Miller Mixer

Halloween

2008-11-01T16:55:00.007-04:00

A Baker, a Birthday Cake, and Ron Burgundy (70's Anchorman). Guess who's who.

Annie and Lydi"bug" hanging in the Hallowagon.

The 'stache is key.
Annie and Kaylee at the Zoo.

Annie Updates

2008-07-24T20:19:00.014-04:00

Annie says Hi

Peek-a-booya

Hawaiian Annie

Annie's giving kisses to Mom.
She loves to drive. Here she's stuck in traffic.

Baby pool? Nah!

Annie absolutely loves playing in the water.

She can carry a 2 day water supply in her diaper...like a camel.

Annie's Walking

2008-04-23T23:23:00.004-04:00

Annie is walking! This video is from last week. She's come a long way - her first couple steps were two weeks ago.

The Annie Groove, Day at the Park, Easter

2008-04-07T22:53:00.014-04:00

Annie plays the keys and looks for the groove. She finds it about half way through the video with her signature gyrate move.

Annie's FIRST day at the park:

Trouble in da bubble.
First , you have to qualify on the little slide.
Then you graduate to the big slide to show what you're made of.
"I like parks, but I always come back to my lid n' tupperware playhouse."
Nana and Pop (my Mom and Pop) came down on Easter Weekend. Hop on Pop:
Showing off her pretty Easter dress that Aunt Stweets and Uncle Ricky sent:
"You cannot hide it, I know there's chocolate in the purple one!"She kinda looks like a teenager here. That reminds me, I can't wait to intimidate little boys that want to date her.

Pictures Finally

2008-03-06T00:14:00.015-05:00

Here are some pictures. Most recent are first.

Annie's First Christmas

2008-01-02T23:08:00.001-05:00

Annie doubles in length every week or so. She's almost 8 months old, but wears 12mo clothes. And her personality is really coming out. She's crawling around everywhere now, usually ending up under a table or over by the piano gnawing on the sustain pedal. She loves textures & singing (she does both at once by "playing" the couch like a guitar - she'll sing a long note every time she rubs her hand against a fabric), cuddling, reading books, crawling under & over everything, and playing with any & everybody.

We had a fantastic time in Arkansas for Christmas at my family's house. Annie loved having everybody around.

It's Christmas morning! Annie loves the hat that Shawna (my sister) knitted for her. She doesn't even mind her ear being folded backwards in this picture.
Mom, Annie, and the snail.She's so excited, but too young to know anything about presents (so, she's PRE-selfish-christmas-morning-child).Yay, the box! Pop hand built a sweet toy box for Annie.Typical Miller Christmas. Grandma, Pop, Shawna, Ricky, Mom, Me, the Girl.Grandma's a pro at walking instruction, and many other Grandma duties. Annie had a great time with her all week.
She's always happy with Pop.She's a huge fan of Aunt Stweets (Shawna).She loves uncle Ricky and the pureed carrots he's feeding her.
Hanging out with her cousin, Sairah, Annie loved the girl-girl time.
Here she's peeking through the rail with Mom. Mom is probably the favorite by a few % points. Here's the breakdown currently: Mom (52% favorite), Me (48% favorite). I working on evening up the score.

I like her the best.

Da Bunny

2007-10-31T22:53:00.000-04:00

Annie was da' bunny for her first Halloween. We dressed her up with what we had: bunny hat, puffy mittens, pajamas that happen to have bunnies on them, and of course whiskers and red nose dot using washable markers (safe on your face? sure.) We thought about using a sharpie for the whiskers. After all, the permanent marker would last well into the holidays before re-application. She could be a Christmas bunny too.We took her trick-or-treating with some friends. Here, she's getting the Momma love.
The "trick" was on them...that is, the neighborhood. You see, people thought they were giving candy to Annie. After all, she's the one holding the candy bag (see below), even if it was propped on her bunny mitten.
Fact is, the candy's all mine, including the "regular" sized bag of M&Ms. Forget that "fun" size stuff. I go for the big candy.

We took a break at one house for a leaf dive. It wasn't until I took Annie back out of the leaf pile that the owner of the house told us that there were probably spiders in the pile. Apparently, her and her husband had endured spider bites while raking the yard that week. Thanks for that bit of late info. Fortunately, Annie escaped unbitten.
Here she is with some of her trick-or-treat buddies.
And her chicklet friend.

The Monster Game

2007-10-10T19:47:00.000-04:00

So far, Annie's unaware that the monster game is supposed to be scary.

The Fall Lineup

2007-09-16T15:35:00.000-04:00

Cooler weather is good because it means hat time.

Here Annie is chillin in the bippity-bo-diddle-dank, while Kara and I threw the softball around in the back yard. And, we managed to avoid hitting Annie with the ball.

Here she's modeling her little-tater-sack-hat with Momma.

Oh yes, she's getting big. She's even holding the bottle on her own now.

Annie says "hey everybody" in Bubblespeak

2007-09-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

Moondust

2007-09-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

Here's the girl. Sorry, it's a bit off-center.

A good Dad age

2007-09-04T23:48:00.000-04:00

27 is here, 26 is gone as of Sept 3. Fortunately, my Birthday was also Labor Day. So Monday morning I enjoyed breakfast at noon with some friends. Nothing cures aging like a 4-egg omelet, 3 pancakes, and company.

Here's Elias trying to get fresh with Annie. He knows she's cute.

But how exactly is it that Annie turned out so cute?

Ah yes, thanks to Mom.

Little Spesh

2007-08-27T19:08:00.000-04:00

But Daddy, can I please have the new "Squeeze n' toot" doll?
Well...okay.
Happy dial = 5
Happy dial = 8
Happy dial = 10
There will be no survivors.

Turkey

2007-08-17T18:37:00.000-04:00

I spend some time in Istanbul a couple weeks ago. Let me preface by saying, I'm going to spare you 99% of the pictures. And I'm too tired to tell the stories.

Within minutes of arriving in the old city area, I was cornered by a carpet salesman, he took this picture of me with the Aya Sophia in the background. Finally, I was able to convince him that I would need permission from the wife to buy a 4000 dollar rug, thus my escape.Here's the Blue Mosque.
And its courtyard.
Here's the underground cistern.

Here's a view from a palace looking out over the Bosphorous Strait and Golden Horn.

I ended up running into a guy that I met on the plane, and we hung out all day. Here we're enjoying some Turkish coffee.

Night shot of Aya Sophia.

The Grand Bazaar (biggest market in the world).
And of course the lamb attempting to escape the "lamb truck".

I missed the girls.
Here's the little bit.

A Few Pictures at 10 wks

2007-07-21T00:14:00.000-04:00

Happy girl
Workin that tummy time
Cuddlers
Hanging out with Elias Chambers, Bachelor #1

2 months - lows, highs, & some tunes

2007-07-10T22:48:00.001-04:00

Name your breastfeeding issue - yes, Kara has had it: thrush, mastitis, abscess, allergic reaction to antibiotics, etc. Kara has had maybe one week out of 8 where she's been trouble free. So please pray for her. The consolation for all of this has been an easy baby. Anna has been pretty great. The last two nights she broke 8 hrs for sleeping - YES!

I just took this picture tonight of her with Mom.

We've had a blast with her lately. She's really cuddly and likes hanging out and observing. She smiles the most on the changing table and in the bath. And she already likes piano, I hold her with one hand and play piano with the other. It's a new nightly tradition. She'll sit there for 30 minutes and just listen.

Rounding out her musical experience, Kara and I sing ridiculous songs to her all day long. Some of them are very catchy and will be on available on iTunes shortly, like Kara's song from this morning.

"Good morning, good morning, good moooooorning, it's time to wake 'em up and eat." (repeat 4 or 5 times)

and a couple of mine,

"I win, you win, I am big, you are small" (same goes for this one, repeat a lot)

"And a kiss kiss, and a kiss kiss, Annie's pretty toooo,
like her Ma-ma, like her Ma-ma, and I love both of you"
(Why do you have to say kiss twice? I don't know, but I guess it makes more sense than the 'I win, you win' song).

6+ Weeks

2007-06-25T23:17:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed my blog entries are fewer and farther between. In fact, I'm sure some have given up on checking it. This phenomenon is common. It's known as babytakemytimey.

I wanted to share this picture of her from a week ago after she had a bath. I was thrilled to capture this smile.

Big 1 Month

2007-06-10T23:23:00.000-04:00

Already! She's getting bigger with Mom's homemade yum juice.

And she’s starting to consciously smile. Momma gets a couple here.

Here's to piano fingers.

Little Sweetal at 2.5 Weeks

2007-05-28T18:26:00.000-04:00

And the grunt face

Getting the Hang of It

2007-05-27T22:46:00.000-04:00

Will Sleep for Food

2007-05-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

What a deal! If you bring us food and take care of Annie, we'll sleep in return. See how sweet:

She's a really calm baby too, so it shouldn't be too much work.

And she makes great faces.

We're coming up on two weeks and soon the full-time help will be gone. It has been great having family in town. Kara's parents were in town for several days after Annie was born, then my Mom and Sister took over. They all have been so much help: giving advice and comfort, cooking great food, calming Annie at all hours, changing diapers, cleaning up, preparing the garden, mowing, fixing the cars, providing laughter, etc. It's been a blessing.

Grandma Millie (Kara's Mom) is a baby magician. And Stan (her Dad) has the touch (picture's still on grandma's camera).

And Annie love's Grandma Miller's sweet talking and Stweet's extreme rocking (my Mom and Sister).

Over the next few weeks we'll probably be relying heavily on help from friends.

Overall, Anna has been a great baby. It's just a matter of adjusting and learning. Some aspects of breastfeeding have been difficult. Kara got mastitis a few days ago, so she had to take antibiotics, which upset Annie's tummy, in turn making her cranky for a couple days. So it was a bit stressful. But Mom and baby are both doing much better now.

Annie's Here!

2007-05-12T22:53:00.000-04:00

Anna Bloom Miller is finally here! Isn't she adorable! I just can't get enough of her, and she's so cuddly. She was born at 9:10 pm on Thursday, May 10th at 7lbs 12oz and 20 in. long.

It's been a crazy few days. We knew Wednesday morning, May 9th, that Annie was coming soon, because Kara started spotting and had random contractions throughout the night. Wednesday afternoon we went in for the ultrasound to check on the baby, and they told us discouraging news: the amniotic fluid was low and she wasn't very responsive. As a result, our doctor told us to go to the hospital right away so she could be monitored. Fortunately, we were allowed to run home first to get some stuff together and prepare for the most taxing two days of our lives.

We left the house at around 4:00 pm. That was the last time Kara would eat until Friday morning! The trip to the hospital was a mix of nerves and excitement. Our baby was coming soon, but we were anxious about her health. By 4:30, Kara was hooked up to the baby monitor and had an I.V. line, which was rough; she got stuck four times before it was in right. The baby's activity was not reassuring; she didn't have the accels in heart-rate that indicates robust oxygen supply. Sometimes older placentas of late-term babies aren't as efficient; the baby minimizes movement to conserve energy. So there is a higher chance of a still-birth with late babies.

Kara was already having contractions, but by 9:00 pm the doctor wanted to give her pitocin to increase the contraction frequency and strength to see how the baby would respond to the stress of labor. Our birth plan was already out the window.

It was a long night. I underestimated how exhausting it would be. It was hard seeing Kara go through so much pain. And it was my job as a coach to keep her relaxed through each contraction. I found myself battling anxiety because of negative thoughts that crept up. But Kara was doing an amazing job staying relaxed and focused.

By 2:00 am, we convinced the nurse to turn the pitocin off and let Kara's contractions continue on their own. At 4:00 am, the nurse checked Kara's cervix. She was only at 4 cm, a disheartening 1 cm advance from where she started at (as of Tuesday, she was already at 3 cm and 85% effaced). Fortunately, when 7 am rolled around, our favorite nurse was back. We were really blessed to have her; she was such a comfort to us. She was a doula for seven years, and it showed.

The tricky part about being hooked up to all the monitors - lack of mobility. It was an ordeal to get Kara from the bed to the bathroom because you had to unplug three different things and roll the IV thing along with her. We wanted to avoid having a contraction on the way, so we'd have to time it right, "okay, contraction's over, let's move! Unplug this and that, grab the IV pole, now go go go!" While she was in the bathroom, she'd have another one, and then we'd "hurry" back to the bed.

At one point in the night, Kara was showing signs of transition: throwing up, shaking, contractions right on top of one another, but she was only at 5cm. Eventually, she regressed back into a first stage pattern. By noon on Thursday, Kara was really having a rough time. She was starving and exhausted. No matter how much I pleaded with the nurses, they wouldn't let her eat anything to avoid extra risks in the event of a c-section. By now she was at 6cm. That's almost 16 hours of labor for a 3 cm gain. It was so disheartening that we discussed getting an epidural to ease the pain. We decided that if she didn't make significant progress after an hour, we would get the epidural. Sure enough, 1:15 pm rolled around and Kara progressed to 8 cm (2 cm in 1 hour versus 3 cm in 16 hours - that' significant). It was a bit of a doubled edged sword, we were getting much closer but no meds. She's almost done then right? Wrong. And it got much harder.

By about 4:30 pm (the 24 hour mark), Kara was almost fully dilated and effaced, but the baby still had not dropped down and was stuck at station -1. We agreed to let the doctor break her bag of waters to help the baby drop down. There was maconium in the fluid, indicating stress to the baby, not uncommon in late-term babies.

Not too long after, Kara started having back labor. She was struggling through excruciating pain. They restarted the pitocin to try and progress the baby down, but it just made things more painful. Kara was on the verge of a breakdown when we convinced them to turn the pitocin back off. The back labor cued our doctor that the baby had recently spun around and was posterior (baby's back to mom's back), not the best position for delivery.

When the doctor checked Kara's cervix again at 7:00 pm, he found that Annie's head was turned sideways, presenting the side of her head instead of the back. Annie was really fighting the birth canal. She did not want to come out. The one upside at this point was that Annie moved her head a bit against the doctor's finger while he was checking her. Not that she was moving to the right position, but the movement told the doctor that she was still doing okay. He said, "I've been on pins and needles all day and that movement is the first time I've been reassured." I'm glad he didn't tell us that before - I can't even imagine how we would've felt if he said at one point - I'm not sure the baby's going to make it.

It was then our doctor dropped the C bomb - that is, a c-section. But Kara and I wanted to discuss other options. After about 27 hours of labor, Kara was wiped. So we thought we could get an epidural for the pain and try to move the baby using different laboring positions. The problem was, the positions needed to move the baby, they found, had an adverse effect on the baby's heart rate. The doctor was adamant about getting the baby out. The risk at this point was simply too great to attempt a vaginal delivery. There we were, now 28 hours of labor and no vaginal delivery. But by then, we were just glad to get it over with. Although surprisingly, I was a bit more bummed about it than Kara was.

They whisked her away to the OR for prep while I waited outside in my oversized sanitary duds. Before they went in I told the doctor, "take care of her." It seemed like forever before they called me in for the surgery. Kara had received a spinal (one shot epidural to numb the lower half of her body) for the c-section. She was fully awake during the procedure. I stayed on her side of the curtain and held her hand until the baby was out. The surgery only took about 10 minutes. When they took the Annie out, they discovered that the cord was wrapped around her neck. She could have died had she come out vaginally!Somehow Annie knew not to come out that way. It's amazing. We thank God for His protection over her.

I first saw Annie while they brought her over to the table to check her out. I was so thrilled because to me she was perfect. They had to get a bunch of junk out of her throat with suction tubes because she had swallowed some maconium. The whole time I was thinking, "take it easy, that's my girl your messing with." The whole time she had her little hand wrapped around my finger.

Meanwhile, Kara was getting stitched up on the OR table. I looked over a couple times to see her abdomen opened up. Fortunately, I'm not the queasy type. It was a bit sad though, I couldn't be with her because I was with the baby. One of the doctors would give Kara updates. "How much longer?" she asked. "Well right now they are stitching up your uterus while it is lying outside on your stomach." "Okay", she thought, "Maybe that was more than I wanted to know." The hormones of labor caused Kara's arms to shake during the procedure. So, she laid there with her arms flapping, while getting updates on the surgery.

Annie was breathing pretty good on her own after a few minutes, and she turned a bit more pink, a good sign. Then they put her on the scale, she was 7lb 11.9 oz.

Finally, I got to hold her. It was amazing to feel the weight of God's creation in my arms, knowing that she was mine.

Then I gave her to Kara to hold as they wheeled her out of the OR to the recovery room.

Even after 30 hours of labor and a c-section, Kara still looked beautiful.

We arrived at our room and all was well. I saw the doctor, and he said, "It's good to see you smile again." Kara got Annie breastfeeding by about 11 pm. Being settled in the room and having the baby with us was surreal. It felt like some kind of dream world. Wow, this little person is a product of both of us, and now she's ours.

Kara's sister, Kim, and her little girl, Aleah, showed up not long after. Aleah was so excited to meet her little cousin.
We probably didn't get to sleep until about 3:00 am Friday morning. At around 11:00 am, Grandma and Grandpa (Kara's parents) showed up to see their new grandbaby.

Friday night was long. Annie was up most of the night crying. She has her nights and days mixed up. Even in the womb, she moved around the most at night.

Saturday, Kara finally had the IV removed. Freedom, at last! Kara was starting to feel more pain from the wound, but for the most part she was doing fine, especially with the prospect of going home soon. Uncle Tim (Kim's husband) arrived Saturday and enjoyed meeting his new niece.We finally got to leave the hospital Saturday afternoon. We even managed to figure out the car seat. And we emerged outside into a beautiful day.

Kara watched after Annie during the ride.

The ride home was a bit rough for Kara; the bumps in the road caused some pain. I tried to drive as cautiously as possible, and took personal offense to the crazy drivers around me. We were welcomed by the family as we pulled into the driveway. They had written welcome signs with sidewalk chalk. We were finally home.

What a crazy journey. Along the way, I found myself respecting Kara more than anybody else in the world. She will make a terrific Mom. Not to mention, she's the toughest woman ever. I mean, 30 hours of labor without medication. No one can ever say we didn't do everything possible to have a natural, vaginal delivery. In the end, we feel the grace of God: Annie and Mom are both healthy.

The "Two Weeks Over" club

2007-05-08T22:30:00.000-04:00

The nice part about making it to two-weeks overdue is that we are automatically inducted into the "Two Weeks Over" club.

One of the membership benefits includes being able to tell people that you went two weeks over and seeing their mouth drop open while saying, "no way!"

Doctors start getting uncomfortable after 2 weeks because there's an increased chance of complications due to the placenta exceeding the "freshness date". It's kind of like old beer.

On the other hand, due dates can be off by more than a week, so maybe Kara's only 1 week late. Not to mention, some people go up to 4 weeks overdue without any issues.

We had an appointment today and decided to check the progress. She's 3 cm dilated, and 85% effaced (next stop - labor). So, things are progressing and Kara and Annie are healthy. But just to provide additional assurance, we're having an ultrasound tomorrow to check on the baby. Basically, if Kara goes too late (probably another week or so) then the doctor will start thinking about inducing her.

Believe me, we're doing everything possible to get labor going naturally. It was kind of funny, tonight my Mom called with what she thought was new news, "sex helps induce labor!" Yeah, we already knew about this one. However, if it were entirely true, Kara would have had contractions every other night for the last month! True or not, I'm not complaining.

A short, weird story having nothing to do with babies

2007-05-03T21:33:00.000-04:00

I went mountain biking the other day with some friends, and I guess I rode too hard. I puked my banana on the trail.

Claustrophile

2007-05-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

Claustrophile: a person who loves small, enclosed places.

I learned this word tonight while reading about Isaac Asimov, the famous science fiction writer. He, apparently, was a claustrophile. I can only guess that Annie is too.

1 week overdue and counting. We'll keep you posted.

Eureka! We shall name her...

2007-04-27T19:52:00.000-04:00

Yay, we have a name! How appropriate for our little Spring baby. I put together these graphics to show how I feel when I say it.

Annie-Come-Lately

2007-04-25T19:27:00.000-04:00

Today's the due date. Where's Annie? Sitting comfortably in the womb. But we're not in a hurry anymore. Because as they say, "a watched birth-canal never delivers."

As you may have read previously, Kara's blood pressure was high for a while and there was talk of inducing her. It culminated Sunday afternoon when her blood pressure reached 157/95. This is quite high and it made us nervous. So, after church (our service is at night), some of our friends prayed for Kara. Praise God, her blood pressure has been down ever since!!! We borrowed a portable blood pressure machine to keep tabs on it. And it has been around 125/80 consistently since Sunday night. Yesterday, we had a checkup at the ob/gyn and everything looked great. The doctor expressed his relief.

So, now that we're not worried, we can wait. Maybe the whole 15th or 18th thing (see "Babies are Neat") applies to May instead of April.

Feed the Brain, Get a Name

2007-04-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

What's the best part about weekends? A nice breakfast. It may have been Kara and I's last Saturday morning breakfast as a family of two. Surely, Anna will come before next weekend, right? So, we stopped by one of our favorite breakfast joints after sleeping in until 10:30 (another last), called Half Day Cafe. Kara likes to peruse the menu before making final decisions. But to me it's always obvious. Hopefully the picture conveys how much I love pancakes and coffee.

With all that sleep and carbs, we were hoping to have some inspiration for a middle name. So far, it's Anna "blankerton" Miller. Fill in the blankerton. For a while it was Claire, which we still like. But since Anna is fairly common, it would be nice to have a more original middle name. Based on video game and ninja influences, I think we should go with "Katana". It didn't fly with the wife. We need something soon. Suggestions?

GUESS WHAT!

2007-04-19T22:58:00.000-04:00

If you guessed that we haven't had the baby yet, then you're right. Although she may be good at unborn dream communication, our baby was a bit off on her predicted due date, as the 18th has come and gone. Even natural inducing didn't do the trick.

Kara is still doing well. The swelling in her feet has gone down a bit. Our official name for swollen feet is flinstones, as in Flinstone feet. Fortunately, there is one pair of shoes that still fit: her running shoes. Although, she won't be doing any running.

T Minus 1 Day

2007-04-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

If Anna's prediction was right, Kara has a day left before delivery. That would be fine by us. We're ready to go.

Kara was a little bummed today. We had a prenatal visit and her blood pressure was a bit high. The doctor, who is a different one than we normally see, told Kara that if it continues to rise then they may have to induce labor. At this point Kara started to cry. The doctor, a woman by the way, immediately said, "oh no no no, I didn't mean to make you cry, ah poor thing..." And then she attempted to reassure us by saying it was just a possibility. To get an idea of why this possibility is upsetting: we attended Bradley classes for about 12 weeks. It was a general preparation that emphasized natural birth and how to handle it with help from the coach (me). But this scenario was so ingrained in us that we'd almost feel guilty deviating from it. And sometimes things don't happen as planned, and you don't want to feel guilty about it.

At any rate, it's not Kara's fault that her BP is up. She's been doing great eating right and exercising. It just happens with pregnancy sometimes. Fortunately, everything will be fine. I think it's WCS (white coat syndrome).

Babies Are Neat

2007-04-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

Kara's about to pop! I expect a water leak any day now. She had a dream that Annie told her she was going to come on the 15th or 18th of April. Annie's brilliant - communicating telepathically at such a young age. So, today is the 15th and no contractions yet. Maybe it will be Wednesday. If not, then Annie was plain wrong about the date. Kara is officially due on the 25th.