Kai Bear started solids at his 6 month mark, woohoo! With that though, it brought on a whole new set of challenges with his schedule. He still nurses or has a bottle first at each feeding and then three times a day after his milk he eats some solids. Because if this his feedings are a lot longer and he stays fuller longer. We want to make sure he is still getting the proper amount of milk throughout the day (at least 20 oz), so we thought it would be best to extend out his feeding times a little bit to make sure he is ready for a full meal at each feeding. We've been on this schedule for a couple weeks now and it's going really well! Here's his updated schedule:

7:00am - Feed (milk + oatmeal + fruit)
9:30am - Nap
11:00am - Feed (milk + veggies + fruit)
1:30pm - Nap
3:00pm - Feed (milk)
5:00pm - Optional catnap
6:00pm - Feed (milk + cereal + veggies + fruit)
8:00pm - Feed (milk)
8:30pm - Bedtime

So if you compare this schedule to his last schedule which started at 16 weeks, you can see that we've extended his meals times out to be 4 hours apart earlier in the day and a little closer together later in the day to fill up for sleeping all night. His meal times have fallen nicely in to normal meal times with us now, too, so we're able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together now! Eventually fruits will be added in at all three meals. He takes two good hour and a half naps and was taking a catnap between 5 and 6pm. However, he has slowly started to decrease the time of that nap and be fine without an hour long nap. So, we're letting him decide on that one. Some days he might need it, some days he might not, just like us! Between his meals and naps he of course plays! We also pushed his bedtime out by 30 min to allow for him to digest his dinner before giving him more milk before bed. Here are some FAQs we've been getting in regards to Kai starting solids:

What was Kai's schedule before?
Kai use to eat at 7am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm, and 7:30pm and nap at 9am, 12:30pm, and 4pm. So as you can see, we moved from 3.5 hrs to 4 hrs for the majority of the day. You can see our first schedule post here for what his schedules were like prior to 16 weeks.

What kinds of solids have you given Kai?
We started out with oatmeal mixed with breast milk or formula but then Kai had a fluke stomach virus and we switched over to rice cereal to be on the safe side that it wasn't an allergic reaction. After that we gave him sweet potatoes and then peas. We've reintroduced oatmeal again and just started giving him peaches a couple days ago. I'll be doing a whole blog post with more in depth information on how we started solids and the route we went really soon!

Is Kai still sleeping through the night?
Yes, he is...thank goodness! We had a short period of time where he was regressing during month 5. It was probably a combo of leap 5, 6 month growth spurt, stomach virus, diaper rash, and being off schedule. He's never had issues being off schedule for short periods of time, but July was a hard month for us and he was REALLY off for about a week. We really paid for it at night! After we started him on solids though and switched over to this current schedule he's gone back to sleeping through the night.

Are you still breastfeeding?
Yes, I am. We plan on continuing until he is a year old. He still prefers nursing over a bottle and when he is given a bottle he much prefers breast milk to formula, so onwards we go! While it's very demanding and hard sometimes, I still really love it, too. He's gotten much faster at nursing and I'm finally able to keep up with him since his demand has decreased a bit thanks to starting solids. We aren't living bottle to bottle anymore and he's barely had formula since we've started solids. We do use formula to make his cereal and oatmeal though and if we're out of pumped breast milk then he will get formula instead.
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If you have any other questions please leave me a comment below and I'll be sure to include them in my next baby schedule post!

Outfit Details:
Button-Up Top: Anthropologie | Shorts: JCrew Factory | Sandals: Michael Kors (old, similar) | Hat: JCrew | Sunglasses: Amazon

Kai's Outfit Details:
Overalls: Target | Onesie: Target

Traditions are so important to me. I always loved when I was younger those memories of doing something special every year as a family and I would look forward to those things every single year. As Caleb and I started dating and got married we slowly started our own traditions that I truly love. However, now that we have Kai, we're slowly starting more and for some reason they all feel so big and important. Last year we discovered this wonderful apple orchard just north of our house in Wisconsin and we found out that they have peach picking in July/August! We promised ourselves that we would go this year with Kai. We went a couple of weekends ago and had the best afternoon. We bought some goodies from the orchard market that we had for lunch and went out in to the orchard and picked a bunch of peaches! They allow you to eat as many peaches as you want when you're out in the orchard so we snacked on some while we picked out the best ones to bring home with us. Kai loved it so much and we definitely started a new tradition. We've eaten so many of them here at home, made peach cobbler, and made homemade peach puree for Kai to have for breakfast! I love that his first taste of peaches comes from ones that we picked right off the tree with him. We can't wait to go back next month for apple picking!

I got this shirt from Anthro last month and have been living in it. It's so light and airy plus it's a button down and guess what that's good for....yep, nursing the Bear! With everything I buy these days I always have that factor in mind. While I don't mind pulling a strap down or lifting my shirt to nurse him, there is just something so nice and easy about a button down. I also love the little tie in the front and how it's a bit oversized. I feel so comfortable in it and to me that is so key when it comes to buying clothes these days. I'm all about that functional fashion now. Plus, it's currently on sale! I paired it with a pair of white denim shorts and a Panama hat to keep the sun off my face a bit.

Remember when I said Kai Bear was a serious outfit repeat offender a few posts ago? Yeah, same overalls, ha! I just couldn't resist putting him in them because they say "Locally Grown." Get it?! Yes, I'm very cheesy when it's comes to our babe. This time though I paired it with just a white onesie for a little bit of simplicity and to keep him cool on a warm summer day.

Follow along with me on Twitter for all my #momlife tweets!

Walt Disney World is probably our favorite place in the world. We've gone the last two years to celebrate our anniversary and have learned a few tricks along the way to make our vacations there so special. One of the ways that made our trip last year 100x better than the year before was thanks to staying at a WDW resort. Staying on property has so many perks to it, it's insane. We didn't know any of this when we planned our first trip, but man do I wish we did know! So I'm here today to share with you all the extras you get if you decide to stay at a WDW resort.

If you book your trip through Disney and stay at a resort on property, you will have the option to take the free shuttle bus from the airport to Walt Disney World. Disney makes all of it so easy for you! They send you luggage tags in the mail, you put them on your bags prior to checking them in at your departing airport, and Disney gets your bags for you at Orlando International Airport. You just get off the plane and make your way to the Disney Magical Express area of the airport and get on the bus. You get to watch some Disney videos and sit back and relax after your flight. The bus brings you right to your hotel where they also drop your bags off for you in your room whenever it's ready! Then at the end of your trip, same thing. You check your bags at your resort and get on the bus at your designated time to go back to the airport. Disney checks your bags in for you at the airport and you pick them up when you arrive at your final destination.

You get your Magicbands for free if you stay at a Disney resort! The Magicbands act as your room key, ticket in to parks, your way to buy food from your dining plan, and your credit card to buy goodies all over WDW.

When you stay on property, you can book your 3 daily Fastpasses 60 days in advanced compared to 30 days if you're not staying on property. This is a huge advantage if you are planning on going on rides like Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, Frozen Ever After at Epcot, and Peter Pan's Flight at Magic Kingdom. You probably won't get a Fastpass for these rides if you don't book them 60 days in advance and will end up waiting in a 2+ hour line to ride them!

The Disney dining plans are about the best thing ever. There are 3 different levels - quick service, dining, and deluxe dining. You have to stay at a resort to take advantage of having a dining plan and I promise it makes your trip 1000x better. All your food is paid for ahead of time (even snacks!) so all you have to do is scan your magicband wherever you're eating and depending on the kind of restaurant or food stand you're at, it gets deducted from your plan. But like I said, you have to stay at a resort to get this perk!

Disney will send you a couple rounds of free mini golf for your whole group when you book a room at a resort! You can go to any of the golf ranges on property that has mini golf and play for free before 4pm! This is one of the great ways to take a small break from the parks.

Resort guests get to spend extra time in the parks! It's a different park every day and sometimes its prior to the park's official opening time or after its closing time. You can go on all the rides in the park and some food places will be open during the extra magic hours, too.

If you chose to drive to Disney or rent a car for your trip, you get to park for free at all the parks. You can come and go as you please and park hop and not have to pay a bunch of money to park at each park!

So as you can see, there are a lot of reasons why staying at a WDW resort is so worth it, but most of all each one is so unique and fun. There is a price point for every one and when you book a complete vacation package with Disney it truly is just that, a complete vacation. From the time you check your bags at the airport to the time you arrive home, Disney takes care of you.

What is your favorite Disney resort!? Mine is definitely the Polynesian...I love that I can get dole whips all day every day when we stay there!

Hey fellow book friends, it's been awhile! I was stuck on reading Jane Eyre forever, but I finally finished! I can't wait to share my thoughts with all of you as well as Babywise II! I took a slight break from Jane Eyre at the end of June/beginning of July to read through Babywise and Babywise II since Kai was reaching the next stage in his development! I originally only read the newborn to 12 weeks old parts of Babywise so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed with info, so I went back through to read the new parts and refresh on the general idea. Babywise II also highlights 5 months and on up to the time your baby becomes a toddler, so I tagged that on the my mom reading for the month. So here we go with a couple of book club chats!

So as most of you know, we're a Babywise family. We read the first book, On Becoming Babywise, at the end of last year. You can read that review here. The PDF method has gone extremely well for us. Kai sleeps so well, eats so well, and is so happy all the time and we can attribute so much of that to working hard at implementing the Babywise method from the beginning. We knew we wanted to continue on with this guidance even after we got Kai sleeping through the night because it's more than just that. It's all about his development and behavior all the time. Babywise II covers solid foods, the difference between punishment vs consequences, starting sign language, and good methods of play for the 5+ month old. It is a much shorter and quicker read compared to the first book, so it was a breeze to get through.

I liked Babywise II, but not as much as the first book. The book goes over solid foods, but I was hoping for more guidance on it since the first book is very centered around eating and sleeping. This book seemed a lot more concentrated on parenting and behavior, which I personally already have a good idea of how we want to go about "raising" Kai. The book gave some good pointers about staying consistent and starting out the way you always want to do things but those are things I already knew. It did touch upon a good way of starting solid foods though and did give some advice on foods to avoid, which I found really helpful. I also enjoyed the section about punishment vs consequences. Babies do not have a conscious, so punishment this early on is pointless.. When they misbehave, it is not intentional...they just don't know! So instead of implementing punishments when they do something you don't want them to do, instead you should go for consequences. One way we've started doing this is with Kai dropping toys on the ground. We pick them up for him twice, but if he drops it a third time, we take it away. Kind of like a three strikes your out thing. This way he will start to learn that if he drops his toys off his highchair or while he's on our lap in a chair, we will only grab it a couple of times if he accidentally drops it, but not if he keeps doing it because it's "fun." We also like the idea of starting sign language with Kai. We've started doing the sign for "more" when he's eating and I think he's slowly catching on! So essentially I liked bits and pieces of it, but overall I give it just an average rating. If you are looking for some help with solids and schedules though, give it a try, but I wouldn't bother reading the rest unless you are really lost on parenting styles. However, I have a couple of better recommendations for those kinds of books here and here.

You can buy Babywise II on Amazon.

I decided to take on this classic this past spring and it while it took me awhile to finish, it wasn't because I didn't like it, it was just because it was really really long and I'm a working mom. Jane Eyre is the story of a girl who is orphaned and grows up with a mean aunt and cousins, a little Cinderella if you ask me. She is eventually sent off to school where she excels and takes on a life around education. She falls in love, has her heart broken, but in the end gets what she deserves. There are lot of ups and downs and exciting moments all through the book and the ending is so heartwarming.

I really loved this book. Jane is an amazing and inspirational character. She's someone I would love to have lunch with and discuss books with. She is just such a likable character and I love her interactions with everyone she comes across. Her love story is fascinating and takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns but I just love the way all of it ends. It's one of those books where you question if it will end happy and while it's not all sunshine and rainbows, I believe it ends perfectly. So while it was really long and took a long time to read from start to end, it was so worth it to read. I highly recommend it if you love the classics and have some time to invest in a longer book!

You can buy Jane Eyre on Amazon.

Be sure to add me on Goodreads so we can be book buddies! I'm currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I tried once before and failed, so wish me luck this time! What are you currently reading?!

Outfit Details:
Dress: RP Everyday Shop | Wedges: Shopbop | Sunglasses: Tiffany & Co (similar) | Ring Sling: Wildbird

Kai's Outfit Details:
Romper + Onesie Set: Target | Bandana Bib: TJ Maxx (similar)

Oh summer, how I love you. I love warm days with the sun shining down on my face and feeling the warmth just all around me. After our long Chicago winters, I always long for summer days. A couple weeks ago we took full advantage of summer and made a small day trip to Lake Geneva. We had a beautiful day of exploring the quaint little shops, indulging in some chocolate and ice cream, and just enjoying the water. Of the whole time we spent out there though, my favorite moment actually though was when it was time to feed Kai. I sat down on a bench next to the harbor and just watched the water gently move. It was so peaceful and happy. We've had what you can call one of the toughest months of our lives this past month but in the midst of all the craziness, I come back to this moment and find some peace and love.

I wore this cute little dress from the Rachel Parcell Everyday Shop on our little day trip and it was the perfect pick for the day. It's super lightweight and it buttons down the front, so it was perfect for nursing Kai. I was able to discreetly feed him out in the open yet we were both comfortable and not too hot. The dress is still available online and I hear that she's having a major sale on almost all her items starting tomorrow! She is having a pop up shop at the Rachel Parcell Office in Utah and there's talk of including the sale online so that everyone can shop it. I also am completely in love with these wedges. I've been wanting them for a couple years now and finally pulled the trigger last month. They always seem to be out of stock when I go to buy them but Shopbop finally seems to have a good inventory of them because they are still available! I love how neutral they are and they are so comfortable! Our day in Lake Geneva was the first time I wore them and I was comfy in them the whole day.

Kai's cute little Locally Grown outfit from Target is quite literally my favorite outfit he has. I dress him in it all the time. His 6 month milestone photos? Yep, this outfit. He's a serious outfit repeat offender but oh well! I love that the overalls are short and keep him cool and the color is just so cute. I almost always have a bandana bib on him to catch all that baby drool and spit up that happens throughout the day so we don't have to do a bunch of outfit changes all day every day. That's my little mom hack for the day for all of you! The one he's wearing here says "New to the Crew" which is just so perfect because we call ourselves the Cabrera Crew. Kai's Mimi bought it for him back when he was first born and I believe she got it at TJ Maxx. TJ Maxx is so great for baby stuff because it's cute but actually reasonably priced! So when in doubt, TJ Maxx it is.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and be sure to follow me on Instagram for some daily dose of the Cabrera Crew!