Rolly Polly

Murphy has been rolling belly to back for sometime now, but today he rolled from his back onto his belly. He did get his arm stuck under his belly, though, and I had to help him with that after he had rolled over.

Good job, Murphy!

He Laughs!

My baby FINALLY laughed and giggled! And it was the cutest thing ever!

We figured out about two weeks ago that Murphy was a little ticklish. I tickled his thighs and he let out a short little laugh. He wouldn't do it again. About a week later, the same thing by his neck and arms.

Tonight I was singing silly songs about cooperation to him while I changed his diaper. I got another little one out of him but no more so I decided to try tickling him. He let out a lot of really cute giggles! It was so precious!

Murphy's Stats & Milestones

6.25.12 - 9lbs 1 oz, 21"
6.30.12 - 4.3kg
7.16.12 - 5kg
7.22.12 - 5.4kg. 58.4cm
8.3.12 - 5.7kg
8.17.12 - 5.8kg
8.27.12 - 5.8kg, 63.5cm

I had some milestones written on ColorNotes on my phone and that I was super smart and uninstalled the app.  I'm going to try to remember them...

I think his first official smile was on August 13th.  A closed mouth, little smile.

On August 6th, he held his head up for a good 5 minutes and looked around.  He also rolled from his belly to his back for the first time.  It wasn't until a couple days later that he was rolling over consistently.

August 21st, I almost caught a full, mouth open smile.

Mid August, Murphy started to be a lot more alert and chatty.  He is constantly cooing and talking to us.  He is so purposeful about his talking, it is very heart warming.

(Daddy is kicking my off the computer now.)

Here comes the Tooth Fairy!

7 years, 8months, 3 weeks, and 5 days old.  I thought it was never going to happen!  I think he was beginning to wonder!  But finally, and just before the start of second grade, Maddox lost his first tooth!

And Faye was pretty darn excited too!  Unfortunately, this picture doesn't show it.  The one where she was grinning as big as Maddox, my phone froze and wouldn't take the picture.

My Baby's got a loose tooth!

Maddox was being silly at dinner and bit his cob instead of the corn and knocked his tooth loose.  I had to cut the corn off the cob so he could eat it because he said it hurt too much to eat.  My big dude might actually lose a tooth before his 8th birthday!  Maybe even before second grade starts!

And no, the picture doesn't show anything.  Just his pretty smile and his messy face from eating ribs.

He's Here!

Murphy William

6/25/2012 @ 11:55 PM

9lbs, 1oz & 21"

And 8 weeks old today!  I've been both stalling writing this post and forgetting/being too busy to get to it.  I'm writing on my phone because I've decided if I wait until I can put him down and get on my laptop, it'll never happen.

Murphy was due on Wednesday, June 6th.  Originally, that is.  After my 20 week scan (notoriously inaccurate for dating gestational age at that point) we changed the date to Saturday, June 9th to "buy more time" if we needed to.  I guess that point would have been a time to go over the "what ifs", but honestly, I didn't think I'd go over.  June 6th felt like his birthday and that was going to be the day regardless, but it wasn't.

I hit 42 weeks on June 23rd and at that point immediately jumped to being 42 weeks and 3 days.  I felt 42+3.

My midwife, Clare, met us at the imaging center to have a biophysical profile (BPP) on June 20th (42 weeks, or at that point 41+4).  Murphy looked beautiful.  Everything was great and healthy.  One day, Emme and Renee came over to do a Non-stress test (NST) and on another day, Clare came over to do a NST.  Murphy sounded great both times. 

Emme called me in the morning on Monday, June 25th, talking about doing another BPP, but possibly in Wisconsin.  She said at this point, 42+5, we needed to think about induction and she needed to consult with her OB/GYN.  I called Clayton in a panic (and tears) and talked to him about if the ultrasound was in WI, if he wanted to get out of work or if I should see if my sister would bring me.  He said he'd get out of work and then I waited for Emme to call back.  She did awhile later and confirmed that if I did not go into labor by Wednesday night, the OB thought it would be a good idea to come in for an induction, but my ultrasound could be here and my midwives would consult with him again over the phone after that.  I called and set up an appointment at the imaging center for a couple hours later and both my midwives met us there for another BPP.

Murphy still looked great and my amniotic fluid level looked even better this time.  We met outside after and the midwives talked to us about how if this continued past Wednesday, 43 weeks, that they wanted me to go to Wisconsin to be induced at the hospital.  (For those wondering, there is nothing wrong with Minnesota and there are no strange laws, there is just a certain doctor in WI.  He is the OB/GYN that my midwives consult with and a very natural-minded OB/GYN).  I asked my midwives if they would entertain me by trying to strip my membranes.  Neither believe that it actually does anything, but at this point the only thing we hadn't tried was castor oil.  So they met us at our home and gave it a try. 

My cervix was really long and posterior and my external OS was dilated to a 1, international OS was still closed up, so Emme could not even reach or get through to do the sweep.  I just cried before they even left.  I was so stressed out and with no emergency, the very last place I wanted to go was the hospital, especially in Wisconsin and probably not being able to have my other children with me.

I had bought castor oil over the weekend and was debating whether or not I wanted to do it.  Well, no, not if I WANTED to, cause I reeeeally did not want to, but I was kind of getting to a point where I thought I might as well.  I felt comfortable, mentally/emotionally with him still being in there.  I wasn't afraid that he was in any danger.  I was starting to believe my own joke about how he was going to be born at 44 weeks.  Wednesday, July 4th.  My first was born at 36 weeks.  On a Monday.  My second was born at 40 weeks.  On a Tuesday.  It would only make sense that #3 would be at 44 weeks.  On a Wednesday.

I was in a miserable mood all day.  I was so sad and stressed out.  At dinner I decided that I'd take the castor oil before Madd and Clayton went off to T-Ball.  I was worried about taking it in the evening and then not being able to sleep that night, but I was feeling so depressed I figured I might as well, I wasn't getting to sleep anyways.

My midwives told me to call them before I took it to make sure that there were no other laboring women (I wish there had been), so I called Emme and she gave me the go ahead.  I made a shake with Belgian chocolate ice cream, milk, and 2oz of castor oil (should have used less castor oil, but everything I read online was 2-4oz.  So glad I did not do 4oz).  I drank it between 7-7:30pm and Madd and Dad left for t-ball.

My belly went all wonky immediately.  It was square looking.  I took several pictures thinking that they did no justice to show the craziness of my belly shape.  (The red bumps on my belly are PUPPP)

Faye was at the end of the couch using glitter glue and I wasn't really in the mood to stop her.  I got her a paper bag so that she didn't get glue on the couch and then sat down on the floor and laid my head on the couch as she proceeded to make me something pretty.  I wasn't feeling contractions and I didn't feel the way a laxative should make you feel, but I felt crummy and like I was going to be nauseous.

As soon as Clayton and Maddox walked through the door, I asked if I could take a bath and I was in there for 30-60min.  I think I lost track of time because Clayton got the kids ready for bed, teeth brushed, and books read and both were asleep when I got out of the bath.

I still wasn't having any contractions, but one big long contraction while I was in the tub.  My stomach was as hard as a rock and it was making me nervous.  That's the only reason I got out at that point, because I wanted to grab my stethoscope and listen to the babies heart.  He sounded good, so I got up, got dressed, and then I was starting to feel normal contractions.

At 10pm, we took some pictures.  I was convinced that I was in real labor this time (I had been having both braxton hicks contractions and real contractions on and off all day, every day since June 2nd), so we figured we should get some pics in.

It wasn't until 11pm that I decided that maybe I should time them because they seemed pretty frequent and pretty long.  I had been dancing around on my tip toes, pacing back and forth in the living room, gripping my pelvis firming contractions, trying to decide if this was for real for real.

It was definitely for real and I was having 1 min long contractions every 2 min (for those of you not familiar with timing contractions, that was one min on, one minute off).

I called my closest midwife (one is in Mpls, the other in StP) around 11pm and told her that the castor oil had worked and that I had been having contractions.  I told her that I had only been timing them for a half hour and they were two minutes apart and one minute long.  She asked if I wanted them to come over and I said "umm, hmm, I don't know.  I guess."  And she says "ok, I'm coming over!"

My thought process was that I didn't want them over all night if I wasn't that close.  I didn't need anyone for labor support.  My water hadn't broken yet and with my last two it broke on its own, one at 12 hours prior and the other at 1.5 hours prior.

Well, I had a couple contractions after that and then I felt the urge to push.  At some point, I had taken off my pajamas and put on a tube top dress.  Clayton grabbed my towel and laid that on the floor in the middle in our bedroom and I got down on all fours.

I HAD to push.  With my other two, I could try to hold it in and not push with it, but this time I had to actively push.  I had two contractions that I pushed with and then on the third my water broke.  I pulled my undies off and had another contraction and he started coming.  It only took him a couple minutes to come out.

I was feeling pretty nervous about tearing.  It hurt a lot in the front.  Well, it hurts a lot, but it hurt a lot more and it stung!  So I reached down while pushing and put pressure there.  I did end up tearing a little, but not enough for stitches.

Murphy came out head down, occiput anterior (good boy!), with a nuchal right arm.  He had his hand up by his cheek and eye on the side of his head.  It was such a relief after both arms were out and just his chest down remain inside.

My midwives didn't make it in time.  They certainly made good time and JUST missed his birth.

Emme rushed in to help (and turn off the fan that had been on for maybe 10mins as I poured sweat from getting this little one out).  I took my dress off and Clayton passed Murphy under my legs and up to me.  Emme went to wake the kids up.  They both wanted to see him being born and so did we, but we had made the decision to wake them when the midwives got there, assuming Murphy wasn't going to be born before then!  Maddox came out and looked at Murphy and checked to see if he was a boy or a girl.  He was still pretty sleepy and it took him a minute to check things out.

We moved up to the bed, which Clayton had prepped while I was in labor, and Faye tried to cut the cord after is had gone completely white and floppy.  It was too squishy for her, though, and Clare helped her out.  As soon as he was off his cord we nursed.  I always seem to have short-ish cords and have trouble getting them up high enough with it still on.

After weighing the baby, making Comfrey root pads and rinse, steaming the placenta, and all that good stuff, the midwives left around 3am.  We went to bed soon after that and the little guy slept better than any couple-hours-old baby I've ever had.

Now here is Murphy at 1 Month:

And 2 Months:

Come on, Baby!

Saturday, June 2nd, I was having consistent braxton hicks contractions again.  I had two days of them at 34 weeks, another two days of them around 36 weeks, and June 2nd marked the start of 10 days.  I had a couple breaks though.  Two days (after the first 4), I had them in morning and then again at night, but only sporadically during the day.  Days after that, I'd have clusters of them and then an hour or two break, some more clusters, etc.  This Monday, I had a couple, but then at T-Ball that evening, I was just in general pain.  Back and belly pain and then I realized it was waves of pain and not a constant pain.  Of course that went away.  I had BHC's again all day yesterday too.

Aunty Amy picked up Maddox in the morning to go to the zoo.  Faye and I couldn't go because I had an appointment with my midwife at 1pm and they couldn't wait until 2pm to get to the zoo.  We had Clayton drop us off in Linden Hills instead and spent the day with just the two of us.  We went to Heartfelt, then Creative Kidstuff.  We walked down to Wild Rumpus and Faye chased a chicken around the whole store.  It was hilarious and she was yelling to all the kids about how she HAD to pet the chicken and if you want to, you have to do it really fast.  We bought two books and after that went to an over priced restaurant to grab a snack before we went to Lake Harriet.  We should have just checked out Coffee and Tea, or gone over to Dunn Bros.  Guess I'll remember that next time.  After, we walked towards Lake Harriet.  We went down the stairs to where the street car is.  It doesn't run until 6:30 on weekdays, so we didn't see if.  Faye had to pee, of course I asked her 5min earlier in the restaurant and she refused), so she pee'd on the ground.  Then while I was looking up where Clayton wanted us to meet him at after work, Faye climbed up the side of the wall and got stuck...  We were off after I got her down and 1.5 mi later, we were at a park where Clayton was going to meet us.  We played there for a while and then went to The Malt Shop with Clayton and then headed home.

I went straight to the bath after getting home.  My hips and pelvis felt miserable.  I got in the bath and felt just as miserable.  I didn't last long in there.  It did help my hips and pelvis, but my belly started to feel icky (well, it kind of did already, I only got 3 bites of my sandwich down at the restaurant) and then my back just really bad.  I felt so much tension and knots in there.  I normally cannot leave the bath without taking a full shower afterwards, but I was pretty desperate, so I washed my hair in the tub and got out.  After that, I was feeling even worse.  Then I felt like I was going to puke.  I got up and went potty, but didn't puke.  I sat on the couch for a half hour or more getting ride of that feeling and then about a half hour after that, I started having contractions.  Real contractions.  I was up from 10:30pm to 2:30am with contractions and a massive back ache.  I went upstairs and got juice, water, and tylenol and then laid on the couch so that I could sleep on my back.  I got to bed pretty quick on the couch.  Woke up at 5am and haven't had a single contraction all morning.

I hope these dumb things come back.

June 1st, 2012

I started my day at 4:30 AM, by waking up from being wet from the pee that my 4 year old (in 8 days) had deposited into my bed while sleeping.  After getting her up, stripping her, cleaning her, and getting new pajama's on her, she was up and wide awake.  I was not.  So we went out to the couch where I agreed to let her watch TV.  That really back fired on me because she didn't just sit there watching TV, she whined and complained about everything.  She wanted to go upstairs, she wanted to eat, she kept trying to go wake her brother up because she was convinced it was time to get up.

Not only was I forced out of my bed at 4:30 this morning, I barely got any sleep during the rest of the night.  I was tossing and turning all night.  About 2:30 AM, I got up and grabbed extra pillows to rearrange so that I could sleep in a reclined, sitting position.  My hips were killing me, my pelvis hurt, my stomach hurt, both of my hands were swollen, unable to close into even a semi-closed fist, they HURT, I could barely use the for anything (which was very helpful when I got up to take care of the wet child a couple hours later).  That still didn't help much, I couldn't keep my head in a comfortable position and I couldn't keep my arms and hands up, so that they were not dangling, getting more swollen.  I suppose I was probably meant to get up at 4:30 even if it weren't for pee.

Well, enough with all that...  My wonderful husband went to Caribou this morning and got me a LARGE Dark Chocolate Turtle Mocha Cooler!  Yee!  We have a new mailman starting today.  Seems he (or she?) is here already.  Our regular mailman was normally here by 10:30 as well.  His last day was yesterday, he has retired.  This actually means absolutely nothing to me and doesn't change anything in my life, it's just something else that's brand new this month.  This also is the first day of the month of the last day of school.  Does that make sense?  4 more days of school, including today.  3 more days until my sister and the kids get to Minnesota (4, for us really... since we will not be seeing her on Monday).  8 more days until our baby is due (please come early!) and 8 more days til the pool opens, but I imagine we won't be going there immediately!  9 more days until my little girl turns 4 years old.  10 more days until T-League starts.  18 more days until my husband turns 31.  18 more days until Super Summer program.

So those are all the things coming this month, but today my big boy rode his bike to school with NO TRAINING WHEELS for the first time today!  I had my husband take the training wheels off on Tuesday morning.  It had to be done, we were getting no where.  I kind of thought that maybe Madd was embarrassed to ride his bike to school because he was still using training wheels and besides an occasional kindergartner (only occasional!), nobody else has training wheels.  Madd never wants to ride his bike to school, he'd always just rather walk.  Well, we get ready to go to school and he says "I think I'll ride my bike to school today."  Uh, sorry, but you can't!  So we went over to the church parking lot right after school and within 10 minutes, he was off.  He had no problem riding the bike, it just took a little time and effort for him to start the bike with no training wheels.  I did not want to help him hold his bike steady, etc to get started.  I was pretty confident he could figure it out and most importantly, he NEEDED to learn that HE was in control of his bike.  He needed to hold it up right.  That was the biggest challenge that we were having.  He wasn't using any of his arm muscles or anything to keep his bike straight when it was on training wheels (we had them all the way up so he'd wobble back and forth).  He also wasn't pedaling with two feet. He'd only use the one leg that was highest to push forward and let the other leg just float along with the pedal, he could barely make it up the smallest hill!

Anyways, long story short, on the way to the church, he could barely push his bike to the parking lot (you'd think it'd be easier without training wheels constantly hitting your legs and feet).  He got up and started, rode his bike around twice and then it started to rain so we went home.  He did a bit better getting his bike home, but not great.  We get to our garage door and he says "You know what I learned about bikes without training wheels?  You have to hold them up!"  THANK GOD!!!

So we went again the next evening and then yesterday, I brought his bike to school and he rode it to the park.  After the park, he rode it home and when we got home, he wanted to go back over to the church parking lot to practice some more.  He's quite nervous about riding in the street.  Especially starting out because he feels he has too little space (if he swerves out when he's first starting).  We've made great progress.  After he could get started out with his pedal in a good, high position, he worked on getting started on either leg (cause he favored standing on his right and starting his left on the pedal), then starting from whatever position his pedal was already in.  On his way home from the park, I was a nervous wreck!  Of course Faye was being a little turd, going as slow as she could, zig zagging as she walked, stumbling like a little drunk, stopping at every mailbox, pole or post on the side of the road to "measure" herself, then she found a newspaper ad on the side of the road and decided she was going to walk and read at the same time...  Madd made it up the hills and down them.  He did stop and wait for us and stayed in view the whole time.

Today, he started his bike out on the street by our house, rounded the corner and went down the hill.  He crossed one street, making sure to look both ways and then made it all the way up the hill.  Faye and I were way behind him.  We lost sight of him after he made it up the hill and rounded the corner.  He crossed that street, hopefully making sure that there were no cars coming!  When we finally made it up there and across the street, he had stopped and was waiting for us at the next street up.  He hopped back on his bike, crossed that street, went down the path at his school and to the bike rack.  I don't think I have ever been so terrified in my life!  Of course he told some 3rd grader at school his bike lock combo, so I took over as soon as I got there and changed the lock combo!  I guess I forgot to tell him what the point of the bike lock was!

Here is a video of him riding Wednesday.  He gets hard to see when he gets farther away (video was taken on my phone), but he is doing amazing!  Especially for a kid that has NEVER been in love with riding a bike.

I'm so dang proud of him!  Of course now I'm going to be constantly nervous because he'll be riding his bike around and there is no way I can keep up with him.  I'm 39 weeks pregnant, tomorrow, and well, I won't be jogging postpartum either, or with a baby strapped to my chest!

Now we just need to get Faye up on her bike!  We bought her a 12" Pinkalicious bike with a baby carrier in the back (for princess Aurora), cute little tassels, and a little zipper bag on the front.  She wanted a bike for her birthday, she picked it out (the $80 one and not the $60 Princess bike with the baby carrier carriage/basket on the front...).  She sits on her bike, refuses to pedal and then yells and cries "No bike for my birthday!"  Tough luck, kid!

Baby Names