Picture time!

Here are some new pictures of my kids, so fun!

Tim with Mikey

Allie loves her brother!

Mikey kept staring up this morning.

I just love this little boy!

Tim with little brother

Wish Me Luck!

So, today Justin is going out of town leaving around 3 PM and getting back on Tuesday evening, probably after the kids are in bed. He had the choice of going although it was highly recommended that he go to California for a meeting on Monday. Since our baby was so easy going a week ago, I told him he could go. Well, these past few days the crazy sleep patterns have really gotten to me and I'm tired, just plain tired. I finally feel like a newborn, sleep-deprived mom. And now he's leaving for 2 nights. Well, I know I'll survive, it will just be tough.

Feeling Blessed

Right now I feel so blessed. I don't know what I did to deserve such an easy baby. He is very sleepy during the day still, maybe awake 4 hours or so, hardly ever cries and is already in a good nighttime routine. He goes to bed around 8 or 9, sleeps til 1 or 2, and then wakes up again at 4 or 5. Then he sleeps in until 8 or 9 AM. Truly, I am not that tired and feeling so blessed. Two nights ago he went to sleep at 9 PM and slept until 4:15 AM, wow!

He is such a mild tempered baby, I just love it!

Thoughts on the hospital and coming home

Since this blog has become my journal, I am going to write some of my thoughts regarding the hospital stay and any other little tidbit that has gone through my mind that past week and a half. Warning, this post will probably be long!!

First off, I have really enjoyed having a newborn baby in my home. With Timmy, he was so cranky, never napped for more than 45 minutes and was difficult and I was struggling to heal for weeks which added to my disconnect. With Allison, I wasn't sure what to expect but she was an easier baby for the first month or so and then went on to nap only 45 minutes at a time also. I still didn't feel an instant connection to her at the beginning though. However, with little Mikey, I am so happy he is part of our family and I just really enjoy holding him and taking care of him. The last evening I was at the hospital Justin left early to spend some time with our kids and sleep over at his parent's house. I was a little lonely so I just kept the baby with me and snuggled him until it was time to go to bed. In the morning, I couldn't wait for him to come back and join me, he is so sweet!

This time at the hospital we didn't have as many visitors and I actually really enjoyed so much downtime to rest and enjoy my baby. When visitors did come, most of them overlapped so it worked out really well. I still love having visitors but it hasn't been as strong of a need this time around. With my past babies I got the baby blues pretty bad and needed people around me constantly to feel okay.

I just love Davis Hospital! The nurses were all fantastic in their care and concern. The nursery nurses were also wonderful and never made me feel bad for leaving my baby in their care for as long as I wanted, which was usually from 9:30 PM until 8 or 9 in the morning. I also love that you can order whatever food you want during your stay and get snacks for the evening. They also had a new spa service this time which allowed you to pick one spa service to be performed in your room for free. I chose a facial and shoulder/neck/face massage. It was fabulous being pampered for 45 minutes! Other services included a pedicure, hair cut or hair style. They really know how to treat their patients :)

I already wrote about my easy delivery, and I have had an easy time healing as well. I am not one to sit around and let everyone do things for me (I should probably take it more easy but I just can't seem to sit still for long). I do have to sit for several periods during the day to pump and to feed the baby, both which take about a half hour to do. So, I am forced to rest a little bit at least :)

So far Mike has been a really calm and easy going baby. He doesn't have to be swaddled to fall asleep, and he sleeps quite a bit. During the night he has already established a routine. He wakes up around 1 AM and I feed him and get him back down by about 1:30. Then he wakes up around 4 or 5 for another feeding. After that, Justin takes over until I'm ready to get up and face the new day. Overall, I am not that tired thank goodness!

I haven't lost very much weight yet. When I came home from the hospital I had only lost around 8 pounds. I guess I enjoyed my hospital food too much, especially getting dessert with dinner and lunch, ha ha! Since coming home though I have continued to lose some weight and I will probably be over 20 pounds lost at the 6 week mark. With my last 2 babies I lost the baby weight so quickly that I didn't really need in-between clothes. However, I am not losing it as quickly (too many treats including girl scout cookies being delivered the day we got home) so I am struggling to find something to wear every day. Jeans are out (besides maternity jeans) so I am wearing stretch pants and all of my more loose fitting shirts. My maternity jeans still fit really well sadly but the shirts are too baggy so finding the right shirts to fit low enough over the maternity jeans has been a bit of a struggle. I will do it though, I will lose this weight!

I have decided to pump again this time around instead of breastfeeding for 4-6 weeks. In fact, I have never even attempted to latch Mike on in order to minimize the damage done and so that pumping will be a little less painful. There are times when it really hurts, especially my right side, but other times no pain at all which is nice. I mentioned in my other post that Allie probably has RSV so I am definitely going to stick through with this pumping business so that my baby will be protected as best as possible. If any of you are reading this and don't know already, I have a yeast infection in my breasts from breastfeeding Timmy and it has never gone away and I am unfortunately always bruised. I also have an excess of the enzyme lipase in my milk which makes it taste metallic when stored in the fridge for more than a day or frozen in the freezer. To combat this, I have to scald my milk before freezing to keep it tasting normal - one more step, lucky me! When I try to feed Mikey those bottles that have been in the fridge for more than 24 hours, he usually rejects them and shakes his head when I try to feed him. My kids laugh and laugh at his shaking his head and I admit, it is really funny to watch! It is sad to throw out the milk that he doesn't like, I am in pain to bring him the good stuff! Oh well, my trials are not too hard to handle.

On Saturday my sister Sherri came to visit and I decided to go out and go shopping for a few hours without kids. I really wanted a new soft pink robe from Sears that I have noticed and wanted for a few months now but couldn't really justify since I have a nice robe already, although it is like 10-12 years old now. Well, with having a baby and being up a lot in the night, I decided I wanted the soft robe to put on to make the middle of the night feedings more comfortable. I went and bought it, yay! I love it! We did some other errands as well and it was nice to talk to her and just get out for a bit.

This time around, my Mom only stayed for a few days. She came Wednesday evening and left on Friday afternoon. She was a great help though and I was able to get some rest during the night and some naps during the day. She even made me her chicken soup so that I could have lunch for the next week which I love :) She just got married, and hasn't had much time to adjust to her new home in Wales so she was anxious to get home to her new husband and home. Since this time around has been easy, I agreed to her leaving on Friday. She said she would come back on Monday the 21st if I needed more help but I was doing fine so she just stayed in Murray to continue going through her old house.

The first night I got home from the hospital I got the baby blues really bad and I started crying and couldn't stop! I was soo tired and the baby was really restless that night. My Mom finally took the baby from 1-5 so I could rest and I did, but then felt really guilty for not taking care of my baby in the night. I checked on my Mom and she was so disoriented that she didn't know what time it was. She thought it was only 2 AM but then she felt a strong prompting from the spirit that she needed to get up and feed the baby. When she came upstairs around 5:45 AM she saw that I had been sitting at the table crying for the past 45 minutes. She didn't realize the whole night had past and she hadn't fed the baby once, just kept giving him his binkie. We quickly fed the baby and talked for a while. The baby went back to sleep so I went back to bed and started talking to Justin and started crying again, I was such a bawl baby! I slept in and went to see my chiropractor and started crying again. He suggested I start taking fish oil and overdose on them a bit. Instead of taking 2 like recommended, he said to take 5 a day. I bought some and started taking them and the blues went away almost like magic! I haven't been really sad or overwhelmed since then, they are great :)

Anyway, that's about it for my thoughts. If you read this whole post, then wow, I am amazed at you!

My birth experience

Well, here is the story of how Michael arrived. It's a little long but I wanted to write down everything so I can have it to read in the future.

Justin and I dropped off our kids on Sunday night to my in-laws so they could babysit during our hospital stay. Justin and his Dad gave me a nice blessing before we left which I really appreciated. We came home and I tried to sleep but I was restless and nervous. We woke up at 5:30 AM and got ready and arrived at the hospital around 6:45 AM for my 7 AM induction.

We got checked in and headed up to the labor and delivery room. Before any meds were started, I was dilated to a 2. She checked my blood pressure and it was reading a little high but she said it was normal since most moms are a little nervous. At 7:30 the nurse put my IV in and it hit a block so she pushed through it and it hurt like crazy! I am still bruised from it! My blood pressure dropped really low so she put me on oxygen for 15 minutes so I didn't feel so light-headed. She then started me on the oxytocin and contractions started to come every 3-4 minutes although not too hard. My doctor arrived around 8:30 and broke my water and said I was at a 3. After that the contractions started to come every 2-3 minutes and they were pretty rough. The nurse asked if I wanted to epidural and I said yes, although I felt like a wimp since I was only at a 3 :) By the way, I loved all of my nurses, especially my delivery nurse.

It took probably 30-40 minutes before the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. It still wigged me out a little but was okay although it worked much better on my right side. I told the nurse I was still feeling some contractions and back pain on my left side so she had me lay on that side to help the meds flow that way. It definitely helped and later they let me turn and lay on my right side which helped also. I stayed at a 4 for a while and felt like the labor would be really long.

The nurse then upped my dose of meds and came in at 11:30 AM to check me and I was at a 7. She said I would be a 10 in 20 minutes and to plan on having the baby by noon. She came back around 11:50 and indeed I was fully dilated. She called the doc, prepared the room and put me back on oxygen for the delivery. My doctor came and had me push once and said the head was crowning. He told me I would tear a little and recommended a little episiotomy so I agreed. He then had me push again and out came the head. For my final push the baby came out and it was amazing because I wasn't really numb above my belly button and I could feel the baby leaving my body :)

He cried for a few minutes and then calmed down. His first Apgar test score was 8.9 I believe. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 21 inches long and was born at 12:06 PM. He was bundled up and Justin held him while the doc finished up with me. I guess my placenta wasn't cooperating so he had to push high up on my stomach a lot which hurt quite a bit since I wasn't numb there. Finally he finished and stitched me up. I held the baby and he was sounding like he had fluid in his throat so we asked the nurse and she sent him to the nursery to suction him out better and warm him up. He was gone for about 2 hours so it felt weird to give birth and then not have my baby for so long.

After waiting the standard hour in the delivery room, they moved me to my private room and my lunch had arrived and I was glad, I was hungry! The meds were wearing off pretty quickly although I stayed numb and didn't need medication until 9 PM that night.

Well, that's the story of how I delivered my baby. Really easy delivery, and a wonderful baby to hold.

I will write another post about my hospital stay because I love the hospital, the nurses, the food (well mostly) and the pampering they give you. It deserves its own post.

Welcome Michael Benjamin McMurray

He's here and such a sweet little boy! We are so happy to welcome Baby Mikey into our family and here's a little bit about him. He was born 1 week early by induction (story to come) and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long. His hair is dark brownish red and his eyes are dark bluish/gray. He loves to sleep and I have to wake him up during the day to have him eat enough although he is still below the recommended 2.5 x body weight = total calories in a day. He weighs just under 8 pounds and if you times that by 2.5 he should have about 19-20 oz a day but he usually has 15. Oh well, we'll see if he's back to his birth weight at his 2 week appt.



We have been really cautious with germs when it comes to Mikey. Allison returned home from her stay with my in-laws with a bad cold. She has a runny nose, cough and chest congestion. When I mentioned this to the doc at Mike's 5 day checkup he believes she has RSV which is no big deal for a 3 year old, just a cold, but for a baby it is more serious. Allie has not been able to touch the baby, touch his binkies, blankets or bottles at all. Luckily she is coughing less, nose is running less and hopefully she will be illness free by next week! The doctor is a bit worried about this and says if he shows any illness at all to bring him back before his 2 week appt. He did have a very small runny nose last night, but nothing today. This is motivating me even more to pump breast milk to feed him to keep his immune system in top shape. The pain is worth it!

Welcome Mikey, we just love you and the sweet spirit you have brought into our home of 5!

New pictures

Allison woke me up this morning at 5:30 AM because she was whimpering in her sleep and I had a hard time getting back to bed because of my funky dreams of having the baby at home and having my doctor as my old boss from Lewis Young.

Well, since I am awake, I thought I would post some pictures from the past few months.

Allison with her Strawberry Shortcake Cake

The cake up close

Allison in her new Ariel dress

Allison with her play shoes

New Princess shirt

Treasure Chest of Dresses

New Princess Table & Chairs

Justin and Allie blowing out the candles at the Family Party

Allie's umbrella from Grandma Beth

New outfit from Grandpa Griggs

Cute new dress from Jer, Andrea and cousins

Allie is potty trained, yay!

My kids are best friends!

Allison's amazing fashion choices!

Last Doctor's Visit

This morning I had my last doctor's visit, hooray! No more weigh-ins and the baby will be here soon! I am still dilated to a 1 only (no change in 2-3 weeks) and he said I'm thinned out quite a bit (no percentage given) and the baby's head is really low. My doctor said my induction is set for 7 AM on Monday morning and to be there 15 minutes early. He also said I could eat a light breakfast which I'm glad about because I am still really nauseated and if I couldn't eat breakfast, I would probably feel ill during labor.

I'm glad that my induction is set for that early because last time I went in to be induced at 7:30, we arrived just before then and had to wait for a half hour to get everyone else going who got there before me. I'll probably shoot for being there 20 minutes early and beat everyone :)

I have so many things I want/need to get done this week, here's the list!

* Put together choir folders and deliver to my neighbor Rachel who is taking over my calling for the Easter program
* Car seat installed
* Batteries installed in the bouncy seat and swing
* Buy a present for my Dad's birthday
* Return library books
* Go on one last date night
* Wash everyone's sheets
* Wash baby bottles and pump parts
* Finish packing, including my kids stuff
* Wrap the gifts from the baby to my kids and put in my suitcase to give them at the hospital
* Deep cleaning including all 3 bathrooms, mop, dust, vacuum etc.
* Pay bills
* Grocery shop on Saturday so we are set

Wow, that's a big list, I better get going on it! You may think I'm nesting but really, I don't have a huge desire to do these things, rather I just feel they need to get done. Here goes nothing!

**Update**

Today I finished the following:

* Car seat installed
* Batteries in bouncy seat and swing and they both work, yay!
* Put together the choir folders
* Cleaned the basement bathroom and washed all of the towels
* Washed guest bedroom sheets and put the room back together for my Mom's visit
* Organized all of the kids toys and took most of them downstairs
* Brought up all of the bottles so I can wash them


I don't think I'll finish the rest of the deep cleaning til Friday or Saturday so it stays looking nice through next week.

Rough night

Last night I woke up a few times to use the bathroom and then Allie came in around 3:30 AM telling me there was a bad guy in her room that tried to eat her. I got her back to bed pretty quickly but unfortunately hunger set in and although I ignored it for a half hour, I had to get up and eat. I ate some wheat bread with peanut butter and finally got back to bed around 4:30 AM. Justin let me sleep in until 8 AM and then I woke up feeling so ill. I started to eat which usually keeps my nausea at bay but not this morning. I started to feel like I was going to throw up and hurried to take a Zofran so that I can feel well enough to have a productive day. Now I am sitting here trying my best to control myself so that the pill can kick in.

I sure hope I feel better soon because this morning is my last free morning without kids to go out. They both have preschool from 9-11 and it's my last day to go shopping without them. I don't really need anything, but it's still nice to go out alone during the day.

Anyway, that's all and I am so happy this is all ending in a week, I'm tired of feeling ill so often!

Stuff

Well, I really can't wait for March 14th, it still seems so far away even though it's less than 2 weeks. I am still nauseated every day and came somewhat close to throwing up this morning but I took a Zofran and rested until the feeling subsided. What a bummer to have to keep taking those blasted constipation pills! Sorry if I share too much information :) I am also feeling more and more awkward every day!

The only worry I have right now is childcare when I go to have the baby. My father-in-law was having his physical to get ready to turn in his mission papers. One of the tests they performed was a stress EKG and there was enough concern to perform an angiogram to check out his heart. He had the procedure done a week and a half ago and they found 3 blockages in his heart and ended up having open heart surgery this past Monday, the 28th of Feb. He is okay, out of the ICU but still in a lot of pain and of course weak and tired. We are hoping to be able to visit him in the hospital this week, possibly on Friday. We are so glad they were able to find this out before something more serious happened. It is possible he could have had a heart attack and died within a few months if they didn't find this out when they did.

Anyway, with that told, it's up in the air whether or not my mother-in-law can take our kids when I have the baby. She was planning on it, but with the new events that have taken place, she is not sure how Steve will be doing and if he's still really struggling, we will need to find someone else to take our kids. When we asked her about it, she said to see how Steve was doing a week after the surgery.

It seems I always have some sort of stress about childcare/help when having a baby. With my first baby, my mom left to England on the day I had the baby and didn't get back until he was a week old. Talk about the hardest week of my entire life! We were living in Virginia and had no family around and friends we had only known for 6 months. I had no visitors in the hospital but my ward members were certainly kind and helped out a lot. With Allison, my parents had a trip scheduled to Hawaii right before she was supposed to be born and they had a lot of ups and downs about going and ended up canceling the trip and were able to take Tim. Now, this new stress is once again added to the list with this baby.

Here I am 12 days away from baby time, and still no solidified childcare. Oh well, I'm sure I can ask a sister-in-law to babysit but for some reason it still makes me feel like I'm putting someone out. I could even ask my Mom to take the kids but she is still adjusting to her new house and life down in Wales, UT and is 2 hours away. She is however planning to come for a week after the baby is born to help out and I'm glad that she will be able to.

Also, the past 2 times my Mom has come to help with my new babies, she has been very sad and stressed about her relationship with my Dad. With Tim, she had just gotten back from a really rough trip to England and did not have a good time. She was so happy to see the baby but very sad and depressed too. With Allison, she was also struggling a lot with my Dad and not very happy. However, this time, she is very happy to be married to Dennis and her life has certainly taken a turn for the better and she is very happy to be able to come and help seeing as she is not working anymore. Dennis may even come and spend some time here too which is fine with me.

Anyway, that is what's going on here at my house. I'm sure things will turn out fine but I wish I just had things figured out for sure. I guess I should just make some phone calls.