Solid eating schedule 101

I've been thinking that I needed to start blogging again. I don't know if anyone will actually read it, but I think it will give me some satisfaction in sharing what I learn with Lucas on a regular basis. As a new mom, I frequently read reviews of products and just advice columns that are centered around babies. If I have a question, I know that somebody out there has "been there and done that", and I'm hoping that online I can find out about their experience. Then I can tweak it to help me be a better mom. For instance, I have been reading quite a bit online recently about solid feeding schedules for 6 month olds. That sounds pretty straight forward, right? Oh no, this is an extremely complex issue, and everyone out there has something different to say (which is typically the case with everything baby related!). I don't know if looking at these things is helping me or just making me more confused!! Lucas has been a very hungry little guy over the past week or so, and I thought that it was time to introduce another solid feeding into his daily routine. For the past month, he has been having a serving of cereal, half a vegetable and half a fruit at dinner. I guess this combined with nursing is no longer enough (well, unless I want to nurse him every 2 hours). He has been waking up in the middle of the night screaming. You know, the scream that says "I'm hungry, feed me now!". I have tried to calm him in hopes that he would go back to sleep, but this doesn't work. Once he gets his belly full, he goes right back to sleep. So for the past few days I have been adding a serving of baby oatmeal, mixed with breastmilk and fruit in the morning as a snack. He gobbles this up like it's a Snickers bar :) He continues to nurse every 3-4 hours while awake and then at night we still do dinner and then an extra nursing session before bed. I think that we will stick with this plan for now and see how it goes. I did buy some Plum Organic baby food while at Babies R Us yesterday. I LOVE this stuff! Yes, it is a little pricey (they're having a sale right now, it's $1.00 per package), but it is organic, completely BPA free packaging, and it comes in a squeezable container. This makes it super convenient. I tried the spinach, pea, and pear combination last night and it was quite tasty. I think that unless I start making my own food (which I don't foresee happening), then we will continue to stick with this. We've also tried Sprout baby food, which is a product of Tyler Florence, the celebrity chef. It is also organic with BPA free packaging, but the food is a little difficult to get out of the package. Lucas does seem to really like it, and it can be found at Walmart. If this goes on sale, I would probably snag it up too.

I want to wish our little guy a Happy 1/2 Birthday (technically this was yesterday, but I'm still awake). I cannot believe how quickly these past 6 months have passed. I am so in love with our little guy. Nick looked at me yesterday and said that he loved Lucas so much he could hardly stand it sometimes. Now doesn't that just make you all warm and fuzzy on the inside :)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Hello everyone! Yes, we know that it has been quite some time since we updated our blog. Much has happened over the past few months and needless to say, we have been very, very busy. Lucas arrived on September 28th, two days before his due date. Everything went fantastic and we were able to come home only 36 hours after he was born! He was 7 pounds 14 oz and 20 and 3/4 inches long at birth. He has been growing at an astonishing rate! At first we were a little concerned, because at his 1 month visit he was only in the 35th percentile. However, at his 2 month visit (he was actually only 7 weeks old), he weight a whopping 11.5 pounds and had moved up into the 65th percentile. Go Lucas! We were super excited about this. In the past few weeks he has really started to make strides developmentally. He now smiles, giggles, and coos at us regularly. He loves to lie on his playmat and stare at the animals that hang above him. A few times, he has been able to grasp one of the animals that has a rattle attached to it. He also can roll from his belly to his back. He has tried on occasion to roll from back to belly, but he still has a little ways to go on this. On a daily basis he does something that amazes us. He and Molly are getting along quite well. At first, Molly was a scared of him, but she is known to be a fraidy cat. I think she's realized that he is harmless and now she enjoys licking his hands and feet and giving him kisses when she gets the chance. I'm not sure if Lucas understands what's going on yet, but I think he's in love with Molly already :) Who couldn't love our fur baby!

Something that we started a few weeks ago with Lucas was the "EASY" method. Thanks to my good friend, Jess, we started reading the book "The Baby Whisperer". Let me just say that this book has given me back my sanity, and this is chiefly due to the regularly nap routine that we have developed. Lucas doesn't necessarily nap at the same time every day, but he does seem to follow the routine: eat, activity, sleep, and then Mommy gets times to herself. We are still working on our nighttime sleep pattern. For a few weeks he was only getting up once per night, but in recent weeks we have gone back to two feedings at night. I'm not sure if this is our fault, or if he's just too young. We're working on reducing this back to one feeding, I'll let you know how that goes.

We are in quite the Christmas spirit here at the Manicke household. Lucas as visited Santa and attended two Christmas parties already (Nick's and Granddaddy's). The Christmas tree and Christmas villages are up and music is often being played that involves Rudolph, snow, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I am going to try to be a better blogger. We'll see how this goes...

What a day!

I was hoping for a nice, relaxing day off today. Nick and I had worked hard over the weekend painting the living room and hallway, so I had no plans for today. Unfortunately, my day involved waking up with a sick doggie and then taking her to the vet, sitting there for 2 hours, then being told that she needed surgery for a bowel obstruction. I then cried for an hour or so before they called me back saying surgery wasn't necessary, praise the Lord!! Needless to say had been in quite a state of distress. Nick is at a conference, so I was the lone doggie parent today. The surgeons requested that an ultrasound be done just to confirm the obstruction. Thankgoodness that they requested this, because the U/S showed that there was no obstruction! They kept Miss Molly for the afternoon for observation and gave her some IV fluids. I was able to bring her home this evening. She still is one sad puppy, but hopefully she'll be feeling better tomorrow. I think she may get to sleep with Mommy tonight!

On a happier note, I did receive a shipment of clothes for Baby Manicke that I had ordered from Crazy 8. This was a nice end to a crazy day. I absolutely love them, especially the little jacket. I must admit that I have an obsession with baby clothes though. I am going to restrain myself from buying anything else...at least for a few more months :)

Good times with an old friend

Tonight I drove to Crawfordsville and met up with my best friend and former college roomie, Kalie, for dinner. We had not seen each other since December! Although we talk on the phone often, it was great to be able to chat in person. Of course we had to do our fair share of discussing Baby Manicke :) Kalie bought the baby some super cute things - thanks roommate!! It's fun to think back on our days at USI in our stylish room. We must have been destined to be roommates, because we had the exact same bright green and pink flowered Tommy Hilfiger bedding. Long gone are the days of afternoon naps with the windows open and late night runs to Krispy Kreme for donuts. However, some things will always remain: some wonderful memories and a forever friendship.

Baby Manicke

Since our last post two years ago, quite a bit has happened. In July 2009, Molly joined our family. She is a sweet and precious soft coated Wheaten Terrier, who I almost chucked out a window today because she ate one of my shoes. In the same month, I was able to transfer to the Clarian Arnett system here in Lafayette to a new job. Eliminating my 2 hour plus commute everyday was life changing. In December, Nick graduated from Purdue with his PhD. He's currently doing a one year post-doc, which will end in December. Yes, all of this was exciting news, but our biggest news thus far has been finding out that we are going to be parents! And not just to a dog, but to an actual baby! In early January, we discovered that I was pregnant. Then, on January 21st, we went for our first ultrasound, and found out that we were 6 weeks along. Hearing the baby's heartbeat was an indescribable feeling and it made us realize that "yes this is actually going to happen". I wish there was a better term than excited to describe how we felt. We kept the secret from everyone until my mom's birthday on February 19th. It was great to be able to tell them in person and share in their excitement. So yes, you may very well see my mother at the mall up to her ears in baby clothes :)

On May 13th, we went for our 20 week ultrasound. I had myself worked into such a tizzy prior to this appointment. I was excited, nervous, and scared all at the same time. I cannot describe how relieved I felt to hear and see that everything with our baby looked perfect. The ultrasound technician was also able to get some great 3D pictures of the baby's face. She remarked about how he was an usually cute baby. Nick's response was "of course". Yes, I do believe that we have one very proud dad! We had the technician write the gender of the baby on a piece of paper and put it into an envelope so we could open it up at home together. Nick made me put the envelope in my purse and then he put my purse in the trunk of the car to assure himself that I wouldn't open it up on the way home. Of course I would never do something like that ;) At home, we were able to open the envelope up and learn that we are having a baby boy.

Since learning that we are expecting a boy, nesting mode has kicked into full gear. Nick spent today completely redesigning the nursery closet to make it "baby" friendly. Now it's just waiting for us to fill it with all sorts of cute baby stuff. Although, I must admit that I'm pretty clueless about all of this "stuff" that we're going to need. I have made some big decision though. A couple of weeks ago we ordered our nursery furniture. Let me just say that this was no easy task. It took three trips to Kids Room and hours of scrutinizing websites to finally pick it out. Your can click here to see our crib, changing table, and bookcase. The next biggest decision was definitely the bedding. I have looked at enough crib bedding sets online, that I actually had dreams about baby bedding last night. However, I talked to my mom today, who made the decision so much easier. Thanks Mom!! So I think we're going with a nautical theme from Pottery Barn.

Click on the Baby Manicke picture link to see pictures of nursery closet, ultrasound pics, and other baby-related things!

Go Reds!!!

...or something like that. Last weekend, Kelly and I got to go to Cincinnati to see a game between the Reds and the Cubs. Kelly's Dad planned this trip as an employee appreciation day, and all of his employees and their families were invited. We decided to tag along too, and we met the E&M bus at a Ryan's near Louisville. We were late (it was Kelly's fault obviously) so we scarfed our food quickly and then it was onto the bus for Cincinnati! That was the first I had been to the city, and it seemed like a nice place (from what little I saw). The ball park was definitely nice, and it was a perfect night for baseball. We had all the ol' ball park favorites: hot dogs, nachos with tons of cheese, and peanuts (no cracker jacks). It was an exciting game, the Reds had a grand slam and Alfonso Soriano hit three home runs, back to back to back. Most of the people in the stands were Cub fans, so the crowd was pretty pumped up about it.

The only drawback to the trip is that we had to turn around and come back home. The game didn't get over until almost 11 pm. We thought about getting a hotel room, but I grabbed a coffee in Corydon and felt pretty good. Kelly of course felt great since she slept all the way home :)

So what's been going on besides that? Well, Kelly has been crazy busy, getting up at 5:20 am so that she can get ready to go to work. She really likes her new job though, and I really like the money, so everyone is happy. We are looking forward to the football game against no. 16 Oregon this weekend. Boiler Up!

Back in America...time to start life as an adult!

Sorry that we have not updated this recently, but it has been crazy ever since we arrived back home. We had an absolute amazing time in Taiwan, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. However, I was never so glad to return home. I had a wonderful weekend with my family in Kentucky, which definitely involved some shopping with my mom! We also celebrated my birthday in typical Moser fashion - by eating way too much food and topping it off cake from Piece of Cake in Evansville. I enjoyed every second of the weekend, and I was very sad to leave. Although, I have to admit that I was anxious to get back to our house and get back to normal life. Well, I don't know how normal it is though. For the first time in 19 years, I am not going to school. Yesterday, I started my job with Methodist Cardiology Physicians in Indianapolis. I am very, very nervous about everything that I need to learn, but I can already tell that I'm absolutely going to love my job. Everyone I work with is super nice and helpful. I think that the fact that I'm going to enjoy my job will make my commute to Indy much better.

Nick and I thought it would be a good idea to try and continue this blog. Hopefully, we can write weekly posts to let you know what's going on in our lives. Purdue football starts in a few weeks, and that is sure to bring lots of excitement to the Manicke household.