As Arden is getting older and bigger, I’m wondering if she will outgrow her pack and play that has been her bassinet and crib since she was born. At school, she naps on a floor bed. The times we have tried to get her to nap at home on a floor mattress, she wanders around her room. That was prior to her really crawling around. Now almost 11 months old, she is so fast at crawling and getting around…I’m worried she’ll wander around her room and not get a good night’s rest. But, maybe the ability to explore and be comfortable in her own space is exactly what she needs…
We took our first trip as a family of 3 to Maui (or should I say 4 since I’m 14 weeks pregnant). Granted, it’s a roughly 6 hour/5 hour plane ride to/back. I had read up on multiple blogs regarding what to bring, how to travel, what to expect, etc. I’ve created a bullet list of must-have things to travel with or pack for your little one (ours was 7 months old at the time of travel) Continue reading “Traveling with an Infant”
I don’t get too frazzled by things in general. It’s important as an anesthesiologist to keep your cool and to keep your wits about you. Well, I just about lost it today when the topic of vaccines came up and someone sent me this video. Granted, I did my due diligence and watched that video. I’m typically open to suggestions and people’s opinions.
First of all, my criticism isn’t about his holistic or chiropractic care. My criticism is about his “expertise” in medicine and vaccines, which he isn’t qualified to opine. The guy in the video has absolutely no understanding of how statistics work. Going to a website to show data where you just show numbers of deaths doesn’t validate your point. Sadly, it’s shocking to me to see that people believe in this hack. I can’t even put it politely because it’s people like him who spread the word that vaccines are harmful and cause more harm than good… and people actually believe him.
I want the best for myself, my family, and my friends. I will continue to be a voice for pro-vaccines. Given all the existing research and statistically significant data, I do believe that vaccines are beneficial in preventing disease.
Key points:
Do your research
Listen to the experts in the field (not quacks who pretend)
Do no harm
Get vaccinated! You’re protecting yourself and others around you!
I get a lot of questions from my friends about receiving anesthesia while breastfeeding. As more moms are breastfeeding, I think it’s an important question to tackle for the baby’s safety. I’ve included references and summarized key points below. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your anesthesiologist or physician who will be taking care of you.
Three months have flown by since Arden was born. I started doing Classpass about a month ago to get back into pilates. During my experimentation with Classpass, I found barre classes to be quite tough and intriguing. From the various barre studios around me, I found Studio Barre to be fun, encouraging, girlie, and upbeat. For a good cardio burn, both Cycle Bar and 9 Round were great at keeping my heart rate up!
In about a week and a half, I have to go back to work. Right now, I have mixed feelings about this as I’ve enjoyed my time with Arden. I think the first week will be tough. It’ll be the first time I’ve been away from her for any length of time. Our hospital did a roll out of Epic, which is an electronic medical record — I’m nervous as this will be my first time using it when I go back. I haven’t given an anesthetic in 3 months… this means I need to dust off the cobwebs and put my thinking cap back on. I can only imagine I will be drained with the early mornings and late nights and plenty of mental stimulation. It will be a different kind of tired vs. child-induced tired.
I want to put myself in the best place to handle these stresses. Despite my current passes at my various studios, I will need a home workout to do when I can’t get out of work in time. This led me down a rabbit hole last night of searching for various home workouts and reviews.
I’ve done plenty of home workouts as evidenced here and I appreciate everything it provides. However, how do you keep the workouts fresh and non-repetitive? The P90X series is awesome for a tough cardio and sculpting workout in 30 minutes with great results. But there’s only so many times I can do the same exercises over and over again. Then, I went to Sweat/BBG by Kayla Itsines. This app/workout program got me wedding dress ready in 3 months! This was a fabulous workout that had plenty of cardio, jumps, squats, upper/low/full body, weights, etc. But I had the same problem of repeating workouts. I was getting great results, but I couldn’t stay motivated to do the same workouts over and over again.
Searching for a constantly changing workout regimen led me to Alexia Clark. There was just a little bit on her website describing her workouts, but I wanted more info.
After reviewing all this information, I decided Alexia Clark’s program is the way to go. My classpass/barre pass ends at the end of May. I’m pulling the trigger to start Alexia Clark on June 1. My husband watched a bit of the review video with me and says he would start with me. Now how’s that for motivation?
And this nifty little macro calculator was just what I needed to help me get my diet on track.
Do you have any recommendations or workout programs I should check out?
We are nature people. There’s no denying that. I absolutely love the mountains, and Bear loves the ocean. Between the two of us, our lil one is destined to love being outside — in fact, she already does! I am looking forward to when she can hold her head up so we can take her hiking!
So, after some research on the best baby hiking backpacks…. here’s what I found:
I must say I’m a bit biased toward Osprey products because they are incredible. My current hiking pack is an Osprey and it’s been through multiple international travels as well as both Kilimanjaro and Patagonia.
We’re super excited to get this thing out on the trail!!
What are your favorite hiking backpacks for yourself as well as your family?
Sleepy Time 