Morning
I was up a little after 4 a.m. today thanks to our littlest dude. While that sounds early, I am definitely not complaining because Rhett is now consistently sleeping for at least one 4 hour stretch per night and it is making a world of difference for this mama. Those first six weeks were brutal so any improvement on the sleep front feels like a ginormous gift. As far as Rhett’s reflux is concerned, it’s still something we’re dealing with and nothing seems to be making a huge difference other than time and keeping him upright for a while after feedings. I’m just grateful he’s a “happy spitter” and doesn’t seem bothered by the spit up. (Gas and burps, on the other hand, make him scream. Ooph!)
I tried my best to nurse and rock Rhett back to sleep but after placing him in his bassinet only to have his eyes immediately fly open, I threw in the towel and pulled him into bed with me for some morning cuddles until we headed downstairs. Rhett supervised breakfast 1.0 (peanut butter on a piece of bread) and preschool lunch-making and we hung out together until Ryan was done with his workout.
Now that I’m eight weeks postpartum and getting a little more sleep, I am hoping to make consistent exercise a part of my life again. Ryan and I have come up with a bit of a trade-off system so we can both get in a morning workout while the other one is on kid duty with Rhett and the big boys’ monitor.
Ryan finished his workout a little after 6 a.m. and after passing off the baby, I headed into the garage for a 25 minute workout. I was excited to begin day one of a new postpartum workout plan I’m following from @trainerpaige.
I recently purchased her 12 week postpartum program after following her on Instagram for years. Paige is a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate her educated and safe approach to fitness and postpartum recovery. When I learned Paige offers a 12 week postpartum workout program earlier this summer, I kept it in the back of my mind just in case quarantine was still going on and I wasn’t comfortable returning to boot camp classes. Fast forward several months and all of that certainly applies, so I bought her program and kicked things off today with a deload workout that emphasizes recovery with lighter weights. (I’ll be in the deload phase for two weeks before progressing.) The workout was easy (that was the intent!) and it felt good to move my body.
I grabbed a quick shower after my workout and tagged in with Rhett and Chase (Ryder was still sleeping) so Ryan could head up to our bedroom to kick off his work day. As Rhett snoozed in my arms, Chase and I read a few chapters from his latest book. During a family trip to Barnes & Noble yesterday, Ryan saw The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian chapter book on display and we instantly bought the first two books in the series. The books are inspired by Chase’s all-time favorite children’s podcast and we had a feeling he’d love them. So far the first book is a slam dunk and I have a feeling we’ll be ordering the third book in the series in no time.
Story time ended once Ryder was up and we spent the rest of the morning eating breakfast and playing around the house before it was time to head out to preschool drop off.
(Rhett was not a fan of the stroller stopping for this pic at preschool drop off. He’s in the throws of the “keep things moving to keep baby happy” phase of life.)
After hugging Chase goodbye, Rhett, Ryder and I made our way to Great Clips for a haircut for Ryder.
Tomorrow is picture day at school and Ryder’s hair seems to grow at warp speed, so a haircut was on my “must” list for the morning. He did great and looks awfully cute with his new ‘do!
Once we arrived home, I was determined to spend a few hours outside since the weather is so gorgeous today! I strapped Rhett into my favorite baby carrier and Ryder was more than a little psyched to find himself in the driver’s seat of the Power Wheels Jeep for our morning adventure. We made our way around the neighborhood and stopped plenty of times to check out the million things that capture a toddler’s interest.
Ryder’s little hands on his lap in the above pic kill me. He looks so darn happy to be driving his brother’s Jeep!
Once we arrived back home, I left a sleeping Rhett in the carrier and made myself an egg white and oatmeal protein pancake with shredded zucchini, cacao nibs, ground flaxseed and raw pumpkin seeds added to the mix and ate it standing up and rocking around to keep Rhett nice and happy.
I spent the rest of the morning with my two littlest boys and played trains, read more books, ate a muffin and a million cashews (hello nursing hunger!) and made a sorry attempt at dinner prep before it was time to pick Chase up from preschool. I managed to get Ryder settled in his crib for his nap and Rhett snoozing in his swing before it was time for pickup so I left Ryan with a baby monitor and he brought his laptop downstairs to be close to Rhett so I could quickly grab Chase and head home without loading and unloading everyone again. (A small perk of quarantine.)
Chase raved about his day because he and a few other kids found WORMS on the playground. Creature Man Chase could not have been more excited, though he did tell me one of the kids thought it was funny to kill the bugs he found which made Chase feel sad. To quote Chase, “He would not be a very good Creature Man.” Womp, womp.
Once we made it home, I re-plated what Chase didn’t eat from his lunch along with a few other snacks and reheated leftover lentil and chicken dal for lunch for myself.
Now I’m doing my best to fly through this blog post so I can share it in real time with you guys (no small feat with three kiddos, I’m tellin’ ya!) since Chase is listening to his podcast during quiet time and I have two sleeping little ones. I know this window of peace won’t last for long, so it’s time to press publish and wish you all a Happy Monday! Enjoy the rest of your week, my friends!
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I wanted to comment on Rhett’s spit up. My littlest, Logan was also a happy spitter. We went to so many appointments, started anti reflux medicine (which I really was not a fan of); he spit up with bm, formula, sensitive formula, just about anything. I remember feeling so helpless and googling the heck out of everything and in the end we just had to get through that time. It slowly dwindled away as we introduced solids, It was less at 6M, then lesser at 10, then even less at 1 year and by about 14 months, it was a memory. I know in the thick of it, it seems like an insurmountable battle for you, but hang in there. What I learnt was that mostly physical changes helped, lots of mid feed burping, and keeping upright and dock-a-tot and then some days nothing helped. This is hopefully not discouraging but just providing perspective that it does become a blip. I am here to tell you that this too shall pass. Logan is now 26 months old and that phase is gone, hang in there!!
Thank you!! Some days it feels so draining so I really appreciate your comment! I fully believe it will be a distant memory hopefully sooner rather than later — phew!!
Legit I’ve been reading since BEFORE YOU WERE ENGAGED and posted twice daily.
Ahhh!! This is so amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you! So incredible you’ve been with me for so long! 💜
Yes, I started reading in 2014 and these types of posts are my favorite! Love whenever you get a chance to publish them. Such a nice surprise when I have a bit of downtime at my desk.
So grateful to you for reading for so long!!
Love these posts Julie! And your family is gorgeous – I’m so happy for you!
I love this style of post! And go you for getting it published with 3 kids! I have a 4 week old and was so happy to hear you say that little Rhett is now giving you longer stretches of sleep at night. I’m definitely ready for that! 😉
Thanks Megan!!
I’ve been a long time reader too! Love this style of posting….keep it coming girl!
They are still so fun to write when I have a moment of peace to sit down and blog in real time so I’m so glad to hear you like them!
I remember those posts, Julie! You were my first blogger to follow and I loved that style.
Thanks for reading for so long!
Great post. So happy you are getting a 4 hour stretch of sleep a day and today you felt up to slowly resuming working out. I’m glad you are smart about taking it slow and encouraging your readers to too. Thank you!
A fun book series that we discovered when my daughter was around 5 was the Flat Stanley series. You might want to look it up. So fun!
Also – as winter is approaching- a game I highly recommend that Chase would love and Ryder would be able to play is Zingo. Then, for Chase as he is ready -there is a sight words Zingo and a math one too. The original Zingo is so fun and we used to take it with us on trips to play at the hotel. Just wanted to share with you. I know you have your mountain family trip coming up and Callie might enjoy it too.
Sounds fun!! I’ll look for it!!
My son is 5 and really enjoying the Geronimo Stilton books. There are tons of them and they’re pretty entertaining.
Congratulations on your new little guy. Your kids are adorable. I’ve followed you since way way back and I’m so happy for you and your family.
Thanks for the book recs!! This series only has three books in it so we will definitely be looking for another one to begin!
Thanks for the book recommendation! Just ordered a copy of the first book for my son – we love reading a chapter a night together before bed!
Hope you guys enjoy it! I know I’m talking about them on the blog before, but have you tried The Magic Tree House books? Those are our absolute favorite!
I loved it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you!
I seriously don’t know how you do it, Julie. Somehow you maintain your energy AND workout? Props to you. I only have two kids, and I didn’t start working out until my sleep was decent. These are my favorite posts.
I am definitely giving myself a lot of grace and don’t plan on working out every single day! The nice thing about this postpartum program is that it starts off with three times a week for 25 minute sessions with light weight so it feels doable. The lack of sleep is tough and if I am exhausted I will absolutely be skipping the workout! It’s definitely a journey and a bit of a roller coaster trying to figure out what will work right now 😅
Also a longtime reader here! I remember when you used to pack work lunches and I started bringing cheese & tortillas to work for a quick snack when I saw it on your blog. Such a quick & easy snack.
That’s tough Rhett is still having reflux. My daughter had it worse than my son and she was not a happy spitter. Gas drops & removing chocolate from my diet was a big help for us. I hope he keeps being a ‘happy spitter’ for you!
Love this throw back format Julie. I’m here for it whenever you can swing it!
One can NEVER expect to be Pinterest-Perfect with three boys …oh, you need to change your bio to having three sons!!
A gym in the garage is a blessing in disguise….beats driving to it, especially in a hot humid summer and snow up to the windows in winter!!
My ten month old still isn’t sleeping longer than 3 sometimes 4 hours. We’ve tried everything. My daughter was a great sleeper. I know how exhausting it is so I empathize so much. Sleep deprivation effects every aspect of your life. Hang in there. I workout when I can, but it varies. I got a treadmill this year and have loved it paired with the peloton app. I can do just 20 mins here and there and it’s a real mood changer. Some weeks I am really great at getting it done, other weeks not so much. Just kinda have to accept things as they are now.
Have you watched Wild Kratts on PBS? It’s a creature show. My son loves it – he started watching it when he was 4 and still enjoys it now that he’s 9.
That’s risky getting a haircut the day before pictures!! Ha – my luck it would not turn out well. Haircuts on little boys always make them look more grown up.
Rhett sounds like how my little one was at that age! I remember doing tons of research and trying all kinds of things to keep him comfortable and soothe him and it was truly exhausting and emotionally taxing. We are wired at mommas to need to address the crying and fussing! I always said it was like a fire alarm chirping all day and then going off at any moment. As he got older, we realized he has a lot of sensory processing differences and now it makes a lot of sense to me why he was so difficult to soothe. You are doing great looking towards the future but also being real that it’s just hard right now!
I remember the old days of real time blogging! I started reading blogs (including yours!) in early 2011 back when that’s what everyone did. I was doing an internship at the time, and I remember checking blogs multiple times per day to see if a new post had gone up. It doesn’t feel like that long ago, until I wrote it out and realized we’re only a few months away from that being 10 years ago! I guess it’s not surprising that so much has changed since then, given how long it’s been, but I will say I miss that style of blogging. I appreciate that you still keep up with the day-in-the-life style posts. Those have always been my favorite kind! I like reading blogs that feel like I’m checking in with friends a lot more than blogs that feel like I’m checking in with someone telling me how I should be living my life.
Wow, Ryder looks just like your dad, Julie! So cute!
Love reading these! My 2 yr old and 4 month old are both asleep for the moment, I got to read and sip some coffee in peace. 🙂
Hi Julie!
I know life is hectic, but thought you should probably update your bio to include your other two sons. LOL..right now it says you live with your husband, dog and baby boy. 🙂
Hi!
I love your blog and IG but have never commented! I wanted to offer what worked for my happy spitters 🙂 Both of my kids had terrible reflux and still do at times (ages 5 and 7). For my 7 year old son we tried all the antacid meds and landed on Prevacid. I didn’t love that he had to be on it but it helped a lot. My daughter wasn’t as relieved by Prevacid so our ped recommended Gerber Soothe drops which is a probiotic. She said to give it a week to take affect and we noticed a HUGE difference in all her tummy issues. The drops are a bit pricey but so, so worth it! Just thought I’d share in case they help your little one!
Long time reader and love these slice of life posts! 😊
I am so amazed you were able to do all that and post a real time blog 8 wks postpartum with a newborn and 2 other littles! Wow. You rock!!
Hey Julie! I found this post because I was going back to look at what life looked like adding another baby to the family – I was a reader then but we recently just added our second daughter to our family 6 weeks ago. I am wanting to get back to working out but feeling at a loss on what to do! With my first daughter I think I did too much too quickly, so wanting to take it slow but not sure how. Would you recommend the 12 week program you did? Thanks!