Update IV...

I was released from Centennial on Friday night and came home Saturday afternoon after spending the night at my dad's in Clarksville. I'm on bedrest at least until I see my doctor on Wednesday. I don't know if she'll want me to stay on bedrest after that or not. I'll be 34 weeks then. So, baby & I are doing well. I'm still on an oral medicine to keep me from having too many contractions (Nifedipine - brand name Procardia). I still have 3 to 4 each hour, but as long as I behave myself & don't try to do too much, I don't start having too many more. Poor Anthony has had to take over all the household chores & drop off & pick up Wesley each day. Ironically, it's good preparation for when she gets here & I'm out of commission for a while :)

Funny Wesley story to come later tonight...

Update III...

They took me completely off the mag today. I feel so much better - no double vision or trouble breathing. I had some mild contractions, but they weren't too concerned with them. I'll have another ultrasound in the morning to see if there has been any change in my cervix. If there hasn't been, they're going to discharge me to go home to be on bedrest for at least another week. The doctor here seems to think that if my doctor at home sees me in another week & there still hasn't been any changes that she might let me resume normal activities. After 34 weeks they probably wouldn't try to stop labor, they would let her be born. I'm 33 weeks one day today, so that's only six more days. I'd rather her stay in there until 37 weeks so she's not born premature.

Another update...

Baby & I are still doing fine. They have me on a magnesium sulfate drip as well as oral procardia medicine to keep me from contracting too much. I still have some contractions, but not enough to be worrisome as far as throwing me into full-blown labor. They have started decreasing the magnesium sulfate (thankfully) & I'm beginning to feel more like myself. If you don't know anything about 'mag' (as it's called), it relaxes your muscles (the uterus is one big muscle), so you can't breathe as deep, can't focus your eyes (I was seeing three of everything on Sat. morning when they had me on 3 grams/hour - I'm now down to 2 grams/hour & can focus as long as I don't move my head around), can't walk (my legs felt like jello when they let me get up to go to the bathroom the first time yesterday); it's even hard to chew.

They gave me steriod shots Friday & Saturday night to help the baby's lungs develop in case they can't stop my contractions & she comes early. They did an ultrasound on Sunday (TMI warning: if you can't deal with childbirth talk you might want to skip to the next paragraph) to check my cervix & it had closed back up (was 2 cm dialated Friday night & Sat. morning) & was a good length. The doctor thinks that is an excellent indication that as long as we keep the contractions under control I will make it to 34 weeks or later & will likely be able to get moved back to Martin after next week.

They also looked at the baby on the ultrasound - all her organs, measurements, fluid levels, etc. & everything looked good. The tech estimated her weight at 5 lbs. 9 ozs. (I've read that ultrasounds can be off by as much as 1 lb., but if the tech was right, she would be in the 76th percentile for her gestational age.) Translation: I grow big babies :) Wesley was 8 lbs. 9 ozs. at full-term. If I were to carry her to term (40 weeks) and she gained the 1/2 lb. per week that they estimate, she could be around 9 lbs. The tech went on about her chubby cheeks & even printed out a couple pictures of her face for us.

Looks like it's going to be an exciting night here in Tennessee with some severe weather rolling through. Hope you and yours are safe and sound.

UPDATE

This is Anthony, posting for Mindy. She wanted to let anyone that didn't know already what is going on with us. She went to the hospital Friday night to be monitored for contractions. They tried everything they could to get them to stop and decided Saturday morning to transport her to Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, TN. Centennial has tertiary care neonatal ICU that is equipped to handle a 32 week baby where as Martin cannot. They have her contractions stabilized and are hoping to hold off the delivery for at least two more weeks, at which point she might be able to go back to Martin to have the baby. Other than the pre-term labor, Baby and Mindy are doing fine. The doctors do not know what caused the pre-term labor. We'll try to post an update every couple of days.

Pregnancy Complaint 112

I should start a series of these since it seems there are so many. One thing you get a lot more of when you are pregnant is attention. For the most part it's not a bad thing. A lot of people you barely now all of a sudden ask you all kinds of things about the baby & how much longer you have, etc. Of course, strangers do double takes when they see your belly. And, It is really funny to watch people I don't see very often at work checking out my belly discreetly, trying to figure out if I'm pregnant or not (this doesn't happen much anymore because it's obvious now) before they ask.

But the subject of this particular rant (which I feel entitled to since I've made it seven whole months without ingesting someone's head in a hormonal rage) is the never-ending "How are you doing/feeling?" questions. I know most people are just being nice/making conversation. Some are genuinely interested in how I am & how the pregnancy is going & others really do want to hear that I'm uncomfortable as all get out most of the time (those people enjoy others' pain/difficulties). But, when you get asked at least twenty times a day (I promise I'm not exaggerating) "How are you feeling?" "How much longer do you have?" "Are you to the uncomfortable stage yet?" "How's the pregnancy going?" it gets old pretty fast. The biggest reason this starts to grate on my nerves is because I know most of them don't really want to hear my litany of complaints - they just want to hear that I'm doing fine.

Still, I'm sometimes tempted to give them an honest rundown of all the miraculous changes my body is going through making this baby. "Well, actually I can't sleep very well because it feels like I have someone sitting on my lungs, another person using my bladder as a stress ball and a very heavy bowling ball strapped to my abdomen which crushes me if lay on my back or causes me roll over on it if I try to lay on my side. When I do finally get some sleep I wake up to leg & foot cramps every time I try to stretch. Oh, and the very fun kicks/punches in the ribs & feeling like an alien is doing gymnastics in your stomach while you're trying to eat are loads of fun, too. Or, one of my favorites, the sensation that you've just consumed the biggest Thanksgiving meal ever & the skin on your belly is at its absolute breaking point & if you take one more teeny bite you will simply explode - except you have this sensation for hours on end - not just when you eat." I could keep going, but I'll stop there before I get into some of the more gruesome & unpleasant gems of pregnancy.

So, the next time you see a pregnant acquaintance, instead of asking her a pregnancy/baby related question, assume she's already been asked 10 times that day & just tell her she's the most beautiful pregnant woman you've ever seen. :) If you're related to said pregnant lady or she is a close friend, feel free to ask genuine questions of her condition... but only if you want the ugly truth. Rant over with... :)

In other news, Anthony survived our second and final childbirth class this last week & actually said he learned some useful information. As of today, I have only two months left until my due date - hard to believe she's going to be here soon.

Lil' sack of navel oranges...

From my 31 week newsletter: "This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. She weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and her arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out..."

From 30 weeks (because I forgot to take a picture & post last week - sorry bout' that): "Your baby's having a ball in there! Now that her senses are fully developed, she can taste, touch, hear, see, and smell everything that's going on around her. She continues to practice breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which may mean she gets the hiccups more frequently now -- sending your uterus into funny, twitchy spasms!"

She certainly does get the hiccups a lot - at least two or three times a day. I can also start making out body parts that are poking me & play with her feet sometimes when she pushes them outward.

31 week belly pic

Totally hosed...

Anthony has sort of left the baby item shopping/baby room preparation up to me & hasn't wanted to be real involved - which I totally understand. It's a woman's thing to get all excited about teeny lil' socks and sleepers. I do occasionally subject him to the "Isn't this soooo cute!?" comments (while holding up a little flowered dress). He obliges and says, "Sure," but to him I could just as well be holding up a plain paper towel. Again, I understand that all things baby just doesn't float his boat like it does mine. Anyways, there is a point to all this chatter. One of the blogs I check out daily is a mainly scrapbooking one by Erin Lincoln (who works for Creating Keepsakes - which if you don't know anything scrapbooking won't really matter to you). But, she is also expecting, and get this, she is also due on March 26th. So, occasionally she posts about baby-related topics. Well, she posted the video below of her & her husband shopping for baby stuff - had me totally cracking up (mostly because I can see Anthony feeling the same way as her husband about all these gadgets that you 'need' for baby). So, I thought I would share... (can't get the video to embed in my post right, so click here to watch it on YouTube).

We had our first of two (3 hour) childbirth classes last night. I went to them when I was expecting Wesley & certainly haven't forgotten what labor is like, but a lot of things have changed at the hospital I'm going to deliver in over the last seven years so I thought I should take it as a refresher & Anthony should have to go with me as a beginner. Good news! He survived the first one (graphic photographs & all) - although he (jokingly - or at least I hope so) tried to get one of his buddies to go in his place as we were driving there. During one of our breaks he said, "I know what I'm doing when I get home. I'm playing a ball game." Me: "On the playstation?" Him: "Yes!" Me: (laughing) "Why?" Him: "Because I need to do something manly." He cracks me up.

She's Here!

Introducing...[drumroll please]

Ella Grace M.

She was born Tuesday, February 26th at 3:10 P.M. She weighed 8 lbs. 0 ozs. & was 20 1/4" long.

Mom is doing fine, Ella had some trouble breathing at first but seems to be doing fine now. Hopefully they will get to come home tomorrow.

Lil' Butternut Squash...

From my newsletter – “This week your baby's eyes will finally open and she'll begin blinking, even though it's pitch black in there. She's also on a regular sleep-wake schedule, although she's only getting about 20-30 minutes of shut-eye at a time. Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel.”

I’m starting to get the oh-so-lovely comments about ‘waddling’ & ‘growing’. It’s like being a kid again when your aunts & uncles who didn’t see you very often would say, “My how you’ve grown!” Except now it’s a little harder to feel proud about that fact. Practically all of my co-workers did a double take when they saw me after our week & a half long Christmas break & several of them felt compelled to tell me that I had gotten bigger (as if I hadn't noticed). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not feeling self-conscious of my size at all. In fact, I feel like I'm not gaining enough weight & have started doing things that my younger brother did in high school when he was trying to put on weight for sports - drinking milk & eating ice cream right before bed, eating lots of carbs & peanut butter. I'm still not gaining the suggested one pound a week. Any other time I could just look at food & gain weight. Anyways, back to what I was saying... it's not that my getting bigger bothers me in any way, I just don't understand why everyone feels the need to point out the obvious, especially when they do it in not-so-nice ways. For instance, you can see in the very bottom picture (29 weeks) that I'm wearing a polo shirt. This is one of the many non-maternity shirts I have from work that have always been too big for me (because they insist on ordering in men's sizes, so I can't get one small enough to fit). Well, this morning one of my co-workers comes in my office, glances at my bulging belly and says (I'm totally not making this up or changing her words in any way {yes, it was a woman - one who has had two children herself}), "So, that works as a fat shirt?" I thought, "Excuse me! I'm not FAT, I'm PREGNANT!" I've read horror stories on the pregnancy message board I frequent of the stuff rude people say to pregnant women, and I thought when people started making those types of comments to me that I would let them know in no uncertain terms how rude they were being, but really, it's better just to act like it's no big deal & move on. So, that's my pregnant woman rant for the day. :)

Christmas Day - 26 weeks, 6 days - might as well call it 27 weeks

Didn't feel like taking one for 28 weeks last week...

Today - 29 weeks - somehow I look bigger in the first one, but I think it was just the clothes

24 & 25 week belly pics

24 weeks

25 weeks (big change)

Seven short years ago...

at this moment I was welcoming one special baby boy into the world & exclaiming, "Oh, my beautiful baby!" I say this every year, but it's hard to believe he's this old already. With every year it becomes harder and harder to remember him as a small, helpless infant, but it never gets easier to accept that he's growing up before my eyes. Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy!

We have a tradition that you get to have a cupcake for breakfast on your birthday, so this was him this morning before digging into his breakfast.

Our lil' Rutabaga...

Don't really know what a rutabaga is, but my newsletter says the baby is about the size of an average one. She's about 13 1/2 inches from head to heel & weighs about a pound & a half. Her hair is recognizable now & is probably the color and texture that it will be at birth (if she has any - Wesley didn't have much & what he did have, he lost within a couple weeks. Poor child was nearly bald for the first year and a half).

I'm not on my home computer so I can't post my 24 week belly pic, but it's on my Flickr account so all you have to do to look at it is click on the small picture at the top, right of this page to look at a larger version. It's fairly obvious that I'm pregnant now, so maybe I won't get any weird looks for parking in the "Expectant Mother" parking spots at the grocery store : )

Man cold...

I usually try to refrain from man-bashing jokes, but this video is just too funny + it's got people with British accents.

Behind on belly pics...

Here's my belly pics for weeks 21-23...

At 24 weeks the baby is about the size of a cob of corn (nearly a foot long)...

Her tastebuds & sense of touch are developing and she is able to swallow now. Her brain is growing rapidly. She is almost constantly moving when I am still & favors my right side. She also likes to kick her mommy in the ribs every now & then (which is not very pleasant).

Two of a kind...

Baby Girl Miller on top -- Wesley on bottom (both with their hand on their forehead)

Looking at these two ultrasound pictures I’m struck with the realization that I now have two babies. Shouldn’t be too much of a shocker, huh? But, it really is. It’s hard for me to grasp that. I’ve been a mom of one for seven years now. Back when Wesley was little and people would ask me if I wanted more kids I would say, “Yeah, but not for a long time.” I expected there to be at least eight years between Wesley and the next one since I was ‘planning’ on going to vet school straight out of undergrad. God had different plans for me (I wouldn’t change a thing now). The older Wesley got the more I wanted another baby. It wasn’t that strong of an urge until Anthony & I got married. Then I dreamed of nothing more than to have a child with him & to feel the weight of my own baby in my arms again. Now, after some very impatient waiting on my part for it to be the right time, it’s coming true. After so much waiting & wanting I keep having these moments where I stop & think, “It’s really happening. We’re really going to have a baby.” Every time Wesley says something about his baby sister, it’s like my mind does a double take. Then I go, “Oh, yeah. We’re having a baby.” Maybe by the time she gets here it will be really real to me. For now I’m enjoying the secret pleasure I get from feeling her kick & flip inside my belly all day + looking at her ultrasound pictures and trying to picture her beautiful face + collecting lots of little pink things.

Lil' Carrot & 20 week belly pic...

Baby is about the size of a carrot (~ 10.5 inches long). Her taste buds are beginning to form.

And, here's a belly picture for 20 weeks...


I found out today that two of the professors in my department actually didn't know I was pregnant. One thought I might be but knew better than to ask a woman if she's pregnant (smart guy), but the other didn't have a clue. One of the other professors was telling me about a conversation she & some others were having at lunch earlier this week talking about the baby pool we have going (see link in post above) & he was like, "What? Mindy's pregnant?" She said they all got a good laugh out of him being totally clueless. I thought it was pretty funny, too. He came by my office today & congratulated me & confessed that he just found out. I was like, "Did you think I was just getting chubby?" He very wisely side-stepped that question. :)

IT'S A GIRL!!!

After what seems like forever waiting to find out, we have finally found out we're having a girl. Here are some ultrasound pictures...

In case you didn't know, babies in utero are verrryyy limber. In the picture below her legs are extended above her head (which doesn't look very comfortable to me). I labeled some of the different parts so you would know what you're looking at.

The one below shows her face really well. She had her hand on her head the whole time the tech was trying to take a profile picture. I have an ultrasound of Wesley doing the exact same thing.

Another profile pic...

And, the one & only time I will post a picture of my daughter's bits on the internet. For those who don't have children, the way they tell the gender is by looking for either boy parts (obviously) or looking for the three lines you can see in the picture below, indicating it's a girl. It's not simply the absence of the boy parts that makes them think it's a girl. And, that's your anatomy lesson for the day. :) (In case you're having a hard time figuring out what you're looking at, her booty is to the right and her legs are pointing to the left, on the top & bottom of the words "Girl").

She was very active the whole time the tech was trying to get the right shots for the measurements she has to have. The doctor said everything looks good.

Grrr.....

My big ultrasound was scheduled for 3:00 this afternoon, but had to be rescheduled due to the ultrasound tech having a family emergency. Sooo, I get to wait some more (not happy about that). It is now scheduled for Monday at 8:30 am.

As for a 20 week update, the baby is about 10" long (head to heel - at twenty weeks they switch from measuring crown to rump to using head to heel) & weighs about 10.5 oz. Newsletter says it's roughly the size of a banana. Its hearing is developed enough now that it can probably hear my heartbeat and the noises my stomach makes. It will be a few weeks before it can make out the sound of mine & others' voices. Right now (and at this time every afternoon) he/she is doing all kinds of acrobatics & karate kicks. I read that it takes a couple hours for nutrients to reach the baby after meals, so the sugar from that slice of hershey's pie I had after lunch is probably kicking in right about now.

Tune in Monday for ultrasound pics & the big announcement, as promised.

Superman & 19 weeks...

Wesley was Superman for Halloween (more specifically Clark Kent). Here's one of the pictures I took of him (minus the glasses that made him look more like a Drew Carey look-alike than a Clark Kent one).
And, my 19 week belly pic...

Grapefruit...

Almost halfway (hard to believe). Newsletter says at 19 weeks the baby is about 6" long & about the size of a grapefruit. Good news: the nausea is almost totally gone. Over the last week I've stopped taking my nausea medicine. I still feel it a little in the mornings, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was - definitely tolerable now (as long as I don't drink juice or milk in the mornings). I feel like jumping up & down and shouting, "Hallelujah!" I was beginning to think I would be plagued with it for the entire pregnancy.

He/she is really starting to do some acrobats in there, especially after lunch & when I'm laying down to go to sleep at night. Love, love, love feeling the little kicks & flips. Anthony has been in Las Vegas since last Wed. for work - can't wait for him to get home on Monday so he can finally feel the baby move.

Only one more week until the big appt. I will try to post scans of the ultrasounds next Thurs. night for all to see.