What's new

She is so pretty isn't she? Yummmy.The tube is a naso-gastric tube that she gets fed through.

Rick's first cuddles with bub.

My first ever time holding her. The doctors were just about to put in a central line which was going to go from the crook of her arm all the way through the vein and end up in her heart so that she could get TPN (total nutrition) through this line because at the time she wasn't tolerating her feeds. But the doctor couldn't get the line in the right spot so they left it to try again later and by the next day she started tolerating her feeds so they ended up not doing it at all. Yay! Rick had given her the blessing so I totally believe that's why the sudden turnaround. :)

Ok, I am so in love with my new little frog! I can't get enough of her. I just can hardly stand to be away from her. I see her every other day when I make the 90 min trek to Brisbane but today was my last day going there as tomorrow morning she will be transferred to Nambour Hospital which is only 20 min away. Then I will beable to go every day. Yippeeeee! Savannah from what I know of her is a very good little bub. Really content and chill. Today she was awake for about an hour which was sweet. I love looking at her eyes and it seems as if she's really enjoying figuring me out.

Rick for some reason got a kick out of taking this pic. The nurse was taking her little stickers off of her before her bath and of course she didn't like it!

She has made excellent progress and made a complete turnaround within a 24 hour period of time after Rick had given her a blessing and she had her first ever cuddles and first bath on day 8. It was so cool to see that. I am so thankful to have Rick and the priesthood in our presence. He is such a darn good daddy! He normally can never sit still for any length of time and starts to get restless unless he is super tired or watching a movie. But put lil Savannah in his arms and he is content to just sit and sit. It is so cute to watch him with her. He makes all these little noises to her and gives her whisker tickles.

See any resemblance? What a character. He is so in love.

What else has happened are 2 birthdays. I haven't had the time to post about Mesa and Candace's birthdays but we had parties for them. I hate to just touch on them like this but better than nothing right? My life is just a little strange right now. Candace's was a real hum dinger I'll tell ya. Blaze and Mesa were being so selfish and bratty during her party. They were both really cranky and Lydia felt sick to her stomach and Candace was practically laying on the couch in her blankets. I was also feeling somewhat depressed but tried to put on an act of happiness. I think next year will be better. Maybe?

She is a great poser for the camera.

Caught in the act. I can't believe she's 13!!!!!

It's...a GIRL?!

Rick trying to be like his big brother Steve.

Us on the way to the hospital

Savannah Ivory Miller was born May 13 at 11:33 am and was shown to me for about 15 sec and I was able to give her a small kiss before they whisked her away to intensive care. She had trouble breathing and had to be intubated straight away and hooked up to all sorts of monitors and such. Had 2 arterial lines put in through her belly button so they didn't have to keep prickiing her heel every 4 hours for bloods. She was on the o2 for a couple days and then graduated to a CPAP just to help her along a bit. a couple days after that they took her off CPAP (thank goodness as it was terrible to see her with that on) and is now breathing solely on her own. In the meantime she wasn't tolerating her feeds and lost over a pound of her 6lb5oz birthweight so they put her on a TPN(total parental nutrition)to help her gain back some weight which has worked and then after a 24 hour break from breast milk, they put her back on the bm and shes tolerating feeds much better now. I won't beable to see her till tomorrow and its pouring rain right now so I am not a happy girl. The baby blues have definetly kicked in.

My first ever sighting of bubby.

In some ways she is getting better and then others still struggling. But I have hope that she will be well enough to be transferred soon to Nambour hospital which is only 20 min away as opposed to 90 to the Brisbane hospital she's in. Basically we're waiting for the bili levels to get down and stay down and get rid of the arterial lines. Nambour won't take a baby who has arterial lines, who isn't tolerating feeds and who requires more than one set of lights. Anyways, here's a few pics. Not too many cuz how many pics can you have of a bub who doesn't really change her scenery and looks the same everyday. I rarely have even got to see her with her eyes open! And have not been able to hold her yet either. Boohoo! That is very difficult.

Savannah with her CPAP machine on. I hated to see her with tubes shoved up her nose and she didn't like them either. She's been much happier since the CPAP came off. And, boy oh boy, she loves her soother big time!
Ohhhhhh! How cute is she?
I loved this pic of her cute little mouth open and the nurse said if she's gonna wear sunnies they might as well be stylish. Nothin but the best. So she made her a pair of Prada's

Intubated and all geared up.

This is the best picture I have of her without her sunnies on. This was the first time I really saw her.

Her blood transfusion happening. Poor lil thing. I hope it didn't hurt too bad to have that nasty needle stuck in her foot!

Mesa was the first lucky one to get to see her lil sis. She was ever so lucky to beable to touch her foot with one finger too. They don't allow children under 18 to touch the babies in NICU. They are too germy. Understandable.

Things I've learned from my Mother

Well, technically Mother's Day is over. Its been over for 2 days on this side of the world and I had every intention of putting up a Mother's Day post for my own mom. Sort of an ode to mom. I was actually a bit pre-occupied yesterday though and didn't have time to do it before I left the house at 10am only to return home at 6pm. So I thought that since I am really bad at sending cards I'd just write this and then she could read it and then she wouldn't have to feel either A) feel bad about throwing out the card eventually or B) Keep the card to clutter up her house. And I don't want either of those to happen so this is my Mother's Day gift to you Mom!

My mother has taught me many things throughout my life. Here's some that I can think of right now.

1. How to work-never thought I'd be thankful for that all those long hot days in the greenhouses

2. How to cook and LOVE it-she set the wonderful example for me and I know if it wasn't for her I would not be a cooker or a baker today

3. How to clean-my mom is the BEST cleaner ever. She is so thorough and never does a job halfway. I am the same way.

4. How to pray-although I never realized that repetitiously was not the way to go. I can still remember the exact same prayer I used to say throughout my youth!

5. How to say "hellsy bellsy child!"

6. How to not let my kids get away with too much.

7. How to be "the meanest mom in the whole wide world"-Aren't you glad I ended up with children "just like me"?

8. How to serve others-my mom is the Queen of serving others. She will do anything for anyone anytime and with a smile on her face. She has helped ME out more times than I can ever even begin to thank her for.

9. How to be the best yeller in the house-My mom rocks when it comes to yelling. Now that she doesn't have any kids to yell at anymore she yells for the dog which is very entertaining. Keeeeeeeepppperrrrrrrr! heheehe I think every mom needs to really know how to yell, even if she rarely does it!

10. How to hiccup and sneeze at the same time-wait...she set the example for that but I don't think anyone can do it like her. Right mom?!

I've just realized I'm not the greatest daughter though as I only have 2 pictures on my computer of my mother and one of them is of her and my sister making pig noses (obviously my sister's idea) That is sad. So here is the other one. I am going to be more dilligent next time we are together and get some darn pictures taken of us together!

Thank you Mom for being the best possible mother I could ever have. For not giving me too much leash as a teenager and reigning me in when I needed it which was often. For always backing me up as an adult and helping me to feel like I'm making the right decisions. For listening to me learn the flute and piano and playing them for years and years and never ever ever making me feel like you were tired of hearing the same darn songs over and over again. For laughing alot and also thinking I'm the life of the party. For watching my kids countless hours and weeks even and taking them to work with you and never making me feel like you didn't want to. For not ever actually giving me away to the Indians or throwing me in the Catholic Charities Clothes Bank for real (even though I probably deserved it) and for just all round setting a darn good example for me to live by and for raising me in the gospel and carrying on the awesome heritage that we have in our family tree. You're what I would call a sucessful parent...AND a sucessful Grandparent. Love you!

Culinary Dusasters...I mean Disasters

Ok. NOT a good day for me in the kitchen. First I make a batch of Bacon Cheese Muffins. They turned out awesome. That's where the awesomeness ended. I continued on to make some hashbrowns and bacon. Parboiled the potatoes to speed up cooking process. I do it all the time so nothin to it right? Well, I ended up frying mashed potatoes. Not happy about that. Ok, so I am a screw up at this point. I'm not used to messing up like this so I'm bummed out and decide to skip the bacon all together. Then I need to bake the rest of the sugar cookie dough. Nearly burnt those and they were saved in the nick of time thanks to Mesa saying "Mom I think the cookies are done!" SHOOT!!!! Screw up #2. This is all getting too much for me to handle. No more cooking till supper time. I have this yummy lasagna supper planned and have just returned home from the store with the necessary ingredients. Purposely not getting lasagna noodles cuz I know I have some at home. Turns out I only have half of what I need. Ok well, time to improvise and use some other pasta as well. Harmless right? Yeah but that means my lasagna won't be perfect like usual but I just have to suck it up. If I had any inclination of what was going to happen next I would have been happy enough. So an hour later I go and take my labour filled lasagna out of the oven and what happens? I am doing it one handed because I have cut my finger and my hand decides to give out and SLAM! The lasagna is all over the floor! Oh my GOSH!!! What an end to a perfectly disasterous day in the kitchen. I can't believe it but I was able to control myself. Didn't say anything I shouldn't have. Didn't even cry. So what did we have for dinner you ask? Well, lasagna of course! My dear sweet husband came to the rescue and picked it all up off the floor and back into the pan it went and well, I only got 1 cockroach leg in my serve! hahahaha jokes about the leg! Ready for your comment about that Lib! Looking at these photos disgusts me and I can't believe we actually ate it! Well, at least I can laugh about it right? A little extra germs never hurt anybody anyways!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that yesterday I made a Lazy Daisy Cake which I have done so many times before and only one other time have I burnt the icing. Yesterday made 2. DOH!

The Daily Grind

Ever wonder why one day can be so darn good and the next so darn not so good? Why is that? Yesterday I had an awesome day. The kids were home from school. I made sugar cookie dough for Mesa and her friend to bake and decorate, did stuff on the computer (none of it organizational I'm afraid) and just basically concentrated on my job as a mother. It was really refreshing. I've realized how much I miss being a stay at home mom 24/7. That's one reason I can't WAIT till baby Miller gets here! That means I don't have to go to work!!!!! Yay! I just get to concentrate on my calling as a wife and mother and that sounds so good to me. I am so bloody excited every single day thinking of the moment I get to meet him/her. As for when that's gonna happen I just don't know. I technically have 7wks till full term but am 90% sure its coming quite a bit earlier than that. Anti-D antibodies are playing a part in that. So for now after 2 scares 2 days in a row and thinking that tonight's the night, I am a bit more relaxed and just taking it day by day. Thank heavens this baby is a mover and a shaker. He/she just never stops! I'm chasing body parts around in my tummy and thinking what a character he's gonna be.

Well, tomorrow my sissy arrives fresh from Canada and so I am really looking forward to becoming really close to her in the next few months. She's my only sis and I really hope she can stand being around me for 3 months straight w/o going bonkers! I would add a photo at this point but am on Rick's laptop and there isn't one single photo on here! So I'll have to do it later on the other computer. I promised Rick I'd have the lawn mowed, Lyd's room ready and the floors vacuumed btt he gets back from the job site. Yikes! I better get a move on!

Positive Parenting 101

Our ward put on a seminar last night called Positive Parenting:What the experts know but don't tell you! Well, I decided that this may be beneficial for the health and safety of not only my children but myself so Rick and I went. I was very prepared and took a notebook and pen so I could make some notes. I've been feeling somewhat desperate at times. Like I'm losing control (or have maybe never had it) in my job as a mother.

So I must say at the very beginning of the slide presentation the parenting guru from LDS Family Services had a list of common parenting mistakes. Hah! I sat there thank goodness in the dark so hopefully no one could see the guilt written all over my face. I chuckled a few times because the mistakes were "so me". But I did learn that even though I am guilty as charged in the bad parenting department, I needn't worry. Just start fresh today and don't beat myself up for it. I just hope I haven't passed the "point of no return" where I may have already screwed my kids up so bad there's no hope for them. hahah

Point taken #1

Parenting is about YOU. Not about your children or their behaviour. A sucessful parent is one who has loved, sacrificed, cared for, taught and ministered to the needs of the child(ren). If you have done all the above and your child turns out to be an unsuccessful human and a wreck, then it doesn't mean you are not/have not been a sucessful parent! What a load off! I have always sat here and thought that if your kid turns out crappy then you weren't successful but how wrong I was!

Point taken #2

A few mistakes made that I thought hit too close to home were

being moody and angry, ( BIG check)

trying to control the child's agency, (check)

always being right-they are always wrong and you are always right, (check check)

having too high of expectations (check)

Point taken #3

Discipline is about teaching NOT punishing. Children need to experience natural consequences for their actions and the discipline needs to fit the crime. Logical consequences are to be agreed upon in advance which then enables the consequence to do the teaching. Eg: This morning I came downstairs to a bowl of carmel popcorn that was no more. Who was the culprit? I had my immediate knowledge based upon past experiences who was to blame for the disappearing popcorn and when I approached that child it was vehemently denied. Not just once but over and over again. Well, the truth finally came out which has made the punishment 1/3 as severe as it was gonna be and now as I type he is carrying out his punishment. I would have thought that tabasco sauce may have been a good consequence. That was before last night. Now it is lines

"I'm sorry I lied about eating the carmel popcorn." 100 times. I think its working. We shall see. I know he's certainly not happy about it. But it is known that the next time he is caught in a lie then this is what will happen. It's like if you are speeding down the freeway and get caught you know darn well what will happen.

Well, Bottom line is, I'm glad I went to the seminar. I'm really glad I made carmel popcorn last night. It was AWESOME! Here's my recipe if you want it. Comes from my own mother's recipe box.

Mom's Carmel Popcorn

3/4 c. butter

2/3 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. white sugar

1/2 c. golden syrup

Boil for approx 5 min depending on how thick you want the caramel. I like it fairly thick. Add 1 tsp vanilla after removing from heat. Pour over 1 c. kernels (popped) (large tupperware bowl full) You really need to sift through the bowl of kernels to end up with the nice fluffy popcorn and not seeds that will break your teeth.

Thanks to my mom for her awesome tradition of making this when we were kids and therefore allowing me to make for my own family and lovin every minute of it!