Friday, November 25, 2011

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!  We celebrated in Oklahoma City with my family.  Like the past several years, my Thanksgiving started off with the Turkey Trot...only this year we were in OKC rather than Chattanooga.  And I had to run it by myself since Chris' foot is still healing.  Bummer.  The Oklahoma City Turkey Trot is a 5K (Chattanooga's is a 8K) so it was my first race post-baby.  I have been running with the jogging stroller, but not really training at all so I had no idea how fast I have been running or what to expect for a finish-time.  I arbitrarily set a goal of 27 minutes (9 minute mile) for myself and I finished in 26 minutes and 4 seconds!

The starting line was in walking distance of our hotel so I walked over with another family who were running.  There were surprisingly several people in the hotel lobby in the morning who were headed over to run the race.  Several of my uncles, aunts, and cousins were also staying at the hotel for a couple nights so they all walked over to cheer me on.  Thanks!

There's always a fun crew out to run on Thanksgiving morning- fun turkey costumes and such. This year my favorites were the OKC firemen cadets.  There were probably about 25 of them who ran in full-gear in formation the whole race!  I wish I had gotten a picture.

I was very excited to wear the turkey hat again this year!  I was able to wear it almost all the way through the race.

Sorry, the sun was in my eyes so I'm squinting in most of the post-race pictures

Phoebe came out to cheer me on in her turkey dress that Mamo had made for her




The whole Leck clan (about 24 of us) met at another hotel downtown for Thanksgiving dinner; this place was packed with a line out the door! Who knew so many people headed to one buffet for Thanksgiving dinner!

Its hard to get a picture without her hands in her mouth these days

Some cousin love.  Or maybe 2nd or 3rd cousin love....Or maybe 2nd cousin once removed??  I have no idea how those things work. Benjamin is my cousins, Kenneth and Sara's, 4th baby boy who is about 6 weeks older than Phoebe.

Adorable

Friday, November 18, 2011

Grabbing

It is so fun to watch Phoebe grow and discover new things.  Each little milestone is so exciting for us!  We will just sit and watch her waiting for her to show us something new.  We're just waiting for her to roll over.  She's so close!!!

A couple weeks ago Phoebe started grabbing everything!  The other night Chris and Phoebe played tug-o-war with a hanger that she picked up off the bed.

She loves to grab at the toys hanging off her play mat...


She grabs and pulls up all her dresses and shirts...

It was hard to take her picture this night because whenever she would smile she would pull the dress up over her head



She grabs any blanket she has over her and it normally goes straight to her mouth


And she grabs my hair!  The awful part is she'll pull it out.  Oh how I love the post-pregnancy hair loss...

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Hunger Games

Ok, I just saw the trailer for The Hunger Games and I'm super excited!  You can check it out here.  It comes out March 23rd 2012, so if you haven't read the books yet you have plenty of time!  I am not a fast or avid reader and I read all three in about 10 days and they are fabulous!  If you need a book club recommendation... THE HUNGER GAMES!  It is a book series for young adults so it's an easy read, and highly entertaining.




I'm reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand now and it is very good as well.  I'm not tearing through it quite as quickly, but so far I would recommend it.  I haven't read a lot of great books over the past year, so I feel like I'm on a roll now.  That being said I don't have any books in the queue to read next.



What are you reading?  Anything you would recommend?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fun & Social Weekend

Sorry for the lack of posts!  I've just been lazy really...  But we did have a busy and very fun weekend.  Friday started out meeting Matt and Courtney for lunch!  Matt is one of Chris' good friends and Courtney and I have bonded over our pregnancies and sweet baby girls!  Courtney was about 7 weeks ahead of me in our pregnancies and was a huge help and source of comfort throughout that whole process!  Really I think I copied about half her registry (because how do you go into Target or Babies R Us or whatever and know what you need amidst all that stuff??) and she let us borrow her Bradley Method labor books that really helped us "prepare" for labor.  Courtney and Matt had a surprise baby and we were thrilled when she had a healthy baby GIRL!  Its been fun to hear all about Hannah and look forward to Phoebe meeting those next milestones.

This weekend they came into town and we were finally able to meet their sweet baby girl; she is adorable!  She is so active and showing her little personality!  Matt and Courtney have traveled A LOT with Hannah (she's been to nine different states and she's only 5 months old...) so I was able to pick her brain once more about how to travel with a baby.  We're flying to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving so I'm sure it will be an adventure.



Hannah trying to be friendly and Phoebe wanted nothing to do with her...
(We apparently need to work on her social skills with kids her own age)



Yes, that bright table cloth is from Flying Biscuit, my favorite!

Friday night we had dinner at some friends' house who have 3 kids, so we saw a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in the future.  Saturday morning started out with a baby shower/sip and see for a friend at church.  Then we had lunch with Steven and Lesley who we hadn't seen since Phoebe was born.  Lesley is having twins next year AND they are moving to Athens (Greece not Georgia...) so they have a lot to look forward to and we enjoyed catching up with them.  After running home for a few minutes we headed back out to another friend's house from church who was having a fall festival complete with a pig roast in the back yard.  We spent Sunday afternoon downtown at a class and then were looking forward to seeing a screening of Nefarious: A Merchant of Souls at Church of the Apostles, which is a documentary exposing the trends of modern day slavery and the global sex trade.  Phoebe had been so good and tolerated our many activities all weekend so well, but by Sunday evening she was tired and had had enough.  She only lasted about 20 minutes into the movie before she started fussing and we couldn't get her to calm down enough to go back in.  So we called it an early night and learned that at some point we're going to have to breakdown and pay for a babysitter...

This weekend wore her out!  This is probably the most social we've been since she was born.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Grandma El's

Another "no-no" or at least point of contention with cloth diapers is the use of diaper rash cream.   Most traditional diaper rash cream (Desitin, A&D Ointment, Bourdeaux Butt Paste) contain zinc oxide that works by creating a barrier between the skin and diaper to prevent diaper contents from irritating the skin.  Which is what we are wanting, right?  Well again there is the debate as to whether these creams/pastes affect the absorbency of cloth diapers by creating a barrier between the diaper contents and the soft fleece/absorbent pads in the diaper.

So wanting to be pretty cautious and make my diapers last, I found Grandma El's and LOVE it!  It has more of the consistency of Vaseline and actually smells pretty darn yummy!  It is a naturally derived product that creates a protectant barrier that also allows the skin to breathe (unlike the zinc oxide products), which promotes healing.  It also promotes the growth of new skin collagen, which helps the skin to heal.


Happy Heiny's, another cloth diapering company, endorses the product as safe to use with cloth diapers and I read many reviews from cloth diapering moms that whole-heartedly endorse it as well.  I must say I'm a convert.  I love the stuff.  I have found that it does heal Phoebe's diaper rash much quicker than Butt Paste and it doesn't leave a white residue on her bottom.

Of course the best remedy is good old fashioned air time in her birthday suit.  We do have a cloth wet pad (like a hospital chux if you're familiar with such things) that we try to lay her on sans diaper whenever we start to notice a bit of redness.

Has anyone else used Grandma El's and liked it?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

3 Months

Look at that sweet smile!  

I think she might have dimples!


Phoebe has found her voice this past month!  She is such a little talker now and is experiementing with the different pitches and volumes of sound she can make!  She talks the most at night; she even called and said goodnight to me at work on my first night back at Kennestone on Monday.  She actually said a lot more than good night.  I think she was telling me how much fun she was having hanging out with her daddy :)

And yes I have started back to work, which has actually been great!  After 12 weeks I was ready for a bit of work outside the house.  I'm working 1 8hr shift (7am-3pm) per week at Northside.  And then 2 overnight shifts (7pm-7am) at Kennestone per month.  Its enough to get me out the house but not so much that I feel like I'm having to leave Phoebe more than I would like.  After my first day back at Northside I came home and told Chris I thought I could work 2 days/week!  But then he reminded me that he could only watch her once/week, so oh well.  Maybe I'll pick up a few extra shifts over the summer when his time is a bit more flexible.  Right now Chris doesn't go to campus on Tuesdays until the evening for large group and he doesn't go to campus on Fridays because there are no classes.  So I'll be working either Tuesdays, Fridays, or the weekend (or a Monday or Thursday night).  Once Phoebe is a bit more mobile we might have to re-evalute how this is all going to work, but for now Chris can get his reading and studying done with her either at home or at his office space at the church.



Eating: If there is one thing I am insecure about it is how much to feed her!  I know that might sound silly but I do worry she's not getting enough, she's too small etc.  Its getting better now but during the first 2-2 1/2 months it is probably the one thing I worried about the most.  She has started sleeping much longer at night so we are now feeding her 5 times/day or about every 3 hours.  She takes an average of 4 1/2oz per feeding.  We've had to play with this a little bit because a couple weeks ago for no apparent reason she would only take 3-4oz per feeding and I had no idea why!  It drove me crazy because feeding time went from sweet and fun to a long fight to try to get her to eat!  We ended up trying to feed her every 2 1/2hrs to try to get in an extra feeding (again because I was worried about her being small and not eating enough).  That worked for about a week and then she started only taking 2 ounces at a couple of her feedings!  So I went back to feeding her more "on demand" to see what kind of eating schedule she was wanting and we've gone back to 5 feedings; she is taking more at each feeding again, and its not a fight to feed her anymore.  So who knows what was going on.  Just another reminder that I'm not in as much control as I would like :)

Playtime:  Phoebe still loves her play mat!  This is probably her favorite toy.  Around 12 weeks she started grabbing the toys that are hanging down from it. She still enjoys her swing too, but a new favorite is this musical lamb that is hanging above her changing table.  She smiles and laughs and dances with it every time she gets her diaper changed.  Its adorable!

Sleeping: Phoebe is a GREAT nighttime sleeper. By 9 weeks she was sleeping 9 hours and now she consistently sleeps 10 hours at night and only once has she woken up in the middle of the night and needed her paci back.  It does make me a little nervous about having another child.  There's only been one time we had to let her "cry it out" because she wouldn't go sleep after several attempts at soothing.  We had to let her cry for about 10 minutes (which was hard for me) but then she fell asleep.  So she goes to bed around 9:30 and sleeps till 8am.

Now naps are a different story...  We're still doing the eat, play, sleep cycle so she is taking about 4 naps/day right now.  She will pretty much fall asleep on her own after being awake for 1-2 hours if she's not overstimulated.  The problem is staying asleep... Her morning naps seem to be longer between an hour to an hour and a half.  But her afternoon naps are anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  And even then its not uncommon for her to wake up and cry in the middle because she loses her paci and needs someone to give it back to her.  At some point it would be nice to have 3 longer set naps, but I'm not really sure how you make that transition.

We had moved her cradle from our room into her room when she was 5 weeks old, but I never moved her from her cradle into her crib!  I was laughing the other day at the 2 sitting right next to each other and  thinking we probably should go ahead and move her over and up the cradle back up in the attic.  Maybe we'll do that in the next couple weeks.



Diapers: We're still rocking the cloth diapers and loving them!  Since she has started eatting a little bit more we've had a few incidents of leaks on the outside of the leg of the diaper.  Its not because she has saturated the entire absorbent layer, but because the absorbent layer is sewn in and does not go all the way to the edge of the diaper.  Its sewn about 1/2cm from the edge.  So if she pees just right (like if she is laying on her side) it doesn't catch the absorbant pad and we notice a small wet spot on her pants and end up changing diaper and clothes.

Personality:  Phoebe is still a very laid back baby.  She still has her serious look, but doesn't wear it as much now that she's smiling so much more.  A bagger at Publix the other day looked at Phoebe and told her she had an "old soul".


Randoms: Phoebe sucks on her hands quite a bit.  She hasn't found her thumb yet but she's just about gotten her entire fist in her mouth which is nothing short of impressive.  She has also started putting whatever she grabs into her mouth as well.  At this point that mostly consists of a few toys, the string of her paci holder, and blankets.  She hasn't seemed to discover her feet yet either.  She will look at them in when she's in her car seat, but hasn't reached for them yet.

Phoebe has become very socialized with college students.  She comes with me to RUF large group every week and is always a favorite when we have students over to the house.  Since (in my opinion) college dorms are full of germs and a breeding ground for bacteria and infections, I used to be very cautious before anyone would hold her making them use hand sanitizer and I would interview everyone "In the last 2 weeks have you been sick or have anyone you're living with been sick?"  And now, right or wrong, she just gets passed around from student to student while try to keep an eye on where she is.  I'm sure after the 1st time she gets sick I'll go back to being extra cautious.  I am feeling pretty good that she didn't catch anything from sitting in the nasty urgent care waiting room a couple weeks ago.  I will also say that it is very sweet to see these "macho" college guys swoon over Phoebe.  They love her! We even had one male student accused of being a "baby hog" this week because he wouldn't give up the baby!



Student loving on Phoebe at our pumpkin carving party

Phoebe had been holding her head up so much better so we tried her in the Bumbo.  I think it will be a couple more
weeks until she's sitting comfortably in it

So excited to see mama!




























Look at how I've grown:

1 week


4 weeks


8 weeks


12 weeks