Happy 3 Months, Caleb!

Dear Caleb,

It's amazing how fast time is flying by these days! You've had quite a busy month. While last month marked your big debut, this month saw a lot of action as far as you getting out and about. We're much more comfortable now with taking you out than we were a month ago, and as we're learning it's getting to be much easier--of course you're a pretty relaxed baby, so you make things easy on us. (Of course it also helps that you like getting out and meeting new people, too)!

You're becoming much stronger, and you can hold your head up--we still have to support your neck in order to make sure you don't let it "flop" when you get tired, which we learned the hard way. You've gained 1 pound 4.5 ounces since last month! You're still lean, but you've grown 3/4 an inch, which is CRAZY- seriously slow down, you'll be taller than us before we know it! You've started bearing weight down on your legs and can hold yourself up so long as someone is holding on to you. Holding your head up is no longer holding you back, and because you can do it so well, you love to look around. You still aren't mobile yet, but you can roll onto your side. Pretty soon you'll be rolling onto your stomach! You're also starting to speak up more, but in spurts and not consistently, though we're sure if you're anything like your momma then you will be soon enough!

You experienced your first Easter, though we weren't feeling very well that day so we actually didn't make it out to church. We're hoping we'll find a church soon that we can call "home" so we can have you around other babies and be able to have some social interaction. We still call Redeeming Grace Baptist Church our home, and we're not sure we can even find a church home quite like it, but we are hoping to dedicate you there in front of family and friends this summer. Ultimately, we want to raise you the way the Lord directs us to. We want to be there for you, reading and encouraging you every step of the way. It is a privilege that God has allowed us to be your parents. We love you!

Before we end this letter, there's one thing, I as your mother would like to say: I've truly enjoyed these past three months at home with you and I can't imagine going back to work. I've been so blessed to have had such a long maternity leave with you. It breaks my heart to know I won't be here with you like I want, but I know you'll be in good hands--you're dad, Papa, and Oma will be taking care of you throughout the week when I return to work, and even GramMarty is planning to stay a week or two to help us out. I'll have to work for seven weeks before summer vacation and then we'll get into all kinds of shenanigans then! I love you my wonderful boy! We can't wait to see what next month brings!

Love,
Mom & Dad

MIL's Meat & Potato Pie

Step 1

Step 2

Despite being new to this whole mommy role, I've thoroughly enjoyed my role as a wife to Adam and hope to for many MANY years to come. In becoming a wife I certainly found myself reveling in the whole "domestication" process. Not that becoming a wife necessarily means that for all women, but it did for me. All of my creativity and energy became focused on pleasing Adam, but now this includes my son as well. I want to be the best wife and mother I can possibly be each day. At the moment, that's keeping the house clean, having a hot meal (or hot leftovers) on the table each night, and taking care of Caleb. As for tonight, I thought I'd share with you my mother-in-law's meat and potato pie recipe--more commonly known as Shepherd's Pie.

Step 2

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups frozen hashbrowns
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or any cheese you prefer)
•  3/4 cup diced meat (chicken, hamburger--I prefer Jimmy Dean sage sausage: 1 lb cooked)
• 1/4 cupped chopped onion (optional)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• Parsley flakes (optional)

Step 3

Directions

1.  Put oil in the bottom of a 9" pie plate and add frozen hashbrowns (I like to mix them up thoroughly) -- bake @ 425 for 15 minutes
2. Mix cheddar cheese, meat and onion -- immediately layer on top of cooked hashbrowns
   (I prefer to mix the potatoes with the cheese and sausage rather than layer)
3. Mix milk, eggs, salt, and pepper then pour on top of dish
4. Bake @ 425 for 30 minutes
5. Add parsley flakes (optional--I usually skip this)

   

   Step 3

**I never follow this to a "t"--in fact I always use a bag that contains 2 cups worth of cheese and I usually use a whole bag of hashbrowns that's just over 3 cups. It's good to let everything just overflow with this recipe. Oh and it's a-okay if the hashbrowns aren't frozen. I've used them completely thawed out before and it's worked just as well! When everything's done it'll look like the finished product below. This recipe can be tweaked and you may add vegetables to this dish to follow a more traditional shepherd's pie recipe, but if you fix it like this then I highly recommend adding something green to the side like green beans, broccoli, etc. Enjoy!

Step 4: The End :-)

Shopping Cart Cover & Crib Skirt

Shopping Cart Cover

I meant to blog about this several months ago, but simply forgot. This past fall, while nesting didn't exactly kick-in until a few days before Caleb was born, I did get into a super crafty mood with sewing. Most of the bedding and nursery items I saw on the Internet and in stores were extremely expensive. Who has hundreds of dollars to spend money on something your kid won't even care about?! So on the weekends, when I didn't have class and when mom didn't work, we'd get together and spend hours figuring out how to make all this cute baby stuff.

Crib Skirt

We made a shopping cart cover (featured to the left) and believe it or not, we took it to Food Lion, only to discover that it did not fit their shopping carts!!! But we've decided to keep it just in case it should fit other carts, or if I actually get in the mood to somehow fix it. I have seen several other shopping cart covers at Once Upon a Child for cheap so we may just buy one there instead.

To the right, is the crib skirt my mother and I made. The pattern we used was a bit girly, so we decided to use rick-rack that matched the fabric, however, we learned that we didn't need so much fabric after all since we were only using one color. And below is a picture of the crib skirt on Caleb's crib in his nursery, underneath one of the crib sheets we made during this time as well.

Crib Skirt on Caleb's Crib

It's been a while since we've made anything else. What with the weeks impending Caleb's arrival, I lost the motivation to sew anything else. However, now that I'm on maternity leave, I recently found some material I bought a few summers ago when I was in the mood to make blankets for some of my friends that I knew were having babies. So hopefully I'll be sewing those together soon and posting about them, too! 

Mr. Proffitt's Meatloaf

When I was in the 9th grade I had Ms. Stone as my Geometry teacher. I also had Mr. Proffitt for English 9 Honors. These were two of my favorite teachers and what's really neat is that they were dating during my high school years. It was my 11th grade year that Mr. Proffitt proposed and they were married during the summer. I was privileged to be one of the few students invited to their beautiful wedding.

Later, when I was in college, I came back to BHS (neither Mr. or Mrs. Proffitt were teaching there anymore) but I completed some of my practicum hours there with another one of my favorite teacher's Mrs. Holland, whom kept in touch with the Proffitt's. When I graduated college in December 2008, that spring I was filling out applications and sending my resume to any county that had a potential social studies position available. I was just recently engaged when Mr. Proffitt (who then became an assistant principal and was no longer a teacher) called me to say that there was a position available at the middle school where he was working. It so kind and generous of him to remember me and that I needed a job. However, after much prayer, the Lord told me not to take the job. That it wasn't the one for me. Instead, I took a job with Charles City--one I detested, but needed for much growth!!!

After two years at CCHS, I was called about a job back at my alma mater. And this time, Mr. Proffitt would be working there as an AP. I have enjoyed working with him these past two years. He's still as quirky and wired as ever! When Adam and I were married Mrs. Proffitt came to my bridal shower and gave us this recipe. It's taken me over three years, but I finally fixed it and it's absolutely delicious! Check it out:

Meat loaf before

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. grated onion
• 1/4 tsp season salt
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup 

Directions

•  Combine all ingredients in a bowl, spray bottom of a loaf pan, then put the meatloaf in the pan. It is to be baked at 350 degrees for 1 hour

Optional

• Top loaf with 1 can of tomato soup before baking 
• This dish is great with rice-a-roni, extra fine green beans and rolls

  

  Meat loaf after

Breastfeeding & Perseverance

You might be asking yourself, why the heck is she talking about this? I'm talking about breastfeeding because God has been faithful and good to us. If you didn't get the chance to read Caleb's birth story or the post about Brenner Children's Hospital then you can do that here and here. But if you don't feel like reading all that, let me just say that my son was taken via helicopter to the NICU at another hospital due to complications he experienced during birth. Because of that I was not given the chance to nurse him until two days after his birth. This made for a difficult experience.

Let me back up a little. Caleb was introduced to a bottle and to formula in the NICU because he needed food and at the time I wasn't physically able to be there with him. I am not upset that he was given formula, in fact, I'm very grateful that the nurses at BCH were able to feed his grumbling tummy. It was the worst feeling in the world when he was at Morehead with me and I watched his little mouth move and hear him cry because he was hungry and I wasn't allowed to nurse him. So, for those women in situations like mine, I'm glad formula is available to still provide the nutrients a baby needs. However, I was undeterred in my pursuit of being able to breastfeed my child. It's an experience I wanted to have, and it made me feel like it would help us to bond.

Courtesyof http://www.aabreastfeeding.com

So at BCH, the nurses created some privacy in the pod our son was in by setting up a curtain get-up around us and we used the Brest Friend pillow (see image to right) for support to hold him. Obviously I knew that my boob was to go in his mouth, but what I struggled with was getting him to latch. Latching, is when the baby "grasps" and actually gets a hold of the nipple, well enough to actually suck and get milk out of the breast. Because of nipple confusion he cried and cried and cried. He would not grasp my nipple the same as he did the nipple on the bottles the nurses gave him. I was offered a nipple shield (see image below) which helped, but without that, he would not latch. And even after we got home and continued to use the nipple shield, it would get wet from his saliva and the milk then it would come off. I started using a pump so that he would continue to get breast milk and it was neat being able to have other people feed him, but I still wanted that experience of nursing my son.

Medela Nipple Shield

Medela Soft Shells

With the encouragement of my husband and I mother I tried to nurse Caleb again. However, it was heartbreaking hearing my son cry out of his frustration and watch him struggle to latch. I too began to cry and felt frustrated and defeated. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. After talking with some friends who were determined to help me, I contacted a midwife in Roanoke. That was the best decision ever! She basically explained that my son had a posterior tongue tie (also confirmed by his pediatrician) and that it was causing his tongue not to reach out as far which made it difficult for him to latch. The second strike against was that she also explained that I had flat nipples. Whoa, say what?!?! I had no idea!!! She encouraged that I use soft shells (see image above right) to help ease the pain of the nipples toughening up and to help with my nipple issue. During our visit with her, she showed me a few techniques that could help Caleb to latch and some things we could do to help with his tongue tie. With her advice and tips, Caleb was finally able to latch, and he has been doing so ever since February 6th! Caleb now loves the booby and he doesn't struggle at all to latch anymore! It was a tough six weeks, and goodness knows I felt chained to that pump, but God through his love and kindness granted me a desire that I longed for and I owe him all the glory! Breastfeeding is as amazing as I thought it would be and I love knowing I can provide for my son, all on my own. I was able to persevere and I encourage other women out there to not give up! I felt embarrassed and allowed my pride to prevent me from seeking help, but learn from me and don't let that be you!

Happy 2 Months, Caleb!

 Caleb,

What a privilege it's been to watch you grow and start truly coming to life this past month! Your father and I have loved every minute of seeing your little personality starting to come out. It's hard to believe how fast another month has gone by, and this month you experienced a lot of firsts (see picture below)! We were thrilled to get out and about with you as the month of January kept us indoors. I'm not sure if we intended to keep you inside for six weeks like some suggest, but you didn't seem to mind spending day-in and day-out with your mama and daddy.  And boy did we get you out!

We had some company the second weekend of February (2/8)--we hosted a Pampered Chef party and later that night your Great Aunt Mary and her sons Grayson and John Wilson stayed the night with us. Your Aunt Mary is a superhero! She helped us with breastfeeding and gave us some insights into making it easier. She also managed to take care of you in the middle of the night and still get up early the next morning to fix breakfast and buy us some much needed items like baby wipes, soap, laundry detergent for you. What a joy and blessing she was to have around, we can't wait to see her again and for you to meet Caitlin!

Your first official outing was to Roanoke, but your biggest and first real trip was to your PawPaw and GramMarty's in Mobjack. Within a matter of minutes of getting there Great Granny and Great Grandpa stopped in to meet you. We stayed indoors much of the weekend since it was too cold to really take you out in your stroller, but we did take you out to eat with us for the first time with our good friends, your "Uncle" Marcus and "Aunt" Gina and their little boy (who we hope will be your best buddy) William. We also had breakfast with you Great Aunt Kim and Great Uncle Dru as well as with my cousins Ashley, Allison, and their families (your second cousins: Logan, Parker, and Madeline). You were pretty zonked for most of that visit since the car ride there was an hour to and from Yorktown. We made a quick pit-stop at Chick-Fil-A to meet Ethan & Ashlee, then we jetted out of there for the Leverett family get together. Though not everyone could make it, you met: Kelly, Gavin, Mallory, Peyton, Great Aunt Cindy, Great Uncle Dennis & Great Aunt Joanie.

The next day we took you to church for the very first time! There you met a lot of great and wonderful Christian people, who all enjoyed meeting you. You stayed in the service with us until you wet your diaper then the waterworks were on! However, April kept you in the nursery so I could sit and enjoy the sermon. It was like music to our ears to hear Van preach again! That day they had a special guest, Beky (a missionary to Togo whom you met in January) who spoke to the church and they hosted a luncheon immediately afterwards for her. You got passed around all over the place while we ate. When we finished lunch we drove up to Richmond to spend time with the Davis family. There you met Great Grandma, Great Aunt Kathy, and Great Uncle Maurice, Luke's friend Scott, and some of Adam's friends: Kyle & Fio (who recently got engaged) and Katy. We hung out at Uncle Luke's house while he, PawPaw, your dad, and Luke's tenant Logan put up the rock wall Uncle Luke has been dying to put up. We believe when you're old enough you'll probably climb that thing all the way to the top! Your dad got a call that he would actually have off the next day so we drove back to Mobjack that night and hung out a little more with your grandparents before jetting off to see "Uncle" Marcus and William again and then we headed home! We, and you, were completely exhausted and it felt great to be back in our own home again!

Some things we've learned this month include:

• How to distinguish the different cries you have (mainly between fussing and when something truly is wrong)
• You love getting your diaper and clothes changed 
• You love to coo (we figured that's your way of "talking" at the moment)
• You are always uncertain of taking a bath at first, but then you warm up to it
• When you're awake and in someone's arms you constantly like to look around to see what is going on---we've bumped heads on many occasions

Unfortunately, you did get "cradle cap" this month. It's basically really dry skin that apparently lots of babies get. It doesn't seem to bother you, but it is a pain seeing it all over your head.When we visited GramMarty & PawPaw though it started going away, wahoo! Your doctor's visit for this month went really well. We found out you're in the 11% for head circumference, 26% for weight, and 92% for height. So you're definitely long and lean--in fact it's difficult finding pants that fit you, we're hoping that changes soon! Don't forget to check out the collages keeping track of your stats, milestones, and fun facts for this month. We love you and can't wait to see how much you grow and change next month!

Love,
Mom & Dad