29 Weeks...And an Answer to Prayer!

Well!  Last week was an eventful week!

I had yet another ultrasound on Friday.  Let me do some 'splaining:  what I didn't share on this blog is that at the anatomy scan/boy-or-girl ultrasound, we were told that it was possible that there was a hole in Declan's heart (specifically, in the SEPTUM that separates the two ventricles in the bottom part of the heart).

My doctor was unsure, so she scheduled another ultrasound about a week later to get a more detailed view of the heart and to have a "specialist" review the new ultrasound.  So, we went a week-ish later and the bad news was explained to us more fully:  yes, indeed, Declan did have a hole in the septum of his heart.  Woah.

What that meant was that I might have to deliver in Milwaukee where the pediatric surgeons are, in case he needed surgery.  The specialist elaborated even more:  78% of the babies with this particular heart defect have it healed on its own before birth.  Of the remaining babies, only half need surgery.  Additionally, 3% of the babies with this heart defect have Down's Syndrome or another chromosomal abnormality such as Trisomy 13 or 21 (I think those were the numbers).

After receiving this news, we were ushered into another room where we met with a genetic counselor, who explained a little bit more about what I covered above and said that we could do amniocentesis or a blood screen to determine if the baby has any of those abnormalities.  {Let me tell you, I did not wake up ready on that day to go through that.  But, God is good.  He walked with us through it.}

After telling us of that information, that there was a 1/4 percent chance of miscarriage after amniocentesis, that there is a false positive risk with the blood test...we each freaked out a bit internally.  So, we asked for a few minutes and prayed.  God told us to trust Him and so we decided on no tests--it's not like it would change much for us--we would still go through the rest of the pregnancy and delivery as normal.

We left, feeling rather good about everything.  We decided not to tell our parents just yet, as my mom was dealing with the death of her mother that had happened the day after our anatomy scan.  We told our parents a couple of weeks later and began sharing with others bit by bit.  We only shared this information with a select group of people to avoid looking like we were gunning for sympathy.  That, and I think we were still scared and unsure and processing it.

In the interim, we prayed consistently for Declan's heart to be healed, for his development to continue on as normal and surrendered him to his Heavenly Father who loves him more than either Ryan or I ever can--which must be a lot, for all the love I already have for this little guy.

Fast forward about 8 weeks...I endure another ultrasound--not as painful this time, but when I was on my back Declan was on my vena cava vein which caused me nausea, rapid heart beat, cold sweats, and light-headedness like I was going to pass out...after only about two or three minutes!  You can imagine the extraordinarily slow progress of the ultrasound!  I would have to turn onto my side and rest, letting the blood flow resume, for a few minutes afterward.  I thus flipped back-and-forth for the first half hour of the ultrasound.  I was continuously praying that God would relieve my sickness and put Declan into the correct position for the ultrasound; and while lying on my side about the half-hour mark the tech told me not to move, that she was getting the views she needed!  No more feeling sick!

After she finished, we were moved into that same room to wait for the doctor to review our scans and be ready to tell us the results/progress.  He called us in and said that he would start by showing us what a normal septum should look like, it was completely intact, etc, etc, blah blah blah...I was a little tired at this point and cannot remember exactly what he said.  He then asked us to examine the name in the upper left-hand corner of the picture and it said, "MILLER, NICOLE!"  We then all rejoiced and he admitted that he wanted to "tease" us a little.  It was smiles all around, and congratulations on our healthy baby, etc.  Wonderful.  God has answered that prayer.

Additionally, without asking, the ultrasound tech provided us with some 4-D views of Declan's face!  And while I feel like I'm cheating by seeing them, it is also rather comforting as I don't see the Down's Syndrome characteristic facial features.  Just a confirmation of the trust I place in God.  However, it does seem that the little man has his daddy's nose and my nostrils...at least at this point!  So cute.

All right!  After getting all that off my chest, I will go on to give my updates about the past week...besides the answer to prayer!

I am having trouble sleeping {surprise, surprise}.  That's not new.  I feel like I'm stretching again, which is uncomfortable.  Declan kicks ALL THE TIME and sometimes it is almost disturbing to see how much my stomach distorts in reaction to him moving!  I still love it, though.  Ryan is finally able to catch the kicks on a regular basis and even exclaimed, "WOW!" in reaction to one of the stronger kicks.  Declan seems content to sit under my right set of ribs...a lot.  Rather uncomfortable.

Often, I feel like I have a dragon residing inside my chest due to the amount of heartburn I have...it doesn't seem to matter much just what I eat anymore, anything and everything seems to cause it.  So, Tums are my constant companion.  I've discovered that the mint ones are ok, the regular fruit-flavored are decent, and that the tropical fruit ones are weird, gross even.

I also find that my skin is r-e-a-l-l-y dry and I have some stretch marks (I'm still not concerned about them, but slightly disappointed in the lack of a starburst around my belly button...I was kinda hoping for that one! Hahaha!).  Oh, and my belly button is getting shallower... :/  I am still too small for my maternity shirts to fit nicely (YES!) so I am only in maternity jeans...apparently, all my shirts are really stretchy or too big for me or something.  I'll take it.

From what I can remember, I am up about 8 pounds from my first doctor appointment...and 3.3 pounds of that is Declan!  According to the weekly update I get in my email inbox for the 29 week mark, he should be at about 2.5 pounds!  He is my big boy already!  He is also just over 15 inches long and his muscles and lungs are continuing to develop.  Oh, and his head is growing bigger to accommodate his growing brain.  All this growth contributes to an increased nutritional need (which I feel)--he adds 250 milligrams of calcium to his skeleton per day!  I guess I need to make sure and get all my milk and cheese in every day!  {ice cream counts too, right???}

The closer I get, the more I just want to meet this little guy that I love so much!  And, as much as I "complain" about the difficulties of being pregnant, I don't actually mind it that much.  People tell me often that I'm "glowing" or that I "look beautiful" and I feel it.  Maybe I'm more confident in myself or more comfortable in my body...I feel like this is freeing!  Utterly freeing!  I don't have to worry too much about what I look like (unless I'm having a bad hair day--then it IS a bad day for me), I am wearing less make up even though my skin's far from perfect--I just don't mind as much.  I feel beautiful from the inside out and know that I am exactly where God wants me to be, doing exactly what He wants me to do.

Lately, I've been tired.  Less sleep does that to me.  Then I'm unmotivated to do things.  I want to finish Declan's nursery--specifically I have curtains to hem and hang--and start working on Christmas presents but I am missing the energy and motivation to do them.

Next week we start our Lamaze classes and I am a bit nervous about them...we shall see if my husband is the one cracking not-funny jokes throughout the class because he is nervous...I suspect he WILL be...but we'll see if he surprises me.

Wow, this post is getting long.  Just so much to write about this week!  Below is my oh-my-goodness-I'm-29-weeks-pregnant-already update photo.  Enjoy!

Cheers!

~N~

Project Nursery :: Dresser/Changing Table

Welcome to the first in my "series" Project Nursery, where I will show my home-made projects to decorate Declan's nursery.

The first in this "series" is the dresser.  I have a musical/literary theme for Declan's nursery, in order to have something that can grow with him and that are incredibly important to as well as reflective of Ryan and myself.  So, here we go!

 The dresser "before"

It's pretty scratched up, but that doesn't matter to me--I'm just going to cover most of it anyway...it was bought at Salvation Army for $40, which was only $10 more than the price I had set in my head that I wanted to pay.  It was even half-off!  I was very particular in what I wanted, it needed to be the correct height and long enough to accommodate a growing Declan.

The plan was to use Mod Podge and cover the dresser with sheet music.  However, the week before I started this project, our church got chairs instead of pews and didn't have room for all the old Hymnals anymore, so I got one of those!  It worked out perfectly and was really fun to go through.

Hymns of Glorious Praise

It's pretty amazing what you can do with Mod Podge!  First, I cleaned off the dresser with soap and water on a rag.  Then I took out the drawers and removed the hardware.  When the dresser was dry, I planned out {roughly} how I wanted the pages to lay and began Mod Podging the them to the dresser drawers.

I put a layer of Mod Podge on the drawer, then I placed the music sheet on top of it, then I put more Mod Podge over the top.

Here is the dresser after I Mod Podged the drawers and did a rough cut around them.  They needed to dry like this overnight.  

After they were completely dried, I took out my handy-dandy x-acto knife and used that to {carefully} cut around the edges of the drawers to remove the rest of the extra paper.  When that was finished, I started on the top and sides of the dresser.

 Above are two views of the top.  I saved the hymns I know and like for the top and put them in the middle, so I would be able to see them and be reminded to sing them when with Declan...or when frustrated.  :)  I also waited for this to dry then used my x-acto knife to clean up the edges.

My original plan was to leave it Mod Podged and to MP the whole thing with the hymns.  But that wasn't practical in reality and I liked the way it looked, even though a lot of the pages buckled or bubbled up.  I think if I had used a spray-paint-can version of Mod Podge, then that wouldn't have happened.  As I am pregnant and wanted to do this project myself, I decided that painting the glue on would have to be good enough for me.

After I had the drawers how I wanted them, I dragged them out onto the porch and used some sort of clear-enamel-polycoat thing to cover them.  When they dried, I brought them back inside and Ryan/my mom carried them upstairs to Declan's room.

I had to remember to poke a hole through the pages so I would be able to put the drawer pulls back on! I used a screwdriver to poke the holes through the pages, as that's what was handy.

What I don't have pictures of is my mom putting a couple of coats of the poly-coat-stuff on the whole dresser to minimize any points that could be peeled away.  She was careful to stay away from the tracks and edges of the drawers so that they would still slide in and out nicely.

And here is the finished piece in Declan's nursery!  You can see that the changing pad fits perfectly on top (which I was looking to do) and that I have had shelves installed above to hold important "stuff" for changing diapers and for storing decorations.  I am so pleased with how this piece turned out, even though it's not perfect.

Lesson learned:  use multiple thin coats of the poly-coat-stuff...otherwise it bubbles and gives a less-than-perfect finish to the pages you've painstakingly placed.  While I don't mind it, I think it gives the dresser character, I would change that if I were to repeat this project.

I hope you enjoyed my "tutorial" for Project Nursery.  Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers!

~N~

28 Weeks = 7 Months ALREADY!

Whew!  The days are just flying by!

It's update time!  I'll start with little Declan...he is up to about 2 1/4 pounds and just under 15 inches long!  He can blink his eyes, which now have eyelashes!  (Sidenote:  I hope he has Ryan's nice eyelashes...)  His brain is developing rapidly and he is continuing to add baby fat in preparation for living outside of myself!

This time is just going by so fast, I am trying to remember all the good things about being pregnant!  I am honestly {mostly} enjoying this time in my life.

Some changes in the past week for me...I'm beginning to have some lower back soreness, I still have to be careful about leg cramps at night.  I got two nights of W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L sleep last week followed by some not-so-great sleep.

I've been having some HORRIBLE dreams...ones that are too bad to even repeat.  I'm sad that they aren't funny or enjoyable anymore, just AWFUL, things that I'm doing in them that I would n.e.v.e.r. do in real life.  Then, when I wake up from them I feel like I've escaped from them, almost like I was stuck in them!  A couple of times I've woken Ryan up to ask if something was real or not...icky nightmares!  It makes sleeping really not so much fun on top of waking every three hours or so to use the bathroom.

I got really upset this past weekend and had to work on my breathing to calm down after some rather scary effects (I think I hyperventilated, though since I've never done it before, I'm not sure).  This "episode" just convinced me that I need to be extremely careful about my emotions and allowing myself to get THAT upset over something that can be changed or fixed or mitigated.

I've still not been sleeping well, my hips hurt a lot when I lay on one side for a few hours to sleep, so I find I have to switch sides often and sometimes stretch out the hips in the middle of the night in order to get back to sleep.  But, I'm doing ok otherwise.

~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~

I get to feel Declan kick all the time!  And he's getting stronger!  Sometimes he flips over and it feels sooooooo strange!  Even though his antics sometimes prevent me from falling asleep/back asleep I would rather that than he stop suddenly.  He still likes to lodge himself up underneath the right side of my ribcage, which is rather uncomfortable.  I just rub the part that is lodged, tell him I love him but that he's hurting mommy and after a while he moves back down to a more comfortable position (for me).  I'm starting to long to hold him in my arms, but I'm not asking him to hurry up.  He will come when the time is right.  :)

I must note that I am glad I've kept up with this blog--I just got a gift from my sister-in-law of a baby book where I can write down a lot of the information that I've been keeping in this blog!  Now, I won't ever forget.  I'm excited to start compiling the information in it.  They also sent us the sweetest onesie--it's a long-sleeved faux tuxedo!  I'm excited to stuff the little man into that one and snap a picture to send to his wonderful and thoughtful aunt and uncle!

I can't think of much else to write about, so I will give you my pregnancy update picture.  Enjoy!

And, no, that's NOT my belly button poking out at the apex of my belly--that is still intact as a belly button!

I hope you have a great week; thanks for stopping by to check in on us!

~N~

27 Weeks...

I reached the 27 week mark this past Saturday...that means I'm almost 7 months along! I keep thinking that I've done my math wrong (which is possible, I proved it this weekend) but I counted again and it's true!

Last week was a good week:  my parents visited and helped Ryan complete some lingering projects around the house, then we had an old friend that we hadn't seen in about 8 years stay with us for the weekend.  It was nice to catch up and learn some new board games (and that I can't add up dice anymore) and have a weekend of relaxing and having fun.

I woke up one morning last week with a wicked leg cramp, thankfully, my husband is wonderful and massaged it right away to make it feel better.  I have been noticing more of what I can only classify as "pregnancy aches."  New.  A nice hot shower or a different sitting position seems to help.  Taking a long walk on Friday in the sun was helpful as well.  So there are things I can do to help myself.  Still have the hip pain at times.

Ok, done contemplating my pains.  I promise.  :)

Declan weighs almost 2 pounds (about as much as a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long and sleeping and waking at regular intervals.  His brain is very active now and he may regularly get the hiccups!

Below is my pregnancy photo update.

My reaction to seeing this picture:  I slapped Ryan on the arm twice and said, "Holy crap, I LOOK pregnant!"  He laughed at me.

I feel Declan move regularly now, and sometimes quite forcefully and uncomfortably.  He is getting stronger.  :)  I still find it precious because God is knitting together life inside of me!  It seems that he likes to sit right underneath my ribs on the right side of my body.  At least, I think that's his head I'm feeling and pushing down when it gets uncomfortable!

Those are all the updates I can remember for this week!

TTFN!

~N~

26 Weeks :: It's Getting Harder

LAST Saturday I reached the 26 week mark (or six-and-a-half months!).  This past week I definitely noticed some changes:

Intense hip pain when I sleep that wakes me up, even though I'm sleeping with a pillow between my knees.  I haven't figured out if it's my bed or the pillow or my hips shifting (that's what my doctor blames) and so I've been trying different things to get more than two hours of sleep at a time...or at least longer, deeper sleep.  Not very successful, at least not yet.  I will persevere because my sleep is important.  My doctor suggested taking a warm bath before bed as it will relax me and make it easier for me to fall into a deeper sleep sooner...which is kind of true, but not completely working so far.  I guess I'll have to play around with that too.

I feel like I've pulled a couple of muscles in my lower-side-stomach areas...they hurt when I laugh!  So strange and irritating because I LOVE to laugh!  It is probably just me stretching to accommodate Declan.

I was speaking with a friend at work this week and tried to demonstrate a "deep breath" and realized that my deep breath now is NOT the same as it was...apparently it's getting smooshy inside!  Poor Declan! Then I laughed hysterically, because I hadn't noticed the change before.  She probably thought I was crazy!

My lower back is a bit more sore than it was previously and I notice swelling/uncomfortable-ness in my legs/ankles/feet if I don't sit with them up for a bit each day.

All these things will get worse, I'm sure, but I'll endure and be fine at the end...just noticing that things are getting a bit more difficult.  Not complaining.  :)

I had the gluco-screen and all good!  No gestational diabetes or anemia.  I'm a pretty happy camper!

DECLAN UPDATE!  Declan is now one-and-three-quarters pounds and about 14 inches long!  The nerves in his ears are better developed and he may be able to hear the voices of people I talk to throughout the day!  He is practicing inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which helps to develop his lungs.  Finally, he's continuing to put on his "baby fat".  :)

No pregnancy photo this week...sorry!  We've been really busy lately and by the time I remembered I was already in my PJ's and didn't want my picture taken.


I guess that's about all from me today!

Cheers!

~N~

Mini-Miller Gender Reveal Party

Since I promised that I would do a post on the Mini-Miller Gender Reveal Party, here it is!

The "theme" I came up with on the fly was "Miniature"...since we referred to Declan as the "Mini-Miller" before we knew he was a HE.  I decided that I wanted to do a single balloon reveal and have people "wear their guesses."

Firstly, since we would be having people to our house that had never been there before, I wanted to distinguish our house from the others on the block.  Ryan bought some pink balloons and some blue balloons and I attached them to the stair railing in front of our house as well as to some wire plant-props that were stationed at the end of the driveway.  No pictures of that, sorry!

Secondly, I wanted people to "wear" their guesses and own them!  So, I cut out miniature pink hearts and miniature black mustaches and sewed them onto small safety pins.  When the guests entered the house, they were greeted by this sign I made:

"We mustache you to make a gender guess...please pin your guess to your shirt.

This way, we'll be able to see who is a good guesser!"

That actually took a LOT of work but was completely worth it.  So cute and it expresses a little bit of my "lame" sense of "punny" humor.

Next, I made my "gender reveal box."  I picked out a free font I liked and printed out on appropriately-colored circles "girl or boy?" and taped them to the outside of the box.  I then tied a pink ribbon, a blue ribbon, and a cream-colored ribbon around the box with the "It's A BOY" balloon inside (ribbons not pictured).  Ryan put one of the profile pictures of Declan into a frame and added some blue and pink M&M's in front to complete the display.

 I tried to make or use or creatively name a bunch of "miniature" or "small" or "bite-sized" foods to keep with the theme.  I served:  baby-goldfish crackers, "bite-sized" puppy chow, mini-smores mix, Auntie Em's Cookies, and Fizzy Raspberry Lemonade.  I made little stand up tags for each dish to inform my guests what the food was.  Below is the best picture of the "food" table as Ryan forgot to take a picture of the table.

Promptly at 7:00 pm we moved the box to the dining room table and prepared to reveal to our guests the gender of the Mini-Miller!

BOY!

In the picture above you can see the banner I made that spells out "?Mini Miller?" in alternating pink and blue circles.  All I did was print them off, cut them out then tape them to some spare yarn I had.  I then tied it to the curtain rods.  The above picture also shows some more of the food. 

We had a lot of fun.  After all the guests left, we started the "after-party" with the pets:

Mr. Moo sure loved those balloons!

Moo would get the end of the string attached to the balloons and then parade around the dining room with them.

Sammy was, of course, afraid of the balloons...wuss!

 Then Mr. Moo started trying to eat the strings and we had to take them away.  I think I know what he's getting for Christmas, though!  It was too funny and a great end to the busy and fun day!

I tried to make this post brief.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Toodles!

~ N ~

25 Weeks and Round One Pregnancy Photos!

This past Saturday I reached the 25 week mark.

Notable benchmarks for this week include:  Declan is around 13 1/2 inches long and weighs about one-and-a-half pounds!  He's getting some "baby fat" on him, looking more like a newborn and if we could look at him we would be able to see his hair color and texture!


This past week Declan has still been kicking like crazy...I even noticed, at one point, that when he kicked my belly moved!  I couldn't tell if it was a hand, foot, elbow, or knee but I SAW my stomach move.  There is definitely a miniature person in there!!!  Incredible.  I also felt a lot of stretching and some uncomfortableness as well...like I am running out of space and need to grow to accommodate Declan.

Crazy dreams this week included my vegetarian sister doing surgery on a small crocodile with an x-acto knife; and visiting a former co-worker's home unannounced and finding his house with two kids under 5 and all immaculately white and clean...someone tell me the meaning behind THAT dream! Ha!

This week's pregnancy update photo will be a little different.  Since Saturday was such a nice day I talked my hubby into trotting around Green Bay with a camera to take pictures of me.  I liked the way they turned out (Ryan's so creative!) so, instead of the normal picture of me in my newly-christened guest bedroom, you get pics of me outside, from different angles! Yay!

Nursery Progress:  I got half of the "Declan" wall hanging up, when I had to quite because I was too frustrated!  Too easily frustrated would probably be better phrasing.  :)  I will be putting the knobs on the dresser and the drawers back on and placing it where I want it to be.

I {finally} put stuff on my registry.  What a task!  There are thousands of the same product, only slightly different and so I was completely overwhelmed at first.  Then, I asked some trusted friends for advice and they gave me a great starting point and I was able to not feel so overwhelmed for a first-timer.

I love this one!

 Don't I look like I'm on vacation???

This is another of my favorite pics!

Phew!  I think those are the updates for this week...enjoy the pics!

Cheers!

~N~