Adventures in Pregnancy

It has been one exciting week! Tuesday afternoon before Lauren left work she went to the bathroom and saw blood. She immediately called the doctor's office and was told to go to the hospital. Scary! Lauren did end up having mild, regular contractions. After some testing it was discovered that Lauren had a urinary tract infection, causing bleeding and contractions. This can be caused by the bladder not emptying itself all the way since pregnant people, especially at this stage, are going so often. The leftovers just stay in the bladder and can breed infection. So Lauren was given meds and ordered to be on bedrest until the follow up on Friday. Now, bedrest may sound fun, but the instructions are: bedrest - you can get up to go to the bathroom, take a shower, and for meals. No laundry, no shopping, no heavy lifting. Which means no picking up Jordyn, either. We saw the doctor for a follow up today. Lauren actually seems to have a different kind of infection, again very common in women. She has been given new meds and is now officially off work until McMiller arrives. We heard the heartbeat which still sounds great. The baby is head down, the cervix is still closed, and she is growing great. The doctor joked that Lauren hides her babies well - since no one thought Jordyn would be as big as she was and Lauren's tummy is still not huge. Lauren is now on bedrest for another week and a half. At that point we are hoping she will be on modified bedrest until 37 weeks, when the doctor wants Lauren up and about to get this baby out!
Poor Aaron is now doing double, triple duty. Lucky for him, though, Lauren has had two great pregnancies up until this point but boy is he getting it now! Unfortunately Aaron cannot go on his golfing trip next week because Lauren will still be on bedrest. We'll make it up to you, Aaron/Daddy!

33 Weeks

Today was our 33 week appointment. Lauren was sure that McMiller had a growth spurt and she seems to have been right! The doctor made a comment about the big measurement. McMiller seems to be head down so we will see in two weeks if she still is. It is getting harder for Lauren to breathe and McMiller's movements are much more powerful - she's strong! Two more weeks and we will be back for another checkup.

Names and 31 Weeks

We are getting closer to Lauren's due date which means its time for another poll! Here are a few choices for McMiller's name (read below - the funky ones are our attempt at weird celebrity baby naming. We are not rich or famous enough to actually name our kid those). Just like when we did this for Jordyn, your votes don't mean squat, but its fun to see what people like. And this way you all feel involved :) We have been leaning toward one name the entire pregnancy but you just never know what we will choose in the end. And no, we are not going to tell you yet which one it is. As we mentioned last time as well, we want to try to come up with a unique name for our McMiller since "Miller" has moved from #7 (1990 census) of the most popular/common last names to #6 (2000 census). So we have taken great care to check the name possibilities against the Social Security ranking of popular baby names over the last few years so we avoid the chance of having 14 Jennifers, and 5 Jennifer Millers, that McMiller will have to contend with. We have also done a little research and tried to draw some inspiration from celebrity parents. Below is a list of some favorites - and yes they are real.

Lauren and Aaron's List of The Best Weird Celebrity Baby Names (note: these are not ranked according to our favorites, and we have pared this list down greatly)
1. Camera (daughter of Arthur Ashe)
2. Free (son of Barbara Hershey/David Carradine)
3. Spec Wildhorse (son) and Hud (son) (John Cougar Mellencamp)
4. Seven Sirius (Erykah Badu)
5. Rainbow Joan of Arc (Arlyn & John Phoenix)
6. Fifi Trixibelle (daughter), Peaches Honeyblossom (daughter), Little Pixie (daughter) (Bob Geldof/Paula Yates)
7. Reignbeau (daughter) and Freedom (son) (Ving Rhames)
8. Alcamy (daughter of Lance Henriksen/Mary Jane Henriksen)
9. Audio Science (son of Shannyn Sossamon/Dallas Clayton)
10. Tu Simone Ayer (Note: As in, Tu Morrow, daughter of Rob Morrow)
11. Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf)
12. Zolten Jillette (son) and Moxie Crimefighter (daughter) (Penn Jillette)
13. Hopper (Sean Penn and Robin Wright)
14. Everly Bear (son of Anthony Kiedis)
15. Shia LaBeouf (Named by grandfather: name means "thank God for beef")
16. Banjo Patrick (son of Rachel Griffiths/Andrew Taylor)
17. Kal-el (son of Nicholas Cage Note: Kal-el is Superman's birth name.)
18. Rocket Valentin (son), Racer Maximilliano (son), Rebel Antonio (son), Rogue (son), Rhiannon (daughter) (Robert Rodriguez/Elizabeth Avellan)
19. Diva Muffin (daughter of Frank Zappa/Gail Zappa Other Children: Dweezil (son), Ahmet Emuukha Rodan (son), Moon Unit (daughter))
20. Nell Marmalade (Helen Baxendale & David Eliot)
21. Puma (daughter of Erykah Badu/Tracy Curry (The D.O.C.))
22. Denim Cole (son) and Diezel Ky (son) (Toni Braxton/Keri Lewis)

Today we also saw the doctor. Everything is looking good and now we start going every two weeks. The heart sounds good and since Lauren has been walking recently there was not too much weight gain which is good since McMiller loves sweets so the exercise seems to be counteracting some of that! ;) McMiller is getting big enough now that when she moves it feels like a ball with pressure slowly moving under Lauren's muscles. She has even gotten Lauren a few times in between muscles or something, and it has hurt! Jordyn is also excited for McMiller, she pats Lauren's belly and says baby and even will give it a kiss sometimes! Aw! We are looking forward to meeting McMiller though there is still lots to be done.