Crafty Mommy Monday- 5 Little Monkeys

Campbell and I are starting a new book unit this week.  We will be reading Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and doing activities going along with it.

I have found some fun activities for us to do this week!  We will be using our felt board to re-tell the story, and I printed two of the little books (Monkeys and colors, and How Many Monkeys?) from this Tot Pack. 

I bought this Barrel of Monkeys game and we will use it for counting as well as playing the game.

I found a cute monkey craft activity in the $1 aisle at Target (don't you love that place?) and I also bought monkey stickers at Target and we'll use those for several learning activities as well. 

Check back next Monday to see pictures of our Monkey fun!

Maggie's Newborn Pictures

Love them!  Thank you Ashley Gillett!

Maggie Elizabeth

Make a photo album

The girls' new ride

I have been blessed by a group of women who just happen to be fellow preemie moms. These women have supported me through Campbell's premature birth, her NICU stay, and the 2 years since. When I became pregnant with Maggie, these women rallied around us and were as excited as we were as we hit each new milestone. These ladies surprised us with a very generous gift card to Buy Buy Baby and adorable matching shirts for the girls. We went this week to Buy Buy Baby and used the gift card to buy this awesome wagon for the girls. We went on our first walk and it was a huge hit!

A big thank you to Sara, Shana, Laura, Corey, Ivory, Karen, Katie, Jackie, and Tricia. Love you girls!

Crafty Mommy Monday #7

This week's post is about Melissa & Doug Wooden Alphabet Letters.  (Can you tell I just had a baby and have been having to get creative with the items we already own rather than make any new materials?)

Campbell has really shown an affinity for learning the alphabet.  Right now she knows about 20 uppercase letters.  She loves these magnetic wooden letters and will often just play with them on a cookie sheet.  

For this activity we were matching lowercase letters to uppercase letters.  She and I first put out all the uppercase letters as she/we named them.  Then I showed her the lowercase letters 1 at a time while I named them.  Then she (with help) would look for the uppercase letter to match.  

The next activity is one for matching the letters of her name.  This is to help her learn how to spell her name and is a precursor to writing her name.  I simply photocopied the letters and she matches the wooden letter to the letter on the paper.  I did have to buy an extra set of letters since she has two "L"s in her name but I figured I'll need more letters one day anyway when we start using them to create words.

If you have any creative ideas for activities using magnetic letters, I'd love to hear them!

Sneak Peek

We had Maggie's newborn photos taken yesterday by Ashley Gillett.  Here is a sneak peek...

Crafty Mommy Monday #6

My post this week is about Dot Art Painting.  I got these paint sets because I *thought* they might be neater than regular paint and brushes.  

I printed some cute dot art pictures for Campbell to use. She really enjoyed the activities even though she had a hard time understanding the idea that she should just put a paint dot on the circles on the coloring sheets rather than using it like a big marker.  But, she had a lot of fun and it reinforced the colors that we've been working on.

But remember when I said I *thought* it would be neater?  Apparently I was wrong...and although the bottles say "washable" they mean clothes, not skin...

Maggie's Homecoming

We, including Maggie, were discharged today around 11am. Check Miss Maggie out in her coming home outfit.

Here she is being fitted for her carseat

Here is Martha playing dress-up with the sleeping little girl . . .

We're happy to know that our house is relaxing for her . . . wait until Campbell comes home tomorrow . . . we'll see how peaceful it really is! (Campbell has an ear infection and ran a fever yesterday so the doctor wanted us to leave her at Nana's for another day . . . . THANKS Nana!)

Here she is checking out her new surroundings

World, meet Maggie

World, meet Maggie. She is 0 days old . .

Sweet big sister Campbell meets Maggie for the first time. I think she likes her.

I can suck my thumb.

Fresh and clean after her first bath.

Ahhh . . . I can get used to this.

The proud family!!!

Introducing Maggie Elizabeth

World . . . Martha and I are happy to announce the arriaval of Maggie Elizabeth.

Maggie's Stats:

Birth Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Birth Time: 12:32pm

Birth Weight: 7lbs 05oz

Birth Height: 19.5"

Birth Apgar: 8

5 Minute Apgar: 9

Mommy's Status: Martha is such a trooper . . . she did great! Watching her hold Maggie right after birth was priceless . . . I'm so happy for her!!!!

Martha Made It!!!!

As we sit here 38 hours away from Maggie's arrival, I feel like I need to let the whole world know how wonderful Martha is. We just knew all along that Maggie was going to be another preemie . . . even the doctors were convinced. They told us, "it's not if, but when." Well guess what . . . . it's not when, but if . . . and now it's not. We beat the odds. Okay, let's be a little more honest here . . . Martha beat the odds. Let me give you insight to the past 9 months . . . EVERYDAY Martha would give herself a shot of Lovenox because one test that the MFM ran a year ago came back showing that she could potentially have a clotting factor. Night after night, she'd go in and voluntarily stick herself with a needle that "burns like hell" as Martha describes it. I even asked the MFM at one of our appointments if she could skip a night or two every now and then. He said "yes." Guess what, Martha never took him up on that offer.

Martha has done it all by the book . . . . she has done everything that every doctor has asked or even hinted at. Because of her, and only her (we'll give God some of the credit too . . .) she did it. Maggie has made it full term. On Tuesday Martha will get to experience a typical birth like she's has always wanted. At the time of Maggie's birth, she won't be swept away to another room for her not to be seen for hours . . . . she will however, as her doctor put it, "be handed to Martha all dripping in goop for her to see." Another thing . . . Maggie will be with us in our room each night and day . . . .and guess what . . . on Thursday (or Friday), she'll come home with us.

As excited as I am about this, I (and Maggie) owe this all to Martha . . . Martha, you did it . . . I'm so proud of you.

A haiku (cheesy) for my wonderful wife . . .

Martha is pregnant

Martha made it to full term

Mother to two girls

Beating the odds...

I think it's finally time to say it...we have beat the odds.  Before we got pregnant with Maggie, the specialist gave us a 60-80% chance that I would get pre-eclampsia again (but most likely at a later gestation).  Well, I had my last OB appointment today and still no signs of pre-eclampsia.  Although my blood pressure has risen to the low 140s/90s, it seems to not be rising any higher and I continue to not have any protein in my urine. 

We had an ultrasound today and Maggie measured in the 90th percentile and weighed approximately 7 lbs, 13 oz.  The reassures us that she's getting all the nutrients she needs.  She also did really well on her NST (non-stress test) which monitors her heart rate and reactivity to movement.

So, it looks like we'll make it to our scheduled c-section date of May 18th.  This is the day that my OB and I set "just for fun" one day when we were feeling optimistic but neither of us actually thought we'd make it. 

Of course, I realize that things can change at any moment, but making it this far has been a real miracle...  All of the Lovenox shots with their accompanying bruises, daily doses of aspirin, vitamins, and folic acid, and all of the prayers and good thoughts from all of our families and friends have paid off and next week we'll have our second miracle baby.

Crafty Mommy- Mother's Day Edition

This week has been a busy week so most of our activities have consisted of our Very Hungry Caterpillar activities.  See past Crafty Mommy posts to read about those.

We were able to incorporate caterpillars and butterflies into a special craft we made for Campbell's grandmothers and Martha's grandmother.  We made special flowerpots and planted flowers in each one.

Step 1:

Daddy spray-painted simple terracotta pots with white paint.

Step 2:

Mommy took a green sharpie and drew grass along the bottom of each pot.

Step 3:

Campbell (with help from her big cousin Ethan and Mommy) stamped her fingerprints all over the pots in various colors (used a Melissa & Doug multi-color stamp pad).  Yellow for bees, red for ladybugs, several different colors in a row for caterpillars, and two of the same color next to each other for butterflies.  

Step 4:

Mommy used a black sharpie to draw the details on the bugs.

Step 5: 

Daddy sprayed each pot with clear acrylic spray paint to seal in the colors.

Step 6: 

Campbell and Mommy scooped dirt into the pots.

Step 7:

We planted flowers in each pot.

Some of the skills we worked on through this activity were:
-identifying colors
-reinforcing vocabulary: butterfly, caterpillar, bee, ladybug, flower, dirt
-following directions
-scooping
-pouring
-sequencing (talking about what we did first, what we were going to do next, etc)
-counting

No baby ...

Being discharged. =)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

At the hospital ....

Maggie's BP is down .... Might be heading home tonight.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

In Labor Delivery

Martha just called (I'm in Columbia) and they are sending her to L&D. She went in to her OB for her weekly NST and Maggie's heart rate was high. I'm racing home and will keep the blog updated as I know more.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Professional Family/Maternity Pictures

We had some family/maternity photos taken this past weekend.  Ashley Gillett did a great job...even though we were all hot and sweaty!  We would highly recommend her if you would like some professional pictures done.  She'll be taking some of Maggie very soon!  

You can check out all of the pictures here:

http://ashleygillett.nextproof.com/galleries/martha-compton

The username: robbieandmartha

The password: mcpass

Chick-fil-A

Tonight we took Campbell to Chick-fil-A. The one in Ft. Mill was giving away free sandwiches to teachers. As soon as we got there, Campbell began saying "I want to play."

Here she is playing while Martha and I ate . . .

Here is Campbell as soon as we left . . .

Crafty Mommy Monday #4

Campbell and I continued our work with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  

(See the past 2 C.M.M. posts for more info).  

This week we continued with the Tot Book/Pack activities and other activities from last week and added a few fun crafts such as coloring this caterpillar picture.

Here we made a caterpillar in some grass.  The most exciting part of this craft was Campbell's first use of scissors.  I got her some beginner scissors that have a spring built in so all she has to do is squeeze.  She still required hand over hand help with closing the scissors, but she really enjoyed snipping the green construction paper to make grass. 

I found some cute butterfly stickers and Campbell enjoyed peeling them off and putting them on a butterfly picture I printed.

Campbell and I have been talking about the concepts of big and little.  Since there is an apple in the story, I figured I could tie in this file folder activity.  It was free to download so I printed it and made a sorting game.