thriving

little naomi had her one week check-up yesterday. this is the moment where i, as her mother, wait with abated breath to see if my amateur attempts at breastfeeding have been in vain. this has probably been my biggest worry in the last week. is she eating enough? many of you know that once babies are born, they lose somewhere up to ten percent of their birth weight. doctors typically want to see them gain that back in 7-10 days. we were delighted yesterday when the nurse told us naomi weighed 6lb12.5oz, she had surpassed her birth weight by almost two ounces! good job naomi! and boy, did that make me feel proud. everything else was great and we went home feeling reassured that we were doing things right. it is so easy to worry with all the unknowns of new parenthood, but we feel that God truly is giving us grace enough for each day. thanks to those of you who have been praying for us, we can tell.

the many faces of naomi

it has been a thrill and a joy to watch naomi grow and change in this first week of life. one of the most entertaining parts of it all have been her different faces. although i have never seen a full smile on her yet, i am sure there will be plenty of that once learned. we don't claim to be the perfect parents but, naomi belongs to our little family, the miller household. i am going to attempt to interpret the faces that we have caught on camera to date.


"i'm tired but satisfied and comfy"


"i know that i am safe and secure with papa"


"i'm working on a bowel movement"


contented on the changing table, "eew, clean diaper"


"why is there a camera in my face"


"that's not mumma or papa"


"mum always takes care of me and feeds me"

naomi's first stroller outing

we took naomi on a nice wee walk to the wedge, our favorite local natural foods co-op, this afternoon. ethan was thrilled to finally take the stroller for a spin, as its been sitting sans baby for a few weeks in our front hall just screaming his name! boys with toys! it did us all three good to get some fresh air and stretch our legs a little. naomi seemed pleased with the stroller and quickly dozed off upon being strapped in. we're looking forward to longer walks around the lakes soon.

PINK!!!!!

we couldn't help ourselves from adding some color, one color in particular to naomi's wardrobe. as we didn't know the gender until the moment she was born, we only had neutral clothes waiting at home, and though they claim to be neutral, i have to say most of them look boyish to me. i decided enough was enough and it was time to get naomi some girl clothes. so yesterday we took a jaunt to target and babies'r'us and got her a few immediate things that she can fit into right now. thanks so much to those of you who gave us giftcards, they are coming in very handy now! these particular pink treasures are from joel, lori, & taylor, whitney, and great auntie debbie. thank you so much!!!

falling in love...

ethan and i are smitten with naomi. she is so precious, we can't quite believe she's for real. that we have been blessed with such a wonderous gift from heaven. we still can't get over how beautiful she is. 

naomi is doing well since coming home from the hospital, she, like us, seems to be much more at ease and calm in the setting of home, than the setting of a hospital. though we had a really good experience at hcmc, and really no complaints, a hospital room has nothing on home. we had a nurse pop by yesterday and since leaving the hospital on thursday, she had already gained 3 oz. not bad for one day! it helps to keep her mum's mind at ease to know she's growing. she's definitely plumping up. we can't believe how much she's changed in 5 days (i'm sure we're going to be thinking that for the rest of our lives as we watch her grow and change!).

as far as the sleepless nights go, i feel really blessed as we seem to be getting 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night, obviously not interrupted but  i think that's pretty decent for life with a newborn. she seems to be adapting to our time clock pretty well. thanks be to God.

its a girl!!!!!

Naomi Christine Miller arrived at 6.46am May 20th weighing 6lbs 11oz and 20 inches long!!!

we are delighted to welcome a daughter into the world and feel so blessed by her presence. we're busy falling more in love with her every minute. we'll have more pictures and the story of her birth up shortly but until then enjoy these pictures of our precious one on the day she was born.

birthday cake...

so i made a deal with the baby. today is my mum's birthday. so i told the baby that i was going to make grandma a birthday cake, and that was the deadline. it had until the cake was made, cooled and frosted to start making its journey. the cake is done now and i'm still having contractions, a sore back and pain running down my legs. maybe my bargain worked? either way we had fun making the cake, ethan took some pics you can enjoy. and now when my mum does come, which will be soon, right baby? there will be a birthday cake for her.

an update

its seems in the whirlwind of the last few months, this blog kind of fell to wayside. however, we thought it would be good to keep a family blog so people can keep up with us. so this is kind of a family newsletter in may, instead of at christmas time.

speaking of christmas, ethan and i had the great privilege of going to scotland for christmas to visit with my extended family. we were able to spend quality time with my grandparents, who are in their late eighties. also we spent christmas itself with my uncle russell, auntie elaine and cousins fiona and james. it was so nice to catch up and for ethan to be able to meet them. i really enjoyed chatting with auntie elaine. its great to be reacquainted with my scottish roots. we also took a wee adventure up to the windswept island of shetland to spend time with my auntie heather, uncle jeremy and my six cousins, sarah, evelyn, joshua, benjamin, rachel and paul. the cousins did a great job of entertaining ethan and i. we had a lovely time. ethan enjoyed being able to finally see where his wife comes from and seeing my childhood haunts and such. it was also great to meet up with childhood friends especially liz and her lovely new husband malcom and jennifer. we had a great break and ate lots of lovely british delicacies which i sorely miss, including fish and chips! we were so thankful we had the opportunity to go!




since coming back, we've mainly been working hard and getting ready for this baby to arrive. ethan is continuing to work part-time at princess bride video as a wedding video editor, which he is very good at. he works valet most weekends until the wee hours of the morning, which neither of us think is ideal, but we wait until something else comes along. also he's keeping busy with free-lance videography. so if you need anything filmed, let him know! i was working at starbucks until about two weeks ago and now i'm on maternity leave for twelve weeks. we are also the caretakers of our building, here in uptown minneapolis. the summer is a busy time with lots of people moving in and out.

we just moved at the beginning of may into a roomy two bedroom apartment that feels to us like a real home. a place for family and to spend time with people we love. we love it and feel so incredibly blessed to be here. its so roomy we don't quite know what to do with ourselves! we'll post some pictures soon.

on march 11th, we celebrated out two year anniversary in style at a lovely bed & breakfast in stillwater, minnesota. we are certain we love each other even more now than the day we said our vows. its been quite a journey and we look forward to the next stage.


as far as the dear little unborn one. we decided not to find out the gender at our ultrasound so we're waiting rather impatiently now to find out. everything has gone pretty smoothly through the pregnancy other than extended morning sickness, till about five and a half months! food has been a struggle the whole time to be honest, i'll be delighted to be able to eat anything i want again. our due date was the 13th of may, so we're just waiting now, sweet-talking the baby every day that it really should come out because of all the wonderful things we can do with it and show it!

we still attend church in uptown, where we've been now for four years! wow that's a long time! it seems to be a year of change there, so we will see where that takes us. that's really all thats going on with us. now for what is next!