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!