Lens Giveaway

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Ronan {3 months old}

3 months old! A little late, but things have been super busy over here and blogging has been put on the back burner. :)

Okay, so little man is still cute and sweet as can be, not sleeping as well as he was...booooooooo. I miss my good sleeper. Hoping its just a stage, might be teething? Not sure, never really sure at this age! He is cooing and smiling like crazy. I love his little chuckles, makes my day!

Ro can roll from tummy to back and to his side. He loves to play with his monkey and cow toys.
Still has his little dimple on one cheek.
Wears size 2 diapers
3-6 and some 6m clothes
Nurses every 4-5 hours
Not sure on his hair yet! Could still be blonde or brown, we will see!
Chews on his fingers a lot, might be teething! We are trying an amber teething necklace to see if that helps, I think it might be!
He doesn't like pacifiers! Not sure if that is a bad thing or a good thing yet, but sometimes I really wish he would take one!  :)
Loves to look around and take everything in, laid and quiet most of the time
He doesn't like to be swaddled anymore! Now he is in sleeping sacks at night.

Some pictures of the cuteness, I just can't handle it!!  :)

Ronan {2 Months}

Baby Ro is 2 months old! This is going by way too fast! Here is what little nuggy has been up to these days...

Growing! At his Dr appt, he was 12 lbs 3.5oz and 23 1/4in. and super healthy. He nurses every 4-5 hours, but during growth spurts sometimes its 2-3 hrs. He is so nice to his mommy and will sleep 8 hour stretches sometimes at night! Most of the time, its 5-6 hrs.

He is such a happy baby, so smiley and such a flirt. This baby loves to cuddle and we enjoy the cuddles right back. When he smiles, he has a cute little dimple on his left chubby cheek!

I was so use to Dillon being small, so Ro seems so big! He is already in 3-6 clothes and size 2 diapers!  He is just a little round lump and we love it. I am excited for cute little baby rolls  :)

Baby Ro loves to grab his toys in his car seat and watch his hands. He is so observant and loves to watch his brother go crazy. His neck control is amazing and he loves tummy time unless he is tired.

He loves napping in his swing, being swaddled, baths and cooing at mommy.

Love this sweet boy!

A Giveaway!

Check out the giveaway from Signs Designs and More on my photography blog! She is giving away a free vinyl monogram! Only a few more days to enter...and there is a coupon code for her shop!  Or you can also enter below! :)



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Snow Tubing with Papa

I forgot about this video from New Years when we were up visiting my parents and Grandparents. Dillon had SO much fun!!

New Look!

I love designing new blog headers! Had to update since our new addition!  :) Still working on some things like changing out the sidebar headers, I can't remember how I did that, lol.

Ronan {1 month}

Little man is one month already! Well, more than one month, 6 weeks old today! We missed his one month dr appt on the 15th (oops, that's what happens these days with two crazy kids and a crazy mommy) so we had it on Wednesday. Dr Clark said he was perfect, which I knew already. He didn't cry at all and Dillon was a good big brother while we were there.
I made a First Year book for Dillon with all the blog posts I did on him every month, so I am going to try to do the same for Ronan! It is so much easier to keep it all on here to have a record, I can't remember a thing these days!  :)

Little Ro is 10 pounds, 3 oz (40%) and 22 1\4 in (60%). He is such a happy baby, I didn't think he would be as easy as Dillon but he has spoiled us. He even slept for seven hours last night! I'm sure that won't last long, I feel a growth spurt coming on soon!  Other than sleeping all the time, he eats about every 4-5 hours. He loves the swing, loves to be cuddled, only likes soothie pacis, likes to be swaddled at night and is in awe of his crazy brother. He has baby acne, but not as bad as Dillon had. His little head is balding and its hard to tell what color his hair will be, possibly blonde. Right now, its light brown. Wouldn't it be funny if it came in red, lol!!  Ronan has been a great addition to our family, I could just snuggle him all day!! Can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Baby Ronan

Ronan Charles Leekley is here!  This was literally the fasted pregnancy ever! From trips in the spring and summer to photo shoots every weekend until the last month, I was so busy to notice! The first trimester was rough bc of norovirus, full body hives from a reaction to zofran and another rash from antibiotics from a UTI. Other than that, the rest was a breeze. Ronan was so nice to mommy. I didn't swell up like a puffer fish like I did with Dillon and felt great all the way to the end. He never really dropped, so that also had something to do with it. Here is the birth story, mainly for my records and to put in Ronan's First Year book like we did for Dillon!

December 14th (which was a horrible day, I cried and cried that afternoon watching the news) I felt itchy all day on my hands and feet. The day before I had a gall bladder attack but didn't put two and two together until I googled "itchy hands and feet in late pregnancy" and up pops something called cholestasis of pregnancy and I had a lot of the symptoms other than the itching and the gall bladder. Jenna had just arrived a few hours earlier, which was perfect timing!! I kind of freaked out about what I googled and called the OB on call (it was around 10:30pm at this point). She reassured me everything would be fine, but to come in and be induced since I was already 4 cm (from my dr appt that Monday before. Thank you Lauren for telling me to eat so much pineapple, it definitely helped!!). She said better to be safe and go ahead and get things moving and they would test for CoP. It was so surreal getting everything together already, two days before my due date. It felt so early compared to waiting for practically a year to have Dillon (he was 11 days late). So off we went and Jenna stayed with Sherman at the house. Dillon was already spending the night at my mother in laws, so that worked out great.
My emotions were all over the place at this point-so excited knowing he would be here soon and super nervous about being induced since that didn't go so well the first time. We arrived at UNC Women's around midnight and got settled. They started pitocin and I tried to get some sleep while my contractions got stronger over night. After maybe a couple hours of sleep, they checked me pretty early in the morning and I was still between a 4 and 5, but my contractions were a lot stronger. I decided to go ahead and get my epidural before they broke my water. Best. Decision. Ever. They broke my water afterwards and the waiting game was on. Not too much longer, I could slowly feel more and more sharp pain on my left side and was wondering if something was wrong with the epidural. I had to breath through those contractions and grit my teeth until they came and fixed the epi. Once I had more juice flowing, I couldn't feel a thing and looking back, it wasn't all that bad. They weren't going to check me again for a while, but I told them I could feel a lot of pressure. My sweet nurse, who I loved, checked me and said "um you are a 10!" So all the pain I was feeling was me going from 5cm to 10cm in less than an hour. It was time to push! I was all smiles at this point and ready to get this show on the road. I loved how calm and quiet it was in the room. Even though UNC is a teaching hospital, there was no one in the room except my one nurse and Evan the whole time I pushed. 20 minutes was all it took and she told me to stop bc he was RIGHT THERE! She said I was a champ at pushing. The doctor came in, a couple pushes more and he was out at 9:56am! Even though there was muconeum in my water, they still placed him on me and I got to hold my sweet boy before they took him to get suctioned and Evan cut the cord. Something I didn't think I would get to do.  It was such a calm, relaxing, and happy delivery. If we have anymore babies, they will be born at UNC. I can't say enough great things about the nurses and doctors!

Here are some pictures of our new little guy, who is just too cute for words, but I'm biased.  :)

 Dillon is such a good big brother! He didn't get to meet Ro until we came home because of his cough. He was so excited to see all of us and just tickled pink over his new brother. He kissed him, rubbed his head, and kept saying "Baby Ronan came out of your tummy!" and "I love my brother!" He even sang a couple songs to him. I hope they are best buds and never ever fight! ha!

Baby Ro is so good, he sleeps a lot and cries some in the evenings from gas, but he's pretty much just like Dillon was as a baby-laid back and easy peasy. I hope it continues!

My Favorite Soup Ever

I don't know what it is about Fall, but once the cool weather hits I want to eat every pumpkin thing possible (maybe also because I'm preggo). I have been making a lot of yummy pumpkin things lately-pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin dip and pumpkin/squash soup.
The soup has been my favorite so far, so thought I would share the recipe. This was my first attempt of homemade soup, so I was thrilled with how yummy it was! The base of the recipe is from my friend, but I added and took away some things. The best part is you don't really need to measure, and you can add more or less of ingredients to fit your taste buds.

So here it is...

~Pumpkin Butternut Squash Soup~

One large Butternut Squash peeled and chopped
2 apples (I used Gala) peeled and chopped
Chopped sweet onion to taste (I used about half a small onion)
3 Tbsp of butter
One can of pumpkin puree
salt and pepper
pumpkin pie spice
1 1/3 cup of apple cider (I used the spiced kind with orange, cinnamon and clove)
2-4 cups of water or stock, depending on how thick you like your soup

 ~Melt butter in large pot, saute onions until clear
~Toss in squash and apples, saute for a couple minutes, then add about 2 cups of water and bring to a boil
~Simmer for around 20 minutes until squash is soft
Pour everything into blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add can of pumpkin and blend again until smooth.
~Pour everything back into pot on stove on low heat. Add apple cider and the rest of water, depending on thickness you prefer.
~Add spices and heat on low (do not boil) until soup is hot.

Enjoy!!  I made enough for two lunches and then was able to freeze about 3 bowls worth. Can't wait to make it again!

My Babies

Random updates from the Leekley house, mostly about my two babies :)

Dillon's self portraits, he had fun taking pictures of himself, such a goof!!

The bump, almost 26 wks!  Third trimester will be here before we know it!! This pregnancy has gone by way faster than with Dillon. We switched from the Duke Hospital system to UNC Hospitals this pregnancy, and have been very pleased so far. This is the only time I can say I like UNC better than Duke lol!

Baby Ronan has a couple new burp cloths made by mommy!  We have had his name picked out for a while now, but I feel like its more official when I put it on things, haha!  His full name is Ronan Charles. We love it!