Confessions

When I had my first child at the age of twenty three, I had no idea about all of the things to worry about when pregnant with a child.  After ten years of reading blogs and hearing stories about babies born with so many health problems and all of the things to be weary of when pregnant, my pregnancy with Heidi was so much more stressful than I ever expected it would be.  After having a miscarriage I had those fears as well as soon as we found out we were pregnant again.  I was so careful about what I ate and drank and I was so worried the whole time I was pregnant with Heidi.  Even after seeing her heartbeat at the first ultrasound, I had fears that something would happen to our baby.  I was so thankful to make it past the twelve week miscarriage milestone.  Then at twenty weeks, I was so happy to see her beautiful little profile, and I continued to hope that nothing would be wrong with her when she arrived.  I continued to worry every day and was so thankful every day that we were finally pregnant and that she was healthy.  Part of me worried every day right up until the day she was born.  Perhaps that worry had something to do with my blood pressure going up at the end of my pregnancy, who knows?!  But, I am so very thankful for our beautiful, healthy daughter.  I have always been thankful for our boys, but after being exposed to the truth that not all children are born healthy, I am so much more thankful today than I was ten years ago when we were new parents for the very first time.

back to school

The boys have started back to school and have now completed their second full day of school.  Isaac is loving middle school.  He went to his first recorder practice this morning before school, and he is so excited about being in the band this year.  He can't play sports at school until the seventh grade, so I'm glad he'll have something to be involved in at school.  He also had his first homework assignment tonight.  It really hit me today how quickly he is growing up.  He is in middle school, with lockers and changing classes and everything.  It seems so much more like high school than I thought it would.  The best part is that he loves it!

Alex still likes second grade.  His teacher is his kindergarten teacher's husband, so he is somewhat familiar with his teacher.  I don't know a whole lot about what he has been doing other than what he has told me.  He says they have been coloring and doing math problems.  So, at this point, that's about all I know.

Heidi is still growing every day and doing well.  She has slept through the night three nights in a row now.  I'm thankful that started when school started, and I hope it continues after I go back to work.  I have three more weeks off including this one, and I'm not really looking forward to going back.  I kind of am just from the perspective of being around adults every day and the pay check of course, but I'm not looking forward to not being with Heidi every day.  I'm also not looking forward to having to pay for her child care.  Child care is expensive.  But, there's nothing we can do about that.  We don't have anyone who will watch her for free! :(  These are the pictures I took for her one month milestone.

two weeks

When Heidi was two weeks old, I decided to take some pictures of her at home.  I think some of them turned out pretty great.  Now that she's a month old, I want to take some more.  Hopefully we'll get that done this weekend.

love

Heidi had several visitors in the days after her birth.  It was so nice to see everyone share in the joy of our new baby girl.  I didn't get pictures of everyone who came to see her, and I'm disappointed about that now as I think about it.

Introducing Miss Heidi Lee Miller

Well, now that she's a month old, I guess I'll finally post about her arrival.  At my 37 week appointment we discovered that my blood pressure was too high.  The same thing happened when I was pregnant with Isaac.  All the tests came back normal, so I wasn't diagnosed with toxemia.  However, due to the level of my blood pressure, I was ordered to restricted activity by my doctor which means I couldn't work.  I went back to the doctor on July 1st to have another checkup, and my blood pressure was still high.  I was 38 weeks and three days.  This was about the same point in my pregnancies that I had both of the boys.  I had honestly wondered if I would make it to 39 weeks since I never had before.  At my appointment, my doctor decided to go ahead and reschedule the c-section and not wait until July 10th.  The first date the doctor was able to get was Wednesday, July 3rd at 7:00.  This was the exact same time that Alex's tonsillectomy was scheduled.  So, I asked my doctor if there was any way we could do it a different day.  It turns out that we were able to get in that evening on July 1st at 5:00 pm.  So, after my appointment I came home and finished packing up my stuff and the boys' stuff so we would be ready to go.  I had to be at the hospital at 2:00, so C left work early and came home so we could go to the hospital together.  The boys were at Fun Company that day, and Isaac had an appointment scheduled to see his dentist to have his space maintainer repaired.  It was really bothering him, so I made arrangements for his Grammy to take him to the dentist.  Thankfully he got to his appointment and then to the hospital before his sister was delivered.  It was a very easy process.  We arrived at the hospital a little before 2:00 and she was delivered at 5:13 pm.  The c-section was a much better experience than my previous ones.  With my boys I had epidurals and hotspots with each one, so there was some pain once the procedure was in process.  This time, though, I got a spinal instead, and it worked much better.  There was no pain at all.  The only side effect was dizziness and nausea when they first gave me the shot, but the anesthesiologist was very quick to give me what I needed to fix that.  The procedure was quick considering the scar tissue from my previous c-sections, and our baby girl arrived very healthy and crying nicely.  It was such an amazing experience, even though it was my third time to experience it.  She will be our last child because I also had a tubal ligation after the c-section.  After they finished with the procedures, we were in recovery for a couple of hours and then they moved me to the postpartum room that we had for the rest of our stay. I am recovering nicely and am a little less sore each day. Heidi is a great baby so far.

While I was in the hospital, Alex had his tonsillectomy done at the surgery center  at the hospital where I was staying.  C and my mother took him in for the procedure at 5:30 am on July 3rd.  I had a difficult time sleeping that morning after C left to go with my mother to the surgery center.  Thankfully, he sent me a couple of pictures while he was there, so I had some idea of how Alex was doing.  He did well and after the procedure, we discovered that he had rather large tonsils.  So large that the ENT said they were the size of walnuts.  While I was still in the hospital Alex (and Isaac) stayed with my parents and my mother took care of him.  We came home on the 4th. After we got home, my parents brought the boys home too. 

I have been rather sore for several days, but the pain is getting less and less every day.  Alex had some pretty bad pain at first and he fought us to take his pain medicine.  Thankfully, though, he has been good about drinking plenty of water and other fluids.  He has done much better than his brother did when he had his tonsillectomy.  He is feeling much better today and has been eating well and is down to taking only Tylenol for his pain.

Next week is full of doctors appointments for me and Heidi and getting ready for a jewelry party that C's cousin is having at our house.  I can't even begin to explain how happy I have been this past week.  I am so grateful to have a healthy baby girl and two strong, healthy, hard-headed, handsome and intelligent boys.  I am so thankful for my husband who is always there to do what needs to be done to take care of our family.  Our family is truly complete.