I'm going to have to get better at adding pictures! For now, a list will have to do. For Julia, for our two day trip, we brought:

- 3 short sleeve bodysuits
- 2 long sleeve bodysuits
- 3 sleepers
- 2 thick 'loungers' in case it was chilly
- 3 outfits
- 2 Christmas dresses (we may or may not have had Julia involved in a secret Christmas project)
- 12 cloth diapers
- 4 disposable diapers (she wears disposables at night
- her diaper bag
- 2 blankets
- books/toys
- 1 muslin
- 1 wash cloth
- 1 travel cot

Our car was PACKED. Needless to say, I'm fearful of the luggage that our February trip to Canada will bring!

Our time away was great. As you know, we've been transitioning our girl to a sleeping bag instead of a swaddle. We couldn't have gone away at a better time. We were staying at some friends' house and we decided that it was best/easiest to have Julia in our bed with us for the two nights.

That was just what I needed and I think it's what Julia needed too. We relaxed completely and slept beautifully. Julia was fabulous for the whole time away. She met/was held by so many new faces and she didn't grimace or fuss once! That's my girl!

Now that we are back at home, it's back to business. I delayed Julia's bedtime by an hour as she has been staying up later the last few days. I nursed her, gave her a snuggle and her soother and set her in her crib. I had to return to put her dummy back in a few times since she does still startle awake a few times, but she is now sleeping peacefully in her crib. I think the time away helped us both to relax.

So, do you think I brought too much for Julia's 2 day trip? I'm thinking...possibly.