Homeschool: Pilgirms Unit

As we study the Pilgrims in school we had a fun time learning about Holland.  How is it I didn't know the Pilgrims went to Holland before America until I started Homeschooling?  They were there for 11 years!

So as we learned about Holland and that Dutch, we did some cheese sampling, since they are known for their cheese.

We also had a traditional Holland dinner.

I love learning about the different place around the world and the people that live there.

March Madness

It seems that March is packed and finds us doing a lot.

To start:

We finished up the things that Handsome wanted to do in his Wolf Cub Scout book as he would soon be moving on to Bears.  One fun thing was the family worked together and we built a kite out of a paper bag and wood.

Cubs has been such a great program for our family and especially for Handsome.  He has LOVED it.

To close out his Wolf year Handsome earned 3 more silver arrow points and his 1-2-3 Go! Nova pin.  His next Cub goal is go earn his Super Nova Cub Award.  He's on his way, but there is still a lot of work he has to do.

Prayer

Today's scripture is brought to you by Handsome.

Beautiful Turns One!

Where did all the time go?

We had a fun little party.  The kids gave her some of their old stuff animals.  And we did the little test of what she would crawl to first to determine her career in life.  

Although she picked  the whisk, to represent cooking, I must say that this little girl LOVES music.  Whenever she hears any type of sound that could be thought of as musical she will start swaying her head or wiggling her body.  I think we have a true music lover!

I made a doll for her for her birthday and a little blanket with ribbon tags.

We all love our little Beautiful baby.

Learning Milestones

       Beautiful is now rolling over front to back mostly... but also a few times back to front.  She is starting to see how she can move around to get to an object.

       Adorable was finally able to buckle himself in the car!  This has been a major help in getting in the car and leaving.  Now only one I need to get buckled in.

       Gorgeous read her first story by herself... and then her second, third, and fourth.  They are the BOB books, and I am so proud of her for working hard and learning this skill.

       And Handsome got glasses!  Now he can see. :)
 
       This month has been full of learning milestones.  I can't believe how much they are all learning and growing!

Beautiful Footprints

Just another great thing about my wonderful midwife.  Not only does she come to me for many of the visits after the baby is born.  (I LOVE that I don't have to leave my house!).  She also does a footprint of the baby on a cute page as a keepsake.  And since my kids where here too, she stamped each of their arms with Beautiful's footprint too.  The kids loved it.

and then there were FOUR

(Adorable playing music for Beautiful, Gorgeous singing to her, and Handsome just loving it all)

I was blessed to have Kent home with me the first few days after Beautiful was born (thanks to the weekend).  But then he had to head back to work, leaving before the kids were up and coming home after they were in bed.

I had to find our new "normal" for a little while as I tried to let my body recover, and make sure needs were being met.  

I had to relying on TV more than I would have liked. 

 (but can I just say we all grew to love the Cooking channel)

Handsome steeped up and started making lunches for everyone.

Gorgeous was such a helper.  Anytime I called she was there by my side ready to do a chore or small, but much needed, task.

Handsome and Gorgeous helped tuck in Adorable for naps and bed, and Adorable loved the "special" treatment.

New chores were added to the kids lists of to dos.

And school was held on the floor.

All the kids adored Beautiful and wanted to help and make it work.  And they knew that when I got a chance, I would rest.  

It was hard, but I can see how much we all grew, becoming a team to help keep everything going.

This was the precious time where we grew closer together as love abound.

Days Old

Pictures of Beautiful the first few days of her life here on earth.

Such a sweet little girl.

Sibling Love

When Beautiful was born the kids went to Grandma's and then Aunt Beth's.  When they came back home they were excited to see baby Beautiful.  I love the instant love they have for their little sister.

Beautiful Arrives (Her Birth Story)

Our Beautiful baby was due at the end of January… but as we waited and waited I wondered if she would ever come.  I had many braxton hicks keeping me up during the nights and at the end even waking me up every night around 3am.  I would be up for an hour or two until I could get back to sleep.  Kent was busy from early in the morning until late at night, and it seemed there were very few days that would be good for having a baby. 

As I waited and waited I decided to try to get as much done as I could before baby arrived.  I got as much ready as possible for Handsome’s birthday and for starting cub scouts, and I made many things for our soon to arrive baby.  And I kept thinking “maybe today?”  I was also worried about going over the due date and having another big baby, as Adorable was one week overdue and 9 lbs. 7 oz.  I didn’t want another baby that size!  So I watched what I ate very carefully, cutting out as much sugar and starch as I could.  In the end eating mostly only meat and vegetables. 

Then one Thursday early in the morning around 3:00am I woke up with the same strong pain, but felt the difference and thought, “Oh, I remember now” and knew I was in real labor.  I walked some and got in a bath.  Around 4am Kent called my midwife and told her I was in labor.  She arrived at our home around 4:30ish and checked me, I was at a 3.  I was very ready to have this baby as I had gone about one and a half weeks over my original due date (Later I figured out that according to my 20 week ultrasound was only 3 days over).  I was motivated to do what was needed to help baby arrive quickly.  So I walked around and bounced on a birth ball.  We were a little worried about the position of the baby, because my midwife was having difficulty getting her heartbeat.  We were thinking baby’s back may be positioned against my back (which would give me back labor).  So I went to my hands and knees in hopes of turning the baby before birth.  My midwife also gave me some homeopaths two times to help thin out my cervix.  I was moving around as much as I could to get this baby to come quickly.  The birth pool was set up in our toy room, as it seemed to me like a little cave where I would feel secure and have more privacy.  We decided to let the kids sleep and not wake them up as it was so early in the morning. 

As the pain got more intense my midwife said I was scrunching my face.  I didn’t even realize, but she asked me what it was.  I mentioned that my back was starting to really hurt during the contractions.  So she got her kit that attached to my back in different places and sent electric pulses of pleasure signals up my spine.  She said that pleasure signals travel faster to the brain than pain signals, so if the spine is flooded with pleasure signals there is not room for the pain ones.  It was set up on my back and set on low, when I squeezed Kent’s hand to signal a contraction he would hit the button to make it go on high.  It was wonderful and helped so much!  I was on my knees leaning on the birth ball with that for a while.

Then I was ready to hop in the warm water in the birth pool.  I loved the feel of the warmth surrounding me and the buoyancy of the water helping relieve the pain of the contractions.  I still got in and out a number of times, knowing that moving around helps keep the contractions coming and brings the baby sooner. 

Around 7am, at their usual time, the kids got up.  Kent called his mom to come and pick up the kids.  I didn’t want my kids to see me in labor, so when they came out and were getting ready to go and load up in the car I went into my bedroom and shut the door.  When the kids were gone I went back to the comfort of the warm water.

At the end the pain got intense, during transition, as it always does.  I remember saying I wanted an epidural, a C-section, something, anything to make this all be over.   Shortly after, my water broke, and a few contractions later I was pushing out baby’s head.  Once her head was out, out slid her body.  She was born at 7:57am.  She was so beautiful and tiny, and it was wonderful to have her out.  She was handed straight to me, and we cuddled together in the water.

My midwife offered to give me two shots, one to quickly contract my uterus and the other to keep it contracted.  She said this would help with the bleeding and the after pains.  As the midwife assistant was rubbing alcohol on my arm prior to the shot, our little baby scrunched up her nose at the smell.  It was funny to see her reactions to the smell.  Thanks to the shots the after pains were so much less than I experienced with Adorable.  I had some Ibuprofen to take, but didn’t even need to take it as often as I was told I could.

After a while I got out of the birth pool and went to lay in my bed.  There, baby was ready to eat and latched on right away.  I feed her and feed her, she was a hungry baby and kept on eating for quite some time.  When she was finally done eating she was weighed in at 7lbs. 14 oz.  Then I dressed her in her new outfit that was waiting for her.  She was such a beautiful baby and I was so happy to have her finally here with us.  I was tired and exhausted, but oh so happy!