My dress: Nordstrom | Her Dress: Burberry | Stroller: Stokke [c/o] | My shoes: Chanel, Similar | Bag: The Lady Bag [c/o] [use code KATEY15 at checkout for a discount]

Photography by: Madison Katlin

 Happy Friday! This week Maxi hit 2 months old. She is 9 pounds, 15 ounces and 23 inches of a sweet, cuddly girl. She is a baby that LOVES to be close to you and held and she is still extremely laid back. Here’s a little overview of her at 2 months, and I apologize for how “mom” it sounds. Most importantly, I want to do these posts so I can always look back and remember the changes in her life month-to-month. So excuse me while I gush, ramble and go into far more detail than you probably care to read! 😉

Biggest Changes:

 Her little personality is totally coming out! She socially smiles consistently now and loves music. I’m signing her up for a little music class this summer because she is just so fascinated with it and always wants to be looking at a toy that sings. She has started to kick her little feet during play time so I ordered this for her and she loves it. Maxi is also sleeping through the night now. I know that will totally go out the window when teething hits, but for now Paul and I are celebrating, haha! She typically goes down around 10 and will sleep until about 7:30. At her 2-month check up her pediatrician said we can start to slowly get her on a schedule. I shared in her 1-month update that she just refused to follow any sort of schedule the hospital gave us to go home with and then she put herself on one. It’s nice because the schedule we are following [Moms on Call] is really in-sync with the schedule she put herself on.

Schedule:

7:30- Maxi is up and eats! I’m still getting up around 5 to pump and get work done before she wakes up.

8- Playtime. Maxi normally likes to lay in her Baby Bjorn Bouncer and we play music and read books.

9- Nap

10- Feed

10:30 Playtime. We generally do tummy time at this point and play on her mats. We have this and this.

11:30 Nap

1 Feed

1:30 Playtime. With the weather being cooler now, I love to take her on a walk at this point or we run errands. I shared a few weeks ago on Snapchat that we had the opportunity to test out the Stokke Xplory Stroller. Paul wanted a car seat and stroller for his car, but he wanted something thin and sleek because #men. He also takes care of his car with help from Port Macquaries best car detailers. The other stroller we have is wider and takes up more space, so this is perfect because his car is smaller than mine. I’m really excited to take it while we travel because it is so easy to maneuver. When I shared this stroller on Snapchat so many of you messaged me saying that your husbands had gotten this stroller for themselves as well because it has a more modern design. I thought it was so funny because it just proves how similar men really are! My favorite part about this stroller might seem a little silly, but it is the cup holder. Now I know that sounds a little bit absurd, but when I was in my advertising classes in college we were always told cup holders were one of the biggest determining factors for a woman on purchasing a car. So I guess it isn’t THAT crazy I’m obsessed with this cup holder. A lot of strollers have attachable cup holders on the side and they can’t hold a lot of weight. I was out shopping with my mom and we were using her stroller- oh yes, Gigi HAD to have her own stroller! She put her large Diet Coke in the cup holder, it flipped over and DC spilled all over the diaper bag, the car seat and both of us. It was the nastiest mess and so I’m always a bit nervous about cup holders with strollers. The Stokke has an attached on in the middle so it’s really sturdy and couldn’t flip with a drink. I’m sure I sound crazy, but you just notice these little things when you’re running errands with a baby.

2:30 Nap

4 Feed

5 Nap

6 Playtime. She has her time with Paul during this playtime!

8 Bath, Lotion, Books & Bed

10 Maxi is asleep

Most Common Questions I have Received: 

What size of clothing is she in? She is now in 0-3 months! She is still really long and lean on the growth charts, so she is way too long for newborn clothing, but she still kinda looks a little swallowed in the middle section of her outfits.

Any new sleepers you love?  This is her new favorite swaddle! If you have a self-soother that needs their hands they will love this! She wears little KicKeePants gowns underneath.

What’s your workout/diet like right now? I recently got cleared to work out and I’ve been loving being back at Zyn22 for cycling classes! At night I’ve been doing Alexa Jean workouts for my abs. In terms of diet, I’m doing a blog post that will share what I eat during the day.

How has it honestly been adjusting to motherhood? I was actually talking to one of the instructors at Zyn about this last Saturday! It’s so hard to describe how much you love your child, because it’s such a fierce love I had no idea existed. She’s the only person in the world I’m 100% selfless for and willingly. As humans we are not naturally selfless people, so the fact you just automatically become that way for a child is incredible. You don’t think about it, you just do it. But I will say, motherhood is humbling. I definitely am learning how I just can’t do it all. I’m a first born, I’m a perfectionist and I’m a people pleaser. So as you can imagine accepting you can’t do it all is just not what first borns want to hear! haha. When you go to college they always say, “Out of good grades, a social life and sleep you can only have two.” To me, motherhood is like that a lot. However, out of a batch of 10 things you want you can pick like three! I’ll share more below on what I’m doing to help with that. Each day I’m just learning that the laundry won’t always get finished, my home isn’t going to be perfectly clean [like ever again] and I’m going to always be tired no matter what. Some days I feel like I’ve got it down and have everything balanced and other days I don’t. I’m just going with the flow. I may be struggling in other areas [You should see our fridge. I left flowers in the fridge for a week?! A full 7 days. How does one not notice that?!] but those just don’t seem to matter when she is the priority.

What did you not use in your hospital bag? I honestly used everything I shared except our iPad, nipple cream and shampoo! The hospital provided all the things I needed to breastfeed and I was way too tired to wash my hair. However, I wouldn’t have brought anything else and didn’t feel like I was missing anything while in the hospital. In general, I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible! haha. I wanted my own bed!

How long did it take you to feel normal after giving birth? I still don’t feel 100% and have a few symptoms from labor/healing. However, I would say at 5 weeks I felt SO much better. I shared that I was told my tailbone was fractured from labor and then we also found out something happened to my pubic ramus while I was pushing. There were moments where I would just lay in the floor and cry to Paul because it hurt so bad. I definitely didn’t realize how long it takes to heal after giving birth/no one talks about it that much. But around 5 weeks I felt SO much better and I *hope* by 3 months I feel really great! But my doctor told me it takes 2 full years for your body to completely recover. Isn’t that crazy?! So kudos to you mamas with multiples that head home from the hospital like a boss to take care of your other kids and kudos to mamas with extremely difficult labors that have it way worse healing. Y’all are my heroes!

How do you get her to go down to sleep? Right now we nurse her to sleep. Eventually, we will change what we do but right now I’m really happy to be able to do that.

How has breastfeeding been? I think every breastfeeding journey is so different just like every pregnancy is so different so you truly can’t compare them. I went into breastfeeding with an extremely open mind. I’ll be honest, I’d never seen breastfeeding. My sister was 7 weeks premature because my mom’s placenta tore and because of that she couldn’t latch. My mom pumped to give her milk, but then her milk went away. Because I hadn’t seen it, I had no idea what to expect. I had amazing lactation consultants at the hospital and they were so helpful along with my nurses. I took a class but forgot all of it once I was in labor. I remember looking at a nurse saying, “How do I hold her while I feed her?” Nurses are angels! I was learning, Maxi was learning and I would have been clueless without them. Early on I got mastitis but I was lucky that it cleared up quickly once my doctor caught it. I kept texting my Nana [who is a nurse] saying I felt like I had the flu and each time I nursed I thought I was going to throw up all over the nursery. I was so sleep deprived and she was like, “Umm…have you taken your temperature?!” Sure enough, I had mastitis! [I told you my breastfeeding class info just went out the window once I gave birth.] No matter how you feed your baby, you definitely revolve your life around it. And if you formula feed I know that comes with a whole different set of stressors that I can’t imagine!

How has your relationship with Paul changed? I’m very thankful that Paul loves to be hands on and help! Right when he gets home from work he always says, “How can I make your life easier right now?” He’s normally the one to give Maxi a bath so I can get us dinner. Sometimes he takes her on a walk so I can take a conference call with a brand. Or sometimes I just need to take a shower without worrying if Maxi is crying. In terms of a relationship, I definitely love him more than I thought I could but we also have to be intentional now that our time is divided. We made a promise to never feel guilty about date night whether that meant once a week, twice a month or once a month. Whenever we can squeeze in a date, we are going to. Both of our parents live here, so we 100% lucked out in the babysitting department. We are having our second one tonight and I’m so excited about it. Another thing we have done for our relationship is expand the COF team. I worked on my blog 10-12 hours a day before I had Maxi and now that’s impossible. What is seen on the blog may just take up 2 hours a day, but the behind the scenes of collaborations/campaigns/meetings takes up a lot more time. I only work when she is sleeping so I typically get up at 5 each morning to work but I’m also not going to bed until midnight so I can work, too. That’s just not enough time for sleep or my husband. I really took Kristen’s advice in this post and decided to hire someone to assist in some general business tasks that aren’t seen/I don’t have the time for right now. I feel SO good about this decision knowing I can work a little less when Maxi is asleep and just devote that time to my husband. This also allows me to devote 100% of my work time to my content and my readers, which is what is most important to me!

Lastly, I wanted to say thank you to all the kind moms that read my blog! I’m just learning how to be a mom as I go and I just can’t express how much I appreciate your kind comments! I admire you all with your ability to balance your life [but seriously, I DO creep on all the sweet moms that comment on my social media-haha!] and how much you love your children! I’ll be on one mom’s instagram and she will have 4 kids and I’m just in awe at her ability to be such a rockstar.  So thank YOU for even taking the time out of your busy day to read my blog/comment/send me encouragement. It means more than you will EVER know and I hope I can learn from each mom I meet!