Your Questions Answered!

Thank you all for the sweet comments on my 100th post! Some exciting news to share about the blog today... we are finally getting a facelift! Little Baby Garvin will finally be ditching the outdated due date header & getting a whole new look. It's about time, right? :) So excited.

It is feeling so very Fall here in Georgia, I could hardly wait to get my hands on some pumpkins & put one of Harper's Halloween outfits on. We had a festive little weekend over here!

Time to answer some of your questions!! 

Many of the questions I get via email or comments are regarding my chalkboards. All of the answers can be found in this post. One thing I may not have mentioned there is that I don't use any stencils, it is all freehand. Also, I use Crayola brand chalk and whatever brand of chalkboard paint they have at Lowe's or Home Depot. And if you're going to do an actual chalkboard wall, make sure it isn't too textured or it will be a bit difficult to write on. 

What do my husband & I do for work? He is the director of marketing at a financial company and I am a marketing manager for a digital marketing agency. I actually worked in an office until we moved to Atlanta, where I then continued to work remotely. So my job isn't necessarily a work from home type of job, it just happened to work out in my situation. 

What is Harper's daily schedule? I posted about her day in this post, but she is older now so things are a little bit different. She wakes up around 7 (after sleeping through the night...yea!).. now that she is sitting on her own, I usually bring her into my room where she sits in her pack n' play for a bit while I wake up. She has breakfast (oatmeal, fruit & a six oz bottle) around 8 and then we typically go for a walk before I start work for the day. She is very entertained with all of her toys & books, so she plays while I work in the morning. She takes her morning nap somewhere between 10-12.

 I feed her lunch around 12:30 (veggie & six oz bottle), then we usually read and relax for a bit together. Then she will bounce around in her jumparoo and roll around with her toys until about 2:30. She then takes another two hour nap from about 2:30 until 4:30. When she wakes up from this nap, we usually hang out in the playroom for another hour. She has lots of musical toys that she just can't get enough of! This gives her a change of scenery & I have an office set up there so I can finish up work for the day. She has dinner around 5:30 (veggie, fruit w/ oatmeal & six oz bottle). 

Then I typically work out at 6:00 - the end of my work day so it is a great stress reliever. Harper will either sit in her bouncer seat or in her pack n' play, she loves to watch. Then dad comes home, I start dinner while he plays with her for a while, then she will hang out in her high chair while we eat. She has recently started getting mad if we are eating and she isn't - so we give her the fresh food teether with a chunk of fruit or an ice cube in it to keep her happy. Then we read a few books (current favorite is Hop on Pop - I heard Brandon reading it to her the other day saying "Ed, Ned, Ted & Red In Bed... never do that Harper, don't get in bed with Ed, Ned, Ted AND Red...." hilarious.) and it's up into the bath tub by 7:15. She gets a quick bath & then an 8 oz. bottle before bed, then asleep by 7:45.

Honestly, she is just such a good baby. She is so easily entertained, such a happy girl & a great sleeper again. I'm sure our next child will be bat shit crazy.

Let's talk about about my love affair with our Baby Jogger City Mini Stroller. I really can't say enough good things about this ride. I get a lot of questions about it and really all I can say is that it is fabulous! It steers so well, is such a smooth ride & I seriously think it is the cutest thing ever. The one downside with this stroller though is that you have to purchase the accessories separately. The Tray, Parent Console & Car Seat Adaptor are all available to pimp the City Mini out even more. As you can see here, my console is holding my iced coffee & giant Panera cookie. Which speaking of, they got rid of the toffee nut cookie and replaced it with a peanut butter version... what the eff!? 

Losing baby weight. This is a question that I get a lot & I am planning to do a post on this topic to give as much info as I can. The basics for me were breastfeeding (got me back to my pre-prego weight in less than two weeks), serious healthy eating (no soda/sweetened drinks, no eating after 8pm, always eating a healthy breakfast, lots of water etc.) & working out as soon as you possibly can. I was walking by the time Harper was a week old & running again at 5 weeks pp. Don't get me wrong, I can occasionally be found polishing off a family sized bag of Fritos, but it's all about finding those healthy snacks that you can love just as much. Tuna on sliced cucumber for lunch like twenty days in a row = hell to the yes. More to come on this topic though, I promise! :)

Harper's sleeping situation - I get a lot of questions about how we got her to sleep through the night, when we moved her into her own room, how she naps, etc. I know it is different with every baby, but here is a rundown. Harper started sleeping in her Nap Nanny around five weeks old. This was a LIFE CHANGER. The first night we put her in this, she slept through the night, and continued to do so until she turned into a teething monster at around 4 months.  Finally after about 4 weeks, once the first teething phase was over, she was back to sleeping all night long right away. As soon as that happened, she went into her own crib in her own room. Life changer #2. Not having her in your room, where you wake her up or you wake up to her every noise is good for both of you. It was hard, don't get me wrong, but it was much needed. We have an INCREDIBLE baby monitor, the Summer Infant Video Monitor, we can literally see her breathing. It is easily my second favorite baby purchase of all time. She sleeps with a paci, a security blanket, a breathable bumper on her crib & a sound machine playing white noise. We bought the Nursery Sound Machine and it rocks - so much in fact, that I purposely turn the monitor sound up loud in our room so we can hear the white noise as well! :) Let me clarify one thing though, we never used the "cry it out" method or anything of that sort. Harper rarely cries. When we put her to bed, she will play around and talk to herself sometimes for 30 minutes but then she will fall asleep. Sometimes she will fuss a little, if it goes on for a few minutes, we will pop in and give her back her paci or blanket, but she never once cried herself to sleep.
Again, I'm sure someday baby #2 will be a horse of different color. <-- what up Wizard of Oz reference. My best advice is to create the best routine & sleeping environment for your baby as early as possible. I think that once they learn that they CAN sleep through the night, they will.

Where do we buy most of Harper's clothes, my maternity clothes & all of our baby products?

Harper's clothes are almost ALL from the Gap - except this cute Halloween outfit from Carters

My maternity clothes were also mostly from the Gap, with the exception of a ton of my regular clothes from Express & JCrew that I wore most of the time I was pregnant. This includes the skinny belts - JCrew especially has the cutest ones.. I'm a huge fan of the gold glitter! I am going to try to do a better job of linking back to all of her/my outfits too.

We buy almost all of our baby products from Amazon using Amazon Prime - it is the bomb. Two day, free shipping on literally anything you could ever want. I swear by it - plus it usually is the best price around!

Harper's High Chair is from Ikea. I know it is way cute, but I don't think it is the most practical high chair out there. The seat isn't contoured for her to sit comfortably in it, the tray is not adjustable & the straps straight up suck. She is getting used to sitting in it, so it's not really that terrible anymore, I think it is really just better for older babies or toddlers. We have our eye on the Boon High Chair... I want it BADLY. I've done a lot of research and this seems to be one of the best out there, despite the high price, it is likely to be our next purchase. And of course, since we will probably buy it soon ...and it is fall... I will probably buy the orange one. Because that's how I roll.

Most of you know, Harper's headbands are almost all from JamesonMonroe on Etsy. 

My Wagon Wheel shirt (as seen on Instagram) is from Tumble Root on Etsy.

I know there are more questions that I haven't answered, so I will be sure to follow up with more of these posts. Thanks again to all who follow along & for all of the wonderful comments & feedback. You guys all rock.  In the mean time, I will leave you with this cute little festive tush! :) 

THE END.