Before Tomorrow...

Before tomorrow's appointment, I should update you QUICKLY on last week's appointment. Last Tuesday, I had a baby appointment. I had prayed for a week straight with lots and lots of tears for sweet Little Miss to "flip". I needed her to not be breech. I needed her to do what she should - turn over and get into position.

Sadly, it consumed my every spare thought. I couldn't move past it. Looking back now, I attribute that to the fact that Noah's labor and delivery was a cake-walk. I didn't expect anything short of the exact same thing for her.

As soon as Furman (OB) walked in, I could feel my whole body get hot, preparing for the worst... BUT, as it turns out, Little Miss did EXACTLY what she was supposed to do. She turned. She flipped. She is a good little girl.

With a heavy sigh of relief, I changed my prayer for this week. I thanked the Good Lord regularly. I also prayed she stayed head down.

I have an appointment in the morning tomorrow. I will see if she is still doing just what she should.


Regardless of Little Miss' position, I am between 3 and 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced... practically active labor! I also hadn't gained any more weight. WHOOP.  I remember that towards the end with Noah; In fact, with him, I lost three pounds there at the end. Here is to hoping... but, my prayer is she is still head down, and making her way towards her grand entrance into this world. I am ready to meet my precious Little Miss.

Before Tomorrow..

Sweet Sentiments

Here are two things Noah has said tonight, that I never want to forget:

At dinner I asked Noah who Daddy was married to. He said "Spider Man". I corrected him by saying that Daddy is married to Mommy. But he insisted that "No. Daddy is married to Spider Man." This went back and forth for a while. Each time his rebuttal was the same... "No. Daddy is married to Spider-Man!" 

Secondly, he was just trying to cuddle with me on the couch. After squirming around for a minute, he finally gets up and says, "Sorry Mommy. Your belly is too big." It is alright Doodlebug. It won't be much longer. You can have your mommy back. 

Wiggle and GIggle

This was a video I unloaded from the camera tonight. It is from this summer, and Noah's cousin Aubrey's house. This is a video I want to watch for years to come. I love the way this kid wiggles!!

36 weeks and Counting.

I went to the doctor today. It was a pleasant appointment. It was the beginning of the weekly check-ups. They start to measure my dilating and effacing. This was a HUGE success. I am 3 cm dilated. I am 50% effaced. Practically walking around in labor. THIS makes me happy. I got some un-fun news as well. As of right now, Baby Girl is breech. We talked about what this means and the potential complications.

I am praying for her to flip on her own. I am praying for a healthy baby no matter how she makes her entrance into the world.

Other than that, Noah melts my heart more and more daily. He is going to be such a good big brother. I just know it.

Sorry it is so short tonight... I am to that point where all I want to do is sleep! :)

Another Post Sponsored by AA

Hi. my name is Erin. It's been two weeks since my last post. {The crowd greets me with, "Hi Erin".} I know it has been too long. The funny thing is, I have thought to myself at least 2000 times, "hey, I should blog about this!". I never do, clearly.

Since I last posted, I have had another baby appointment. It was my last of the two week appointments. The next one I attend, starts weekly appointments. The scary part of that is, I only attended two one week appointments and our precious Noah made his arrival. Some days, I would be super with that idea; for her to come early, just like her brother. Other days, I think we have lost our minds... what are we going to do with two children??! I am so excited to meet her. I remember, being at this point with Noah... that I just wanted to meet him, hug him once, and stick him back in me to cook a while longer. I am so ready to meet her, to dress her in cute frilly outfits, but I am not sure we are ready to be a family of four.

On other news, my cousins on my dad's side threw a surprise baby shower for me last weekend. It was purely a ribbons, bows, and very cute clothes shower. ZERO necessities, minus the tower of diapers from my parents. {Cullen couldn't have appreciated that more!} She has more shoes than Cullen already. I love that about her.

Here are a few cute Noah stories:

He has been sick the last few days with a little stomach bug. He told me his tummy hurts, and that he doesn't feel very good. That part of it is not that cute... but then he looked at me out of the blue and said, "I not sick anymore!!"

One of my MOST favorite things he does, is quickly make new friends. We went to the park after he announced he is "not sick anymore!!" At the park there was this little girl. He immediately went up to her said, "Hi. You my friend!" and they played for a solid 3o minutes together. It was adorable. I love how big his heart is.

Cullen is also not feeling well. He checked on Cullen a hundred different times today. "You tummy hurt, Daddy?" He is so loving.

I picked him up from school yesterday to go to a PTA carnival at my school. He said immediately, "I want to see elepants!" Sadly, I had to break it to him that there would not be any elephants at the school carnival.

He says things like: "Too bright!" when we turn the lights on in the morning.

He will say good morning and good night to my belly every day. Unprompted. He lifts up my shirt just to say hi to Avery. He asks about her, often. I love that about him. I think he is going be the most wonderful big brother.

He says to us, "Be happy!" If we are sick, or not feeling well, or if I had a bad day at work, he notices. He will say to me, "be happy," or "get happy, Mommy". All of these statements make me very happy.

Life is really good right now. I have a camera full of pictures that need to be uploaded. I will do that next. :)

It's Getting Closer...

As promised, two posts in one week. This last Tuesday started my two-week appointments with the OB. Dr. Furman had a difficult time finding Little Miss' heartbeat because she was squirming so much. We got though. 141 beats p/ hour; just where it should be. She said I'm measuring just where I should and we mapped out the rest of my pregnancy. We discussed my recent sonogram and the fact that my little darlin is still a girl... A big girl at that. She was weighing in at 2 lbs, 15 ounces two weeks ago (slightly bigger than a fetus should be). That means one if a couple things: A) she {more than likely} will come early like her brother. B) could come on her due date and BE A NINE PLUS POUND BABY. Or C) we can talk about inducing on the 19th.

In other Little Miss updates, her room still isn't done. BUT we do now have a plan of action. We are going to tape off her room this week and paint over the next two weekends. Chair rails will go up the weekend of the 13th and we'll put the final decorations up over the next several weekends. Phew. All in time for Halloween and her birth month to arrive.

This weekend, we went to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX. On the way there, we stopped for dinner. At dinner, I got embarrassingly teary. I realized this trip would be our last trip as Cullen, Erin and Noah. It made the trip all the more significant. We did any and everything Noah wanted to do and had a great time doing it. We spent HOURS at the indoor water park. We just had a fantastic time. While I am so excited to create wonderful memories that include Little Miss, it is bittersweet knowing our world of three will soon no longer be.

We are super busy between now and Little Miss' arrival. Cheers to a busy, activity filled 7 weeks (or less).

Pregnancy Facts and Other Tid-Bits

First of all... I am going to put it out there. I will have two {yes, two} blog posts this week. This one counts, and I go to the doctor tomorrow. I will have a baby update then. WOW, two in a week. I am lucky if I can get one done every two weeks as of recent!

So, Here are some pregnancy facts and other Mills' tid-bits in number format.

1. It is official. My wedding ring does not fit any longer. I would like to blame it on highly salted Chinese food yesterday, but sadly, I have been struggling to put it on daily for about a week. When My finger immediately turned purple this morning, and only a combination of soap, water, and lotion took my ring off, I knew it was time. The silver lining? I couldn't wear it after seven months with Noah. At least I made it to eight months with Little Girl. 
2. I have this dear friend, {I will call her Krista (name changed to protect the innocent)}, who is just a few weeks behind me in her pregnancy. Until recently, she and I had gained pound for pound the same amount of weight. I went to the doctor, doubled my weight. She went to the doctor - didn't gain a pound. While I should be so very grateful to have only gained 19 pounds this entire pregnancy so far, hearing her measly little 9 pounds made me a not happy girl. :) I told *Krista that we were no longer friends until she caught up with my weight gain. She and I both have appointments this week. 
3. Speaking of appointments, tomorrow's appointment starts the first of my two-week appointments. I remember thinking when I was pregnant with Noah that two-week appointments would NEVER get here. It meant we were at the beginning of the end. From here, pregnancy goes warp speed. I feel like I just told Cullen I was pregnancy with this one; now we are counting down. I am in single digit weeks until Miss. Priss gets here. Good Lord. AND, 
4. As my not-friend *Krista pointed out in a recent conversation, IF Miss. Priss delivers on her due date, I have 8 working weekends until she gets here. Let's not forget, this coming weekend, we are busy. The following weekend we are busy. One weekend in October is completely booked. They way I see it, we have FIVE working weekends. By working weekends, I mean, WE NEED TO FINISH HER ROOM. Good news is, 
5. Cullen has the crib put together (Thanks, Durbin family, for letting us rent Bobby temporarily). Miss. Priss has a changing table in her room. Her sheets are in the washer. We bought paint for her walls. AND, while the room isn't painted, at least we have committed to colors and purchased them... no turning back now. 
6. NON-PREGNANCY REMARKS: Noah is melting my heart daily. He is growing so fast. His brain is so smart. He continually impresses me with just how smart he is. I know most of you know this, but on the off chance I forget, Here are a few recent Noahisms: 
7. After I asked if he wanted to walk or drive to the mail box, he responded with, "Let me check my schedule." 
8. He cannot say certain words correctly. I love them, and as long as they are not academically cause for concern, I will not correct him. Words like: church - he says chirps; Brodie - he says Broer; He calls Millie Millie-dirl. He calls my friend Taylor, Terr. He calls his CoCo, ToTo. While I know that is just learning how to speak appropriately, I think it is too sweet. He calls pizza- issas. He calls milk, nilp. 
9. If you ask him what he wants for dinner, 7 out of 7 days, he will tell you issas. THAT is my child. Now if I could just convince him that the only edible pizza in the world is Mr. Gattis and we had one closer than Belton, I would be a very happy girl. 
10. Cullen and I celebrated our 5-year marriage mark this past week. He gave me a beautiful necklace and earrings that match. I gave him a bread maker. He had his gift WAITING on me Saturday morning. Never in our almost ten years together has he had a gift PRIOR to our event (birthday, anniversary, etc). NEVER in our almost ten years together have I NOT had a gift waiting for him. Well.... his gift arrived 5 days late. I am the worst. I feel terrible. I just wasn't with it this year. I would like to say there is a reason for it... but there wasn't. I was just behind the ball!! 

That is it for me. Happy Monday. I will post again tomorrow after Miss. Priss' appointment! 

30 weeks, 2 days

30 weeks??! What? 30 WEEKS?? Que the dramatic music please... I cannot believe in 10 {OR LESS} SHORT WEEKS, our little girl will be rocking in my arms, not in my belly. Here is a picture from tonight, and a short catch up on baby girl's stats.

Avery Anne and Momma 30 weeks, 2 days.

How far along? 30 weeks, 2 days!
 
Total weight gain: Holy HUGE; I've gained 19 pounds total. I know it is a part of it, but I am ready to just die.
 
Maternity clothes? Yes please. I really love and appreciate maternity clothes. I am just so comfortable in them, and that is what is MOST important right now. ;)
 
Stretch marks? No new ones! ;) PRAISE JESUS.
 
Sleep: In my THIRD trimester and sleeping through the night...I MAY wake up once to potty. I cannot complain about that. I know it will get MUCH worse before it gets better!!
 
Best moment this week: Hearing our nugget's heartbeat today.
 
Miss anything? No. Well, I miss not craving sweets. This little girl has turned me into a sweets monster. Prior to this pregnancy, I could not eat sweets for AGES and be fine!! Now, it is daily, all day.
 
Movement: All day, every day. She isn't a kicker. She is a roller. I swear, she does gymnastics all day in my tummy. She also uses my bladder as a spring board.
 
Food cravings: NONE. That is the problem. NOTHING sounds good, ever. I am the worst friend (daughter, wife, friend, ... whatever hat I am wearing) to help make decisions about what to eat for lunch or dinner. 
 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing.
 
Gender: Yes!!!!! It is a GIRL. This news was so wonderful to hear. Her name will be Miss. Avery Anne Mills.
 
Labor Signs: None, thank goodness!!
 
Symptoms: None right now. Positively glowing.... and peeing all the time.
 
Belly Button in or out? Flat. Not an innie or an outie. It will stay like this until the end. It will not become an outie!!
 
Wedding rings on or off? On, but barely. The mornings are tough to get it on, the evenings are tough to get them off!
 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Blissfully Happy! But, so tired!
 
Looking forward to: Noah meeting his baby sister. He loves her in the womb. I hope he loves her as much out of the womb. He is so protective and has such a HUGE heart. I absolutely cannot wait to see him as a big brother.

A Thought...

I remember being so good at blogging before kids. Anyone remember that too?? So, here I am. Two or three weeks have passed since I last blogged. I often start blogs and stop halfway through because I figure what I am writing about is not important to anyone outside of our moms and maybe my best friend.

BUT, I had a thought, a major thought yesterday. I was driving home {alone} in my car when Walking In A Winter Wonderland started to play on the radio. While there are SO MANY things wrong with that idea, I will stick to my original post.

That song made me think... When Walking In A Winter Wonderland is playing on the radio LEGITIMATELY, I will be a mother of two. I will have two small children I am responsible for in this world. That scares the lights out of me. I know we planned this 'second baby" thing. I know that I love her more than the world is big already, but, to have TWO kids is a whole 'nother ball game!

Speaking of being a mother of two...

We chose her crib... we returned it. We ordered a new crib and love it. We chose her bedding. We chose her glider. We have her paintings. We know what we want to do with the walls. My goodness, we MAY just have a baby's room after all! I am so excited to see it all come together.

Our little sugar (the living one) has turned into a super hero. For the last couple of days {maybe a week}, he runs around our house with one hand in the air and the other near his hip screaming "Super Noah!"

I love our kids. Both of them. The one I know and have loved for the last two years and the one I only know from the inside. I love my life and everything that life has in store for us in the next few months.

There you go. There is my blog.