May 11th

Today is May 11th and although it may not have much significance...it means that the baby is due in exactly 1 month! I'm now at almost 36 weeks: Yesterday Luke & I went to the doctor for a checkup and found out that we are having a girl! We are really excited and even bought a couple little dresses on the way home. The other news is that the baby already weighs 6 lbs 6 oz. This is slightly above average for this point in the pregnancy but the Dr. didn't seem concerned. Me on the other hand...well I'm thinking this sounds pretty big. I'm starting to dilate also--1 cm is all, but it's a start!

Baby Shower Weekend

Two weeks ago (wow, already!) my sister-in-law, Amanda & future sister-in-law, Emily, hosted a baby shower for Luke & I at Luke's parent's house. They had intended on having it outside but the weather didn't cooperate and everyone was stuck inside. I hope that Steve & Debbie's house wasn't too destroyed because it was really packed & there were lots of little kids there!!

It was such a nice shower though & we are so much more prepared for Baby Miller now. It's so nice to know that so many people care about our little baby. Emily made sure to make the guys feel included by having a baby bottle beer chugging contest which was pretty entertaining. Luke's cousin Kacey ended up beating all the guys anyhow! I didn't get many pictures--my camera takes terrible pictures indoors, but here are a few:

Opening presents: I wasn't feeling the best and had some pretty swollen feet--Luke was a big help!

Baby Miller's first cowboy boots! Can you believe these were Luke's at one time?

The results of the onesie decorating contest--pretty darn cute:
We also got to meet Baby Emma that weekend! Emma is my sister-in-law Amanda's baby who was born last August. She lives in Florida & with me starting a new job and being pregnant we weren't able to travel to see her. They made the trip to Missouri though, so we finally got to meet the new edition. She is such a happy & cute girl! We had alot of fun with her:

Uncle Luke & Emma: Luke worked on getting some baby experience. He even changed a diaper for Emma. In this picture he's comforting Leah's (a friend) little girl, Kendra. It worked, because she quit crying!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby & finishing up the preparations in the nursery. We are taking a childbirth class this weekend which will hopefully not freak us out & just make us more prepared for what is to come. Some days I wish I would just have the baby & other days I feel like it can just stay in there awhile longer. Everyone keeps telling me that it's much easier to take care of while its still inside... We will just keep waiting and whenever Baby Miller is ready, it will be here!

Springtime in Missouri

Spring has definitely sprung in Missouri. For awhile there we went straight from winter to summer...but now we are back to more springlike temperatures and I am very thankful for that.

I worked my butt off planting bulbs last fall when I was first pregnant and it finally paid off!

The trees & lilacs are also blooming:

And of course, it's just not spring without baby calves:

It's even better when the cows & calves get to be turned out to grass for the year. The alfalfa field:

It sounds like spring has finally made it to Montana after one last (hopefully) snow storm, so I hope everyone is enjoying the weather & spending time outside!

Productive Weekend!

Luke & I were very busy this weekend & we are feeling much more prepared for the next 9 weeks and whatever they bring!

Saturday we went to Columbia to look at baby stuff & registered at Target. We also got a new ceiling fan & some other "home improvement" stuff at Menards, spring maternity clothes for me & some new fishing lures--what a day! We were very shopped out by the time we got home Saturday night.

Sunday I woke up very tired, but Luke was very ambitious and was on a mission to get some stuff done. He got the office cleaned out & another coat of paint on, the crib put together & pork burgers bbq'ed without me asking him to do a thing. I got our stoller put together--we got an awesome BOB stroller on Ebay for half price and tried it out in the yard. We also re-arranged our bedroom and then spent the afternoon burning the road ditches from our house North along the property line.

Spring is definitely here and we are enjoying being able to enjoy the outdoors more--although I already am getting hot, very easily. Oh-and about the baby-we went back to the Dr. on Friday and the baby has flipped into position. Yay--I was so nervous that it would still be breech! We also went to the hospital and pre-registered so when I go into labor we wont have to waste any time filling out paperwork. Things are good!

Easter

We had a really nice Easter weekend in Carrollton, with Luke's family. Saturday we enjoyed the bright sunny day and spent some time fishing. I didn't actually fish but everyone else did. The guys had much more luck than the girls and ended up with a whole stringer of bass. That afternoon we went to some family friends' birthday party & hot dog roast.

On Easter morning we got up early and went to church. Then we went back to the Miller's and had strawberries (a Miller tradition) before leaving for Luke's Grandma's house for lunch. We had a really nice time & got to see some of Luke's family that we hadn't seen in quite a while. Here's our new family photo that Debbie took for us:

Hope everyone else had a nice Easter & some spring weather!

Third Trimester

Made it to the 3rd Trimester & going strong! This picture is at 28 weeks--12 to go:

Baby News

Friday was my 27 week checkup (only 13 weeks to go!). I was really looking forward to this appointment because the doctor offered to do a quick ultrasound to once again check the sex of the baby. It has been 8 weeks since my last ultrasound & the baby is moving so much more these days that I was just sure they would be able to tell. However, the doctor said the "baby is in the worst position possible to determine the sex" and once again we left without any answers. They said that even with all the technology that we have these days there are still some babies that are in positions where you just cannot see well enough to determine the sex, and ours just happens to be one of the few. The good news is the baby weighs 2 lbs 3 oz. which is right on average for 27 weeks. It is still laying in the "head up" position though, so they will do another ultrasound at 34 weeks to make sure it has flipped into a better birthing position.

I also had to take the glucose tolerance test which screens for gestational diabetes. Basically it amounts to drinking some special fluid and then having your blood drawn 1 hour later. The blood is then tested for sugar levels. Within 10 minutes of drinking the fluids I felt really sick and barely even made the drive to the Dr.'s office. They did not warn me that this was a possibility so I was just sure that it meant I have gestational diabetes. However, they said it is fairly common to get sick from the test and they wont know anything for a couple days.

In other baby news, our most recent calving adventure has been quite the struggle. The heifer calved during the day while Luke & I were both at work. When Luke got home she was just up with the rest of the cows like nothing had happened but he could tell she had had a calf. So he spent about an hour looking for the calf in the dark and finally found it trying to nurse off the other cows. The heifer does not care one bit for the calf and knocks it down every time it comes near her. Its a good thing she had such a strong little calf because he just never gave up trying to nurse. We've been putting her in the chute several times a day and then she stands and lets the calf nurse. He just goes running right up to her and nurses her dry every time. This is fine except Luke & I have other obligations rather than being home to put the cow in the chute so the calf can nurse all the time. I'm not sure what we're going to end up doing with this pair. The calf is a really nice AI bull calf out of Big Eye so we want to keep him healthy & fed!

In other news...we are dealing with the most mud that I have ever seen! In Montana we may complain about having rocky soil but at least we don't have to deal with mud like this. The "gravel road" a.k.a. mud path to our house is basically only driveable in 4 wheel drive. I haven't even been driving my Explorer because I think the running boards would drag on all the ruts. It's really bad and with all the rain I don't see it improving anytime in the near future. The corral is really deep in mud as you can see--here is Luke feeding the bulls a bale of hay yesterday morning: