End of Winter Update

It is a sad state of affairs when I realize I haven't updated since September...I've certainly had plenty of things going on to share about! Our family has changed a bit since September.


I have found that many areas of my life have fallen to neglect. Homeschooling is a full-time job and when I'm not completely absorbed in that, being a mommy and housekeeper fills in the rest of the hours! I rarely have time for all the things that I want to do!

Sean is growing and developing (at his own pace). We've had some concern with him as he seemed to lack strength in his torso. We had him evaluated and he was a bit behind the curve, however I was able to work with him and he figured sitting up out. I suspect he's still a little behind, though, as he's really not that interested in crawling, standing, or anything other than playing and eating! I try not to be too worried about it because he does try to crawl, so I do think it is something he will eventually do. It is his lack of motivation that is more concerning. He's more than happy to sit back and watch the activity of the world around him. I guess I can't blame him for not bothering to crawl around--everything gets brought to him! He has a great sense of humor, though, and we enjoy him a lot! I think he is his sisters favorite toy!

Elaina just turned 3. She's growing into her vibrant personality. She has recently discovered how to use the word "me" and instead of referring to herself in the third person ie. "Pooka do it" (Pooka is her nickname) she now says "me do it". She is the sassiest and the sweetest all mixed into one little girl. She loves to do school with her sisters and doesn't like to be left out of anything! She has developed quite the affinity for singing...just put a princess doll in her hand and she starts right up. So funny!

Grace is gearing up for kindergarten. She'll be 5 in a few days. I don't think she'll enjoy having "structured school" as she thoroughly enjoys playtime. I'm hoping that by the time we start something more formal with her in August she'll be ready. I think she would like to know how to read without doing the work to learn! She has started "pretending" to read now. She moves her head from side to side as though she's thoroughly absorbed...if it is a picture book she'll make up the story. She is ever the princess. She isn't interested in anything if it isn't at least distantly related to being a princess, or at the very least, a girl in a dress.

Hannah just turned 7. She seems to be thriving in the homeschool environment. We've discussed public school (I like to touch base with her now and again to make sure that she's content with where we are) and she doesn't have any interest in going back. I'm not sure we'd allow her to now even if she did decide she wanted to as we're invested in at least trying it for a few years. She's reading really well now and seems to be progressing well in math (that's daddy's subject). We're delving into American history a bit deeper as the year goes on and she's very excited. Her favorite thing, though, is "projects". If I don't provide a project that is up to her standards she will come up with one on her own! She's very creative and thrives on making crafty things.

We are 2/3 through our school year. We'll be finishing up our first grade reading/math curriculum by the end of April. The rest of our curriculum will take until mid-May to finish up. Throughout the years I space (every 6-7 weeks) a "light" week where we only do math and reading, which is why we are a bit ahead for those subjects. Hardly a bad thing. We've opted to toss our current curriculum for math and reading and try something else. We're going to do something a bit more laid back over the summer months and then gear back up to start sometime in August. Most days we really enjoy it and even on the hard days I prefer it over sending Hannah to school.

Elaina snuggling under the blanket Grandma made her.
Sean with his new favorite toy.
Sean showcasing his church duds.
Eric and Hannah at the Father-Daughter Dance.

All of 'em.

Daddy's Garage Helper--complete with drill!!

Lots more has happened in all these months--but that's enough for today! If I chronicled it all we'd have a novel on our hands!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Due to "library night" and having to shop for a last minute birthday party the girls were invited to, by the time they got to call Papa for his birthday the phone was busy and unfortunately it was already past their bedtime...and they were so disappointed. So we had them record their message to Papa...and since I couldn't decide between the two better takes, I uploaded them both :-)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Vacation

We opted not to do a summer vacation this year, due mostly to Sean's age. We also knew that we planned to start homeschooling at the end of July. If we choose to continue homeschooling after this year we won't start until at least August, but for this first year we wanted to have some experience under our belt before public school started. From the beginning we planned to do 6 weeks of school and then take a break while all the other kids went back to school. It worked so well I imagine we'll do something similar in future years.

So the first week of September Eric took a week off of work and we planned a few fun things. We enjoyed Labor day with a picnic at some friends and then, probably the highlight of the week for Sean, he got to try his first solid foods. Which, believe or not based on the below picture, he did seem to enjoy :-)


We decided to space out our "field trips" a bit so Sean didn't get too out of whack and that turned out to be a wise choice since he was spent by the end of each day. We chose to go up to Door County and "The Farm" for our first trip. Since there were very few others there the girls got to give the baby goats several bottles (much to the delight of both varieties of kids).



While there the girls also got to feed corn to the older goats, milk a mama goat, pet a mini horse and her filly, explore an old well, meet a variety of other animals, and probably the highlight of the day...watch a baby chick hatch. We passed by and saw that there were a few eggs ready to hatch in an incubator in one of the buildings but figured it would take a long time and we didn't want to spend all day watching an egg crack. So I told the girls we'd check back on our way out and sure enough there was very little progress on the couple eggs we'd noticed had started to hatch. However, a new egg had started to hatch and this one was determined. When the progress was obvious I told Hannah that we could stay and watch, much to her excitement. And within 10 minutes it was out. It was a precious sight and an awesome way to explain to Hannah how chickens come to be.

They enjoyed their trip to the farm.

Our attempt at a family picture.

Our other chosen field trip was to the Milwaukee zoo. The girls have been looking forward to this since day one of school, so the entire day was a lot of fun. We printed off a "scavenger hunt" that we found online and helped the girls find the things on the list. One thing I really love about the Milwaukee zoo is their signs. They have some really great signs about the animals and their endangered levels, plus lots of interesting trivia. It is easy to read a sign like that to little kids and have them actually enjoy hearing it. Of course, the first thing we had to do was ride the train for Eric:

And after a hard day of walking, they needed to take a break and rest their feet in their "animals thrones". Everything is a throne to these little princesses.


We had so much fun as a family this last week and I think it helped affirm to us that we've made the right choice to homeschool. We feel so much more connected as a family and I love that learning is a family event. It is easier than I thought to find educational value in the world around us. Particularly with Hannah since she has an incredibly inquisitive mind. If we didn't offer the information, she would probably ask anyway!

We are looking forward to many more family vacations. Maybe next time we'll actually get to go away somewhere!

Swimming

We have done lots of swimming this summer, probably because with Sean being so little and unpredictable it is one of the easier things we can let the girls do! Eric started taking the girls to "family swim" at our local pool every Thursday night starting in June. It is an hour of swimming that is offered at half-price, with the idea that parents are in charge of their children's safety. There are lifeguards, but in limited quantity. You are allowed to bring pool toys and other things that are normally not allowed, and Dad's are allowed to catch their kids (who are unable to swim!) jumping off of the diving boards.

Eric got Hannah started on this right away. It was something she loved and eagerly latched onto once she started swim lessons end of July. By the end of her swim lessons she was able to swim and go off the diving board by herself. And not only the lowest diving board but the medium one, too. She decided last week that she intended on going off of the "high dive", the highest one available for the last family swim of the summer...which was today.

Now this mother did not embrace the idea of her 6 year old who could barely swim jumping off of the high dive, even if Daddy was standing by below to save her if need be. But I agreed if Hannah could pass a "swim test" that Eric put her through. Once she passed, I reluctantly agreed to video tape her crowning moment. She has literally been talking about this for days and was very nervous about doing it, but excited nonetheless.

Her successful jump!

This is one of those moments where I sit back and realize that this is yet another reason why I want to homeschool. I love to witness the joy of discovery. Hannah is learning to do so much right now and she's very excited and proud of her accomplishments. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I love that I get to see so much of it firsthand. I love how she informs me how much easier math is getting for her and the way she assured me today that "of course" she could read her assignment to me, as if I was a silly question for me to ask.

Grace is night and day with Hannah. She's our cautious child. She does not enjoy the pool nearly as much. But we've discovered that if allowed to swim in the baby pool she is a lot more adventurous. I think she feels insecure in the deeper water and enjoys being able to test her abilities in a situation she feels in control of. After watching Hannah jump into the pool from the high dive, Grace "imagined" herself to be diving into the baby pool much the same way. I'm sure much of the hilarity of the moment is lost in translation and this is very much a "you had to be there" thing, but I took a video which I still think is funny :-)

Elaina seems oblivious to all the jumping going on. She seems to enjoy seeing just what she can do in the water. She's a lot like Grace in that she much prefers the shallow water. But Elaina will float (propelling herself with her hands) to the deepest part of the baby pool until her head goes under and she jumps up, sputtering and indignant. When she's not doing that she is running back and forth between the pool and me, yelling "It's fun!"


And of course, the amused audience :-)


We've enjoyed this summer...it makes me sad that the pool is closing (already) next week and that summer seems to be wrapping up. At least this year I won't have to prepare myself to say good-bye to Hannah. We will be hitting the books at home!

Three Months

Sean is 3 months old! I think it was possibly the longest 3 months of my life, but we have come out on the other side finally! Sean is probably the most even-tempered, mellow baby we've had yet. He's pretty laidback, which is probably a good trait for the only boy in a family of girls. However, from the very beginning Sean has had one issue or another with sleep. More specifically, a period of time where he refused to sleep. It started out where it was just that he'd wake up after his early morning feeding and stay up...annoying, but manageable. But then it started that he'd sleep a few hours and then stay up for 3-4 hours. A lot worse. And then it turned into he'd sleep a few hours and stay up ALL NIGHT. Until 8 am in the morning. That was completely insane! Out of 4 kids, none of the previous ones had done such a thing!

But things have leveled out now and he's become a champion sleeper. You will get very few complaints from this Mama now!

To commemorate Sean turning 3 months, we decided that life wasn't hectic enough and started our homeschooling. We are four days in and it has been going pretty well. I'm not a fan of math, however, and after teaching it for two days I passed it off to Eric. Eric loves math and I felt like Hannah had a better chance at liking math if she had a teacher who did. Not to mention I think having a solid foundation of math is so important to excelling in it later. I was concerned that I wouldn't give her that...but it is only the first part of our first year. We'll see where we end up!

After lots of research we chose the Heart of Dakota curriculum. It has a detailed guide laid out for new homeschoolers like me who have no wish to spend hours planning out activities. It basically tells me what books I should buy and pieces it all together for me. So far I like it a lot. And looking ahead it just seems to get better. They emphasize a lot of reading of good books, and I can't argue with that!

We've had a fairly uneventful summer so far. We've stayed close to home because Sean has been such a challenge. There is still plenty of summer left to enjoy, though, so hopefully we can still get out and do that! Here a few pictures to show what we've been up to:

A graduation party (yea!)

A Visit From the PA Cunningham's

A day trip to visit Grandma and Papa at their campsite

(and having s'mores of course!)

A trip to the Green Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

A trip to Grandma and Papa's house

Family Devotions

Swimming!

My (Long) Birth Story

Here is my birth story for Sean. It involves details, if you don't want details, skip to hte pictures at the bottom!

I went in to the doctor to get my membranes stripped at 11am Thursday morning. We knew it was a long shot, but it had worked for Elaina. We weren’t in any real hurry to get baby out, but our doctor was on call that day and Hannah had two days of vacation (making it much easier for grandparents to not have to deal with school!) so we figured it was worth a try.

We went to the cafeteria after that to enjoy a family outing. The girls love eating at the cafeteria, they just think it is awesome. We even splurged and let them get one of the fancy desserts the cafeteria has.

I was feeling crampy and generally uncomfortable, but from what I’d read that is fairly common and doesn’t always mean labor is impending. I laid down for a nap when I got home and hoped maybe something would be happening by the time I woke up…nothing was so we decided to go for a walk. By the time we got back from our walk around 6pm or so (which was actually quite long considering how pregnant I was and how difficult it was to walk!) I was starting to feel some contractions.

Contractions went on throughout the evening. We ran a few errands and got the girls to bed. I took my shower and tried to pay attention to whether they were regular, increasing in intensity, etc. I’m not good at gauging those things!! Finally Eric and I decided to lay down and watch a movie so I could concentrate on timing the contractions and decide whether or not we needed to head into the hospital. I called my parents to put them on “alert” and then we started tracking.

It was almost 9 by this point and the contractions were 7 minutes apart and only 40 seconds long so I wasn’t very concerned that we needed to move quickly. We relaxed and watched our movie and I kept tracking…it didn’t take long to realize that they were quickly getting closer together and longer…At almost 10 we called my parents again to tell them we were definitely having this baby and that they needed to come.

Eric and I started to gather last minute things and put our bags in the car. We were still hoping that my parents would make it before we had to head into the hospital, but it was quickly becoming apparent that it wasn't going to happen. I wasn’t officially timing contractions anymore, but I could tell that they were now closer than 5 minutes apart and were increasing in intensity. We called our neighbor and by 10:45 we were on our way to the hospital.

Walking into the hospital was difficult since the contractions were coming so frequently. This was so unusual to me since in my experience with Elaina (the only non-induced comparison I have) the labor was leisurely next to my previous ones (12+ hours compared to 7 and 5). I had half expected this labor to be the same.

We finally made it up to the L&D and were admitted. I was only dilated to 5cm and contractions were still coming in at every 4 minutes or so. Seeing that I again relaxed and decided that despite the intensity, surely we had a little while before baby would actually be born.

The difference between this labor and my previous ones is that we had decided to do it with no drugs. We practiced all the breathing exercises and were as prepared as we could be. I’m very thankful that we did the work because that was the only thing that got me through.

We started walking as soon as we were allowed to, probably around 11:30 by the time they monitored the baby for awhile. It didn’t take long to realize this walk was going to take awhile since I would go about four steps and have to stop for a contraction. We made it one loop and decided to try a bath. I’d heard that water could help with labor pain…I think we were in there maybe 15 minutes when I realized that things were progressing fast. I was feeling a lot of pressure and since I didn’t really want a water birth we got out and the nurse put me back on the monitor to track progress. At this point I started to shake, which I thought meant I was in transition.

Eric was such a good coach. Half the time he was literally holding me up through a contraction and he helped me remember my breathing. Nothing worked the way we thought it would, all the techniques we had in mind went right out the window in the face of pain. It hurt to be touched so even something as soothing as massage was unbearable for me.

It was now that the nurse told me I was already dilated to 8cm, in the space of an hour. She put the call into the doctor. We were all concerned that the doctor wouldn’t make it. 10 minutes later I was dilated to 9cm. I was having a horrible time not pushing and each contraction was worse than the last. My doctor made it when I was 9.5cm. My water had still not broken, so she did that and I quickly dilated the last half cm.

I started pushing about 12:30 and Sean David arrived at 12:48 weighing at 7lbs 11 oz and 20" long. We were shocked that it was a boy! I’m glad that I did it without an epidural. It was a decision we made because we think that Sean will be our last baby and I knew it was my last chance to do it. I don’t regret it, but it was certainly a different experience. Everything was that much more intense and the biggest thing I did not like was that when Sean was being cleaned up and cared for, I was still in so much pain I could barely focus on him. We missed some of the “first moment” pictures because I’d freaked Eric out so much he was afraid to leave my side!

The girls are settling in great! They adore their new brother. We didn’t doubt that they would, but it is so endearing to see them sitting beside him, just staring or stroking his hair. They are so precious and we are so blessed!!

They are happy we finally brought him home!
The "Frog Prince"

Elaina always runs to the chair, pats her lap, and says "See Baby"
Little Boy :-)

Proud Sisters!!

All Right, Baby...

I have been waiting a long time to be able to relax and just say "Okay baby, you can come anytime!" For so long it has been because of Eric's school that we've hoped baby would stay put. No sooner had Eric completed his schooling, though, than Hannah got very sick. High fever, stomach ache, ear aches...and it did not get any better by the second day as we'd hoped, only worse! And in the midst of her illness I started having contractions. Very hard to feel "nesty" and anticipate the birth of baby when your firstborn is so ill. Thankfully the contractions subsided, and one trip to the clinic later, 2 doses of antibiotics, a good night's sleep, and we have a Hannah that is somewhat back to normal. An ear infection and possibly strep (which we won't find out about until later today), but whatever it is, she's feeling better and that's a relief to this mother's heart.

Not only did I hate the thought of leaving Hannah behind (in the event I should go into labor), but I hated the thought that if baby came while she was so sick Hannah would be unable to visit or snuggle with her new sibling. No fun! So we're very happy she's better and baby is still baking away!

In the meantime I've progressed quite a bit. As of my doctor appointment yesterday I was 4cm. The doctor exclaimed so much about my progress that we did not get exact numbers on effacement or station, just that the baby's head was lower than it had been (so in a positive station--yikes!) and a warning that it could be at any moment. She was wary of checking me any further for fear of setting labor off, which we didn't want yesterday since Hannah was still so sick! We go back in tomorrow to be rechecked and then she'll strip my membranes to see if she can't get labor going on its own. We'd love to have my own doctor on call so that is the reason we're willing to try. And nothing will happen if my body isn't ready yet and it certainly seems to be. The idea is just to stir things up a bit...sometimes baby just needs a nudge :-) I would rather have baby before this weekend than to go into labor on Easter when my doctor isn't on call...blah.

In the meantime I am literally waddling about feeling like baby is about to fall out anyway (as if it would be so easy!). And I'm tentatively allowing myself to feel excited about the prospect of our baby joining us so soon, although I will be fine if he/she chooses to wait a bit, too.