Four Things: I've been tagged...

...not really, but I thought this one looked fun and Cherish said "I won't tag anyone new, so just do it yourself if you want." - so I thought I would!

Four jobs I have had in my life: Nanny, General Manager of 3 Cold Stone Creamery stores, Preschool Teacher, and a Paralegal.

Four places I have lived: West Palm Beach, FL; Tallahassee, FL; Long Prairie, MN; and Ramsey, MN

Four shows that I watch: We only have rabbit ears, so my options are limited (thankfully, might I add) but I do watch American Idol and, although I'm quite embarrassed to admit it, One Tree Hill. If you count DVD's, we watch Backyardigans to the point of memorization.

Four places I have been: Disney World, a KFC that was actually in Kentucky, the Smoky Mountains (if driving through counts), and Arizona.

Four blogs I read regularly: Actually, everyone's...I go through my entire "family and friends" list daily (or more like it, nightly). And to be quite honest, sometimes I randomly go through some of YOUR family and friends lists too! For example, I love Sarah Rew's mother-in-law's blog - great recipes, I've made a couple of them myself!

(Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this...Joe-Z is forever making fun of me and I would like to tell him it's not as weird or uncommon as he thinks it is!)

Four of my favorite foods: Pad Thai, from the Thaicoon in West Palm Beach; jujubes, even though it's technically a candy; Chicken stir-fry from One Fresh Stir Fry in Tallahassee, although they've since taken away the good sauce; and the fourth is a combo...it's the whole meal from Outback. Steak and potatoes are hands down one of the best combos ever created and Outback has perfected this meal...even gone above and beyond by throwing in the Bloomin Onion.

Four places I'd rather be right now: Asleep on my bed, asleep on the couch, asleep in the car, and frankly, asleep anywhere!

Four things I look forward to in the next year: John Morgan sleeping through the night, getting to meet the new baby Miller Boys, losing my baby weight, and working on my Personal Progress (I'm aiming at getting the medallion as a leader)!

Fun at the park

The boys and I went to play group yesterday at Rocket-Ship Park. Although it has since been rebuilt, I remember playing at this very park as a little girl, and so it was VERY fun to take Levi for the first time! Levi had a ball!

Updates!

Well, life has been fun! We've had lots of action in the last month. The story, post-birth to present, in a nut-shell:

John Morgan eats all the time...literally! He cries whenever he's taken away from the food source. If he sleeps an hour at a time, we consider ourselves lucky. I take him to the pediatrician 4 times in 3 weeks. He tells me I'm just a new mom and that all babies cry...thanks Doc. Thursday morning last week I change a poopy diaper, only to discover that there's blood in the diaper! My heart sinks and the pessimist in me starts thinking the worst. I call my ped's office first thing and we have an appointment for that afternoon. By noon he's made 3 more bloody diapers. I call the triage nurse at Children's Hospital, who tells me to bring him to the ER right away.

~At this point, can I just say how grateful I am that we live in the place we do, where we have access to a specialty children's hospital, and it's only an hour away~

We take him to the ER where he's seen by two different doctors, who decide to admit him overnight and they start the ball rolling on all the tests. We're given a list as long as your arm of the things that could be wrong and all of the surgeries that could be needed to fix them. Just what I'm wanting to hear...not.

~Here, another thing I'm so grateful for: Priesthood Blessings! Through a friend of a friend (thanks JoDell) we were able to have a wonderful man by the name of Matt come and help Joe-Z give John Morgan a blessing. It brought a wonderful Spirit to the room and a much needed peace to my heart and mind.~

When all is said and done, we've been seen by the ER docs, the General Pediatrician Team and had been handed over to the Gastrointestinal Team. The GI specialist hands him a diagnosis of guess what folks...a cow's milk protein allergy. Yep, that's right. The same thing that Levi had that wreaked havoc on us a year and a half ago, the same thing that I asked not once, but twice if my pediatrician thought could be the problem and was reassured that "sometimes babies just cry".

So, basically, his body was rejecting the protein and released acid to fight it off. This was burning his intestinal tract which was causing all the discomfort which made him want to eat all the time to comfort his little tummy, which only made it worse. This, in turn, caused all the crying for baby, which caused the crying for mommy and daddy, lol. The treatment...Nutramigen, a special formula where the proteins are broken down into a different shape so that he'll be able to accept them.

How much better could it have turned out? We were so incredibly blessed. He's a happy baby now. He eats 5 ounces of formula and then wants to hang out for about an hour, crying free! Then he'll sleep for about an hour and repeat the process (all though at night, sometimes he'll skip the staying awake part and let us get 2 hours of sleep at a time!!). He's still only sleeping in the swing or car seat, but we're happy for there to be sleeping at all!

One other great thing that came out of all this: we found out that there is "about a 100 percent chance that your future children will have this allergy, so start them on the formula from the beginning, and you'll save yourselves all this trouble." Thanks Dr. Aurora...we love you.

Now, onto bigger and better things. John Morgan was blessed this past Sunday, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I am so grateful for the priesthood and that my wonderful husband lives worthy to use it. What a special gift, a blessing right from his Father in Heaven to him, through the hands of his father here on earth. With Levi, the underlying theme was definitely love...that he would be able to love those around him and be an example through that love. For John Morgan, almost every blessing focused on how faithful he would be and how he would treasure the gospel. We figure with a foundation like that, everything else should fall right into place!

A special note of thanks to those who participated in the blessing: the Bishopric, our Home Teachers and our good friend John!

One other really great thing that has happened lately is just watching Levi love his brother. He has been so wonderful about having another member of the family here. The first thing he does in the morning and last thing he does at night is kiss his brother. Any time John Morgan cries, Levi is by his side and usually loudly alerting me ("Dadadaaaaaaaaaaa") that my attention is needed, lol. He loves to "share" his toys with him, and always wants to lay with him under his play mat or on his blanket. It is such a privilege to be the mother of such wonderful boys.

Now just more pictures of cute John Morgan (who still looks just like Levi)...who turned 1 month old yesterday.

Gratitude Brings Heightened Awareness

I read this LDS Gems thought for the day and thought it was so wonderful that I'd share it with everyone!

"Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become spiritually aware of the wonder of the smallest things, which gladden our hearts with their messages of God's love. This grateful awareness heightens our sensitivity to divine direction. When we communicate gratitude, we can be filled with the Spirit and connected to those around us and the Lord. Gratitude inspires happiness and carries divine influence."

(Bonnie D. Parkin, "Gratitude: A Path to Happiness," Ensign, May 2007, 35)

Relationship Tag...

Relationship Tag

How did you meet your spouse? At a Family Home Evening at the Institute in Tallahassee...we were both late...surprise, surprise!

How long have you been together? We've been married for almost 3 1/2 years, known each other for almost 4, lol.

Who eats more? Um, it depends on my pregnant state...non-pregnant I do; pregnant, he does - he gets all the leftovers I thought I was hungry enough eat!

Who said I love you first? He did...over the phone, halfway across the country.

Who is taller? Ha! Him, by like a foot.

Who sings better? Interestingly enough, we both sound our best when we're singing together!

Who is smarter? I think we both hold our own. But he is the one going to school...so I guess he gets this one :o)

Who does the laundry? That'd be me.

Who does the dishes? Again me, I prefer it that way. Actually, I'm a little OCD about it.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does...I like being on the side opposite the door.

Who pays the bills? Technically he does, since he's the one that works. But I do the point-and-clicking that actually gets them "paid."

Who mows the lawn? Um, we've always rented, but I'm sure he'd love to!

Who cooks dinner? Although post-baby it had been the wonderful sisters of the Anoka Ward, I do. Most of the time anyway :o)

Who drives when you are together? He does. And as long as we're not late for something (ha...) he even opens the door for me!

Who is more stubborn? DEFINITELY me, unfortunately!

Who is the first to admit when they’re wrong? Him. Only because I'm never wrong...lol. ;o)

Who kissed who first? It was a mutual thing after all, but I guess he kissed me first...he says he couldn't help it...I was making "kiss-me-eyes" at him.

Who proposed? You know, I believe we were engaged before there was any proposal. We had talked about it and decided to get married...but about a month before the wedding, he did propose. Very sweetly too, may I add.

Who is more sensitive? We are both pretty sensitive. But, if we are talking emotional, that would most definitely be me, I'm like a roller coaster!

Who has more friends? Hard to say...maybe me, just because I have more time to socialize than he does.

Who has more siblings? He does...and 4 wonderful sisters-in-law on top of that!

Who wears the pants? Ummm, I think I have to go with Marquesas' answer on this one...I think we share the pants!

I'm taggin' JoDell Seaman and Andrea Anderson...have fun and I can't wait to read them!

Introducing...John Morgan!

Here he is! Our little John Morgan!

He arrived April 7th, at 11:51 pm. And surprise, surprise...we got our VBAC! Woo hoo! We went in for the C-Section, and the doctor checked me and decided that I was favorable for an induction, so she asked if we wanted to try. Of course I was super nervous, due to all of the precautions we'd been given about him being a big baby and the complications that could come with, but she assured us that they'd keep a very close eye on me and if anything seemed wrong, they'd do the C-Section right away.

Well, after 5 hours of pitocin, I'd only dialated 1 cm, bringing me to a whopping 3 cm. Then they broke my water...and holy cow! Shortly thereafter came the epidural which I had been SO avidly against...I'm convinced this was the best decision I've ever made (save being sealed to my wonderful Joe-Z). In the next 5 hours I dialated to a 10 and I was ready to push! Woo-hoo! They turned off the epidural (they said they needed me to be able to feel it b/c they needed all my help since he was bigger than the average bear...great), and after 2 hours and 11 minutes of pushing we had our beautiful baby boy...and he's just splendid!

He came in at 9 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long. His head was 14 1/2 inches. This puts him 7 ounces lighter than his big bro, exactly as long, and with a 1/2 inch larger head. And they look like they could be twins...I don't know if it's that way for everyone that has two kids of the same gender in a row, but boy, it's like looking at my little Levi all over again!

And can I just add in how wonderful it is not to be pregnant anymore?!?

Friends Are Fun...

Hi everyone! Pictures to come soon, but in the meantime, here's a cute video of Levi "holding" John Morgan for the first time. Enojy!

P.S. After watching it back, Joe-Z was embarrassed with the amount of baby-talk going on :o) So, he made this new version for you to enjoy!