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The little goober had her second plane ride today! It wasn’t quite as flawless as the first, but great nonetheless. 

Kensie started fussing because she did NOT want to sit still or play with any of her toys while we taxied on the runway. I fed her and she finished while we were still waiting. As soon as we took off, she got quiet and looked out the window and dozed off. I guess the altitude doesn’t bother her ears one bit! 

Kens was quite the happy camper when she woke up. She chatted the whole way through the airport and ate her toes while we waited on our luggage. 

When we got home, we went to get Jack and then ran to the grocery store. Kensie was super tired and dozed off right before we got there. I got a new breastfeeding cover (it is the BEST) that doubles as a car seat cover so I tried to use it thinking she’d sleep in the store. Nope. 

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It lasted for all of 20 seconds. 

The cover is from Milkmaid Goods and I’m obsessed! A friend of mine had one and fed her baby while we were at lunch and I was amazed at how well it covered. I hadn’t  fed Kensie in public (until this trip on the plane) because the scarf cover I had NEVER stayed on or covered anything and while breastfeeding is normal, I still prefer the privacy. This cover is a game changer!! I highly recommend for all momma’s and momma-to-bes! 

How does this baby girl keep growing up overnight?! Kensington had a great weekend in North Carolina and has a new favorite hobby: sitting up on her own!

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Also, Kensie fell asleep on me upright for the first time since she was maybe a week old. Anytime I hold her like this she keeps her head up to look around and only goes to sleep if I lie her down in my arms. 

It was killing my lower back and arms but I couldn’t put her down because it was the sweetest thing ever. 

Kensie was so happy all weekend and only cried a little when she got tired and her FOMO kicked in. 

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We missed daddy while he was at his cert during the day, but we enjoyed hanging out in the gorgeous weather and K took her first walk in her stroller (without being in her carset)! 

Oh, oh, oh!!! I’ve also found a solution for K’s blowouts! I tried the Seventh Generation diapers out and they are PERFECT. If any other momma’s have this issue – try them out! As you guys have seen, when Kens is sitting down and poops it always goes up her back. These are a lot taller so the business stays in the diaper. They’re also all natural so she doesn’t get rashes. Win, win! 

Annnddddd…I thought this was really funny. K has decided that sleeping on her side is the best – like momma, like daughter! 

Well, we were definitely not the people with the crying baby on the plane! 

K was slamming her head into me while we were waiting for them to finish boarding (she was hungry) and started to fuss because it was way past naptime. So, I took a chance and it WORKED! I fed her before we ever took off and she passed out immediately after. Homegirl slept from before takeoff to after we landed! 

I’ll assume she enjoys the noises since she was passed out the whole time. What I do know she loved was all the people watching at the airport. Kensie was such a ham staring and smiling at everyone that called her cute. 

All the “stuff” that comes with traveling with a baby turned out not to be too bad. 

We checked our luggage and the car seat base and took her stroller and car seat straight to the gate and gate checked it! I considered checking all of it and wearing her, but my lower back was thankful for the extra time she got to sit in her car seat. 

Also, I saw these little cubes for breastfeeding at the airport and I thought it was pretty awesome! I don’t know if they’re new or I just never noticed them before.

Kensie’s nose is still super runny and making her cough a lot. 😪 It seems to be bothering me more than her, though! We’re looking forward to a fun, relaxing weekend hanging out with friends! 

Yes, Kensington. You ARE the Boss Lady. When you decided sleep wasn’t happening last night, you were most definitely the boss. 

We are pretty sure someone is about to cut their first tooth! KB woke up AGAIN last night when I got home from the movie and then again at 2:20a. And that time she wouldn’t go back to sleep. So, for the first time in the 155 days of her life, we stayed up and partied until 6:30am. Woof. 

Starbucks saved this momma’s life today! 

K has the full teething package going on: drool, chomping, tugging on her ear, and now the super runny nose and no sleep. Luckily she was happy as could be. She just preferred talking and playing with her feet over going to bed. 

Sam came over to hang with Kens so I could pack for our trip tomorrow. Must be nice to get some solid naps in since you were up all night, huh? 🙄

Tomorrow Kensie is going on a plane for the first time!!! I’m not looking forward to the million things we have to tote around, but I think she’ll do great. 

Now I just hope she does great at sleeping tonight because this momma is exhausted!!

The vacuum is BACK! Oh what a night. Also, Kens would like for you all to see her feet. 

I cleaned the floors at the gym this morning and I wore Kensie. Naturally, the noise put her right to sleep. 

K had a fun day hanging with B (grandma) and then we ran some errands! I struck gold at our favorite: TARGET! 

Next mission: count update on K’s bows. She has to be pushing close to that 300 by now! I also got iron-on vinyls for my new Cricut so I can start working on Kensie’s Easter onsie! Woohoo!!!

Oh oh oh! Side note for all my girl momma friends (or anyone that buys clothes for little girls), Bailey’s Blossoms is doing a $50 giveaway on their Facebook page! Just like and comment on their post and they’re picking winners this weekend. Their stuff is adorable and K wears their rompers and bows all of the time! 

In the meantime, you can use code KENSINGTON10 for 10% off until March 31!

After her day of playing, I put her to bed early so I could go see Beauty and the Beast with the girls! (It was AMAZING). Unfortunately, she woke up and gave daddy quite the show. 🙄 I came home to this (photo below) and couldn’t stop laughing. 

They were both alive and the baby was asleep, so it’s a win in my book! 

(Long post ahead…) Oh, the power of a fart. K was happy all morning and after her afternoon nap she woke up crying and had a fussy afternoon. She’d fuss, fart, then smile. It was the mantra of her day. 

Since K’s day was pretty uneventful other than the normal eat, sleep, party, poop, there’s something else I wanted to share! 

The last few days I’ve come across multiple articles on Facebook about “crying it out” and cosleeping. I’ve mentioned before that we do cosleep and that I am not a fan of cry it out. 

When I was pregnant, I did a lot of research on the cry it out method so I could understand A.) what it was and B.) if it was something I’d do. We decided not to, and while everyone has their reasons one way or the other – here’s ours:

• Leaving a baby to cry it out creates high blood pressure and unnecessary stress.
• Responding to their cry creates trust that you’ll meet their needs. (This comes into play a lot with the “Fourth Trimester” I posted about a while back!)
• You cannot spoil a baby. They’re crying for a reason, and sometimes that reason may just be that they want to be held. They’re carry mammals. 
• Babies that were not left to cry it out were found to be more intelligent, confident and independent later in life. (Independent is a surprising one, huh?)
• And the most simple answer, I can’t deal with listening to her cry and not responding. My body was not wired for that one! I know I usually seem like I have my shit together, but that’s one thing that used to put me straight into anxiety mode.  

While I have put her down while she cried just for my sanity, I’ve never left her there more than a couple of minutes. (And for those that have only seen happy Kens and don’t think she cries, check months 1-3 on the blog. My child loved to CRY!)

Most people have been very kind and supportive to me as a first time mom, but I’ve also had a handful of smart ass comments along the way. I usually brush them off with a “yeah, ok” and carry on doing what I choose to do. Kens is at the gym for hours at a time each day and I’ve gotten a few of the “you know it’s ok if she cries” and “you can let her cry you don’t have to pick her up every time.” I won’t go into my reasons because that could be a separate blog post itself; but, if you’re considering saying that to me, save your breath. 

We’re only 5 months in, and as long as she’s not tired or hungry, Kensie will entertain herself for 30-45 minutes at a time before she needs a change of scenery. When she’s being held she tries to get down or reach for things on her own. She becomes more and more independent every single day. Sure,when she’s tired she wants to be held or at least a hand to hold while she falls asleep, but give her a break. She was IN ME for 10 months! 

Co-sleeping is an issue that I have a similar response to. Before I had a baby, I wasn’t sure if it was something I’d do because all I heard were the dangers of it. What I didn’t know was all the benefits to it, if done safely! This is something we naturally started when Kensie came home from the hospital. She’d sleep in her crib for a little, and when she woke to eat she’d fall asleep in my arms. If I set her back in the crib, she’d cry. 

My options were hold her and sleep, or stay up all night attempting to make this little human that just came out of my warm belly, sleep alone in a large, cold “box” all alone. I went with cosleeping immediately. When she was really little, I kept her in her boppy next to me so we wouldn’t roll over on her. Now that she’s bigger, she sleeps on my arm. 

Something about being right next to me visibly calms her down and keeps her relaxed. Now that she’ll go back to her crib if I want her to, some nights I put her back after she eats. However, she’s always slept longer if I let her come in bed with us.  (And again, this made a lot of sense to me once I learned about the 4th trimester!)

A few months ago I sent a SnapChat to a friend of Kensie still asleep at 9a and she was in my arm. She asked if we coslept and I told her in the middle of the night when she wakes up to eat, I move her to our bed and she sleeps in later than I do! Her baby was 6-7 months at the time and she’d never tried it. Sure enough, her baby slept through the night!! There’s legitimate research on it if your interested, but cosleeping is the norm in other countries and their infant mortality rate is way lower than ours! 

The reality is, regardless of the facts, it’s what I’m comfortable with and no mom should be ashamed of what they choose or scared to admit it.

Speaking of sleeping, Kensie can officially put her own pacifier in her mouth now as well. When she feels like it at least…if she’s cranky she fusses and closes her eyes and holds her mouth open like she’s Stevie Wonder. 🙄Last night she threw it across her crib, unswaddled herself, took her blanket off and slept on her side. Ok girl. You do you. 

What a day to celebrate! The first day of Spring and Miss Kensington Brooke is 5 months old! AH! K celebrated with all of her favorite things…photo shoots, naps and drooling. 

A friend of ours set up an adorable Easter back drop and invited us over for a photo shoot! Of course we were in. There was even a live bunny! Kensie was so good and let me get lots of precious photos of her today. 

I can’t believe how quickly this girl is growing. I was surprised she fit in that crate! She just grew out of her 3 mo clothes and it’s not seeming like she’s going to be in the 6mo ones for long! Especially her sleepers. This girl has legs for days. 

The last month has been a big (and great) one in the learning leaps of KB! She’s put herself on a schedule (for the most part), loves Baby Einstein, naps in her chair, attention of any sort from any one, being held, talking, kicking and eating her toes. 

Kensie started playing with all of her toys and can almost sit up on her own. She doesn’t mind dirty diapers and she goes to bed in her crib all by herself! 

Kensie is still going strong and 100% breastfed! We started practicing eating with some rice cereal at night and she still spits it all over herself but she likes the spoon in her mouth. 

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K loves snuggles and kisses and laughs at puppies, raspberries, “boo!” and pulling people’s fingers. For now she’s still a momma’s girl…cherishing that everyday while it lasts!

Happy 5 months Kensie Brooke!!!

Kensie survived her first spring break and a whole weekend without me! (Okay let’s be honest – that’s code for I survived.) I somehow made it through with no tears. Kens made it through pretty tearless as well I was told!

Chris and I had a great weekend with friends and while I still had to be slightly responsible (like keep pumping so I can feed Kens…) I will admit it was a great “break” from 24/7 momming.

In my weekend away, I learned that since becoming a mom my ability to multitask/organize/remember things has gone straight to pro status, everything is much easier with 2 hands, I am still really good at sleeping, I am now extremely fast at things like eating and getting ready, I can tell time by the size of my breasts (TMI?) and the most valuable lesson: pumping helps you avoid hangovers. Mommas, you’re all welcome for the tip. 

Of course we missed her like crazy; but, Gramma kept us updated with lots of pictures, a few videos, and of course FaceTime. K rocked her outfits, as planned, with no blowouts and took lots of naps! Huge huge HUGE thanks to my momma for taking such great care of our little girl all weekend! She even sent her home with clean laundry, clean bottles and of course new toys (and clothes because we all know this child needs more clothes…)

Goodness gracious I missed this sweet face SO much. 

Now I’m just patiently waiting for her to wake up to eat so I can have a reason to get her out of her crib and keep her in bed with me tonight. 😉

I think Kensie knows she’s not going to see her momma this weekend! She was back to fighting her naps this morning unless I held her. 

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Just. Close. Them! 

Luckily she finally relaxed and took a long nap for me so I could pack the 5 million things she needs just to stay with Gramma for one weekend. 

I’m pretty sure going out of town without the baby is harder than with the baby. (Okay, maybe just emotionally harder. 😩 For me, not her. And it was tons of midnight pump sessions to stock up a milk stash for this trip!) 

I had a lot to get done to prepare for being gone, so when Kensie woke up she was a baby boss lady and helped me out. By helped I mean kept knocking things out of my hand, trying to grab my coffee cup and smacking the keyboard. 

All the work must have worn her out, because she took another nap for me in the afternoon all on her own!!

If you feel like seeing the same 5 snaps all the time of Kensie laughing, sleeping or pooping all over herself, feel free to add us! Snap: jnhall15

We had a long 5 hour afternoon at the gym and Kens was such a trooper! If I’m not holding her, sometimes she’ll settle for hand holding instead. I had to workout…so we compromised. 

Gramma is on daily photo duty, but the blog won’t be updated until we are back! Wish me luck. I sure am going to miss my little sidekick this weekend. 

This photo accurately describes how Miss Kensington feels about naps these last few days. 

It also describes how I feel. 

Normally Kens goes straight down for a nap. Today just as she’d start to fall asleep she’d start crying hysterically first. 🙄 

She fell asleep while I was holding her at the gym and I was able to set her down in her swing and start working out. 1 minute into the WOD I am out running and hear her screaming bloody murder. That was the end of my workout for the day. 

I pick her up – goes to sleep. Try to set her down – screams. 

Contrary to the first photo, K was actually a great, happy baby today. It was just the naps that she wasn’t a fan of. 

So months back when Kensie used to sleep in her vibrating chair at night I talked about a vibrating crib. Y’all. IT EXISTS!

I got this at Babies R Us today and put it under her mattress. It took a little longer to get her to fall asleep because she could turn side to side more than she can in her boppy, but it was a complete success!

She looked so big laying in there by herself! I really need time to slow down because I am not ready for this baby to turn into a little girl!