The McMillins

Last weekend we noticed Leah's eye starting to ooze and become real watery. At first, Corey thought it was pink eye but it's actually just a clogged tear duct. Poor thing wakes up with crusty eyes. We keep putting a warm wet cloth on it and massaging it downward to try to open it up. It seems to be helping.

So far, she's been an okay baby. She's definitely not as good as Zach was as a baby but she doesn't have colic, so we're thankful for that. She tends to get fussy when she's really tired and fights her sleep. Once she's asleep, for the most part, she stays asleep. Some nights she even gives Gretchen almost 5 hours of straight sleep. She's a BIG eater and has definitely grown already. Her 1 month check-up is next Monday. Gretchen thinks she's at least 11 lbs already.

Gretchen has been trying to get ready for her parents coming down for Christmas. She LOVES for the house to be clean and organized whenever we have guests but it's been harder for her to do that with having Leah recently. Fortunately, Corey has been helping out a LOT! She's very thankful to have a husband like him.

Last Thursday, Gretchen had a full day of Doctor's appointments. In the morning she went to her Ob Doctor so that they could check her incision. Gretchen is healing well and can finally drive again. She has lost 30 lbs from when she went in to have Leah until now. She gained 50 lbs with her though.

In the afternoon, she had to take Leah to the Doctor for her 2 week check-up. She has gained 1 lb and 1/2 inch. The Doctor was impressed because most breast-fed babies lose weight the first 2 weeks but she gained. She now weighs 10 lbs 4 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long. She is very healthy and chubby! :)

Well, there was no baby this past weekend and still no baby today. Today is the due date. Next appointment is Wednesday. Corey has off so he can go with her, unless of course she makes her grand entrance into the world tonight or tomorrow. Gretchen is wishing that it would be soon. She feels like she can't get any bigger.

Gretchen went to the doctor on Thursday. She's only dilated 2.5 cm. Her due date is this Monday, the 24th. She has an appointment with the doctor this Wednesday to do an ultrasound. On Wednesday, they'll go ahead and make an appointment to induce her on December 2nd, if she still hasn't been born.

We're really hoping for the baby to be born this weekend but obviously we have no control over that. Gretchen told Corey that this must be his baby because she's procrastinating until the last possible moment, which many of you know Corey is the same way. lol (of course that should be taken light-hearted) Anyway, we'll keep everyone posted!

There's no baby yet. Gretchen is wishing it would happen soon. Her due date is this Monday, November 24th. We'll see what happens in the next few days. Her next doctor's appointment is this Thursday, November 20th. We will keep you posted! :)

Gretchen went to the doctor yesterday. She is measuring normal. The baby is head down (ready for delivery) and Gretchen is 1 cm dialated. We went to the hospital last Sunday just to make sure we knew where to go. It's VERY easy to get to but does take a little time to get there.

Gretchen is trying to get everything cleaned up and organized before the baby gets here. She's planning on putting the Christmas decorations up the first week of November (just in case the baby decides to come early).

We have Zach's 5th birthday party coming up on Nov. 1st. We have his party at 10:30 AM in the morning and then the church is giving Gretchen a baby shower that same day later in the afternoon. So, it will definitely be a busy day.

We have FINALLY decided on a definite name for the baby. Anyone want to take a guess? (those of you that don't know)

Gretchen is 33 weeks pregnant now. She is really having a hard time sleeping still. She can't get comfortable and the baby seems to be VERY active at night. We can't believe how fast time has gone but we are getting so anxious to meet her. We're pretty much prepared for her. There are still little things on her registry at walmart.com and target.com that we need, but other than that we have the big stuff. The nursery is ready. It just needs the baby now!

There's nothing really going on this month. We are going to a wedding this weekend that Gretchen is playing the piano for. Then, Halloween night we'll be going to our church's "Hallelujah Party". Zach wants to dress up as Batman. Of course, the next day is his birthday. He wants a Batman party. We can't believe he's going to be 5 already!!

After doing a lot of praying about buying a new house, we've decided that right now is just not a good time for us to buy a new house. Besides everything that's going on in the economy, Corey's job isn't doing so great with orders, which affects his pay, as many of you know. We feel like between those two things, we really need to be smart about our own finances (especially with a new baby coming).

As far as the baby is concerned, Gretchen went to the doctor yesterday. Everything is normal and the doctor said that Gretchen looks great. She lost 1 lb from her last doctor visit, which she is VERY excited about. The nursery is done and we've got a lot of the basics that we need for the baby, in case she arrives early. The only things that are really needed are the travel system, a diaper pail, and bottles. We're not sure if there is going to be a shower for her but just in case, we registered at walmart.com and target.com. If nothing else, it's a good way to help remind us and keep us organized of what we still need for the baby or for nursing. :)

Gretchen had her 1 hour glucose test done last week (Aug. 25th). She failed it, so she had to go back today to get her 3 hour glucose test done. That meant, she had to go to the doctors (with Zach) and get blood drawn. Then, she had to drink this "sugar water" (which is basically what it is) and then wait for an hour and have blood drawn again. Then, she had to wait another hour and have blood drawn again. Then again, another hour later she had to have blood drawn again.

This time the glucose stuff made her feel light headed, dizzy, hot and a little nauteous. So... they let her and Zach go back into a room and had her lay down. That made her feel better. Zach was so good and ended up doing so many pages in his Kindergarten book. He also read her 2 books, got to play on his leapster for a little (until the batteries ran out.... which wasn't very long) and got to play with some of his Star War figurines.

Then, we came home and Gretchen has had a headache the rest of the evening. So, we're just relaxing and doing nothing for the night.

We found out today that we're having a girl! We prayed last night the God would allow us to see the gender of the baby during the sonogram today. The first part that the camera saw was the crotch area and her legs were wide open. After those first 3 pictures, she curled up in one corner of Gretchen's stomach. We were very fortunate to get the pictures that we did get. There is no doubt, from the pic, that it's a girl. See for yourself and don't forget to look at Zach's blog for more pics. :)

We went to Hard Rock Park yesterday for Corey's company picnic! It was pretty fun. There weren't a whole lot of adult rides, which was fine with Gretchen since she wasn't allowed to ride any of them being pregnant. There were several "kid" rides that Zach liked to get on but his favorite were the "swings". I'm not sure we would go back unless it was for the company picnic again but at least we got to go and see what it was all about.... and for free! :)

Zach has had a fever since Tuesday. It's finally starting to come down, thankfully. Especially since we're suppose to go to a theme park tomorrow. This will be the first time that Zach can ride the rides for the kids. Last time we went, he was only 2 years old and couldn't get on a whole lot of rides. Now, at 4 1/2 years old he's 45" tall and will be able to ride a lot more! He's excited about it and so is Corey. We get to go for free since it's where Corey's "Company picnic" is being held.

Our upstairs A/C unit stopped working last Tuesday evening. Fortunately, we have 2 seperate units, one for the upstairs (where all the bedrooms are) and one for the downstairs. While upstairs gets to be around 88 degrees, we still have A/C downstairs. So, we all "camped out" downstairs on the couches. Someone is suppose to be coming today to fix it, hopefully. :)

Last week, Gretchen spent a whole day JUST cleaning the kitchen. She went through every single cabinet and sanitized it. She went through all the food and threw out the stuff that's expired and re-organized everything. She sanitized almost everything in the kitchen. Aren't pregnant women suppose to "nest" and "clean" when it closer to the birth? lol

Last Friday, Gretchen and Zach went to a local beach with their friends Kim, Kacie and Madison. It was a lot of fun! We stayed at the beach for 3 hours and then came home so Gretchen could give Kacie and Madison a piano lesson. Zach doesn't even look like he got any sun and Gretchen got a little burned.

Today, Gretchen and Zach went to Myrtle Beach to see one of Gretchen's friends from up north, Tracie. We had so much fun! We got to play on the beach/ in the ocean and in the pool at the resort that they were staying at. Gretchen got a little burnt on her back, but otherwise it was nice to catch up with an "old" friend and just relax by/in the pool. We were there for 6 hours.

Zach fell asleep on the way home. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go! What a nice day!

Last weekend, Gretchen's parents' came down to visit us. They drove down on Friday and arrived around noon. Around 4 p.m., we left to go out to dinner as a storm was coming into town. When we got back from dinner that evening, Gretchen noticed that our security system was off, along with our house phone. Corey checked the breakers and found one switched off. When he switched it back on, Gretchen heard a noise in the kitchen. She unplugged something from the outlet of where the noise was. When she did, smoke started coming out from the outlet. That's when we knew that lightening had struck our house.
We ended up finding SEVERAL things "fried" in our house, even through the rest of the weekend. Here is a list of everything that was affected in our house by the lightening strike:

1.) The A/C unit transformer had to be replaced (which Corey and Dad fixed)
2.) The thermostat had to be replaced (Corey bought one that weekend)
3.) The GFCI had to be replaced in the kitchen (Corey bought one that weekend)
4.) The Security System doesn't work (That will be replaced in a few days)
5.) The Garage Door opener doesn't work (we're still looking into that one)
6.) The surround sound system doesn't work (we MIGHT get one if we can sell our hardwood flooring)
7.) The xbox 360 doesn't work (we ordered a power supply brick on ebay, hoping that is our problem and not the console)
8.) The Internet modem had to be replaced (Fortunately, the cable company took care of that)
9.) Zach's TV doesn't work (still undecided if we're going to replace that)
10.) The loft TV doesn't work (we might just give that to someone and see if they want to fix it... won't be replaced at least in the next year)
11.) The Nintendo Wii doesn't work (we ordered a power supply brick for this too on ebay, hoping that is the problem as well)
12.) The HD/DVR box in our bedroom didn't work (The cable company just replaced that today)
13.) The DVD player in our room doesn't work (we have the DVD player from the loft TV, so we shouldn't need to get another one of these)

God really was looking out for us when this happened. My parents were down and the only A/C unit that didn't work was the downstairs one, NOT the upstairs one where all the bedrooms are. Fortunately, we have 2 seperate units so that was a blessing. The TV's that got "fried" were the older TV's and not our newer, more expensive ones. The computer ended up being fine (since it's only a year old). Not to mention, we are VERY thankful that our house didn't burn down b/c of this AND that we weren't here when it happened. It certainly made for an interesting weekend. :)

Ok.... so it turns out Zach and Gretchen BOTH got the flu. Zach seems to be doing MUCH better. Gretchen is too but is still battling a very "juicy" cough. Looks like we'll be back at school tomorrow. FINALLY!

We just got news that Gretchen's mom did well in the surgery. However, while they were originally going to do laproscopic surgery, they ended up having to cut her open (bikini cut) totally. While the Doctor was removing the ovary AND the cyst he found stones that had been dropped in her when she had her gall bladder out years and years ago. They have been sitting next to her Ovary this whole time. They found another stone that was connected to her colon. The surgeon decided not to take that one b/c he didn't want to damage her colon. So now she will have to recover for 3 weeks instead of 1. Please continue to pray for her.

Zach had a fever last Tuesday of 103.6. His fever came down by 1 degree everyday. Gretchen started feeling ill Thursday evening. Friday, it got worse, but her and Corey went out on a date anyway. They went out to dinner and a movie. Then on Saturday, Gretchen woke up with a fever of 103.7. It hurt for her to get up and walk. Fortunately, Corey was off work and was able to take good care of her and of Zach. She is starting to feel somewhat better, at least the fever is gone, but her throat really hurts from coughing so much and from having to breathe out of her mouth. She wishes she had some chocolate to soothe her throat. :)

There have been many people in our lives that need so much prayer b/c of hard times.

The first is Gretchen's mom. She called us yesterday telling us that the doctor's found an ovarian cyst the size of a tangerine in her sonogram. She has to have laproscopic surgery on March 12th to have it removed. She is very worried about it being cancerous. Please pray that it will be benign. Also, please pray for comfort for her mom.

One of Gretchen's friends, Alissa, is 29 1/2 weeks pregnant and her water broke Wednesday night. As of yesterday morning, she was having contractions. Please pray that the baby will be okay. They tried for 2 years to have a baby.

One of Gretchen's piano students' great grandmother is in the hospital on a ventilator and they are going to pull her off of it this week. It's very hard on the grandmother. Please pray for Terrie for comfort. She's really upset about it.

Corey took me and Zach out to dinner last night. I got my favorite cheesecake from one of my favorite restaurants along with some peel and eat shrimp. Then, we came home and watched an animated movie with Zach called, "The Ten Commandments". It was a pretty good movie (very biblical).

Here are just a FEW of our pictures from Hawaii. Gretchen is still working on the rest!

Gretchen stayed up late last night doing our taxes. She loves doing that sort of stuff. She finished them pretty quickly, tho. We printed them out today. We're going to just review them over the weekend and send them off on Monday! We like to have our taxes done early so we don't have to worry about it.

Both Corey and Gretchen are sick. Corey started feeling bad at the beginning of the week and now just has a cough. Gretchen started with a slight stomach virus last night. Corey told her NOT to clean today and to just relax. She has only picked up around the house, did some laundry, did dishes and made the bed. She has a piano lesson this afternoon and she just wanted to make sure the house looked "decent". She feels a little bit better after taking a shower but her head hurts.

Many of you know that Gretchen was trying to lose weight. When we went to Maryland last year she was 138 or 139 lbs. Her goal was 135 lbs. Well, she surpassed it and with being sick last night she's now down to 131 lbs. Corey and her both want to see what she looks like at 130 lbs but she's pretty happy where she's at. She'll probably gain some of that weight back on the trip, tho. :)

Gretchen has given Zach 4 piano lessons since the beginning of the year. She has to hold him back from learning so much at one time because he likes to keep going. He's now finished his whole first book of piano lessons (47 pages). He's moving on to the next book. Amazingly, he loves taking piano lessons. Gretchen's taking advantage of it while she can. :)

From the day after Christmas, Gretchen has been doing a lot of cleaning. Although, don't let her fool you because she loves cleaning. She took down all the decorations (except the trees), the day after Christmas. Both her and Corey were starting to feel like their house was "cluttered". Then, she cleaned out the "Guest Bedroom" and moved our book shelf out in the family room upstairs. She went through all the books and organized them according to category. Then, she took down the Christmas trees on New Year's Eve.

Now, she has a big pile of "stuff" that needs to be sold and/or given away. She still needs to take pictures of everything to put it on ebay or craigslist.

Last weekend she went through Zach's summer clothes and got his clothes ready for Hawaii. Then, she went through both Corey's and her own summer clothes and washed the ones that needed to be washed. She's got our clothes all layed out and ready to be packed. She's afraid to put them in a suit case yet, tho, because she doesn't want them getting wrinkled. There's some stuff that can't be packed until the last minute. You probably know what those are tho, huh? :)

So, how many of you actually stayed up to watch the ball drop? I know we did. This is the first New Year's that we have been together for. The past 2 years, Corey has had to work on New Year's Eve. This year, since it was our first, we decided to stay up and watch the ball drop. It was nice but we were very tired this morning.