24 Hours

Here's a brief little snapshot of life in the Miller house over the last 24 hours...

10 pm Started getting myself and Lauren ready for bed
11 pm Lights out
1 am Lauren awake to eat. She has a cold (at only 3 weeks!) and was having trouble breathing in her bed.
2:30 am Lauren awake and eats again.
3:30 am I enlist Jack's help when Lauren wakes up again. He holds her in our bed for about 30 minutes before he takes matters into his own hands in order to help both us and noisy, snotty girl sleep. He brought the humidifier into our room and propped up Lauren's bed so her head would be higher than her feet.
4:30 am Lauren is awake again to eat.
6 am Lauren is awake again for the morning.
7 am Annie sleeps in and wakes up for the day.
8 am I wake up the sleepy head boys for the day.
9 am Corban is disciplined for wiping snot on his sister. Finger goes to his nose. Finger goes directly to Annie's shirt. Yes, it was intentional. And yes, it was difficult not to laugh even as put on my best stern face.
10 am School was unusually pleasant with Corban.
12:30 pm Lunch. I even managed to make grilled cheese.
2 pm Annie down for a nap.
2:45 pm The boys leave for cross country skiing.
3:15 pm Lauren down for a nap. I head for the couch for my own nap.
3:16 pm Lauren squawks. I panic.
3:18 pm Lauren is quiet....
4:45 pm Annie wakes up. Yay! Operation Get a Nap is succesful.

Ok, the rest of the day wasn't too eventful. Mostly I wanted to share that we had a hard night and that Corban shared his.... well, snot. Hopefully, Lauren is better able to sleep tonight.... for everyone's sake.

Daddy's Girls

I've had very good intentions regarding my blog posts since Lauren's birth. But, I'm tired and I have four kids and I don't get to the computer as often as I'd like. I guess that shouldn't be surprising. Here's a picture of Jack with his two little ladies to help bridge the gap to my next post.

Lauren's First Week

As promised, here are some more pictures of our new little one. We came home from the hospital last Wednesday - it was about the worst weather day you could imagine for bringing a new baby home. Freezing rain. We had a few rough nights at first. Jack and I took shifts holding Lauren and dozing on the couch all night. The last two nights have been much better with Lauren even pulling an 11:30pm - 4:30 am shift one night! My mom and dad arrived Thursday night bringing the adult to child ratio to 1:1. Dad left this morning, but mom is here all week. Yay! Life with 4 kids is, and will continue to be, nuts. But it's wonderful to have a little sweet baby around again. Lauren is doing all the eating, sleeping and pooping that she should be doing. This week has been a bit of a blur, but it's been a good week.

These pictures are from our first morning at home






One week old


First bath

Lauren Terese Miller

Born January 26, 2009
2:46 pm
8 lbs 4 oz 20 inches

Both Mom and Lauren are doing well. We're so grateful for this precious gift from God. More details and pictures to come!







Whoa. That's a lot of kids....

Still waiting...

I am 39 weeks into my pregnancy. I have officially carried this child longer than I carried Annie. And I can't believe I'm still pregnant. Many months ago, I talked big about not being impatient for the birth of this child because I "wanted to get as much separation from Christmas as possible". I thought that some maturity and patience would come with the experience gleaned from three previous pregnancies. No. None of that. I'm impatient. I can't adequately describe the shock and confusion I feel about the fact that I'm still pregnant. Until 6am this morning when I finally admitted the truth to myself, I was absolutely convinced that I was going to have the baby last night, despite the absence of ANY signs that would lead me to such a conclusion. All that said, my body feels OK. I slept pretty well last night. It's just my mind that's totally consumed and often irrational. I need to keep reminding myself that I haven't even reached my due date yet! And I need to chill out. My poor family shouldn't have to deal with my crankiness anymore!

Mama's Chair

In stark contrast to the adventures my boys have been enjoying (this is my second post today, scroll down to see the other one), I have been soaking up every possible minute in my Christmas present from my dear husband - a gliding rocker and ottoman. It's heavenly. So soft and it rocks so easily. To sit down and put my feet in it at the end of the day... or in the middle of the day... or even first thing in the morning is just wonderful. I'm so grateful. The chair does make our already-too-small-for-6-people house even smaller, but it's totally worth it. I look forward to rocking and nursing our little girl in my new chair. I also look forward to this little girl conceding some lap space to one of my other children. I'm 38 weeks. The bags are packed. Everything is ready. Although I feel fine, I'm getting impatient to be on the other side of labor and delivery and to meet our little girl. Stay tuned for updates. Until then, I'll be sitting in my chair.

Winter Camping

The snow cave





The intrepid campers



For the past three winters, Jack has built a hockey rink in our backyard for the kids. Whenever they shovel snow off the rink, they pile it up into a big mound. Jack hallowed the mound out two years ago and made a snow cave. This year, he elevated the snow cave to a whole new level. Jack and the boys spent most of the afternoon outside on Saturday skating on the rink and working on the snow cave. And then Jack announced to the boys that they were going to sleep in it Saturday night. I thought he was kidding. I don't know why I thought that. I've been married to this man for almost 10 years... of course he wasn't kidding. He lined the floor with old carpet scraps, carried out sleeping bags, dressed the boys in all the right clothing and did all the other things that a dad should do when preparing his sons to sleep outside when it's 13 degrees. And, I'm happy to report that the three of them stayed in the snow cave all night. They did sleep. They did stay relatively warm (Jack tells me it's warm in there). And Jack is the coolest dad in the world.

There is one disclaimer to add: he did take his cell phone out to the cave with him that night. Mock if you will, but I think it was very considerate. There was no way that I, his 38-week pregnant wife, was going to tromp outside in the middle of a cold winter night between contractions to fetch my husband if I had gone into labor!