Finally, a new post!

It has been nearly three months since my last post. It was a little overwhelming at first having two kids, at least for me. Then I just got out of the habit of blogging, at least my monthly blog post. We have been having a great winter. I love each of my children so much.

ALL ABOUT LINCOLN:
Lincoln loves his sister lots. Some mornings he wakes up and the first thing he says is "See Lauren?" It's cute. He loves it when they lay next to each other. He loves to put his face right next to hers and he smiles from ear to ear.  Each time he prays he gives thanks for "Dada, Mama, Lincoln, Lauren" and blesses "Dada, Mama, Lincoln, Lauren." He is starting to be able to say prayers, which is fun. He just needs little prompts. It is cute how he is thankful for some of the things that are right in front of him, and some abstract things. Gummi bears, cheese, bread, temple, scriptures, etc....

He is learning to talk more and more. He says 3-4/5 word utterances, and his grammar is improving.  He loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He watches an episode that buys me 25 minutes to shower and get ready (if Lauren is sleeping or awake/happy). I love that time too! He also loves the movie, Bolt, which is neat because that is the movie that Vance and I were watching when we first held hands.

Lincoln loves to move! He has always been a wiggly kid. He is very good at sorting by color, shape, you name it. One of the assistants at his school class commented on how he was the only child who could sort correctly in each sorting activity that day. So proud! He also can usually count correctly to 13 these days. After that everything is thirteen or seventeen:) He has been so social lately and likes to talk about his friends.

Since Lauren was born, Lincoln has wanted to cuddle more with me. I love it. He has learned to be more gentle with her (far less hitting her now). Vance and I try hard to make sure we each have a special time/date with him each week. Sometimes we'll go to McDonalds and just get ice cream there, something like that.

Lincoln has been sick this week. It's been almost a week since getting this horrible cold began. He coughs and coughs and his nose won't stop running. He has been watching more TV this week because he just wants to lay down with a pillow and blanket and cuddle. It has been a quiet week and we've tried to have fun inside and generally stay away from our friends. The picture below was before or after a major meltdown yesterday, immediately after he woke up. He wanted to see Vance, but Vance was at seminary or work, and we couldn't see him! His eyes are so puffy, cheeks and lips red (maybe needs more water) and his face is covered with his own mucus. Because I needed to get Lauren dressed, I entertained him with my phone, and it helped!

 He chose Mardi Gras beads at the Dollar Store, which he unselfishly gave to his friend Kendall, at her birthday party.

He loooves to play with my phone. We were taking silly photos. I usually have to go through my phone every few days and delete about 50 pictures of his forehead or the floor.

Lauren's one week stats

We had gotten a clean bill of health for Lauren before we went to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving (see previous post below)...and here are Lauren's one week stats!

Weight: 7.0 lbs/ 25-50th%ile
Height: 20 in/ 50-75th%ile
Head: 14 in/ 75-90th%ile

She had gained 9 ounces since leaving the hospital five days earlier. Atta girl! She shrunk in height by half an inch, and her head grew a whopping one inch! Actually I think the height measurements are pretty subjective...babies move so quickly and they can be more or less stretched out. I'm not sure her head truly grew one inch in one week, but maybe it did!
 

Lately

Lately...

Lincoln and his toy room in the background. Kind of messy, whoops!

Last week I put Lauren in this adorable yellow dress. I love it. She wasn't too happy about the photo shoot, though. Like many babies, she looooves to be held, a lot! It is amazing how she can cry and cry, but as soon as you pick her up, she  is in heaven!

This picture was taken when Lauren was two weeks old. Her hair is a light brown/reddish color. 

Uncle Jeremy (who currently lives in Miami) came to Minneapolis for a business trip. We were happy to see him for a visit. He got to hold Lauren and it was great to catch up with him. He brought a seashell from Florida that Lincoln's cousin, Kayla, wanted to give Lincoln. What a cool gift! Thanks Kayla!

 For Thanksgiving, we headed to Wisconsin, the closest place where family lives! yes, we even left for the long car ride when Lauren was only eight days old. Why not?! My mom has started this tradition of swinging with the grandkids and sings a special song to them. Lincoln loooves this. Not sure why he gave this face in this picture! Guess he didn't want it taken!! He must have found this cute hat in the basement. Rosalie his cousin and Jared (kids of Kelsey and Ken) were there too. It was great to reconnect with them and we had a great time. We all got sick with the stomach flu but it made the trip complete! The car ride to Wisconsin was amazingly easy (we only stopped once!) but on the way back (we all had the flu, except for Lauren) was so rough. I can not tell you how many times we stopped, how many bodily fluid messes we cleaned up, and how many hours of crying we heard. Boy, were we glad to be home!

Lincoln on the changing table giving a great "cheese." He has been learning to be a better big brother every day and we are so proud of him. It has been hard at times to share the attention, but he is getting better.

Baby Lauren has arrived!

 Lauren Kristen Murray

Born 11/13/12 at 1:34 pm

6 lbs 13 ounces

20.5 inches long

Lauren Kristen Murray has arrived! She is so beautiful and such a calm baby. We were sure she'd have the white fuzz hair like Lincoln, but she is our brunette! She's got light brown hair and we love it.  Here is her birth story recorded before I forget all of the details...

My mom came into town on Lauren's due date, Friday November 9th. We were just waiting for any signs that I might be in labor, but nothing happened. A week earlier I started feeling some aches and pains, similar to the way I felt right before real contractions started with Lincoln's labor, but they left and never returned.

We had a fun weekend with my mom here. We went to a park, church, shopping, etc. My mom watched Lincoln a couple of times so Vance and I could go out on a couple of dates in before the baby came. On one of the nights, it was freezing and so windy, but we went on an hour long walk/run to try to get this baby to come!  Because I knew my mom was coming into town and wanted to have the baby when she was here, I scheduled an induction date (Tuesday, Nov 13th). I wanted to be able to go into labor on my own, but was near the end of my pregnancy and getting desperate enough to not wait forever!

Tuesday morning finally came and we were sooo excited! I actually got up at 3 am and never completely fell back asleep again because I was so excited that it would be the day to hold my little girl.

Vance and I showered and got ready for the day. It was still dark outside and we had a light breakfast and got ready to leave. My mom and Lincoln awoke right before we left as well. We were out the door at 6:50 AM and headed to the hospital.

We arrived at Fairview Southdale hospital in Edina, MN and told the older man at the front desk we wanted to head to Labor and Delivery on the second floor. He offered me a wheelchair, but since I honestly felt great and wasn't even in labor, I declined and he escorted us up to the department. We were brought into room 215, the room I'd be having this baby in! They handed me the usual hospital gowns and a few minutes later had an IV with fluids started in me.  My OBGYN, Dr. Grootwassink came in and and we talked about what would happen.  It seems like it must have been around 8 or 8:30 when they started the pitocin after he had broken my water. I started feeling contractions pretty quickly and twice more they increased the amount of pitocin. Right before they were going to increase the pitocin amount the third time, they asked me again if I wanted my epidural. I definitely did by then because it was quite painful at that point... The anesthesiologist came and gave me the epidural. This time the epidural (in comparison to the epidural I received during Lincoln's birth) worked very well. I almost immediately felt relief and it made labor more relaxed and enjoyable. I definitely still felt the contractions but they felt like more intense pressure rather than pure pain.

The nurse, Sandy, came in once because my blood pressure dropped pretty low, but it raised again so there were really no worries. Near the end of labor I was given an oxygen mask to use because Lauren's heart rate would lower during each contraction. Apparently this isn't too uncommon so I wasn't too worried about this either.  Around 1:00 pm or so, I felt some different kind of pressure. I told Vance that I'd let the nurse know when she came in again, but based on the monitors, she knew to come in anyway! She was there within a minute and she checked me and said I was at 10 cm! I had only been 5 cm dilated at 12:30 pm, so we were both pretty surprised that it was time to deliver this baby!

Because I had been dilating slower during the whole morning, my OBGYN had left the hospital to go to one of the clinics. But the nurse called him and he came right back. At 1:25 pm he came into the room and we were ready to push! I only pushed a few times and she came out at 1:34 pm! I was soo surprised how much easier it was for her to come out and how quickly it all went. She was nearly a pound lighter than Lincoln so that made a big difference.

She seemed so tiny and beautiful when she came out. She was laid on my chest for a couple of minutes before Vance held her and was placed under a heating element. I remember how her feet and hands were purple and white, but soon got their healthy pink color. I remember the overwhelming feeling of joy as I held her for the first time. I also felt so much relief that the delivery had gone well and she was healthy. We had waited so long to hold her and it was wonderful to be able to see her. It was such a happy, amazing experience that was one I hope to never forget.

Lincoln came with my mom a couple of hours after she was born and it was great to see him meet her for the first time. He was interested in pointing out her eyes, fingers, thumbs, ears, arms. He was pretty gentle but this is something we still need to work on. He does not know his own strength! When he gets jealous, he has been a little rough with her face, or may yank an arm, so we have to watch their interactions really carefully:) When he first wakes up, he asks to hold her and it is neat to see how excited he is of her. He likes to say, "Dada, Mama, Lincoln, Lauren." He also is getting better about not touching her eyes or forcing them open:) I look forward to seeing their relationship grow with time. We've been home from the hospital for three days now, and it has definitely been a little stressful, but very rewarding. The house hasn't burned down, and we are staying on top of laundry, and still alive!  I definitely have not been able to exert the amount of energy that I was able to before I gave birth....still need more time to heal! Vance has been the best ever. He has done so much for me and I am so grateful that he has taken a week off of work. I also am eternally indebted to my mother, who watched Lincoln for the time we were in the hospital and who spent the time here before the birth as well!!!!

He's So Sweet to Me!

My husband Vance has always been very thoughtful. Today he came home for lunch with roses and chocolate covered raisins, which I love. There are two dozen roses (since this is the 2nd child we're expecting). It was such a sweet surprise. Today is our little girl's due date, and when Lincoln's due date came, Vance got me flowers then too. I remember how much I appreciated them then, because my due dates have come and gone with no baby!

As you can see, Lincoln was enjoying the treats too!