1 Month Old

Hallie turned 1 month old yesterday. I've been thinking that I've been a horrible mother, cause I've hardly taken any pictures of her since her birth. So I turned the front room into a studio and have taken picture overload the last couple days. But before we get to the overload of pictures, here are a few things about Hallie at 1 month. She has been a pretty good little baby so far. She is still sleeping really well. (Knock on wood.) She is usually down for the night between 10 and 11, up sometime in the 4 o'clock hour and then not again until sometime between 6 and 8. She has more and more awake times during the day, and is starting to develop a better routine to her sleeping patterns. Hallie's weight was finally up at our last weight check. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz. Still not quite back up to birth weight, but at least she's gaining. We have to continue the supplementing so that she keeps gaining weight and not maintaining. My milk supply isn't very much right now either. They want me to breastfeed, then bottle feed, and then pump. It's just gotten to be too much, especially with Grant's needs and Mikkele's busy schedule. So I am breastfeeding a few times a day, and bottle feeding the other times, and no pumping. Maybe if life slows down a bit I can try pumping to get my milk supply up again, but for right now I'm ok with what we are doing. She hasn't really loved car rides and bath time so much yet, but she is starting to come around a bit. It helps if she has a full belly before both. Jeremy was holding her yesterday and got a smile out of her. Maybe it was just gas, but it made him pretty happy. It was a pretty good Father's Day present for him from his baby girl. She hasn't done it again yet, but I'm sure it's not too far off that she'll be doing it all the time. Now on to the overload of pictures. ENJOY!

A little mischevious pose

She looks thoughful in this one.

Sorry Aunt Lisha...I peed on the cute blanket you made for me.

These last two were taken before church yesterday. I think she looks like she's winking in the last one.

Cristi's Creations

I came across this website today. It has a bunch of FREE cute backgrounds. Thought I'd pass on the info for those that are interested. You can just click on the above image and you'll be taken to her site.

Cheer Clinic

Mikkele has been participating in a cheer leading clinic the last couple weeks. They put on a performance last night to showcase what they have been learning. She learned a few cheers and a dance. She did a good job and looked really cute. She's kinda hard to see in the pics/video because she's on the back row. She's the cute one in the blue shorts. :)

2 Weeks Old

Hallie turned 2 weeks yesterday. I can't believe that it's been 2 weeks already. She had her 2 week appointment yesterday. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and is 21 inches long. She has grown one inch and is down exactly one pound. The doctor isn't too worried right now about the weight loss, but he does want to see her back next week for a weight check to make sure she is gaining and not losing more or staying the same. He said that she should gain an ounce per day, so we are shooting for low 8 lbs next week. As long as she is gaining we won't have to worry about it, if she's not then I'll have to start supplementing. Hopefully everything will go well and she will gain some weight. She is staying awake more during the day and sleeping pretty good at night. She usually goes to bed around 9 or 10 and sleeps until 1 or 2, eats and then goes back down until sometime between 6 and 8. Not too bad. Hopefully a sign of a good sleeper in the future. My mom left to go back home this morning, so now starts the real test of how to manage this on my own while Jeremy is at work. It's not going to be easy filling the big shoes that my mom has left. She was such a HUGE help! We miss you mom, thanks for all your help. We couldn't have done it without you these first 2 weeks!

One Busy Week

The week of May 18-24 was a busy week for our family. We had school ending, softball, doctor appointments for me and Grant, Little Entertainers rehersals, swim therapy, birthday parties, and then baby Hallie decided to make her debut. There are a few new posts that I've done today to try to catch up on our busy week. So make sure you scroll down to see all of them.

End Of The Year Programs

Mikkele had her end of the year program Tuesday evening, May 19th. We had heard that the 3rd grade always puts on the best program and the kids had been learning songs for months, so we were excited to see what they were going to present. They didn't disappoint. The title of the program was "We Make A Rainbow". Each class represented a different culture. They sang a lot of different songs from a lot of different countries/continents/cultures. Mikkele's class did a few Polynesian type songs. They did the Hawaiian Stick Dance, the girls did the Hukilau, the boys did the Huka. Mikkele was also chosen as one of four girls out of the entire 3rd grade to do a duet to a song called "Up Up With People". The whole 3rd grade sang the 1st verse, then the 4 girls sang the 2nd verse. She did a great job, and the program was a huge success. 1st Verse of "Up Up With People"Gigi and Mikkele singing the 2nd Verse of "Up Up With People"

The Hawaiian Stick Dance

Mikkele, Gigi, and Rietta doing the Hukilau.

Grant had his preschool program on Wednesday May 20th. The theme for the program was everything bugs. They sang some songs that they have learned this year about bugs and then we watched a little DVD that showed pictures of things the kids had done over the year. It was really cute. Lucky for him (and me) he gets to have a small break and then go back for 6 weeks of summer school. It's only 2 days a week instead of 4, but anything is better than nothing. He is a kid that really relys on a good schedule, and school helps to provide that consistency. He has an amazing teacher, Miss Rachael and amazing one-on-one aid, Miss Britt. They are so good to our little Granty. Now we just have to wait 2 more weeks and he gets to go back. :)

Miss Rachael

Miss Britt

Happy Birthday Mom!

I just wanted to wish my mom a Happy Birthday! Since I was in the hospital on her birthday, I didn't get to do a proper shout out to her. My mom is AMAZING! She does so much for our family. My kids love her so much and love to spend time with her. There is never a dull moment when Grandma Roberts is around. Thanks mom for all you do for us. And thanks in advance for forgiving me for posting the last picture on here! I love you!

Our Baby Girl

Last Thursday afternoon (May 21st) I went in for my weekly non-stress test. The day before I had been having a bunch of contractions and it didn't dawn on me until right before my appointment, but her movements had gone down to almost nothing. With my history with Grant, I was slightly concerned, but glad to be going in for the NST. As they were monitoring her, her resting heart rate was looking good, but they also like to see an elevated heart rate when she is active. She was not wanting to be active though, which for her is unusual. We shocked her once and she kicked for a second, but then went back to sleep. After a few minutes we shocked her again and that really got her mad. But it was good to know that she was doing ok. Also during the NST it was showing that I was having some contractions. They were about 3-6 minutes apart. They weren't too strong, but her heart rate would drop just slightly with each contraction. I told the nurse my concerns with the lack of movement and how that was what happened with Grant and she said she would talk to the doctor and they would go over my NST. After a few minutes she came back in and told me that with my history, and with the slight decrease in heart rate with the contractions that they were going to go ahead and take the baby. She made a call to my OB/GYN and I made a call to Jeremy and we got set to have this little baby a few days early. It all happened really quick. Within about 2 1/2 hours from the time of my NST, I was prepped and she was out. She was born at 6:43pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz and was 20 inches long. Jeremy went with the nurses down to the nursery to get her all cleaned up while I was getting all stiched up. I sat an waited in recovery for what seemed like forever, and then they moved me down to my mother/baby room. I still hadn't heard much about the baby. Come to find out, her blood sugar was low at birth so they had to feed her a small bottle and make sure her blood sugar came up. So that was what delayed the process of getting her to me. After not being able to see Grant for 3 days after he was born, I might have been a little paranoid about waiting for an hour. Once they came up she was perfect! She had her eyes wide open and ready to take everything in. It took us a little over 24 hours to decide on a name. After all the disagreeing that we did over the last 9 months, I don't htink that's too bad. We finally came up with Hallie May Gallier. And just to clarify, it's pronounced hal-lee, not hay-lee. The May part of her name is kind of a family tradition. We all know my name is April, and Jeremy has a sister that is named January. So I thought it fit to use her birth month. If she was born in November or December or something like that, I would't have used that, but I think May fits and sounds cute.
Over the next few days in the hospital thing went really good. Her blood sugar continued to look good and we didn't have to worry about that any more. She is nursing like a champ, which is a big relief for me. Both Mikkele and Grant struggled with nursing. Her bilirubin levels were a little elevated so we had to have them checked the day after we got out of the hospital. Those results showed that she had doubled her levels and would need to go under lights for a bit. The night spent under the lights was horrible. She did not like being naked, unswaddled, and laying in a tanning bed of sorts. Thank goodness her levels came down enough the next day to get off the lights. Her levels are still coming down, but she is doing a lot better.
Thanks to all those who came to visit or called while we were in the hospital. When we got home, we were met with lots of pink ribbons and bows and some cute welcome home signs made by Alisha, Holly, Mikkele, Grant, Dillon, and Connor. It was really cute.
Life with a new baby has been a little challenging. Hallie is doing pretty good. She is doing better at night and staying awake more during the day. Grant has had the hardest time. He is used to being able to have his mommy just about whenever he wants, but with the new baby, and me having a c-section, I'm not able to hold or carry him as much as he would like. Hopefully he will adjust here soon. Mikkele is having a blast having a real live baby to play with. We already knew that she was an awesome big sister, but she has really stepped up even more. What would we do without our big sister! Speaking of people we can't live without...a HUGE shout out to all the people that have helped us out while we were in the hospital, and even now. Holly and Ryan and Glenn and Dorene helped with the kids while we were in the hospital, Alisha came into town for the first few days that we were home from the hospital, and my mom is here now helping for another week. You guys are all awesome, we would not be able to do this without you!!!

The Big 3-0...Better Late Than Never

So yes I know it has taken me FOREVER to post about my resent descent over the hill. It's not because I'm having trouble coping with the fact that I'm getting older. It's more because of, well...how did my darling child put it the other day....I'm SLOW! She has been very kind to point out my slowness lately. Whether it be physically or mentally. Don't you love children??? Anyway on to the big day, or actually I should say days because there was like 3 days of celebrating my oldness.

Thursday morning I woke up to my lawn being plastered with signs that said, "Over the Hill" and "30". Thank you Tina for announcing to the entire neighborhood how old I am.

The rest of Thursday was spent doing the regular day to day mom/wife/housekeeper stuff. We went to dinner at Winger's that night and came home and opened presents from my cute family. One of my presents was a spa foot bath thingy. Mikkele insisted on staying up late and giving me a pedicure. My poor pregnant feet have been looking really bad lately, so it felt good. I guess that makes up for all the "slow" comments lately.
Look at how swollen my legs, feet, and ankles are.

Friday night I was told that we had dinner plans with Tina and Lance and that we were going to PF Changs. When we were taken back to be seated the table was set for 16 rather than for 4. There had been a little party planning going on without me knowing. Over the next 30 minutes, our closest couples friends showed up. It was a fun surprise. Some of these people I've been friends with since I was really young and others more resently in the last couple of years. It was fun watching all of the different personalities come together. We had a great time. There were a lot of laughs. Thanks Tina and Alisha for putting together such a fun night, and thanks to everyone else that came, it really made the day memorable. Here are some pics of the night. I don't know why, but I think someone has their eyes closed in almost every picture. Oh well.

As the guests were arriving.

Some of the group.

More of the group.

Even more of the group.

Alisha and I cheesing it.

Me and Rachel. I was crying cause I was laughing so hard.

Alisha and my cheesy brother in law Albert.

My birthday cheesecake was amazing! It was huge too. Needless to say it got passed around for everyone to enjoy.

Sunday we got together with the Gallier family for cake and icecream and some games. Mikkele insisted on making my cake. She did a good job too. She is really enjoying learning how to cook lately. The only bad part of that night is that I lost our game of Ticket to Ride. Don't you people know that I'm supposed to win on my birthday??? Oh well, I guess I have to let other people win sometimes too.

Isn't she the cutest little baker?

A little quality control is a must when cooking.

Overall it was a fun weekend filled with friends and family. I definitely came away feeling very loved and actually not feeling too old. :)