Christmas and more

What a crazy couple of weeks! Time seems to be flying by and I realized it's been awhile since I blogged and put up any new photos of Lily. Lily will be 4 weeks old tomorrow...I can't believe it! She is such a good baby and very laid back so far. She only really cries when she is hungry, dirty or when you first put her in the car seat. She is fine once in the car but she does NOT like to get strapped in! On her list of accomplishments so far....holding her head up on her own ( I can't believe how strong she is), smiling at me, starting to coo. She loves to lay on the floor on her blanket in the evenings and kick and "talk" to a little stuffed poodle or baby doll that Santa brought her. At her two week visit she weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz so she had gained a pound since being discharged from the hospital. She is a great eater so I am sure she is over 10 pounds at this point. She still looks so tiny to me but it seems like I can see her growing every night. Poor little thing is afflicted with the same reflux problems that Joshua had. Luckily I am better able to recognize it this time around. The pediatrician has already had to start her on Prevacid like we did with Joshua. In the first two weeks she sprayed me down 6-7 times in full reflux mode. The Prevacid helps but she still spits up a lot. I guess I am destined for a wash and wear wardrobe and lots of burp cloths until she outgrows the problem. Seems like Joshua was around 9 months when he finally stopped.



Lily 2 weeks Hanging out with Joshua and Grandma




Christmas was wonderful and white! I haven't had a white Christmas since I was a kid in Colorado and it brought back lots of fun memories and much nostalgia for my family. There is always something magical about snow for me and we so rarely get it. Joshua loved watching it come down although was not too thrilled when the bitter wind kept blowing the hood off his head on the way to the car after the Christmas Eve service.

White Christmas

Sylvester enjoyed Christmas too!


Joshua had a Christmas program with his preschool on the 15th that I have a video for but haven't been able to get it to upload to the site. I will have to work on that, it's too cute for words! They sang Feliz Navidad and Santa Claus is Coming To Town with all sorts of gestures...it really is priceless and speaks for itself if I can ever get the darn thing to load! He had a wonderful Christmas and got more toys than any kid could ever need! I have been attempting the daunting task of finding homes for everything ever since!!

Tired Daddy, Hershey and Lily



My parents left yesterday after being here for 5 weeks. My dad traveled back and forth to Midland but my Mom had been here since the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to help out. It sure is quiet and lonely in the house! Especially during the week when Eric is at work and Joshua is at preschool. I am off work until the 22 of February and am enjoying every minute with my sweet little girl. We are working on getting into a routine now that all our company has left town. Joshua is still adjusting to being a big brother. He largely ignores Lily but is getting more curious as the days go by. I will see him talk to her or try to tickle her toes if he thinks no one is watching. He's not mean or ugly to her, unfortunately the dogs and cat have been chased around a lot. The cat even got to the point of scratching Joshua's face one night....it's a work in progress.


Lily at 3 weeks with Grandma

New addition

I can't believe that Lily is already 10 days old...time has really flown by. All in all our transition to a family of four has been pretty easy. Lily's birth seems so much easier than Joshua's in every way. Of course it helps that I am more relaxed and know what I'm doing this time around....there is nothing like the learning curve of a first time mother. I must say that recovering from a c-section minus the labor part of things has been night and day difference. I was able to sleep in my own bed the night before...not that I slept much but that's beside the point. We arrived at the hospital at a very early 5:15, by 7:15 I was anesthetized and in the OR, they started at 7:20 amidst comments of the snow coming down outside and Lillian Rose Millner was born at 7:29. I was out of surgery and back in recovery with her in my arms by 7:50. They had me feed her before they took her to the newborn nursery and I was in my room by 9:30. We came home from the hospital on Friday and have been home for a week now.

Lillian weighed in at 8 lbs 1 0z and is 20 inches long. She is smaller than Joshua was at birth but the difference seems gigantic instead of just half and inch and 3/4 of a pound. It's easy to forget just how tiny they are, and I tend to have larger babies! Breast feeding the second time around is so much better! I haven't had many of the problems that Joshua and I had starting off and I'm not nearly as sore this time around. I remember everything getting much easier around 3 weeks last time and am looking forward to that effortless point again.




Big brother Joshua is starting to come around on the transition. He's getting curious in spite of himself and I often find him looking in on Lily while she's asleep in the bassinet. Joshua came up to the hospital the first night to see us and it may have been a mistake. I was still numb from the epidural, still had my iv and hadn't gotten out of bed yet. Poor little guy didn't understand why he couldn't get in bed with me and had lots of questions for grandma and grandpa when they left. The second night was better. I made sure I was out of bed and moving around when they came up and let Joshua sit on the bed next to me. We even held Lily together. He looks utterly bewildered in the pictures! Since we've been home he's asked to hold her twice. The first time, she immediately spit up all over him! It took a couple of days for him to try again, and this time he needed her on a blanket so he didn't get all wet. He's been sweet to Lily but is acting out in other ways at school. I know it will take time, we've rocked his little world upside down and backwards. I'm sure it will help when I can do regular things again. I am moving around pretty well after surgery but I still can't drive and I can't lift anything heavier than Lily. We've done some special things for just him and that's helped a bunch. I'm sure in a couple of weeks we will be back to the status quo.

Family outings before 3 becomes 4

We've spent the last couple of weekends doing things that we know we won't be able to do with a new baby in the house. We've taken Joshua to see movies, gone to the park, out to dinner at his favorite places, etc... Eric and I have also been spending a lot of time trying to prepare him for a new baby in the house but you never really know how much a 3 year old comprehends. It has helped that my sister-in-law had a baby 6 weeks ago so he has seen a newborn up close and seen some of the changes his cousins have had to adapt to. He still seems excited about a baby sister, so hopefully it won't be too traumatic a transition. He loves to hug and kiss the baby bump and constantly tells Lily he loves her through my stomach.

Last week we took our annual trek down to the Fort Worth Botanical gardens and into the Japanese garden in particular. The fall colors are gorgeous in that particular garden and wonderful photo opportunities abound. There are also a ton of Koi to feed, much to my son's delight. We actually took family portraits there last year at this time and decided to make it an annual event, professional photographer or not.





Thanksgiving was a low key affair this year. My parents are in town for the duration. My dad will travel back and forth to Midland but my Mom is here until at least Christmas to help me out with Lily and Joshua. I am so glad they are close enough and have flexible enough schedules to do this....it will be so much easier to have her here!! We spent a wonderful day over at my in-laws house for Thanksgiving day and have spent the rest of the weekend putting up Christmas decorations and relaxing. The house is now suitably festive for the holiday season and I won' t have to worry about dragging out the tree and ornaments while recovering from a c-section and being horribly sleep deprived. Our special treat for this weekend was to go see the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan resort. If you have never been....GO! It it pricey at roughly $20 a head but so neat to see that it is totally worth it. This year's theme was The Grinch and it was spectacular. Joshua loved it and even went down the ice slide. I think I could have stayed in the cool 9 degree temp until my c-section on Wednesday. I was finally comfortable!!








I had a check right before the holiday last week and everything was still status quo. I go in for all my pre-op stuff on Tuesday. I have noticed today that she has visibly dropped since yesterday. I can actually take a full, deep breath again! Although I am starting to get nervous about the impending surgery and the transition of a family of 3 to a family of 4, I am more than ready to be done with being pregnant and meet my little girl!

Still counting...

Tomorrow I am 37 weeks. I went for my 36 week appointment on Friday and everything looks pretty good....and nothing is happening! I know I have a scheduled c-section but the part of me that is tired of being pregnant is more than ready to get this show on the road! I have had so many people tell me to relax and enjoy this time to sleep and pamper myself. Problem is, when you are this pregnant sleeping through the night is not an option. I am up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom and have so many pillows to try to keep comfortable laying down that each time I turn is a major undertaking. My feet, ankles and hands have started to swell and staying in any one position for very long is uncomfortable...sitting or standing.

One good thing from my visit, I have been put on half days at work for the remaining week and a half. That will hopefully ease the back aches! Dentistry is not kind to your back to begin with. Having to sit further away from the patient because this beach ball attached to my middle is in the way seems to magnify back pain exponentially! My last day is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then I am off until the end of February!

My to do list is done. I can't believe it. When I made out a list of all we needed to accomplish before Lily's arrival I didn't think we'd make it. Here I am ahead of schedule. All of myChristmas shopping is done! EVERYTHING is wrapped and ready to go. All of my Christmas baking is done and in the freezer waiting for the appropriate time to be set out. My carpets are cleaned, my bag is packed....I almost don't know what to do with myself. It felt wrong to be sitting on the couch just watching tv yesterday. I know that's what I'm supposed to be doing at this point, relaxing, but I can't seem to wrap my nesting fevered head around it! Even Eric is done shopping and that is a major accomplishment! For those that don't know my husband well, he is an infamous procrastinator! I didn't think I'd heard him correctly when he said he was finished as well. I'm not sure where he is hiding his bounty of gifts as I haven't seen one enter the house to be put with the rest but I suspect the trunk of his car is being well used at this point.

I guess there is nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy the Thanksgiving holidays! Seems crazy that it's only about a week and a half away. It might be easier to believe if it wasn't 80 degrees outside. How is it that October was cooler than November so far? I am ready for one heck of a cold front and a freeze! Thanksgiving in shorts just doesn't fit my ideal!

The countdown begins....

Tomorrow I am 36 weeks and counting....oh how I'm counting. The past week and a half or so, I have really hit the uncomfortable stage of things. I can't stay in any one position very long before I have to shift and move around. I don't think comfortable exists at this point in pregnancy. It seems like I am up every two hours at night to either shift around or go to the bathroom...I guess it's just a way to get you prepared for the long, late nights to come.

My nesting craze is still in full swing, but I have gotten an amazing amount of stuff done. All of my Christmas baking (two types of cookies, a double batch of toffee, and beefstick) is done and in the freezer until the appropriate time. It has been very odd to be in the kitchen making these items and not have Christmas music or movies on in the background. I have maintained my usual no Christmas music/movies until after Thanksgiving through all of this but it has been difficult. I am a creature of habit and something seems off when Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin or Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving is on in the background instead. Joshua is also very confused...."where did all the cookies go, Mommy?" It's hard to explain making things in advance to a 3 year old.

With the exception of a few gift cards, I am done Christmas shopping! I have never been done this early and it feels strange and liberating at the same time. Everything I have at the house has been wrapped, tagged, ribboned and is ready to be placed under the tree. I have a few things that have been ordered on line that I'm still waiting on, but that only constitutes a couple of items and the wrapping time on them will be negligible.

I have packed my bag for the hospital for the most part. I know I have a scheduled c-section but my sister in law was caught unsuspecting at 36 weeks when they had to deliver her first early. Ever since, I have made sure to have everything ready to go prior to my 36 week appointment. The car seat, bassinet, and all major baby items have been assembled, cleaned and are in the nursery ready to go. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone...she'll be here before I know it!

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Joshua really got into it. We watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin early in the month and he was ready to go trick or treating right then and there. He picked out his own costume this year and gleefully ran from house to house. He even said Trick or Treat and thank you. Last year he would stand frozen on the doorstep until they took pity on him and gave him a piece of candy. He would then flee into our arms and want to be carried to the next house. Not this year. My feet wore out before his did! We went over to Eric's sister's house so he could trick or treat with his cousins. We live in a very small gated neighborhood and the neighbors keep very much to themselves. There aren't many kids around here either. We left a bowl of candy on the doorstep with a sign to please take one and we had candy left when we got home...maybe I didn't get the good candy!

Joshua chose to be Buzz Lightyear this year. Apparently a very popular costume with the re-release of the Toy Story movies in 3-D. He got to dress up on Friday for preschool and trick or treat with his class and there were 4 Buzz's running around...two of them girls! I think the preschool ended up with 6 Buzz Lightyears all in all. We have taken him to see the movies and he loves to run around saying...to infinity and beyond! He'll crouch down while saying the phrase and then jump into the air at the end. It's super cute but I can't get him to do it for the video camera!



With as much fun as he had with Halloween, I am really looking forward to Christmas this year. He's at just the right age for the magic and wonder of the season. Speaking of holidays, I am busily working through my to do list. I have 1 month before Lily's arrival and I have accomplished so much! I have everything ready for her arrival with the exception of actually putting the infant seat bases in the cars and setting up the bassinet. I have all the linens washed for it, just not set out. I've washed all the outfits, blankets, bedding, and toys that I've gotten and have her room fully set up and ready. I have everything for my hospital bag, I just need to pack it. I have had the carpet cleaned, done most of my Christmas shopping and wrapping, and even done some baking ahead of time. This weekend I have made and frozen a batch of Christmas cookies and toffee. I've got one more batch of cookies and probably another round of toffee to make plus our seasonal beef stick. I am waiting on a few items that I have ordered for presents to arrive and I have a couple people left on my list. I may actually get it all done before she gets here!

Nesting Insanity

These past two weekends have been madness. I am usually a neat and organized person. I like everything to have it's own place and be put away most of the time. I have turned into a cleaning, organizing, obsessive machine over the past few weeks! I guess I am nesting and I certainly don't remember it being this bad when I was pregnant with Joshua. Although, it may have been masked in the process of moving into and repainting a whole house instead of just concentrated on two rooms. Poor Eric has taken it all in good stride...I guess he has to since his is currently living with an insane person. I cannot believe how consumed I became with the prospect of finishing Joshua and Lily's rooms. I started the weekend after Joshua's birthday on Lily's room. We moved out all the furniture and donated it to a good cause. I had the room taped, painted and mostly wall papered by Sunday night....we started Saturday afternoon! The only reason it wasn't completely finished was that I ran out of the wall paper border and had to order some more. It didn't come in until the middle of the next week and I was gone the following weekend for a conference. The weekend after that Eric was out of town on a hunting trip, so I finished the wall paper and cleaned everything up to get ready for Joshua's room.

Eric got back from hunting Sunday evening and I had him and his parents moving furniture that night! I got everything taped, drop cloths down, and the jungle animal border that was part of the nursery painted over before I managed to get to bed that night. Work was very slow the next week, so I used long lunches to paint the bottom part of the wall, put up an airplane sticker border and airplane decals...I was done by Thursday and Joshua slept on his new mattress in the floor of his room that night. To be fair he didn't like the pink of Lily's room so sleeping on the mattress on the floor was his idea not mine! We were supposed to get Joshua's furniture that Friday or Saturday but it was delayed for a number of reasons. I spent the weekend changing out closets between the nursery and Joshua's room and all the stuff that used to be in his dresser wound up in laundry baskets on the floor of the closet until we could get his new stuff. I spent the weekend washing some of the baby stuff that people had given me and loading up the dresser for Lily.

My madness continued as we got Joshua's furniture Tuesday of last week. I had all of his clothes in drawers and everything organized by the end of the week. It was like I couldn't sleep until it was all done. To make matters worse I made Eric haul everything out of the attic that we had saved from Joshua's infancy so I could sort and organize. As of last night I have sorted, tossed, donated, and washed what I decided to keep out of Joshua's stuff. PLUS I have washed and put away everything that I got at my baby shower on Saturday!

The only things I have left to get down are the big things...high chair, infant seat, swing, etc... There are a few things I will need to purchase to be ready but at the rate I'm going I'm sure I will get that done this weekend. I have never felt so possessed by a desire to get it all done NOW! It's like I can't sleep because I'm thinking about all the stuff I need to do. Maybe I'm preparing this early because I know just how tired and worn out we will be after Lily gets here...who knows at this point! I guess my next adventure will be to get my Christmas shopping done....

Renovation Completion!

Yeah!!! The nursery and Joshua's room are finally done!! I've had the painting and everything completed in Joshua's room for about two weeks but his furniture was delayed so it took a little longer than I planned to get everything back where it's supposed to be and get it presentable for pictures! Joshua loves his new room. He has tried several times to take the airplanes off the wall around his bed and he had tried jumping off his bed to reach the airplane pull on his fan...both activities have been strongly discouraged!!!! I guess it's universal for little kids to try jumping on their first big bed. It's certainly nothing that we've ever taught him but he seems to know the song about monkeys jumping on the bed all the same. I guess preschool has covered the gambit on bed jumping!













Lily's room has also turned out very cute and very girly. Eric keeps looking around it and commenting on the pinkness of it all. Well it is a room for a little girl! Since she's the first girl in the family, I think we have all gone a little overboard ( just a tad) but it's been a lot of fun. Even Eric is guilty of coming home from the store with cute little girl outfits...matching jeans and all. I just have to giggle to myself when I see even Mr. Reserved lose control just a little. He was just as bad with Joshua, but with him it was all footballs, Cowboys jersey's and baseballs. The kid literally had three baseballs before he was ever born! Thanks to some of my sweet friends and in-laws who threw me a girl shower, Lily has a pretty complete wardrobe already!! I certainly have plenty of cute little sleepers and outfits for the early days. I may not even need to sort through all the stuff I saved from Joshua to pull out the gender neutral items. I am truly touched and overwhelmed by the great influx of pink and cuteness that has surrounded us these past several weeks. I can't wait for her to get here! Joshua seems very excited at the prospect of a little sister. I know that will change the minute we walk through the door with her and he figures out that she's here to stay. For now he has taken to asking once or twice a week "Where is baby sister?" I explain that she's still in my tummy and she has to grow some more before she can be born. The then sighs, looks at me and says "She's sure taking a long time!" You're telling me!

Busy-ness

It seems like September has gone flying by. We have accomplished quite a bit but I feel like I have very little to show for it. I cannot believe we are into October next week. I looked at the calendar this week and I have less than 10 weeks to get everything accomplished before Lily's arrival....YIKES!!!! Granted we have really only had one weekend to work on the rooms. The first weekend was Joshua's birthday and we had family in our guest room. The next weekend we accomplished a ton! I got all of our furniture out, painted and got most of the wall paper border up. The wall paper border was a point of frustration here and there. The bedding I really liked for Lily's room is supposed to be available at Babies R Us and Lonestar Baby (another local store). This is according to the manufacturer's website. None of the local Babies R Us stores stock it and neither does Lonestar Baby! I could order it from Lonestar or I could order it from Amazon. Since Lonestar was about $45 more, I went with Amazon. They don't have all the accessories but I really didn't want all of them anyway. One thing I did order was the matching wall paper border. Nowhere on the website or the packaging did it say how much was on the roll. Not even when I had the roll in my hand!!!! It came out to about 10 yards but wasn't enough to do the whole room. I had to get on and order another roll and wait for it to come in. Of course it didn't show up until right before I left for a conference, so I didn't finish the room until this week. I have never wall papered before and it was a learning experience. I'm glad I started with just a border....I'm not a big fan of wall paper but the border was too cute to pass up. I seriously doubt I will do any bigger wall paper projects. I can't imagine all the tedium that goes into hanging full size pieces to cover a whole wall! Not my cup of tea!!

Now I just need to work on getting the nursery furniture out of Joshua's room so I can tape and repaint for him. He is very excited about his airplane room and can't wait for us to get started. Eric is out of town hunting this weekend so I guess the furniture moving will have to wait until he returns. I think Joshua will just have to sleep in a pink room for a little bit so we can get his room painted and wait for his new furniture to get here. In my mind, his room will look really cute when it's all finished. I just hope the actual product matches what I am visualizing.

Joshua seems to be blossoming in preschool. Every day he comes up with some new fact or figure that his little brain has absorbed. We were driving around town running errands the other day and we happened to pass by a flag pole with the flag up. All of a sudden from the back seat he declares "That's a flag Mommy. It stands for America and it's red, white and blue." Having never discussed the American flag with him, I was impressed. It is truly amazing how much they learn and retain at this age.

I'll hopefully have some more room pictures to post in a couple of weeks as we finish the kid's rooms. I meant to get a before pic of Lily's room but it didn't happen. Here's the paint and border I have so far. I have some super cute butterfly decals to put up but need to get the furniture in place before I can configure the arrangement.

Joshua's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe my baby boy is 3 years old! It seems like he was a tiny little thing just yesterday and now he's a little boy! He has grown and changed in so many ways this year. I love to see this transformation but I also want to cling to all the sweet moments of his babyhood. We started out on Friday with his first true big boy haircut. He's gotten haircuts since he was 14 months old but they have always been scissor cuts to mainly trim around the edges. His hair is pretty thick now and grows at a rapid pace. His last scissor cut was only 4 weeks ago and he was looking pretty shaggy. Mom bit the bullet so to speak and had them cut with clippers on the sides and shape up the top with scissors. It's amazing how much older that one little thing made him look. He's so tall that people already assume he's much older but now he really looks the part too!

Saturday we had his main party at Pump It Up. I must say I was impressed with this place! I had decided that I was too pregnant and tired to do a party at home this year and wanted someone else to clean up the mess. Joshua had so much fun with the bounce house we rented last year that I figured Pump It Up was a perfect fit...I was right! They take care of everything. You bring the cake, candles, lighter and balloons...they do the rest! There are two huge bounce rooms and the kids get 40 minutes in each and then a party room for cake, presents, etc... The kids had an absolute blast....some of the adults did too! I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get to jump but that is off my list since I had the placenta problems earlier in my pregnancy. It was fun to watch the kid's antics though and I got some great pictures of everyone.

Joshua's birthday fell on Labor Day this year so it was nice that the whole family got to spend the day together. For several months now, Joshua has been begging Eric to take him to a football game. Try explaining football season to a two year old...he couldn't figure out why didn't take him now! We got the perfect opportunity when we found out that there were several high school games being played on Labor Day at the new Cowboys Stadium. With the exorbitant prices for Cowboys tickets we figured this would be our only way to see the new stadium this season. The stadium is pretty neat but they have a lot of bugs to work out when it comes to traffic flow and moving people in and out. Joshua had a great time and that's all that matters.

My independent little man also started all out preschool this week. He's always gone to a daycare/preschool but since he's potty trained he was able to move up to the official preschool class at school. They have school supplies and everything. He loves it and I can already tell he's learning a ton. He is quite the little sponge!

This weekend will start the change over of rooms. We are getting rid of all our guest room furniture on Saturday and will start the painting process for Lily's room. Once it's painted we will temporarily move Joshua in there with the toddler bed so we can paint and redo his room. I'm hoping to get his room painted before his new furniture gets here but we'll see! Once we get his new stuff we'll move him back and return the toddler bed to crib form to complete the set up for Lily. Then starts the great clothes sorting. I have all of Joshua's stuff up in the attic in boxes by size. Now I get to sort through and find all the gender neutral stuff and figure out what to do with the boy stuff. I have a feeling Goodwill and the Battered Women's shelter will be getting several donations in the near future! So far Joshua has accepted all this change with ease...I only hope that trend continues as we get closer to December 2nd!

Baby update

I had my 20 week sonogram last week with a perinatologist. Since I had the placenta previa and some bleeding in my second trimester, my regular ob/gyn wanted me to see a specialist for this sonogram so we could have a high def look at everything. I had to see one with Joshua as well, but for blood pressure reasons. This was a different doctor and the office was quite impressive. Eric went with me so he could get another peek at Lily and we got to watch the scan on a 55" flat screen plasma tv. It was pretty amazing. We could see all 4 chambers of the heart and looked at all her major organs. She was positioned perfectly to confirm that we are definitely expecting a little girl. Even Eric could see all the parts on that shot! We are very happy to report that everything looks great! My placenta is firmly reattached and Lily is growing at a normal rate. I will have another high def scan in 4 weeks to make sure all development is on track.

In other news, it looks like Joshua is finally on the road to potty training success. We are still battling going number 2 on the potty but he hasn't had a wet accident for almost 3 weeks! YEAH!!! He has done the number 2 deed at school a few times but never at home. I have taken to putting together a list of bribes if he will go on the potty for us. The list is currently at a balloon from the grocery store, Handy Manny underwear and M&Ms. I have a feeling when the event finally occurs all promises will immediately be called in. Here's hoping the list doesn't get much longer!!

We are all headed off for a week of vacation next Wednesday and are looking forward to it. Joshua loves to fly! I'll post details later but have to keep locations on the down low for now.

Longer Football Clip

I've been playing more and more with the iMovie stuff on our new computer. I had to give up and buy a more detailed explanation book to find some of this stuff! Here is a longer clip of the football videos we shot last weekend. It took me most of the week to find where the computer put the longer of the two, but I finally succeeded! I'm sure this will be an ever expanding clip as the summer progresses. The first thing Joshua wanted to do this morning after realizing it wasn't a school day was ask to play football with Daddy. I think we have a sports fanatic on our hands!

We're having a.....

GIRL!

I had a follow up sonogram and regular check up yesterday. My placenta previa and placental abruption are gone!! The placenta has moved up and away from my cervix and the abruption has reattached. I have to continue a little lighter schedule for the next month to make sure the attachment in good and then back to normal activity!

I really wasn't expecting to be able to see the gender yesterday. I am just a little over 16 weeks and they usually like the wait until closer to 20 to take a peek between the legs! The sono tech asked me if I wanted her to look and of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity. She warned me not to be disappointed and started looking around. After about 30 seconds she said "Oh, this one's easy. See those three little lines...that spells girl all day long!" We are VERY excited! I figured I was having another boy for sure and was just fine with that. When I first found out Joshua was a boy, I was a little apprehensive since all the families we were close to growing up had all girls. I LOVE my little boy...he's so much fun and makes me laugh every day. In Eric's family, there hasn't been a girl since his sister, Jennifer, was born. We have 6 nephews and a 7th on the way. It seemed like we were one of those families with all boys and now there is a little girl in the mix! My mom and especially my mother-in-law are ecstatic. She is going to be very spoiled and likely one tough cookie to put up with 7 boy cousins and an older brother. I feel a little sorry for her future boyfriends....

Anyway, we are very excited that Lillian Rose Millner will be joining us in December and can't wait to meet her! Now back to the remodeling....

5 Wonderful Years of Marriage!

Eric and I celebrated our 5th anniversary yesterday. I cannot believe that 5 years have already flown by...sometimes it seems like yesterday. Then I look around and see our son that is creeping up on 3 and our whole menagerie of animals and realize that much time must have passed! This year's celebration is rather on the quiet side since I'm still supposed to be taking it easy. We didn't really do much yesterday since it was a work day for Eric. Tonight we are headed out for a fancy dinner at our favorite restaurant-Lonesome Dove! If you've never been there, it's fantastic. It's a little place on the edge of the stockyards that serves wonderful, inventive gourmet type cuisine. Our absolute favorite is the ancho chile chocolate cake for dessert. We each order one as they are too good to share!

We actually got each other our anniversary presents last weekend. We happened upon mine by chance and snapped it up before someone else could. We belong to a Wine Styles wine of the month club at the Southlake location and went in for Eric to pick up our June wine club. A local artist has started displaying some work in the store and I found an awesome grape picture that goes perfectly over my mantle. We have been looking for just the right piece since we bought the house over 3 years ago. I'll post pictures later when the study isn't such a mess. Eric added another pistol to the arsenal....a 22 target pistol.

Speaking of the study being a mess...I think we will finish our grand project for remodeling the study this weekend. Well, the construction phase at least. Last Friday, a contractor came in and ripped out the carpet and laid in new wood floors. We spent quite a bit of time and money at IKEA last weekend to get the shelving/storage system to finish out the room. It is mostly assembled and we should be able to get the cabinets finished today and tomorrow. I'm just happy we got the desk done and the computer up and running by Thursday. It seemed odd to be without a computer for a week. Oh, how we have come to rely on modern technology!

I guess that's about all I have for now. I will hopefully have pictures of the remodel and painting by the end of the weekend. Now all I need to do is figure out how to stay cool in the Texas summer heat.....I'm not sure it's possible!

Little Slugger

We've had a hard time deciding if Joshua is going to be right or left handed. He constantly changes hands when he's eating or coloring. Even his teachers at preschool haven't seen much of a preference. It's looking like he will be a lefty. Out of the blue one day, he announced that he wanted some scissors to cut paper. I didn't have any kiddie scissors at the time so promised we would find some at the store. Every time he goes to make his own brand of confetti, he cuts with his left hand. It also seems that he uses the fork or spoon most often in his left when we are eating...well when I can get him to use the fork and spoon consistently. He is ALL boy!

Anyway, Eric wants to cultivate the left handed preference and teach the kid to play baseball. We found a little kiddie tee and whiffle ball at the store this weekend and gave him his first try. Sure enough, when he picked up the bat to hit without any prompting he hit lefty. Eric is thrilled. Not being a baseball fan, I don't really understand this elation but I'll grin and go along with it. I shot this little video this evening while he was trying the tee out for the first time. Too cute! I was sitting in a chair with my feet up and had a great view.

Scary complications...

Leave it to me to be unable to have an uneventful pregnancy. With Joshua it was my blood pressure. I have white coat syndrome which means I tend to freak out when I have to go to the doctor...ironic I know. I had to see a specialist several times with Joshua do to the high readings I would get and keep a blood pressure log where I checked 3-4 times daily at home to prove that I didn't always run that high. Right at the end of my pregnancy with Joshua I did become borderline for pre-eclampsia but it never progressed past that stage. This has been much scarier!

After my glowing check up and sono of Friday, we decided to take Joshua to the zoo Saturday morning with two of his cousins and my sister-in-law. At our lunch stop I discovered that I had some spotting of old blood. So, I called the weekend on-call nurse and headed home. She said it was probably just from my exam and to spend the rest of the weekend laying around and being lazy. If I didn't have any other problems I could go to work on Monday as usual. I never did see any more blood so carried on as normal Monday morning. That night I had a little more and the same on Tuesday morning. Still all old, brown blood but enough to catch my attention and make me freak out a little. I called in sick to work and got an early appointment with my ob/gyn. 3 hours and another sonogram later we found the problem. The sono that I had on Friday was super quick due to the back up in the ultrasound office (45 minuted behind schedule) and the fact that I hadn't had any problems up to that point. The sono they did Tuesday was much more in depth. They found that my placenta on one end is close to my cervix. Apparently the tissue in that area of the uterus if delicate and friable and the corner of placenta that was there has come free of the uterine wall and bled a little. So now we at least had the source of blood. There was still some there but it hasn't been actively bleeding. There is no telling when it all happened. It could have been there last Friday and was missed or it could have happened after that. Fortunately they think the problem will right itself as my uterus grows and moves into the abdominal cavity. The placenta should move with it and away from my cervix. Also, the baby is fine and growing normally. I have been home on limited activity all week. As I am too scared to move much, I have probably limited myself more than he really intended but I figure I'll err on the side of caution. I can go back to work on Monday with a very light schedule and they will do another sono at the end of the month to see how things are going. I don't think I've ever paid so much attention to the toilet paper when I go to the bathroom and I don't remember ever being afraid to sneeze before. Not my best week overall. Raging hormones and an overactive, bored mind do not make the best of combos.

So when I say nothing new is going on around here...

My recent lack of blog posts has been largely from being in the midst of first trimester yuckiness! I am a little over 12 weeks along with baby Millner #2 and we had our first sonogram on Friday. My official due date is December 7 but this baby will be a scheduled c-section so I was told anytime after Thanksgiving is fair game. They'll set the c-section date based on later sonograms to gauge development. I must say I am looking forward to NOT going through labor this go around. When I had Joshua, I was induced the day after my due date and went through 17 LONG hours before they decided to do the c-section. After they delivered Joshua, I was told that there was no way he would have fit through without breaking something....Thank God for modern medicine! My labor was not fun with Joshua. I had back labor and though I like to think I'm not a total wuss....it HURT! I am so glad that my body will most likely only have to recover from the c-section this time around and not from surgery and labor!

So far, this pregnancy has been more difficult in the sense that I feel much worse this time around. With Joshua, I would have nausea in the morning for a couple of hours and it would be gone by lunch. It started around 6 weeks and was gone by 11. This time has been a real guessing game and I'm still getting nauseous. Thankfully I don't do the all out vomiting scene with it, though I have come perilously close this time. I have had days without feeling sick followed by consecutive days and nights of non stop nausea. This week I seem to be unable to fix dinner without getting nauseous. As I am the first one home and fix dinner for us 95% of the time...this has been a real problem. I also have some serious food aversions. I can't even see any sort of Asian food advertised on tv much less smell it without getting woozy. Same goes for yogurt and pork. Although, I do know where the pork aversion comes from. I went to the Texas Dental Convention in May and took a day and a half oral surgery course. The morning of the second day was a hands on portion involving practicing the surgical techniques on pig mandibles. I had signed up for the convention in January and never gave it a second thought. Frozen pig jaws at 8 AM when you are 9 weeks pregnant is NOT a good combo. I had to walk out and get air frequently much to the amusement of my desk mate. I was a decided shade of green by the time the morning session finished.

We are busy making plans to do some remodeling to the house to get ready for baby number 2. Our study has been in need of help for sometime now. Particularly after the cat managed to ruin the carpet while learning to use his litter box. Whoever tells you that you don't have to litter box train a cat is lying! Or at least that was the case for our cat! Mostly the room is a collect all for junk, a bed that isn't used, and my husband's reloading equipment for ammo. We are going to rip up the nasty carpet, lay hardwood, and make it a study/craft room that is much more functional. Once that is finished I can start sorting out all the junk that got relegated to the guest room closet. Our guest room will by the new baby's room and we have some minor painting to do on Joshua's room to transition it to a big boy room. I've got it all laid out in my mind...now I just have to find the time and the energy to get it all done.

I'll leave off for tonight with a sono picture. I can't seem to get it to scan well but it was a great shot!

It's been awhile....

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted anything on here. I guess things have been trucking along with no "big" upheavals or anything other than mildly interesting. I had a pretty quiet birthday this year followed by a fairly tame Easter. My parents were in town for Easter and my Mom was only 10 days out of knee surgery so we stayed pretty low key. The four of us did make it out for an evening of dinner at PF Changs and Bob Newhart at the Bass Hall. We hadn't done that since I was pregnant with Joshua a little over 3 years ago...way too long! Joshua spent the evening with a close friend and had an absolute blast. Someone besides mom and dad got to listen to Elmo endlessly and blow bubbles in the backyard until it's too dark to see. Needless to say, Joshua has a new best friend and wants to know when she can come back!

I have also completed my concealed handgun class and sent all my paperwork off to become official. That was a VERY long day. The state mandates 7 hours of class time followed by a shooting proficiency test. The class stuff could really be covered in less than half the time so it made for a drawn out Saturday. At least I got it over with all at once and don't have to worry about it for 3-4 years.

For my next big adventure I am off the San Antonio next week for the annual Texas Dental Association convention. I try to go every year to get most if not all my continuing ed credits but also to catch up with a bunch of my classmates. It's pretty much a girl's weekend...no hubbies, no kids. Definitely a nice break for mommy! I just hope they don't cancel it with the swine flu scare. They have closed tons of schools around here until May 11th. I am beginning to wonder what I will do with Joshua if his daycare follows suit. We had a doctor at the practice have to leave unexpectedly so most days I'm the only doctor there. Of course if all the schools around us shut down...perhaps we should too. Hmmmm, quite the quandary.

I've joined the Dark side!

I have been converted to the dark side....of guns that is. After my last post on our increasing arsenal I had a very interesting experience at lunch one day. I had an absolutely dead morning at work. I had a four hour case scheduled that cancelled at the last minute leaving me with absolutely nothing to do except check hygiene and hope I could find a filling to do. I know you're thinking I'm a crazy dentist but I really hate just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. The hygienists were crazy slow that morning as well. I guess no one wanted to come to the dentist. Anyway, I left the practice at 10:15, ran some errands and went home for lunch. We had been out of town the weekend before so I had some extra time to try to get my house in order. I had the stereo on and was cleaning downstairs and then went upstairs after eating. I was finishing some stuff up in the master bedroom, opened our shutters and found a car parked in my driveway with no one in it! My dogs bark at anything that moves and I hadn't heard a peep out of them. I thought maybe someone was walking to the door but still found it odd since anyone I really know doesn't expect me to be home in the middle of the day. I waited a few minutes for the door and nothing. I walked around the upstairs and checked windows to see if I could see anyone on our property and still nothing. At this point I am slightly alarmed and a little annoyed. I had 15 minutes to get back to work and the car was parked in the driveway behind mine (yes, the garage door was closed). I called Eric and tried call my office to see if anyone could pick me up. I opened my garage and ventured outside with garden tool in my hand and ran to the neighbors to see if on the off chance one of their visitors had parked at my house by mistake. No one knew anything about the car. I got the description and the license and went in to try my office again. While I was on the phone, I heard a car door slam and saw a big man getting into the car. I have no idea where he came from! He pulled out of the driveway and left the neighborhood.

So, after that I decided I really needed to know how to use some of the arsenal that has made it's way into my home. Eric has gotten his concealed handgun license so his pistol is never here. This weekend we went to the gun range for Eric to show me how to shoot his pistol. It was too cold to go to the outside ranges for the rifle and shotgun. I went with grim determination and was not at all excited. For the past several weeks Eric and my dad have been trying to talk me into a pistol of my own and a concealed license. I have been trying to keep my mind open so we took a couple pistols and a revolver to the range for me to try. I am truly amazed to say this next statement. I LIKED IT! I didn't think I would ever feel that way about shooting a firearm but I really had a good time and I did pretty well. I could hit the bulls eye consistently at 6 and 12 feet. I guess all those years of dart playing really paid off. Of course since I actually enjoyed myself, Eric insisted that I find a handgun for myself. So....I am now the owner of a Walther 9mm pistol and will try to take the concealed class in the next month or two. Who woulda thunk?!?!?

In other goings on...all of Joshua's medical tests came back normal and he has been symptom free since we went in for the last blood draw! Potty training is in progress but going very slowly. My son is incredibly stubborn! I have to put him in big kid underwear and take away his pants for him to go number 1 in the potty. We haven't even ventured to Number 2 territory. I am hoping he'll start to get the hang of it. He really doesn't like not wearing pants so they are my big bargaining chip! Well, that and a couple M&M's when he makes a successful trip. All of our spring flowers in the yard have started to bloom so I'll leave with a couple of shots I got over the past few weekends

Back Patio Joshua in the Bluebonnets

Sylvester in front of the Columbines

Welcome to the gun show?

Lately my house has acquired an arsenal and I'm not really sure how this all happened. I am not a big fan of guns. In fact I have never shot any sort of gun. Not even a BB gun. I am slightly afraid of the things if I am being perfectly honest. Somewhere, I have lost control and find myself in a household with not one but four guns. These four guns have all come on the scene since November. My lovable, wonderful husband tends to be rather obsessive in his hobbies. When we bought our house three years ago, looking up how to care for a single rose bush evolved into a massive organic gardening mayhem complete with compost bin and collector in my kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against organic gardening. I tend to have a rather black thumb and admire people who can coerce things to grow and produce healthy, yummy food. It was the staggering amount of information and stuff that went with the whole thing. I think Eric owns just about every organic gardening manual out there.

I should have known I was in trouble when he started spending lots of time with a taxidermist friend talking about hunting. Eric has never really been the hunting type. He's gone out twice that I know of and didn't bring anything back with him. Both experiences have been over 10 years ago. Out of the blue (to me anyway) in November he started talking about how it would be fun to go turkey hunting this spring. I tried to be the supportive wife..."sure honey, if you really want to go" and thought it would blow over. Boy was I wrong! Shortly after the election the gun fever really kicked in. I started hearing eloquent speeches on how gun laws were going to change and we really "needed" a semi-automatic rifle for protection.....WHAT?!?!?!?!? I'm still not sure what we are being protected from, perhaps little green men? This all strikes me as very odd. Didn't you have 8 whole years to yearn for and purchase such a gun? We start on the discussion of guns and how much I don't like them. You always see the horribly sad story of how some kid got a hold of dad's gun and shot a friend, family member or himself in the process. I bring up these points and insist if there is EVER going to be a gun in the house there must be a safe. I didn't think the topic of discussion was over but three days later a shotgun shows up in my house. I am still totally confused on how this happened so quickly and think I must have been bamboozled. The point that really rankles is I wasn't told about the expensive purchase until after it occurred.....GGGRRRR!

So for Christmas, said gun safe entered the house along with an inherited rifle that materialized from my in-laws house. I had never heard of said rifle before but so it goes. I thought, ok he has a hunting gun surely the madness is over. WRONG AGAIN! After Christmas the semi-automatic discussion came up again. He went with the shot gun before because it was so much cheaper. Now he has found a way to assemble the semi-automatic from used parts. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone else? Over the next several weeks gun parts were continually delivered to my doorstep. In fact one day the mail consisted of gun parts and a prescription drug order....I have a problem with this! I am also feeling like we are under surveillance of some sort at this point. Long story short, the gun has been assembled, it works without blowing anyone up and the count in our gun safe is up to 3.

Eric's birthday was yesterday and what did he want for his birthday? You guessed it...a gun. We now add a 40 caliber pistol to our arsenal and a concealed handgun license. This I can sort of see the practicality of. In his profession, Eric comes across some crazy people. Now the big topic of discussion is teaching me to use it and getting me a license and gun of my own. Where did I lose control?

Spring in Texas

If you ask my friends, they will tell you that I don't care for the climate in Texas. I have lived in Texas longer than I have lived anywhere else but I still miss the changing of the seasons that we used to get in Colorado. I absolutely love the crisp mornings and changing leaves of autumn. I miss the days of sledding and snow man building in winter with fires in the fireplace and hot chocolate with marshmallows. That's being said...I love it when all the spring flowers start to show up here. Bluebonnets are one thing Colorado didn't have. We don't have bluebonnets yet but I have caught glimpses of color in the flower beds as tulips, daffodils, iris and crocus are peeping through the mulch. I also love the redbud trees that are in bloom in many of the neighborhoods near my office.

Our normal Sunday routine includes community group (Sunday school at most churches) and a worship service. I really love the church we go to but lately it seems like the service goes longer and longer. By the time we get home, get Joshua fed and down for a nap and start chores it's almost two o'clock and the day has gotten away from me. I know many of my friends relish the time because they can get away from their kids for a few hours and enjoy nothing but adult conversation. The kids are usually happy in Sunday school so it works well for everyone. For Eric and I it seems like it has become 4 hours away from Joshua and the quality family time we so cherish on the weekend. It didn't bother me when he was little. He would stay with us the entire time when I was still nursing him. As he got older we would take him the the nursery during community group and have him with us in the service where he would fall asleep on my shoulder and nap. Now he has to go for both sessions since he's just not old enough to sit through a service quietly. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he enjoyed going to Sunday school. I never have a problem taking him to preschool but he does not want to go to Sunday school. He cries each week and beseechingly says "please don't go, mommy." It breaks my heart. We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here so we decided to play hooky from church this morning and check out the flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. Their bloom festival is still a week or two away but there were lots of pretty flowers to see already. Joshua had a great time as always. Anytime he's outside he's happy.

Terrible Twos!

I think the terrible twos have arrived in the Millner household. Joshua has had brief periods of testing boundaries over the past 9 months or so. He'll have a day or two where he tests limits and pushes buttons but it never lasts for long and he is back to his amiable, fun little self. Today, his evil twin surfaced! I walked in to the playroom at his preschool to pick him up and he threw his first all out tantrum. I guess his turn to drive the little car around the room was next and he was expressing his frustration.... He ran across the room screaming like a banshee, hit the wall with both hands and proceeded to throw himself on the floor. All this if front of all the other moms that were picking up their angelic faced children who stared wide eyed at the screaming blondie on the floor. I wanted to sink into the foundation! I managed to haul him off the floor, throw him over my shoulder and retreat outside with a land speed record. All of this on top of his teacher telling me this morning that he has been pushing kids and grunting in defiance. I feel like the worst parent of the year!

We have always used time out for Joshua and very rarely a spanking for discipline. Neither of these seem to have any impact on him what so ever. I have no idea what we are going to do. His reasoning ability is very limited at this point...he is 2 after all. I have started taking away certain privelages and that seems to work sometimes but not consistantly. This evening I think he spent a grand total of 30 minutes in his naughty corner. By bed time he seemed back to normal. I can only hope it holds.... In the meantime perhaps we should stock up on more chocolate and red wine!

Medical Misery

Poor Johsua has had a very tough week. It all started on Saturday night. He woke me up at 2:30 in the morning complaining that his ear hurt. I managed to get him back to sleep until 5:30 when we woke up screaming that his ear hurt. I tried Tylenol since he wouldn't eat anything and he slept fitfully until 7 when the screaming reconvened. After milk, some Advil and some old ear drops that I managed to find we got the crying down to a whimper. A long morning in the pediatric urgent care confirmed a massive ear infection. We had already started down the path a couple weeks ago with some other testing for Joshua. Throughout his little life, Joshua has been king of the blowout diaper. When he was really little, I attributed it to being breastfed. Everyone warned me of the constipation to come when he started solid food...never happened. We had talked to the pediatrician before about it but his growth rate has always been way above average so we didn't pursue anything at that time. Lately, it seems to have gotten worse and it is interfering with potty training. Two weeks ago he had a stool sample test done. If any of you have ever had to do a collection for that, I feel for you! Few things gross me out. I deal with blood and saliva all day long but this was almost too much for me. Of course, Eric was no help what so ever as he stood gagging in the corner! Everything came back normal and since he was still symptomatic we wound up back in the pediatrician's office on Thursday.

I thought about cancelling the appointment but figured if nothing else we could have his ears checked to make sure they were responding to the antibiotic. The antibiotic seems to be doing its job but must taste awful. Poor little guy does a full body shudder evertime he has to swallow it down. Our next course of action in the great gastric mystery was to draw blood and run several tests to look for allergies or malabsorption syndromes. That's when all the real fun began. I was so proud of Joshua. It was the first time our doctor was able to examine him without him screaming like a banshee. I think we took one step forward and two giant steps back with the blood draw experience! I had asked the nurses to just send us to the lab if they thought he was going to be hard to draw blood on. I am a hard stick and have had veins blown before...not a pleasant experience and one I wanted to save Joshua from. They held him down...all three of them and put the turnequet on. A vein came popping straight up and I thought we had it made. Unfortunately they used too large a suction device and blew the vein. Without pausing to let him calm down, they switched to the other side, got in the vein and somehow managed to blow that one too. They got some blood but not enough. By this time, Joshua is hysterical, I'm ready to scream at someone and we've been there for an hour and a half.

Long story short, we have to go to a lab and try the blood draw again. I had to take my poor little guy back to school since I had a full afternoon of patients ( I had missed a day and a half at the beginning of the week with a stomach bug and all of them had been rescheduled once already). To top off his day, he slipped on our bed making a grab for one of the dogs and hit the footboard. He woke up this morning with big bruises on both arms and a black eye (the flash washes out the color...it's really dark)! He is so pale that any and every bruise comes up with a lurid purple and black swirl and progresses to the lovely greens and yellows. It seems to take weeks for them to fade entirely! Next week is bound to be a better week.....please!