I hit the 35 week mark yesterday.  I’m really closing in now on my due date!  It’s funny how 5 weeks seems so close, yet so far away.  I guess I must be nesting because I did a lot of work this week getting ready for baby.  I’ve had her car seat cleaned and ready for a long time now, but I finally installed it in our van the other day.  The whole process involved having to move kids around in the van.  We are really sandwiched in there now.  We have exactly 8 seats in there and even now they are all full.  (That infant car seat takes up  more room than an adult!)  I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really dreaming about the day when we can get a 12 passenger van!

Also this week I did some more digging around in the basement storage area and finally found the missing infant sleepers and cloth diapers that I had been looking for.  I’ve got to have those cloth diapers to use as burp rags and my babies usually live in sleepers for the first 2 months of life.  No fluffy, frilly clothes here.  I’m all for soft and comfortable.  There’s plenty of time to dress up baby in cute girl clothes later.

In other news we’ve been flip flopping on baby names.  We had sort of settled on one name in particular, but I just couldn’t fully accept it.  I kept hearing the name around or it would come up on TV or in books I was reading.  It made me feel like the name was too popular and that bothered me.  So we spent some time this week looking at our old baby name list again.  We have another name in mind but I still feel like neither of us wants to really commit to a name yet.  It’s weird because usually we settle on a name pretty early on.  Not so this time.

In other general pregnancy news, I’m feeling alright for a big pregnant lady.  I still have occasional bouts of sciatic nerve pain and I’m most certainly slow.  But I still manage to work out 3 days a week doing cardio and lifting weights.  That makes me feel good and active.  Thank goodness I’m able to get my workouts in early in the day because by the evening, I’m just dragging.  I’m starting to have trouble with swollen legs and feet and that’s no fun.  Mostly I’m just feeling anxious to have my own body back and to have my sweet baby in my arms.  Dan commented today, “It feels like you’ve been pregnant forever.”  You and me both Dan.  You and me both.

This is our family favorite cookie recipe.  It was given to me as part of a wedding gift cookbook with recipes from my friends.  In fact, we didn’t even try this recipe until my husband and I were married over 3 years.  3 wasted years of no pudding cookies!  Such a shame. Well, we’ve certainly made up for lost time.  When people ask me for a favorite recipe, this is the one I always share.

(Sorry, I don’t have a fancy camera, so this is the best picture you get!)

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

1-cup butter or margarine (softened)

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar (packed)

2 eggs

1 package instant chocolate pudding mix (4 servings size box)

1 tsp. Baking soda

2-¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together softened butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and pudding mix, then mix well. Next, mix in baking soda and flour. Add chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

For Christmas: Use Mint Chocolate chips instead of the regular semi-sweet

 Helpful Hints

Do not over bake these cookies! Watch them closely as they bake. When about 9 minutes are up, check the cookies. The cookies will still look like they aren’t done baking. Take them out of the oven and let them rest on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes. They will finish baking on the pan. Then move them to a cooling rack.

WARNING: If you are a man or perhaps a woman who never, ever wants to have children, then this post is not for you.  Step away from the computer.  Now.  But, if you are a woman who is pregnant, has ever been pregnant or would like to be pregnant one day…read on!

I’ve come across a lot of different pregnancy products during my 6 pregnancies.  I wish that I had had some of these when I was pregnant with my first child.  Alas, some of these things weren’t even invented back then!  When I find really great products that have made a difference in my life, I want to share them.  So here we go!

Let’s start basic. The BeBand.

There are lots of products out there like this one.  It’s just a stretchy tube of fabric that you wear over your pants when you’re pregnant.  They help you to keep wearing your regular pants longer, unbuttoned or unzipped.  Or they help keep your maternity pants up.  They also smooth out lumpy maternity pants.  I think it feels great to wear it because it kind of sucks in the whole belly area.  I like the BeBand because I can just pick one up at my local Target.

V2 Supporter.  You might be wondering what the heck that is.  If you’ve had more than 1 or 2 kids, you know that heavy feeling you can get in your crotch that sort of feels like your baby might fall out??  Yeah, well this product can help with that.  It also helps with varicose veins of the groin.  (Yep, pregnancy isn’t always pretty.)  Prepare yourself, the pictures aren’t pretty either!

Goofy looking?? Yes.  Helpful?? Extremely.  Of course no one wears this thing over a purple body suit.  This is one of the many products that I just learned about during my current pregnancy.  I got it shortly after my first trimester and I wear it all the time.  Such a great investment.  If you plan on having a lot of children, buy one of these early on!

Bellefit postpartum girdle.

This is a product that I haven’t tried yet, but plan to.  I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on the use of stomach supports after pregnancy and they seem like a wonderful idea.  I found this brand in particular and have been very impressed with the reviews.  There are also several video reviews on the website.  It is supposed to help your body return to its pre-pregnancy shape faster while also offering great back support as you recover.  It seems they are particularly helpful if you’ve had a c-section.  I’ve never had a c-section but I’m all for helping my body recover from pregnancy faster!  This product is pricey, but it seems well worth it.  When I try one out, I’ll give a full review.

Miracle Blanket.

OK, so this one isn’t for pregnancy.  But it’s still a GREAT product.  I discovered the Miracle blanket when Kennedy was a baby.  Had I only known sooner of the wonders of swaddling!  This blanket is called a miracle because it’s pretty much impossible for your baby to get out of it.  Even older babies can’t get loose.  So even though you can swaddle a baby in a regular blanket, there’s always the chance of the swaddle coming loose.  Not so with the Miracle blanket.  Swaddling helps your baby calm down and sleep longer and I can’t tell you what a world of difference it has made in my babies who have used it.

The Happiest Baby on the Block

Again, not really for pregnancy but still a great thing!  I first read this book and saw the corresponding movie just after Ezra was born.  Oh how I wish I had this information with my other babies!  Amy was a very fussy baby that cried a lot and didn’t sleep well until she was 6 months old.  Of course, at that time, Dan and I were also inexperienced parents.  The information in this book would have been SO helpful to us back then.  The book and movie are all about how to calm your crying baby and help him/her to sleep better.  One of the methods is swaddling, so you’ll be happy you have that Miracle blanket!

And there you have it, the products that have  made my life easier. (Or will make my life easier after my baby is born.)  When you find a great product, you’ve really got to share it.  What are the great pregnancy or baby products you have found?

Reading:

I’m reading Uglies.  It’s a futuristic YA novel with sort of a Hunger Games type feel.  I’m enjoying it so far!

Listening to:

Madonna, The Immaculate Collection. I put it in the van last week and the kids and I are enjoying it.  (But we skip a few songs.)

Wearing:

Ha ha ha ha!  I wish I looked this glam while pregnant!!  Actually I’m just wearing regular maternity clothes.  Pretty boring and getting tighter every day.  I do have a few new maternity things to enjoy, but they’re in the wash today.

Watching:

Downton Abbey season 2.  Need I say more?!  Always looking forward to Sunday nights.  :)

As a bonus, I’ve also been watching back seasons of:

I admit, I’m watching more TV these days.  By the time the kids are put into bed I’m wiped out.  I just want to sit down and put my tired, swollen feet up.  Dan and I had never watched The Biggest Loser while it was on TV so about a month ago we started watching it on Netflix.  As a result I’ve also started watching the most current season on Tuesday nights.  It can get a little confusing watching two seasons at once!  Over all, I find this show to be very enjoyable and inspirational.

Wishing for:

We’ve been without a working dishwasher since last September.  Blah.  While I’ve gotten use to washing dishes by hand, I sure do miss the luxury of a dishwasher.  We’ve been saving and waiting for a good deal and we finally have one ordered.  Hopefully by next week it will be here!

What are reading, listening to, wearing, watching and wishing for?

I’ve noticed that when I’m not pregnant, it’s very easy to only think about the nice things about pregnancy.  I fondly remember the first time we hear the heart beat, the ultrasound, finding out the gender, picking out a name, all those sweet baby kicks and getting the room ready, just to name a few.  Even though I know there are lots of down sides to being pregnant, I can never seem to remember those as clearly.  That is, until I’m pregnant again.  Then I think, I can’t believe that I knowingly signed on for this gig! 

Of course, the best part is knowing that at the end there will be a new baby, which is a completely miracle.  In the mean time, it can be hard to get through the day to day challenges of being in the last trimester.  There are so many aches and pains that I know won’t go away until after the baby is born.  But sometimes I think the emotional struggles of being pregnant are just as challenging.  It’s almost like my brain has been baby snatched!  For example, when people make their daily comments about the size of my belly, logically I understand that they are just being friendly.  People love babies and enjoy seeing a pregnant women.  They are curious and seeing a pregnant woman probably reminds them of their own children.  And as we know, people only remember the good parts about being pregnant and having children!  Even though I can think about it very logically, it’s hard to detach the emotions that go a long with it.  It can grow very tiring to tell every person my due date and then watch their eyebrows shoot up when they find out I still have a while to go when my belly looks so big.  I hope I can remember one day how pregnant women feel and only say nice things to them.

I’m 30 1/2 weeks pregnant.  I’m already a few weeks into my 3rd trimester.  And the comments are starting.  Are you due soon?  You look ready to go!  You must be near your due date.  Etc.   I know people mean well and just want to make friendly conversation, but boy is it depressing to have to inform them that I’m only about 7 months pregnant and I still have around 9-10 weeks to go.

The “problem” mostly is that my belly gets pretty big.  There are probably a few factors at play here.  First of all, this is my 6th baby.  My body isn’t as young as it once was.  Of course my stomach will look bigger.  Also, I have a short torso.  I wouldn’t say that I’m a short person.  Just average at 5 feet 4 inches.  But because my torso is short, my babies don’t have much internal room to hide.  They just pop out the front.

I thought it would be interested to go back and compare the size of my belly for each of my pregnancies.  I had to dig through baby albums and scan pictures for those early ones.  Poor Ezra doesn’t even have an album.  All his pictures are digital.   As it turns out, I’ve always had a big pregnant belly.  Check it out.

Here I am about 8 months pregnant with Amy.  (That’s my brother John with me.)  Notice that I still look pretty big, even with my first.  Amy was 8 pounds 13oz  when she was born.

Here I am pregnant with Scott.  I’m totally huge in this picture, but I will admit, this was taken just a few days before I had Scott.  He was my “smallest” baby at 8 pounds 7 oz.

Here I am about 8 months pregnant with Joel.  Belly still out there!  Joel was 8 pounds 12oz.

Here I am pregnant with Kennedy, also at about 8 months.  Kennedy was 8 pounds 9 oz.

Here I am pregnant with Ezra at about 8 months.  Ezra was my biggest baby so far at 9 pounds 3 oz. (I do think this belly looks bigger!)

And here’s my current belly.  I had to take the picture myself, so you get what you get!  I’m only about 7 months now.

Big bellies all around.   At least in my opinion, all my bellies looked similarly big.

I’ve still got several weeks to go and believe it or not, my current belly will get bigger.  No worries people, I won’t pop.   So don’t tell me that I look like I’m about to.

I think just about everyone thinks about improving themselves at the start of a new year.  For a lot of people that translates into desires to exercise more, eat better and possibly lose weight.  I’m grateful that for the past 5 years we have been members of our local YMCA and I’ve been able to exercise regularly.  I feel certain that without the Y, I would not be able to exercise like I do.  I’m really thankful for the childcare they provide (That I most certainly pay for!), but that allows me to exercise without worrying about my kids.  It has been a huge blessing and totally worth giving up cable TV for.

Speaking of TV, Dan and I have recently started watching The Biggest Loser on Netflix.   We had never watched it before on regular TV so all the episodes were new to us.  So far we’ve watched all of season 1 and 2 and I’m hooked.  (I think Dan’s just along for the ride!  hee hee)  I find that show so entertaining and also inspiring.  I love to see all those lives changed for the better and all the additional lives that the contestants inspire.  They are improving and extending their lives and it’s a wonderful thing.  Plus it helps me want to continue exercising and making sure that I live a healthy life too.  My biggest vice is food.  Even though I love fruits and vegetables, I also love sugar way too much.  I would have to say that sweets are my biggest weakness and one that I wish I was better at controlling.  My other challenge is drinking enough water.  But that’s something that I’m currently working on with my goals.

Anyway, I’m sure many of you are resolving to lose weight and/or eat better and I wish you well in your goals.  When making and keeping goals, it helps to make very specific goals so that you can measure your progress.  You also need to write them down and and tell at least one other person about your goals. You need to make yourself accountable so that you’ll keep up with your changes.  Then you need to keep up with it until your goals become daily habits!  Keep checking in with yourself and with those you’ve told your goals to, so that you can make sure you’re on track.  This counts for any goals you make, not just fitness goals.

My goals for this year include reading one chapter of scripture a day and drinking 32 oz of water a day.  Even though 32 oz of water isn’t that much, it’s still a challenge for me.  I decided to push myself with the water drinking, but I didn’t want to set my goal so high that I would never be able to reach it.  Hopefully in the near future, drinking 32 oz of water will be natural for me and then I can increase my intake.  That would be awesome!  One step at a time.  I didn’t make any fitness goals because I am currently 28 weeks pregnant and it just isn’t the time for me to do that.  And I am already exercising 3 days a week.    After the baby is born, I’ll be too absorbed in the baby and recovering to start any fitness goals then.  But sometime during 2012, I would like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I feel certain I can do that, it will just take time.  :)

So, if you don’t mind sharing, what are your goals for 2012?

Merry Christmas from the Millers 2011

Hello! I’m not very great at writing interesting or witty Christmas newsletters, so I think I’ll just stick to the latest news.

 The Millers have had a good year. Of course there are always ups and downs, but that’s just part of life. This summer we were able to take a trip to Colorado to visit Carolyn’s mom, step dad and brothers. Thankfully we could fly out there and not have to drive 5 kids across the country! Even so, flying with 5 children was an exhausting experience! We all had a great time seeing Denver for the first time and visiting with family. The kids enjoyed the rest of the summer swimming at the YMCA, playing at parks and enjoying their free time.

 Not long later we were happy to share the news with our kids that we are expecting baby number 6! They didn’t believe us at first because Carolyn got the giggles and couldn’t stop laughing! Carolyn’s pregnancy has been fairly easy with no complications so far. Her only complaints are being more tired than usual and the aches and pains of pregnancy have arrived much sooner this time around. We are expecting a baby girl around March 24, 2012. We’re all very excited and still have a lot to do before we can welcome our baby girl.

 This fall the kids all started up school again. They were secretly very excited, but didn’t want to admit it. Amy is 11 ½ and she started her first year in Madeira Middle School in 5^th grade. Amy has done really well adjusting to the new teachers, having a locker and playing percussion in band. Amy is also continuing her weekly piano lessons and doing well there. Amy loves to play with her siblings, play computer games and draw.

 Scott is 9 ½ and is now in 4^th grade at Madeira Elementary School. 4^th grade has had its ups and downs but over all, Scott is going great in his classes and enjoying school. He got to run for student leaders recently. Even though he didn’t win, he did a great job presenting his campaign speech to his class. Scott enjoys basketball and will soon be starting the winter basketball season at the Y. Scott is an avid reader and has been enjoying the library option on his Dad’s Kindle.

 Joel just turned 7 in November and is in 1^st grade. He is loving school and doing really well. His handwriting has really improved this year and he’s doing great at spelling. This is Joel’s first year going to school all day so he gets to pack a lunch every day. Joel loves to build with Legos and has quite a good imagination when it comes to building. Joel also enjoys puzzles, computer games and reading.

 Kennedy recently turned 5 and is in afternoon kindergarten. Kennedy is one of the youngest kids in kindergarten because her birthday is just a few days before the class cut off. We were concerned about her being able to keep up but she is doing a fine job in kindergarten. She is an eager student and very bright. She gets to take the school bus to and from school which is a very exciting thing for a 5 year old! Kennedy loves to play with her friends and family and is looking forward to starting ballet classes in January.

 Ezra just turned 3 and is getting to be such a big boy! He has recently started monthly classes with SPARK Ohio that help get him ready for kindergarten. He enjoys the personal home visits, craft activities and the free books. Like a typical boy, Ezra enjoys playing with his Thomas trains and toys cars. He has a very good imagination and love to play with his big brothers and sisters. Ezra has also recently started potty training and is making good progress! Perhaps he’ll be out of diapers before his baby sister is born. (Mom and Dad have their fingers crossed!) Ezra just finished his last day in the church nursery and will be starting Sunbeams in Primary in January.

 Dan is keeping busy working at Luxottica Retail. At the end of December will be his 9^th anniversary there. Dan also keeps busy with our family real estate business. We currently own 3 rental properties and have a home for sale in Kennedy Heights. It’s fun to be able to bring the kids along to our various houses and have them help out and learn along the way. Carolyn is the official property manager and sometimes gets to fix things at the rental houses. Dan has been the ward clerk at church for the past 3 years. Dan still enjoys reading and teaching the kids how to do logic puzzles. This past spring, Dan took on the challenge of building a big wooden play set for the kids. It took him quite a while and a little help from a friend, but he got it built! It is a beautiful addition to our back yard and the kids really enjoy playing on it.

 Carolyn stays busy doing all the typical mom things. She takes care of our 5 kids as well as our home but still finds time to attend book club every month. Also, this summer Carolyn has taking up making all the bread the at our family eats. Bread making has been quite a learning experience because it’s not as easy as it looks! As part of our bread making process we have a hand wheat grinder and we’ve been grinding our own wheat. The kids even get to help with that job. Currently, Carolyn serves at the ward activity day leader as well as the ward librarian. She enjoys going to the YMCA 3 days a week and reading whenever she can find a free moment. In June, Dan and Carolyn celebrated their 13^th anniversary.

 We feel very blessed and are happy to share our family news with you. Merry Christmas from Dan, Carolyn, Amy, Scott, Joel, Kennedy, Ezra and baby girl.

I know that many of you have seen me rave about the sock bun on Face Book.  But I thought I’d show a few pictures here of the results that I get from it.   If you happen to be one of rare few that haven’t heard me blab and blab about the sock bun then let me tell you a little about it.  I first came across the idea on Pinterest.  (Don’t you just love Pinterest?!)  Here’s the blog post that I first saw about the sock bun.   After reading this first post I discovered the world of the sock bun!  Since then I’ve also seen many instructional videos on how to do the sock bun.  Such as this one.

I’ve curled my hair with the sock bun only about 4 times so far, but already I’m in love the results.  From talking to my friends on Face Book, I’m discovering that the sock bun hair curling technique doesn’t work well for everyone.  It does take some practice and it does require fairly long hair.  I’m also noticing that people with thick hair that already have some natural body have better luck with the bun than people with fine hair or very straight hair.

I’m not going to do another how-to here.  I just wanted to post a few pictures of how the bun looks and then the results I get from curling my hair with the sock bun.  So here’s the pictures!  (Please pardon my workout clothes.  It felt rather silly to take the bun down and then head right to the Y to workout.  I just pulled it back into a ponytail.)

It’s not easy to photograph the back of your own head, let me tell you!

Side view of the bun.  You know, the bun itself is kind of cute.  In an old fashioned, romantic sort of way.  :)

And behold, the curls!  I washed my hair yesterday before church and styled my hair as usual for that day.  Then last night before bed, I sprayed a little water on my hair, along with some curling gel before putting it in the bun.  Then I just slept in the bun all night.  I usually don’t take the bun out first thing in the morning because it keeps my hair out of the way while I’m doing the morning routine.  But once the kids are off to school and life has settled down a little, I pull that bun out and I’m always amazed at how great my hair looks.  Then I just run my fingers through it a bit and that’s it.  I look like I’ve either spent all morning curling my hair or I must have natural curls!

This little trick couldn’t have come along at a better time for me because I was getting rather tired of my long hair and wanted to cut it off again.  Now I can keep it long because I have an easy way of  making it look really pretty.  I wish I had known this trick years ago!

I have pregnancy rhinitis.  What is that you say?  Here’s what one website has to say about it:

“Pregnancy Rhinitis refers to the uncomfortable condition of severe nasal congestion – a stuffy nose – that troubles many women during pregnancy. It may affect more than 30% of women during pregnancy!

It can occur at any time during pregnancy, but most commonly begins during the first trimester. It can last for the entire pregnancy!

And it can be absolutely miserable. Imagine living with nasal congestion, or even complete obstruction, making it impossible to breathe through your nose (like your worst “cold”), for 24 hours per day for months!”

Yep.  That about sums things up for me.  Since I can’t really take any medicines, I’ve done my best to cope in other ways.  I make the best of the problem during the day by keeping a box of tissues close by at all times.  Exercising helps to clear my nose.  Nighttime is the worst.  When ever I lay down, my nose becomes so stuffy that it’s impossible to breathe out of my nose at all.  I’ve tried to breathe out of my mouth, but I just can’t make myself do it for an extended amount of time.  I’ve spent many a night awake because I can’t breathe.

I’m come up with some temporary solutions that work pretty well most of the time.  Here is what I do every single night.  I have a humidifier set up in my room that I run every night.  I sleep with a nasal strip stuck to my nose.  And the kicker is that I sleep sitting up.  I have a giant extra pillow from our couch propped up in my bed along with about 4 other pillows that I use to make myself a makeshift recliner in bed.  Sleeping in a sitting up, semi reclined position helps me to breathe a little better.  And on nights when my nose is REALLY bad, I take some Benadryl.  I really don’t like taking medications when I’m pregnant, but at least Benadryl has been deemed mostly “safe” to use during pregnancy.  What ever that means.  I try to save it for emergencies.  In fact, I’m thinking I probably should have taken some tonight.  Then perhaps I wouldn’t be blogging about my nose trouble at 5:30am.  :-)

I also have a neti pot that I sometimes use.  The problem there is that my nose is often so stuffy, that the water won’t flow through my nose at all rendering the neti pot completely useless.  Other times, I find that when I use the neti pot (If I’m able to get the water to flow.) that it leaves my nose feeling irritated and instead of a stuffy nose, I get a runny nose.  Guess I can’t win.

To make matters worse, we’re heading into cold and flu season.  I got my flu shot with the rest of my family back in early October.  I haven’t actually had the flu in years. (Knock on wood!)  But I get my fair share of colds.  In fact, it seems that I may have my first one of the season.  I noticed a sore throat coming on yesterday.  It’s hard to tell what’s going on with me because I’ve had a runny/stuffy nose for months now.  That’s just continuing with the added sore throat.  I feel like I’m going to lose my voice soon.  I usually lose my voice once or twice every year.  :(

So anyway…I’m not happy.  I’m not sleeping well. I don’t feel well.  And now I think I’m actually getting sick.  I think that gives me a little justification to complain a bit.