Oliver Grant :: One Month Old

Weight/Length

Chubs is already at 10.2 and 21 inches long! He started out at 6.13 and dropped to 6.7. By the time he was a week old, he was up to 7.10! Definitely my biggest baby :)

Sleep

We're up about every hour and half to nurse. He goes back to sleep right after, so that's nice! He sleeps on and off through the day as well.

Eating

What an eater! This boy wants to nurse about every hour. His latch is good and everything seems to be evening out. 

Diapers

We started out in Newborn, obviously, but moved to size 1 about two week in! We're using Pampers Swaddlers. I think they work best for newborn babies.

Clothing

Even though he is a chunker, baby boy is still in newborn clothing. I doubt it will last much longer though!

Mood

He's mostly a chill baby. He likes to eat and sleep and poop. He's pretty quick to cry when he gets hungry though. He sleeps most of the time and doesn't cry a whole lot. He does spit up frequently but it doesn't seem to bother him too much.

LOVES

nursing

sleeping

his pacifier

being held

DOESN'T LOVE

bath time

having to wait to eat

when his paci falls out

What I Want To Remember

all the little grunts and noises

the way he farts and poops so loudly

how he raises his little legs to get better leverage

how he snuggles into my neck

first baby smiles

his facial expressions - Frowning

milk blisters on his lip

stretching and moving

how his little feet already stink

Girl Scouts - Daisy - Meeting #6 "Zinni Petal"

I was actually not able to attend the sixth meeting. I had taken two weeks off for maternity leave but our little one decided to come a week later than expected. Luckily I have great parent volunteers who were able to step in and lead the meeting for me!

For this meeting the girls worked on earning their Zinni Petal, which is light green and teaches them how to be considerate and caring.

Meeting # 6 Zinni Petal, Considerate & Caring

Pledge of Allegiance

 Girl Scout Promise

Snack Time/Attendance

Activity/Craft -- Cards for Troops

The girls made cards for troops! They are super sweet!! I will mail them out. The girls received a fun patch for this!

Read Zinni's story

Activity/Craft -- Manners worksheet

There were technical issues so the girls were not able to do this activity.

via Our Girl Scout Troop

Girl Scouts - Daisy - Meeting #5 "Sunny Petal"

For this meeting the girls worked on their "Sunny Petal" which is yellow and teaches them how to be Friendly & Helpful

Meeting #5 "Sunny Petal" Friend;y & Helpful

Pledge of Allegiance

Girl Scout Promise

Snack Time/Attendance

Activity/Craft - Helping Hands

The girls made a booklet of coupons. It's to be given to someone who can then cash in the coupons whenever they choose!

via Girl Scout Troop 1138

Read Sunny's story

Craft/Activity - Sunflower craft

This is a fun craft I wanted to do with the troop last year but ran out of time. I printed off a sunflower template and the girls took tissue paper to make the flower and actual sunflower seeds for the center. 

This blog has since been removed

Send Homework

The girls are still working toward their "Between Earth and Sky" Journey patches! We hope to have it completed in the next few meetings.

Oliver Grant Pike

Oliver Grant Pike

Friday, September 25th 2015

6:07 p.m.

6 pounds 13 ounces

20 inches

Successful VBAC

Girl Scouts - Daisy - Meeting # 3&4 "Lupe Petal"

For our third and fourth meetings we worked on the "Lupe Petal" which is light blue and teaches the girls the first part of the Girl Scout Law, being Honest & Fair. I divided this petal into two meetings so we could go on a field trip!

Meeting #3 "Lupe Petal" Honest & Fair

Pledge of Allegiance

Girl Scout Promise

Snack Time/Attendance

Activity - Truth or Lie Game

We talked about the difference between a truth and a lie. I had signs set up across the room, "Truth" or "Lie". We took turns saying either truths or lies and the girls had to figure out which it was and then run to the correct sign. They loved this activity!

Read Lupe's story

Lupine Flower Craft

Not our craft, again... But we made something similar

Send homework

Again, we ran out of time! The girls are having a good time, so that's what's most important! They really enjoyed finger painting. Don't blame them! 

Meeting #4 "Lupe Petal" Honest & Fair

For our fourth meeting we took a field trip to Levi Coffin House! My original plan was to take a tour of a courthouse and speak with a judge. That quickly fell apart when I realized it was Labor Day weekend. Luckily we were able to get in at Levi Coffin House. It was a little bit more advanced for the girls, but fun none the less. 

Levi Coffin House

Bumpdate - Almost over!

Here I sit, still pregnant. I'm rounding out week 36 with little to no progress..... I know what you're saying, "36 weeks? You're not even full term. Of course there's not a baby yet! Don't rush these things.". Well, normally that would be the case. But we're dealing with a pretty big baby already. Our midwife advised me not to try a vbac if the baby is over 7 pounds. If he's been gaining the half pound a week that most babies do, he's sitting at a hefty 7.8 pounds right now. Trying not to go into full panic mode. Which is really difficult considering I've gained a whopping 32 pounds so far!!! And let me tell you, it's all baby! My back literally aches all day every day. My chiropractor can't believe the state of my spine every time I visit. Which is once a week. Ideally, we will have the baby in the next five days. At my next OB appointment I'm to meet with the anesthesiologist. Next week we will also schedule an ultrasound to determine the baby's size. If he's on the bigger side, we will schedule a c-section for 39 weeks. I'm trying not to get too depressed over the whole situation. Either way, I'll have a healthy baby!

 33 weeks

Updated : Officially 37 weeks. Still no baby or progress. I have an appointment in two days. We'll see how it goes!!!

Girl Scouts - Daisy - Meeting #2 "Amazing Daisy" Promise Center

For our second meeting, we focused on learning the Girl Scout Promise! It encompasses all that Girl Scouts stands for and is a great starting point. We say the promise at the start of each meeting. It's also easy for the girls to learn, especially compared to the Law. 

Meeting #2 "Amazing Daisy" Promise Center

Pledge of Allegiance

Girl Scout Promise - worked on how to hold their hand -

Snack Time/Attendance 

Craft - Promise Flower Craft

via Keeping it Easy and Simple

Not our craft. I will actually take photos of our crafts soon!

Craft - Promise Book - (links at end)

Flower Garden Coloring Book

Send Homework - Sheet (link at end), Journey chapters - 

We actually ran out of time while the girls were working on the Promise Books! Last year, we did several crafts and the girls finished with 20 minutes to spare. So this year, I decided to have more structure and activities. I was honestly surprised at how long it took them to complete the Promise Flower craft. My goal is to have them end on working on their coloring book. That way they are quietly working while I can go over things with the parents at the end of the meetings. At this meeting, it was a bit chaotic. I had some girls still working on their Promise Flower and others working on the Promise Book. That meant I had to send the coloring book home, along with the homework. 

Speaking of homework. We are working on our first Journey! The goal is to complete all three and earn the Journey Summit Award! Last year, we worked on a Journey during meeting time and the girls were really bored! It was too much reading, and honestly, took too many meetings to complete. This year, I'm sending home chapters and the girls have all week to read them. This way we are able to devote the meetings to the petals and other fun stuff, while still completing the Journeys. We are currently working on "Welcome To The Daisy Flower Garden". 

I hope that soon we will have the timing worked out for the meetings. I want to be able to complete everything without the girls feeling rushed. 

Promise Book pages

Girl Scouts - Daisy - Meeting #1 "Intro"

Majority of you are probably not aware of this, but I am a Girl Scout Troop Leader! This will be my second year! I started last year at the Daisy (k-1) level. At the time, Story was in First Grade. She absolutely loved it, and even bridged to Brownies! I stayed with the Daisies this year, but will hopefully move up next year. We started kind of mid season last year, so I didn't get a chance to talk about it. The entire experience was hectic, fast- paced, but fun! This year, I have a better grasp on the process and was even able to plan ahead! Which will make things a lot easier on me when I take time off for the baby. We are getting ready for our fourth meeting, so I'm a bit behind on the blog. I will post past meetings, and then will hopefully keep up with our weekly meetings on here!

For the first meeting, I focused on just getting the girls used to each other, our schedule, and what Girl Scouts is about. Our troop had an awesome turnout! Last year, I had 10 girls. Five of them bridged to Brownies and four came back as second year Daisies. One girl moved away. So far, I have twelve girls registered! I have five new first graders, and three kindergarteners. This works out well, because I want to get through all of the petals in the year! That way, all nine of my first graders will have completed all of the petals.

Meeting #1 Intro

Pledge of Allegiance

Girl Scout Promise

Stand in circle and introduce ourselves/say one thing about us

Snack time! 

Craft - Girl Scout Promise Craft

via : Six Girls' Mom

Take a photo of each girl (to be used on our board)

Decorate Girl Scout Folder - This is used to hold their crafts, notes home to parents - 

Not our folder, but similar concept

By this point we were out of time! After the meeting I held a Parent Meeting where I passed out all of the information regarding the first semester. Each week I print off a Weekly Bulletin which has relevant info and lets the parents know what we did in that meeting. I also passed out a troop specific calendar and a Girl Scout calendar. This year I also sent home supply lists. One was for each girl and had items like crayons, glue and scissors. There was also a supply list for each meeting. So, if parents wanted to donate items for a specific meeting, they would know what we needed! I am not collecting dues, and don't want to be just handed money. This way everyone knows what we need and have a way of helping out if they want to. It makes things a lot easier for me! 

The girls all said they had a great time! And all of them have been back so far! I've also had a lot of parental support, which has been a huge blessing. With that many littles, the more hands the better!

Bumpdate - Third Trimester

Well hello third trimester! This pregnancy seems to be flying by. Like, the entire summer is over, and I'm supposed to have a baby in a few weeks. Whoa. Today we are exactly 31 weeks. Had an ultrasound last week. Technician confirmed for the third time that we are in fact expecting a boy, and he's not shy about it. I've been measuring 3 weeks larger for the past 2.5 months. Our midwife wanted to see why, check fluid and position. Turns out he's just a big boy! They did not change my due date but he is measuring over a full week larger. He came in at 3.9 pounds! Fluid levels are great and baby is heads down! Which is the best news ever!!! Now I'm just going to have a massive baby naturally, ha! I'm guessing he will be here around the second week of September. Yep, I think we will have a baby in less than 6 weeks. Don't even ask me if we have the bassinet put together (we don't) or have any newborn sleepers (we don't). But yeah, there is still plenty of time?! Anyway, on to the photos!

29.7 weeks

31 weeks.

Story's Seventh Birthday Party! {Ever After High Party}

Seven, she really is SEVEN! She's going into second grade, is a great big sister, and is about to start gymnastics and swimming. She's growing up way too fast!

This year we knew her party would be a lot bigger. She's made a ton of friends at school so the list of guests was going to be big. This was also the first year we'd have the party at our house. The plan was to decorate the inside of the house, and have the food set up in the front room. That would allow the adults to congregate in the family room and the kids could play outside. Of course, it was around 65 degrees and rainy the afternoon of her party. So, we were all forced to cram in the small family room. It wasn't terrible, but I will definitely plan it differently next year!

Every year we let Story pick out the theme of her party. We go all out with party planning, it's our gift to her. She was a bit all over the place, trying to decide. She started by saying she wanted a Princess party and then narrowed it down to a Brave party?! (she doesn't even watch that movie) I threw out a couple of suggestions and her face lit up when I mentioned Ever After High. She loves the show and has a lot of the dolls.

I kept the decorations on the simpler side this time. The main reason for that was because of the custom dress we got her for her party! It took up a third of the budget. I kept the food simple as well because the party fell between lunch and dinner. We had fruit, veggies, cheese, tea sandwiches and chocolate covered strawberries and marshmellows.

Another big splurge was the cake. We had it made from the same cake shop that made Finley's. Story chose the design of the cake and the flavors - chocolate cake with cotton candy icing. It was definitely sweet!

I made a photo booth for the girls. They loved taking photos and using the props. We also had a shoe design contest, bracelet making activity, and glitter tattoos.

As the kids get older, it's harder and harder to take photos while I'm in the moment. I wish I had more to show you! But, all of the kids had a fun time! And Story was really excited :)