Woo TGIF, friends! I can't believe we leave for Walt Disney World in less than a week! We're battling some mild colds in our house right now though so we'll be trying to make a speedy recovery this weekend and just prep for our trip. We have a little bit more shopping and a lot of packing to do!

Today though I've been inspired recently by one of my very good friends who just gave birth to her baby girl and have been reminded of my time of being in the hospital and giving birth. I had no idea you could come home with so many "goodies" from the hospital! I've got to say, all the stuff I took home with me was such a big help in the first month of being a new mom. I wanted to share a little bit of wisdom with all of you so you can make a quick list on your phones of things to knick from the hospital before you come home with your new bundle of joy!

• Ice packs
• Mesh undies
• Oversized pads
• Bulb syringes
• Pacifiers
• Receiving blankets
• Diapers
• Wash cloths
• Dermaplast
• Peri bottle
• Baby hats

1. Ice packs - The hospital has convenient crack and shake ice packs that stay cold for about 30 minutes at a time. I used these so much for my tailbone while I was napping. It's not the best thing to keep a cold pack on a sore spot for too long, so it was nice that these "expired" when I fell asleep. Use them for whatever is still sore long after you leave the hospital!

2. Mesh undies - Don't waste your money buying your own...just take a couple weeks worth from the hospital because they're going to get ruined or thrown away anyways. I recommend wearing these for about 2 weeks after giving birth so that you don't ruin any of your good underwear.

3. Oversized pads - I didn't even know they made pads that big but thank goodness they do! Once again...grab enough for a week or two to use at home because before you know it, you won't be bleeding that much. Then you can switch over to normal sized pads until you're in the all clear.

4. Bulb syringes - I fibbed and told our nurse I didn't know where our bulb syringe was so that I could have two at home. We keep one upstairs in Kai's room and one downstairs in his pack and play or I'll throw it in the diaper bag. These things are great for getting water out of their ears and boogers out of their nose.

​5. Pacifiers - Ask your nurse for a few pacifiers. Our hospital had the Soothies ones and those are Kai's favorite. I keep them all over the house and trust me, later on when your baby is teething, you'll want as many extras as possible that you can throw in the freezer and keep rotating out. That way you don't have to take their Wubanub away from them...you have temps all over the place!

6. Receiving blankets - These are what the nurses will swaddle your babe in at the hospital. When your baby has more strength and can wiggle around, these blankets won't stay put if you swaddle them in them. So what I'm getting at is don't waste your money or your registry space on buying your own. Take a few of the cute baby feet ones they have at the hospital to bring your baby home in and use them to keep them warm in their car seat. Other than that, they're just going to sit in the closet.

​7. Diapers - Take as many diapers as your hospital bags will hold. Newborns go through 10-12 diapers a day...take advantage of as many free ones you can get! Most hospitals have Pampers, which are so great for newborns because it has the wet indicator on the outside.

8. Wash cloths - You can never have too many, in my opinion. I use little wash cloths for everything...spit up incidents, wiping Kai's bum when he has diaper rash, washing my face, cleaning, sweat towel for yoga, etc.

9. Dermaplast - The hospital has lots of cans of this stuff so ask to take a couple home with you. This is the stuff that you spray on your vagina to numb it up after you use the bathroom. I know, I know, gross, TMI, but seriously after you've just given birth, you need relief whenever you can get it. I used this stuff for about two weeks pp.

10. Peri bottle - Another post bathroom use item. I took the one the hospital gave to me home and I really wish I had asked for a second one so that I could have one upstairs and one downstairs. I used this after every bathroom trip for about a month. I tore during my delivery, so I had to have stitches, and I wanted to make sure I was staying as clean as possible down there.

11. Baby hats - The hospitals all give out those cute blue and pink baby hats! Take a bunch, especially in the winter! They are the perfect size for a small newborn head and help with any quick trips in and out of the house.

Anything else I'm missing mamas!? Leave some comments on this post for any other ideas you have for mamas to be who are about to go through labor and delivery soon!

Let's talk about self love, beautiful friends. There is so much that falls under these two small words and it is so important. I've truly fallen in to the movement of self love. Since becoming a mother, I've never loved myself more. I'm so grateful for my body, my motivation in life, and just who I am as a person in general. Because of how I finally feel about myself, it has led me to take much better care of myself lately. I know I've said it many times before but we are remarkable. Think of all the things we do now and imagine how much more we could do if we treated ourselves with genuine love.

Self love is deeper than a feeling though and it's more than the awesome phrase "treat yo self." I truly believe it's the actions we take to care for ourselves so we can continue those feelings of love for ourselves. While yes we deserve to treat ourselves often and I always believe in having something to look forward to, it's more important to do things on a daily basis to show yourself love. The best part about that though is that it's different for everyone. For me, it's waking up early, meditating, and reading a book while sipping my coffee. It's getting my work outs in during the week as a way to keep my body strong and get a mental break from work and Kai. (Trust me, Kai's wonderful, but I'm a better mother if I get a break from him a few nights a week.) It's doing my skin care routine every night. It's getting 8 hours of sleep at night. There is so much I try to do for myself on a daily basis to show myself love and I'm not going to lie, not every day is perfect. Far from perfect to be honest. I tend to get mixed up in that "treat yo self" trap of binging on candy and Game of Thrones instead of going to the gym and having a salad with dinner. While the first option is fun, it's actually not showing myself the true love it deserves.

• Miracle Mornings (wake up early, meditate, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, read, scribe)
• Skin care
• Exercise
• Meditate
• Baths
• Massages, mani/pedis, etc
• Hygge (candles, cozy living, togetherness, simplicity)
• Sleep
• Water
• Nutrients (eat your veggies, take your vitamins)
• Get ready every day
• Learn (read, write, take classes)
• Vacations + adventures
• Rewards

These are just some of the ways I try to instill in my life for showing myself love. Like I said, it's so different for everyone but if you're looking for a place to start, pick out a few of these points and try to incorporate them in to your daily life. You deserve it! You are so beautiful, strong, and wonderful. Love yourself first and foremost and you'll be able to love the world better!

What are some ways you practice self love? I'd love to hear from you guys so we can keep adding to this list for everyone to try! Leave me a comment on this post or on the Tiny Tribe post about self love! Have a. beautiful Wednesday, friends!

We worked so hard Kai's first year of life to keep him on a solid schedule and in our opinion, it really shows. We get so many compliments about how happy and healthy he is all the time. Everyone is so impressed at how much he sleeps and how well he eats. We have Babywise to thank for this! Not only did having Kai on a schedule from day one help him grow and thrive, it helped us keep our sanity as parents! We are first time parents and had no idea what we were doing. So having a plan and theory to rely on was huge for us. Our little crew thrives on a schedule and we have no plans on stopping having a routine any time soon. Here is Kai's current schedule at the amazing marker of 12 months old.

7:00 AM - Wake up, nurse
7:30 AM - Get ready for the day (diaper change, brush teeth, moisturize)
7:45 AM - 2 oz bottle of cow's milk
8:00 AM - Breakfast (oatmeal + fruit or scrambled eggs)
8:30 AM - Independent playtime
9:30 AM - Nap
11:30 AM - 6 oz bottle of cow's milk, diaper change
12:00 PM - Lunch (veggies + fruit or veggies + puffs w/ nut butter)
12:30 PM - Playtime
1:30 PM - Nap
3:30 PM - 6 oz bottle of cow's milk, diaper change
3:45 PM - Go for a walk or play outside
4:00 PM - Snack (puffs, banana chips, oranges)
4:30 PM - Babywear in ring sling for daily chores
5:00 PM - Independent playtime
5:30 PM - 6 oz bottle of cow's milk, diaper change
6:00 PM - Dinner (whatever family is having or veggies + rice cereal + fruit)
6:30 PM - Playtime
7:30 PM - Get ready for bed (bath, PJs)
7:45 PM - Read
8:00 PM - Down for the night

That's Kai's schedule every single day for the most part. We follow it on the weekends and our nanny follows it during the week while we're working. We are definitely more lenient these days and have no problem feeding him early or putting him down late for a nap if we have things going on, but we generally try our best to stay around these times. The playtime and what not is what he does on a typical day when he is at home and we're not out and about with him. We're big on having him play independently throughout the day so that he uses his imagination. We've been doing this with him for awhile now and he does so well with it. He just plays with his toys, stuffed animals, and books during this time. We rarely have the TV on for him but will sometimes throw on Sesame Street or Mickey for him on the weekends.

He takes two 2 hour naps during the day in his crib and sleeps for 11 hours at night in his crib. He will get cranky if these naps are cut short so sometimes we need to do a little catnap for him from 4:30 to 5:30 to help him out. He's started back up with a witching hour again from 5 to 5:30 but this is actually normal for most kids! I've found that if he's extra cranky, having him in a ring sling helps a lot. Speaking of babywearing, I still put him in a sling every day (#sling365 << follow along on my Instagram!) and we do our "daily chores" together. I think this is honestly Kai's favorite part of the day. I explain to him everything we're doing like getting the mail, switching the laundry, watering the plants, emptying the dishwasher and he loves it. I'm trying to teach him from the earliest age that it's important to do our daily tasks to keep our home happy and functioning. I'm hoping all of this will just be second nature to him and he'll be my happy little helper for years to come!

Kai has fully transitioned to cow's milk from formula. We are still nursing in the morning...I was weaning and decided not to give up the morning nursing session (a full blog post on this later) but I am no longer pumping, so Kai doesn't get bottled breast milk either. He has about 20 oz of cow's milk a day and then whatever he gets from me in the morning. He eats 3 meals a day and has a snack or what the French call a le goûter in the afternoon. We also try to get outside every day for some fresh air even if it's just for 5 minutes. It's brutally cold here in the winter so as long as it's at least 20 degrees or above, I bundle him up and we go out in our backyard for a few minutes just to breath in the fresh air. If it's in the 30s then we will take Wrigley for a short walk.

I think that about sums it up! If you have any questions for me about Kai's schedule or what we did to get here please leave me a comment below! If you want to see my previous posts on Kai's schedules all throughout his first year and how we accomplished all the merges to get to where we are now you can visit our 12 weeks schedule, 17 weeks schedule, and 29 weeks schedule posts.

Is your baby on a schedule or do you prefer to just go day by day? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Monday beautiful friends! I hope you all had a fun weekend and stayed nice and warm. It's gotten pretty cold here again and we've been getting hit with more snow but luckily Kai and I had a fun little mama/baby date with some new friends of ours at the Garfield Park Conservatory on Saturday. I swear that place is my absolute favorite place to go in Chicago in the winter. It's so warm and refreshing in there! We walked around with some fellow babywearing loving mamas and babies. It was so much fun to get to know some other moms who live in Chicago and sport our Wildbirds! Yesterday we just stayed home and snuggled up with some Game of Thrones while it snowed some more. We're rewatching the whole series to prep for the upcoming new season that airs in April!

I feel like I always start off the year strong when it comes to reading. Anyone else feel this way? I was able to make it through 2 books last month and I wanted to share them with you today! They are both non-fictions "self help" books and were a great way to motivate me for the year ahead.

This was definitely your typical self motivating how to kick butt book with a bit of an attitude twist. The author, Jen Sincero, is very blunt and just tells it like it is, which I really like. When it comes to self help books I'm not in to the fluffy extra crap that authors tend to add as fillers. Sincero gives great tips on how to excel in your professional and personal life, but to be honest it's nothing ground breaking. She hits on having a strong morning routine, meditation, exercise, getting enough sleep, just all your standard stuff that we always here about. She definitely presents it in an entertaining way but I don't feel that I personally learned anything new from this read. However, it did refresh my mind in terms of the things I should be doing to keep kicking ass at life, which was nice! I'll give it a 3 out of 5.
You can buy You are a Badass on Amazon.

Body Love is a guided nutrition and physical fitness self help book. Kelly will tell you over and over again her program is not a diet, it's a lifestyle. Which I appreciate that approach, but if you were to sum it up...it's a diet, sorry Kelly! Her program is called the Fab Four, which is 4 main kinds of foods that you should always incorporate in to breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are leafy greens, fiber, protein, and fats. Kelly states that if you always have these 4 types of foods in your meals then you will avoid blood sugar spikes and drops, which will help you avoid cravings and keep you fuller longer. She is big on smoothies to incorporate the Fab Four and has lots of great recipes within the book. She touches upon exercise and other good habits you should be doing to help you feel like your best self. She also has an awesome sample schedule of meals and workouts and how that all fits in to her normal lifestyle in the book.

I liked this book, but it's not my favorite. I was hoping for something different from it, to be honest. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting from it, but it felt very preachy. She tells you over and over again how her program isn't a diet for like 5 chapters. By the time I got to the recipes it was kind of like "enough already!" It was very interesting to read but it still felt restrictive and a bit hard to follow, which she claims its not. Maybe it's just because we live in the Midwest, but a lot of her suggestions just aren't as easy as she was making them out to be. She kind of sounded like a naive LA girl, ha! Regardless though, I've tried to be more conscious of my meals to see if I feel better by incorporating the Fab Four as much as I can. I'm not 100% buying in to it, but I'm trying my best! I'll keep you all posted on how I'm feeling in any of my wellness posts! I'll give this one a 3 out of 5, as well.
You can buy Body Love on Amazon.

UP NEXT: Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
What are you currently reading? Share with me in the comments below!
Also, for all you parents out there, a friend of mine started a fun baby book club on Instagram! She's putting up bi-weekly baby book recommendations and you can follow along on the fun at @solsbooks!

All photos shot and edited by Hallie Duesenberg