Tag: Baby

My Favorite Baby Books

Published on by Gina3 Comments

Did you know that today is World Read Aloud Day? I did not (thank you SJP!) but, to honor such an important topic, I thought I’d share some of my favorite books to read aloud to babies. Studies have shown that reading to kids, especially young kids, is key for their development, and it’s something we do a lot of in our house. Both of my parents are librarians and I’m lucky that they instilled a love of reading in us at an early age. I hope that I can do the same for my kids! I’ve had a half-written post drafted for months now about my favorite baby books and once I saw that today is World Read Aloud Day, I figured I may as well get it up! I’m all for any effort to raise awareness of and encourage reading to kids. The books I’m mentioning here are ones I read with Jackson on repeat when he was a baby, and I’m now using them with Emmy too.  Continue reading “My Favorite Baby Books” →

Sleep Training The Second Time Around

Published on by GinaLeave a comment

I mentioned in my last post that Emmy’s sleep has improved a ton, but it wasn’t by chance. I decided after Thanksgiving that the best gift I could give myself (and Emmy, too) for Christmas was the gift of sleep, so in early December, right after Emmy turned six months old, I decided to sleep train her. This wasn’t my first time at the rodeo since I wound up eventually sleep training Jackson as well (you can read about that here), but it didn’t make it any easier emotionally. Listening to your baby cry sucks, plain and simple. There’s no sugar coating it. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat because it has done wonders for Emmy’s quality of sleep, and my sanity. I know sleep training is a very polarizing topic and many people are firmly against it. I never thought I would resort to it myself before I had Jackson, to be honest. Having gone through it twice now though, I’ve seen firsthand how it can be beneficial to both babies and parents (assuming a baby is ready). I’m certainly no expert on this, but I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else struggling with infant sleep issues. Continue reading “Sleep Training The Second Time Around” →

Emmy Update: 7 Months

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It has been a bit since I last posted–four months and four days to be exact!–but who’s counting? Life with two young kids is awesome, but it doesn’t allow for much down time. Pretty much the only opportunity I have during the day to crack open the computer for more than a minute or two is when the kids are napping, and I’ve been choosing to use that time to sleep myself. If I have to choose between sleep and pretty much anything else, I’ll almost always pick sleep. What can I say? I like my rest! Now that Emmy is on a better nighttime sleep schedule and I actually have my evenings back, I’m hoping to carve out more time to get back to things I’ve been neglecting, like this blog. Continue reading “Emmy Update: 7 Months” →

She’s Here! The First Week with Our New Baby

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It has been exactly a week since our little girl graced us with her presence. Last Wednesday, May 30th, we welcomed Emmy Scarlett into the world and officially became a family of four! She’s perfect and we feel so incredibly grateful. Even though this was my second time going through delivery, it was still a surreal experience. It’s so crazy to think I went into the hospital with just my husband and left with another little human that we’re now responsible for. It’s both amazing and terrifying! But mostly amazing. Continue reading “She’s Here! The First Week with Our New Baby” →

Baby #2!

Published on by Gina1 Comment

Bump pic #2

I couldn’t be happier to share that David and I are expecting baby number 2 this spring! The due date is three weeks before Jackson turns two. We shared the news with our families at Thanksgiving and on social media the Friday before Christmas, but I’m planning on creating some pregnancy-related content on the blog, so I wanted to announce it here as well. Believe it or not, I’m actually about halfway through the pregnancy already (I’ll be officially 20 weeks along on Monday), and fortunately, it has been uneventful so far. I can’t believe how fast the time is flying! Continue reading “Baby #2!” →