My Top: Maurice’s – sold out; Similar here & here | My Jeans: Maurice’s – also love these and these!| My Shoes: Maurice’s – also love these & these| My Sunglasses: Ray Ban – also availabe here | Lips: Bare Minerals | Zain’s Top: Target | Zain’s Shorts: Target | Zain’s Shoes: Nordstrom

Good morning!

Hope you guys are having a great week so far! I have been getting a lot of questions on how we managed a move with Zain and while we are definitely no experts, I thought I would share what we did. So our move was a little different because we were moving from our apartment in Chicago into my parent’s house while our new house was being painted. While it was a switch for Zain, he had also obviously stayed at my parent’s before so our first pit stop wasn’t totally foreign. I did wonder if he thought we were on an extended vacation though 😉 

When we left Chicago I tried to plan everything around his nap schedule, like I do with all travel. Despite waiting for his afternoon nap time and hitting the road right when he was sleepy, he did not sleep. The ride home was pretty brutal and thankfully my mom was with me to help out. It was a great lesson in letting go. Despite planning as much as you want for your kids I have quickly learned they are their own people and it’s all hard for them too. 

Once we got home we tried to keep everything about his routine the same. We did bath time and put him right to sleep. It’s an added bonus that Zain has always slept amazing in our travel crib. I think I have mentioned it before but we really debated just using it in his room instead of his normal crib because he tends to sleep an hour or so longer in it than he would have otherwise.

As far as sleeping goes, he got right back on schedule so I don’t have a ton of advice there. There were a few nights off and on that he cried a little after he went down but he quickly put himself to sleep. I think if putting your crib in a new room is a struggle it doesn’t hurt to try your travel crib since they may feel like it’s less change and more of a vacation.

While we were at my parents it was nice to have help around but we really didn’t have our normal play space. My parent’s house is filled with tiny breakable things and I never realized this till we lived there with Zain, anyone else? I tried to get out of the house and do activities as much as possible so he was burning off steam before nap and bedtime. 

Once our house was ready to go, I enlisted help. I didn’t want to disturb him so I stayed at my parent’s to keep him on his schedule and Trevor took care of everything with the movers. Once he went down for a nap, I left him at home with my dad and came over to the house to help Trevor unpack. Since there wasn’t a ton of time to set everything up we spent that first night back at my parent’s. My biggest advice for the move day is to get help! My mom was working so couldn’t watch Zain but in hindsight it would have been helpful to have a sitter or someone watch him all day so we could focus on the move and setting up. 

Thankfully my mom was able to watch him the next day so we came to the house at 7am and spent all day getting things ready. We brought his travel crib with us and had him sleep in that in his room! We actually haven’t stopped. He’s been sleeping great in it so we just don’t want to change too many things at once. Soon enough we need to transition him back to his normal crib but one thing at a time. 

I shared more about this on Instagram stories but moves are a lot for you so imagine how your little one feels. I really had to take a step back and remember what he was going through. We moved, stopped bottles (more on that in a few weeks), he’s started daycare part time and he’s also really trying to communicate and probably frustrated. So, I say take it all with stride and do whatever makes it easier for your family. My biggest advice would be to just keep everything as normal as possible for them and their schedule!

I think eventually they will get back into their routine and you will too! Hope this was somewhat helpful and if you have any other specific questions just DM me or leave it below!