It feels like an eternity since I wrote the last monthly update on the little dude. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. He’s cuter than ever with the sweetest little personality, and if you watch my Instagram stories you know that I’m not exaggerating. He is pure sunshine and joy, until he’s hungry or tired and then he needs his mama. I feel like month 7 is when they really start changing and becoming super independent and after this you basically blink and they are a toddler.
A few weeks ago we had the most magical stay at The Disneyland Hotel. It was just for one night and happens to be a short 1-hour drive from our house but regardless, we had to get creative when it came to bedtime. We have traveled quite a bit with Elouise and now we are learning all sorts of new tricks since we’ve been hitting the road with Sully. Traveling with a baby and a toddler, or any amount of children, is totally possible and can still be fun, even if you aren’t staying at the happiest place on earth. Keep scrolling, because I decided to share some of my best tips for getting a good nights sleep while traveling as a family.
Sleep has become quite the luxury over here since this little dude has entered our family. I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but when your first kid sleeps through the night from day one, even having to wake up once a night is a big adjustment. Well, with Sullivan we have tried all sorts of tricks to try and coax him in to sleeping through night (although now I know that some kids sleep through the night until they are toddlers, gasp!). Swaddling was doing pretty well for us, but our boy is a mover and a shaker, so at 5 months we had to take him out of the swaddle since he was starting to roll. After some trial and error we have found what works best for us with the Nested Bean Zen Sack and I’m giving you the chance to win one for yourself! Read until the end to find out how. Thank you to Nested Bean for sponsoring this post.
I’m just going to come right out and say it, I’m not a fan of messes. I wish I was that mom who was super carefree 24-7 and let their kid just have the time of their life playing in the mud while wearing their new white shoes, but it just isn’t who I am. Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest, I will say that as Elouise is getting older I have relaxed a ton, and with Sullivan it’s like I’m a whole new mama. The key, my friends, is finding that perfect balance. Elouise was dying for ice cream the other day, but this mama is not fan of the sticky mess all over her, her clothes, the high chair, the table, and the floor. That is way too many thing I’m going to have to clean. So this is where I comprised, and we took ourselves out into the lovely summertime weather for an ice cream picnic.
It’s no secret that my kiddos are not far apart in age, which means that Elouise had barely entered toddler-hood when a baby came into our family. Since she was so little it was difficult to really, truly prepare her for the new addition in a way that she could rationally process ahead of time. Sure, if you asked her where brother was she would point to my belly but I’m sure she had no clue that she was about to lose out on mama and daddy’s constant undivided attention. That meant that the transitional process when brother came home from the hospital required extra time and a whole lot of grace. Luckily she never expressed any disappointment or frustration with Sullivan being around, in fact mostly she was unaware or indifferent. Still, we had to get creative to help her feel involved. One of my favorite ways to help her embrace her big sister role is letting her help with feeding Sully his Dr. Browns bottles.
