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Hi Friends!

For a while I was doing pretty well at publishing one of these every 3 months. I missed one right around the time Little Miss was born/Squish turned 2…but I’m jumping back in and i’ll try to keep up!

In case missed any of my previous posts, I’ve been writing one every 3 months since Squish was born. You can find the links below:

Day in the Life – 21 Months
Day in the Life – 18 Months
Day in the Life – 15 Months
Day in the Life – 12 Months
Day in the Life – 9 Months
Day in the Life – 6 Months
Day in the Life – 3 Months

Let me preface this post by saying that there is no normal right now. Every day is different. But this was Monday of this week. The photos are taken quickly on my phone and unedited..but that’s life 🙂

4:45 – Baby gets up. Lately, she’s been sleeping until at least 6 so this is pretty early. I go downstairs, grab my computer, start the coffee and settle in to feed her and get some work done. Hubby coaches a couple of our morning CrossFit classes a week so he leaves to coach at little after 5.

5:00 – 7:30 –  I work on Healthy Aperture stuff and stuff for my blog while also trying to feed and entertain baby. Hubby comes home around 6:45 and hangs out with us for a few minutes before going back to bed for a little while.

7:30 -Squish wakes up. I change him and feed him breakfast while drinking my coffee.

8:00 – 9:00 – We play and I feed the baby again.

9:00 – Put everyone in the car and leave for the gym. I coach our 9:30 class two days a week. Squish watches his tablet and runs around the gym. Baby falls asleep around 9:30.

10:45 – Home from the gym. I make my morning oatmeal and Squish eats some with me.

11:00 – 12:30 – We play. Baby wakes up at 11 so I feed her, deal with her second blowout of the day, follow Squish around to his various playrooms.

12:30 – Lunch. Daddy comes home and we all hang out in the kitchen. Not pictured, baby screaming, squish falling off stool and screaming, etc.

1:00 – 3:00 Naptime for Squish. I try to get work done, write my Bean Bytes post and also feed and deal with baby who doesn’t sleep and alternates between happy and fussy.

3:00 – 4:00 – Squish wakes up, we have a snack, play, feed baby, do some chores, etc.

4:00 – Back to gym. Daddy coaches our 4:30 class and I workout. Usually baby falls asleep around this time but she’s been up since 11 and still not interested in sleeping.

6 :00- Home to make and eat dinner with Squish. Baby is still awake and screaming.

6:45 – 7:45 Squish watches Thomas while I feed the baby and then walk around holding a screaming baby and a phone blaring a hair dryer noise to try to keep her somewhat calm.

7:45 – Daddy comes home. Squish hangs out with him for a little while.

8:15 – Squish goes to bed, baby finally falls asleep for a few minutes and I take a shower.

8:45 -Sit down to write a freelance article and baby wakes up screaming.

8:45 – 9:45 – Deal with baby and try to answer a few emails on my phone.

9:45 – She’s finally hungry so I feed her while writing a freelance article.

10:45 – She’s done eating and finally asleep so I put her upstairs, feed the animals, eat a snack, get the coffee ready for the morning, etc.

11:15 – Bed.

Here’s my Snapchat story for the day! Follow me: leangreenbean1

Like I said, every day is different. This was Monday. On Tuesday:

• I got up at 6 to work.
• Hubby didn’t coach in the morning.
• Baby slept until 7.
• Squish slept til 8.
• I worked out at 9:30.
• Squish asked to take a nap at 12:15 – before he’d eaten lunch (unheard of!)
• Squish spent the afternoon screaming bloody murder.
• Baby took an afternoon nap.
• Both kids screamed for a while simultaneously.
• We didn’t go to the gym in the afternoon.
• Squish took a shower.
• Squish ate dinner by himself while I fed baby.
• Daddy came home at 6:30.
• Squish went to bed at 7:15.
• We ate dinner at 7:30.
• I drank a beer because…toddler getting his molars.
• Baby was asleep by 10:30.

On Wednesday Baby and I were up working and eating at 5:30. You get the picture!

Let’s chat:

How does this compare to your Monday this week?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

I’m back. I took several weeks off after the birth of Little Miss and I think I’m finally ready to get back into the swing of things. To be honest, I desperately needed the time off. Yes, partly because I had a newborn who didn’t ever sleep more than 2 hours straight for the first six weeks of life, but also because I was a little burnt out on blogging.

To prepare for my maternity leave, I really packed a lot into the month of October. The end of the year is the busiest time for bloggers and I worked really hard to get ahead on a lot of posts, finish up the last posts in several year-long partnerships, etc. By the time baby came I was worn out both physically and mentally.

It’s been 8 weeks since baby girl was born and there have been several times since then where I didn’t even open my computer for 5-6 days in a row. That’s unheard of for me, but it was necessary. It helped refresh my mind, body and soul…and now I’m excited about blogging again! I’m brainstorming lists of ideas, i’m itching to use my camera again, i’m filling in my editorial calendar….

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted 2017 to mean for me….both personally and for the blog. To be honest, I’ve struggled a little bit with my blog since I became a mom. For so many years I was just a food blogger…and now, I’m a Registered Dietitian, I have two kids, I’m a work from home mom, I’m a home cook….and in a blogging world that’s so focused on forcing bloggers to choose a specific niche in order to become successful, I’ve struggled to find my place.

Well this year I’m saying “who cares?” After a lot of reflection, I’m finally at peace with the fact that my blog can’t really be easily defined anymore. In fact, I’m kind of excited about it. Because I think it’s going to make it easier for me to get back to my roots and fall in love with blogging again.

A couple weeks ago I took the babes downtown to visit my girl Alexis. She’s a fellow RD and blogger and she runs Alchemy (an amazing juice bar and cafe in downtown Columbus). I try to make it down there every couple of months so we can catch up. This time we spent most of our visit talking about how much blogging has changed since we started. When I got home, I was catching up on some blog reading and I came across this post by my friend Anne at Fannetastic Food.  It perfectly articulated a lot of what Alexis and I had just been talking about as well.

Anne said “Now it seems like there’s so much going on online, constantly jostling for everyone’s attention, that it’s hard to feel like I’m still here offering something interesting or worthwhile. I also feel like in order to continue to get traffic there’s so much pressure to have every post be polished/fancy, optimized for Google, pimped out with pin-able graphics, shared and scheduled a billion times on social media, etc. – that it takes a lot of the joy out of posting.”

YES. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled with this exact thing.

The next day, Alexis wrote a post about how she’s so much more than a food blogger.

She said: “In the early years, it was far more the former. The blogging world was less saturated, less competitive, and less serious. I felt little to no pressure to make the titles of my recipes searchable on Google and to make images that everyone and their brother would want to pin twice. I felt free to curate content around what made me happy. The beauty of growth is the opportunity to turn your hobby, turn what you love, into a career. The downside is just that—it’s no longer your hobby. I love it just as much as I always have, but I’d be lying if I said it was the same.”

Again, yes…just how I feel.

So now the question becomes….what am I going to do about it?

The answer is I’m going to break the blogging rules.  

In 2017 I’m going to:

• Quit chasing pageviews.
• Write about things I wanna write about even if it probably won’t do well in a google search.
• Not write about buzzwords like carb cycling, detox and fasting just because they will do well on Pinterest, unless they are things that I really care about and believe in.
• Balance my time between family and blogging and not overcommit myself just for a few extra dollars.
• Plan ahead but not worry so much if life happens and I don’t stick to a schedule all the time.
• Be present and engaged with my kids.

In 2017, I want to be more helpful. You guys, my readers, are the main reason I’ve continued to blog for the past 6+ years. It’s my hope that many of you already see this blog as a helpful space, and this year I want to continue my work and connect with even more of you!

A few weeks ago I got this email from a reader and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time:

Hi Lindsay – 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about being able to balance running a blog, doing part time work and being a full-time mom to two kiddos…but I’m up for the challenge and excited about the year ahead!

So in 2017 I’ll continue to provide easy, healthy recipes using simple ingredients….but maybe sometimes it’ll be a little less polished. Maybe it’ll be a few more shots of my actual dinner plate instead of a perfectly staged recipe. Maybe instead of a perfectly curated recipe video, I’ll share a messy iphone video of Squish helping me in the kitchen. And maybe I’ll share a post about some toddler art projects or how to deal with a colicky baby without worrying about the fact that they’re not recipe posts. Maybe I’ll even blog about fashion. Kidding! I hate fashion 🙂

So now it’s your turn! As we kick off the new year, tell me how I can help you! What kind of recipes do you want to see? What questions do you have? What resources do you need?

Fill me in!

Wishing you all the best in 2017!

–Lindsay–

Hi friends!

It’s officially been a month since Little Miss entered the world. And guess what? We survived! I won’t sugar coat it for you and say it’s been easy, because it hasn’t! I figured I should try to bring you guys up to speed on what’s been going on around here. I’ll try to break it down into some categories you may have questions about:

• Sleep
• Squish
• Baby
• Mom
• Breastfeeding

So here we go:

Sleep

Simply put, I’m not really getting any. With the exception of one time (two nights ago), I have not slept longer than 2.5 hours straight in a month. I’m exclusively breastfeeding, so when baby wants to eat, it’s me feeding her….and she is a frequent eater. Squish was a very good sleeper, sleeping 3-4 hour stretches pretty much right from the beginning. Not the case with this one. She’s pretty much up every 2 hours wanting to eat. Couple that with the fact that  I have a toddler who thinks that 4:30 – 5am  is an appropriate time to start the day and yeah….no sleep. I’d say I’m averaging 4-5 hours of non-consecutive sleep a night.

Baby sleeps much better during the day than she does at night…but during the day Squish is awake and when he goes down for his nap, she always seems to be awake. On a rare occasion, they’ll both be asleep at the same time during the day and I can sneak in a quick nap.

The good news is, on Sunday night she slept long enough for me to sleep 5 hours straight and it was glorious! I almost felt like I didn’t need my second and third cups of coffee on Monday! Almost. And last night she slept a little over 3 hours straight so maybe we’re turning the corner a little bit. Now if I could just get Squish to sleep in!

Squish

Speaking of Squish, many of you have asked how he’s doing with his sister. This was one of my biggest anxiety sources during my pregnancy and I spent a lot of time worrying about how he would handle it. Turns out he’s doing great! Sure he has his moments where he’s a little overly exuberant around her…but hello, he’s a toddler. Overall, he’s not super interested in her. He will show you where she is if you ask, occasionally give her toys when she cries, etc….but he doesn’t seem all that interested in holding her or trying to play with her.

In the past week or so, he seems to have taken a bit more interest. He attempted to brush her hair after her bath and tries to put her binky in when she cries.

Squish has always been very mommy-attached so I knew the transition would have some challenges…and it has….but having daddy home for those first two weeks after baby was born was invaluable in helping to deal with him. The hardest times of day seem to be meal time. Whether it’s trying to keep him entertained while I’m nursing her…or trying to feed him while she’s screaming to be fed as well, it can get a little overwhelming….but we’re surviving. He’s been watching his fair share of tv because it’s the one thing I can count on to contain him to the same room while I’m trying to nurse.

Overall I’m proud of what a good big brother he is and I’m excited to see how they start to interact as she gets older.

Breastfeeding

This is the big one I know a lot of you are wondering about. If you don’t know my story about breastfeeding with Squish you can read it here: Breastfeeding is Hard. To sum it up, I got mastitis a week after he was born, which developed into a breast abcess. I spent 5 days in the hospital and stopped breastfeeding when he was 6 weeks old.

Many people asked me if I was going to try again after my terrible experience the first time. My answer was yes. When I got mastitis, I was given a few rounds of medication that were not ideal for treating it (and didn’t work), because I have a drug allergy to meds in the same family as the drug they typically treat it with. In the end, I was given that medicine and was fine….but because I didn’t get it right away, the infection kinda spiraled out of control. So my hope was that breastfeeding could and could go better the second time….and it has!

But I stand by my statement that breastfeeding is hard. Just because it’s going well does not mean it’s easy. It definitely helped to know what to expect this time around. I spent a ton of time disconnecting and relatching the baby right from the beginning to avoid damaging my nipples and I think that helped a lot. But I still forgot how painful it was in the beginning as they learn how to latch, milk comes in, etc. Plus, for the first week or so I was using two hands to keep her in position, etc which made it nearly impossible to deal with an active toddler who also needed me.

After about 2 weeks, I started to get my groove. She learned how to eat, I learned what position was best, I could have a hand free to look at my phone or deal with Squish. After a month we’re too the point where it’s pretty comfortable. I’ve fed her on the couch, at the kitchen counter, while walking around the kitchen trying to get dinner ready for Squish, at the table while we were out to eat…

She’s a pretty good eater and will typically nurse for 15-20 minutes on each side. Her brother as constantly falling asleep while eating and we had to strip him down to a diaper at every feeding, cold wash cloths etc. She’s much better at staying awake…which is nice.

But it’s also time consuming. I added it up one day and found that some days I’m actively nursing her for 6 hours. You guys, that’s a lot of time. With Squish we dealt with jaundice and low supply so we were supplementing with formula after just a few days and then after a few weeks, on formula completely. He would suck down a bottle in about 2 minutes and be done with it. This time, every time she nurses it takes 35-40 minutes. That’s been hard to adjust to.

I posted this on Instagram the other day:

Let me tell y’all a little bit about breastfeeding. It’s challenging, exhausting, time-consuming and oh so rewarding…all rolled into one. It takes time, patience, dedication and did I mention time?? So if you know a breastfeeding mama, give her a hug. She’s working harder than you know!

A photo posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Dec 1, 2016 at 5:41pm PST

Judging by the response I got, many of you agreed! I’m so grateful breastfeeding is going better this time around, but it’s still hard.

Since I had low supply last time, I still find myself worrying about that with her, but she’s gaining weight so I know that means she’s getting what she needs.

Baby

Baby girl is doing well. She was 8 pounds, 10 oz when she was born and according to our rough estimate using a bathroom scale at the gym, she’s up to about 10 pounds now. She doesn’t go back to the doctor for her first round of shots, etc until after the holidays so we’ll have a better idea of her weight and height again at that point.

She’s definitely more work than her brother was as a newborn. Simply put…she’s fussy. If she’s not sleeping or eating, she’s usually fussing, crying or full on screaming. I think she’s a bit colicky….from about 7-11pm is her worst time of day, typically full of screaming…but luckily she gives us a break some evenings. Mornings are when she is happiest and she will occasionally sit in her rock and play and just look around. But she definitely prefers to be held. Oh and she’s not a fan of the pacifier. Squish took one immediately when he was about 3 days old and it was a lifesaver. She’s just not really interested. She wants to suck her fingers or thumb but can’t get them into her mouth and she’ll only take a binkie about 30% of the time…and only for a few minutes.

Luckily she likes the Ergo and will usually calm down and go to sleep if I put her in it during the day. She’s not a huge fan of her carseat and cries in it a fair amount…but if the car is moving she does alright.

She’s already spending a fair amount of time at the gym and does pretty well there. The loud noises and music don’t bother her. Unlike her brother, she usually doesn’t mind tummy time and she likes to be swaddled. Just like we did with him, she’s sleeping in the rock and play next to the bed for now.

At this point she’s napping wherever. The plan is to use Squish’s crib for her…but we’re in no rush. Squish still sleeps very well in the crib and I’m in no rush to put him in a toddler bed. Basically I’m waiting until he figures out how to climb out of the crib and gives me no choice but to transition to big kid bed!

She’s wearing some newborn clothes but 0-3 month stuff fits her best. She can fit into some 3 month sleepers and onsies but some stuff is too big, especially pants. She’s wearing size 1 diapers and has at least 1 blowout a day, without fail. They tend to happen when she’s in her carseat, which typically means we arrive home and she’s screaming and uncomfortable and Squish is screaming for his dinner and then I end up getting his dinner and then trying to deal with the blowout on the kitchen floor and simultaneously watch him while he’s eating.

But she’s still a sweet baby. She has big blue eyes and her snuggles are the sweetest.

Mama

Overall I’m doing well. Besides being tired and a little overwhelmed at times, I’m loving life. Being responsible for two littles is definitely hard…especially when they’re both screaming at once, or when they have opposite sleep schedules, or when you have to tell your toddler not to hammer his sister…or that he can’t sit on top of the baby in your lap…but we’re all adjusting.

I have my follow-up OB appointment on December 15th,  so hopefully I’ll be cleared to workout. Healing is going well. My stitches hurt more than I remember from last time…but last time I also had mastitis after one week and I was feeling pretty much all-around miserable so it’s a little hard to compare. I’m just a couple of pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight so most of my normal clothes are fitting…with the exception of a couple pairs of pants.

I’m excited to get back into working out! Again, it will be a little hard to compare my CrossFit comeback to last time because of how sick I got. I had an incredibly hard time coming back last time. This time will still be hard…but I don’t feel like I’ll be starting totally from square one. My goal is to spend the next two months building my strength and endurance back up again to be ready for the Crossfit Open at the end of February. I’m also super grateful that we own a gym so that I have the freedom to go in and do some random workouts if I need to work around the kids’ schedules and moods.

Dealing with a fussy/colicky baby can be emotionally taxing…but I know it’s just a phase and this too shall pass. I’m trying to keep us busy without overcommitting. Winter is definitely hard with an active toddler and a newborn. We’ve been to a few playdates with a friend or two for Squish and started going to The Little Gym once a week again to get him around other kids. Plus, we go to our gym several days a week and that helps a lot because he can run around like crazy and burn some energy.

I’ve been doing pretty well at taking a break from blogging and the work I do for Regan but that will start back up again after the first of the year. I’m a little anxious about how I’ll have time to fit everything in…but I’m just going to take it week by week and adjust as needed!

Whew….so I think that’s enough for now! I’ll check back in new month with more updates.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–