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.

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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~

6 MONTHS!!!

Wow...that's all that I can say.  The farther along I go in pregnancy, the more amazed I am that I am blessed with this wonderful experience!  I am SIX MONTHS along!  Crazy!  I remember thinking, three months ago, how great it would be to get here...and how slowly it seemed to be coming!  But now it feels like it came so fast!


Declan is now about 12 inches long,  the size of an ear of corn! He weighs somewhere over a pound, supposedly gaining 4 ounces last week alone! The most amazing fact to me, this week, is that my uterus is now the size of a soccer ball.  A SOCCER BALL!  Crazy.  It does explain the belly pic below, though!

Declan has been kicking like crazy the past two days and seems to be getting stronger!  It is wonderful but sometimes distracting!

This past Sunday was my last weekend on the worship team for church until sometime after Declan is born, which was sad for me.  However, it was a GREAT Sunday to leave off on, God was there and it was amazing!

What I found interesting and strange was that during practice, we had a couple of times where the bass rumbled through the floor and I could feel my internal organs vibrating...and I could feel Declan vibrating!  Such a weird feeling!  Then, I was sitting on a subwoofer and the drummer started pounding on the kick drum and Declan started squirming!  I know he heard it and now I am interested to know if he will like music with lots of bass when he gets older!

My energy level seemed to go up this past week, or I was more motivated to work through the drowsiness!  I was busy from sun up to sun down Thursday through Saturday and I was up early on Sunday to be at church by 8:00 am for worship practice and I didn't get overly tired until Sunday after church...whew!

My mom came to visit this weekend and helped me with Declan's room.  I will do a separate post soon about the different projects we did and that I am finishing up.  I can't wait to get the wall decorations up and the room put back together...it is currently very undone!

I am not really having any cravings, though I did eat more than my fair share of pumpkin cupcakes this weekend...they were SO good!

Random Thoughts:  In about three months my life will radically change, and I cannot even fathom how much or exactly how.  I look forward to it on some levels but on others I will miss the freedom that we have now to go out on dates randomly throughout the week and have friends over at the spur of the moment or regularly without having to think about how it might effect a wee one.

I know I am on the cusp of a great adventure, but as the unknown is always scary, I have to constantly remind myself that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  I am on God's path, not my own, and his love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me!

Cheers, my lovelies!  Thanks for keeping up with Declan and me.

~ N ~

23 Weeks

And what a week it has been!

We had another ultrasound on Friday that was extremely painful!  The woman who did the ultrasound pushed soooo hard, even using TWO hands on the ultrasound-thing.  It was essentially pushing a wide stick VERY hard around on my very soft abdomen for an hour.  I am still sore.  Terrible business.  I am glad that Ryan was there with me, so that when Declan grows up he can testify to all the pain his mother went through BEFORE he was born...

I am moving on now, to the update!

At 23 weeks, Declan weighs just over a pound and is more than 11 inches long!  His sense of movement is developed enough that if I were to dance, he would be able to feel it!  His ears have developed to the point of being able to hear sounds outside, such as Sammy barking or the vacuum cleaner running.

I feel him moving quite a bit now and would almost swear that as I was falling asleep last night and had my arm draped tucked across and underneath my belly that I felt him kick against my arm.

Last night, Ryan even was able to feel him kick!  That is a first and made me soooo happy!

Below is my pregnancy belly photo for this week.  :)  Eventually when my belly rounds out a bit more, I want to do a photo shoot with Ryan.  And then edit the pics myself.  I look forward to that, more than any photo shoot I've done before.  :)

My energy level is up a bit, at the level I would call "pregnancy normal."  I get tired easily, rest for a while, then I feel better.  I stayed up the other night past midnight and I somewhat regret it the next day, when I was just so sleepy!  I have to learn to be more careful and keep to a schedule even when friends come over.

Cravings:  none, really.  I occasionally want ice cream or cheese or chicken, but nothing that if I don't have it now, today, NOW,  that I will not survive without.

Random thoughts:  I look forward to starting to decorate Declan's room this weekend.  I've bought some supplies and have been taking my time in forming a plan and have a good idea of what I want to do.  It makes it feel so much more real...tangible.  I finally feel like I'm doing something!  That feels really good.