Becoming a family of 6!

June is flashing past in a blur of snuggly baby, feeding and burping and diapers and putting on cute baby clothes, holding little baby hands and feet and kissing those big cheeks!  There has been a lot of reading to Owen while feeding Maris, a lot of putting her down in her little chair so I can deal with fights and disobedience and all the other normal stuff.  I'm getting used to my new sleep schedule and my body is beginning the slow transition back to normal shape.  I just can't believe she used to fit inside me, she's not really any bigger than she was 2 weeks ago but it seems impossible!  And now she's 2 weeks old- I know I'm going to blink and she'll be a year old!  So I'm trying to take it easy and enjoy this precious time that will never come again. :)

Now to tell about Maris meeting her family!  When she was about 4 hours old, Uncle Kurtis brought the kids to the hospital.  Owen got the first turn with her:

 finding her little toes!  He kept saying she was so cute, but he pretty quickly wanted to go home.  it was all a little weird for him!

 First picture with all 4 kids!

 We are now a family of 6!

 Whitney is in LOVE!  She wants to hold Maris all the time, and whenever she's awake Whitney is right there talking to her.

 Kate with her newest little sister!

 Super cute picture with Uncle Kurtis

 Owen singing to Maris for the first time before they left to go home for the night.  Sadly Eric started feeling sick right about then- he had a fever and sore throat for the next few days= not cool!  But he was a champ, being patient with the kids and helping me be happy and adoring his new little baby girl.

 Owen's first time holding her by himself.

 Later that first night my mom arrived!

 and Uncle Derek stopped by!

 Then I got to spend the night alone with my girl.  Special times.

 We decided to go home the next day, I didn't need another night of nurses taking my vitals!  The hospital staff seemed a little freaked out to let us go after "only 24 hours", but we felt like we'd been there forever!  So after a visit from Grandma Murray and Aunt Elizabeth (I didn't take any pictures!) and a nice afternoon without the kids (thanks mom!) we got ready to go.  As soon as I put on these clothes I almost died of cuteness, she was a real little person!  And the skinny jeans were baggy on her little chicken legs haha!

 We drove home and it was official, she was part of the family.

She got to come home to her own cute room, full of the owl stuff I made for her, still painted green, the color Katelyn and Eric picked out when Katelyn was 2 years old. :)

And her name!  I don't think I ever explained it on the blog.  

It's Maris Amanda Murray.

Maris means "of the sea" which I love.  Eric and I love the beach, and it has played a role in our love story.  Before Eric's mission we said we would go to the beach together when he got home.  And we ended up going- for our honeymoon 5 months after he got back!  We've gotten to go to Hawaii a couple of times with his family and had a magical time, and we took an amazing vacation to the beach in Mexico a couple of years ago.  The beach is a happy place for us, so knowing that her name means "of the sea" just makes me happy. :)  We've liked the name for a while, but we were a little unsure about using such an uncommon name.  We only know one other person in the world named Maris- a teenage girl in our ward (who happens to be really awesome- worth emulating!) but in the end we decided to embrace it's uniqueness.  Also we liked the name combo- Maris is close to Mary and Amanda is my mom's middle name, so our Maris has a name connection with both her grandmothers. :)

 Laying in her new bed.  It took her a few nights to get the hang of sleeping in it (thank you mom for saving me by holding her for those nights so I could sleep!) but now she's doing great at sleeping by herself in between feedings.  

More to come about our beautiful girl!

Late but Worth the Wait!

Alert- this birth story might have just a little TMI, but I think I know everyone who actually reads this blog well enough that it should be okay... :)

So Maris decided not to come on time!  Her due date came and went, and I didn't know what to do with myself!  The other kids were all born early or on time, so these are my first overdue pictures, taken at 40 weeks and 4 days!

 I wasn't terribly uncomfortable physically- I mean it sure wasn't fun, but it was worse mentally and emotionally.  Each day seemed like a week, and it was so disappointing to have days of contractions and then wake up the next morning and still not have gone into labor.  It was also so disappointing to have days with no contractions!  I just kept thinking "why doesn't she want to come??"

 And I was DYING to hold her.  I could literally FEEL her getting chubbier- the parts I could feel poking out and moving around were getting less pointy!  My doctor said he didn't think she'd be as big as my others.... HA.

 So I went to my 3 days late appointment  Tuesday and asked to be induced.  He said he could do it Friday or Sunday, but then we called the hospital and they were full for Friday.  We scheduled for Sunday, but I was worried because I really wanted to be HOME by Sunday because Katelyn's birthday was Monday! I wanted to be home with her, and also we had this big awesome party planned!

So I hoped and prayed she'd be born on her own before then!  The girls kept praying "please, please send us our baby sister!" But we went on into the doctor again on Thursday (5 days late!) and I had to bring all the kids again since school's out, and we planned to get snow cones again afterward like we had on Tuesday. :)  Oh and I should mention, on Wednesday my friend Sara Olson gave me her "voodoo foot massage" that could put me into labor (it didn't but it felt good and it was fun to talk to her!) and Sister Hoschouer brought us dinner, so kind of her!  Also my friend Chelsea offered to bring me a Slurpee, and I texted/ talked to Kristi and Brenna and Katrina and Allison who all lifted my spirits, so Day 4 overdue was pretty good.  Anyway, at Thursday's appointment I got great news, there were cancellations at the hospital, so I could be induced on Friday!!  I was so grateful, but still hoping I could go into labor on my own before the next morning.  

Well, it didn't happen.  Who knows how long I would have had to wait for my Maris if I didn't get induced!  

Friday morning came (June 6th, the big day!) and we got the call from the hospital.  We called our sweet neighbor Sister Wheeler and she came over to take care of the kids until Kurtis was going to come at noon.  WE left for the hospital and I was just feeling so weird- I wanted her to come so badly, but I felt wimpy and strange to be going to the hospital when I wasn't in labor!  I cried on the way there and Eric made me feel better, saying that it didn't matter how she came, I wasn't wimpy, etc.  And I realized, I just survived 9+ months of pregnancy.  I made it through being really sick for months.  I endured being large and uncomfortable for months, dealing with all the other side effects of pregnancy.  I resisted the temptation to be induced a week early, or even on my due date, because I just didn't feel good about it.  I had faith that Maris would be alright and I would have the endurance I needed to handle being overdue. :)  It's silly that it was so difficult for me, but Owen was born 12 days early, so I felt like I was about 3 weeks overdue by now!  All this added up to that fact that I WASN'T WIMPY for being induced.  I could still feel strong and accomplished even if I had a little help getting labor started.  Also for me getting induced=NOT having natural labor, which was a little disappointing.  But honestly, I probably wouldn't have ended up going natural anyway, so.... I shouldn't have been so disappointed!

We got to the hospital at about 7:40, and had to wait a little because other women who were actually in labor needed to be helped first. :)  It was so weird to be there and not be in pain!

9:00am- we had been in our room for a while and finally started the pitocin.  Every half hour they would up the amount, and my contractions got close together but not much more painful.  I had a couple of breakdowns, crying to Eric that she was "never going to come" and he hugged me and made me laugh.  We got bored after a while and I finished my book and I thought we would be there forever!  

12:00pm- my doctor showed up and checked me and I was only 4 cm dilated.  I had been 3 cm the day before, and 3 hours of pitocin had only gotten me 1 cm??  Maris would have never come on her own!  I would have been walking around pregnant for another week!  So Dr. Anderson broke my water, and immediately the contractions got intense!  They asked if I was getting an epidural and I said yes, even though I wasn't ready for it yet.  I wanted to at least feel like I was in real labor before I gave up and got the drugs!  But by the time the anesthesiologist got started the contractions were much more painful.

12:20- got the epidural, but it took forever to work!  My contractions were really intense and I was getting scared that I would be one of those people who the epidural doesn't work and they can feel everything but can't move at all to different positions to try to relieve the pain!  I was like "how did my sisters do this??" Eric was great and held my hand and breathed with me and was so comforting.  

12:40- the epidural finally started taking the edge off the contractions and I was so relieved!

1:00 or so- my blood pressure cuff set off an alarm, again, (because I have low blood pressure due to years of running) and when the nurse came to fix it she said "I guess I'll check you just to see where you're at" and then said "oh!  you're complete!" and went off to get the doctor!  I couldn't believe it had only taken an hour to go from a 4 to a 10, no wonder those contractions had been so strong and painful!  We had to wait a few minutes for the doctor to finish another delivery and come in, we were so happy and excited she was FINALLY COMING!!!

1:20- the doctor came in, we got all set up and I could see her dark hair in the mirror ( I love being able to see my babies be born!) and I started pushing.  3 contractions later I could see her starting to come and the doctor thought I wouldn't need an episiotomy, I pushed and her head came out, but then he said "oh, I need one more push from you" and when I pushed her chubby shoulders out I tore a little. :( but he said it was exactly where he would have cut if he did an episiotomy, so it hasn't been too bad healing.  

1:41pm- everyone exclaimed in surprise at her size, they plopped her up on my chest all white and creamy and crying, I got choked up and almost cried as I touched her for the first time, birth is such a miracle!!! How was she inside me for so long and then suddenly here, alive and breathing!!  Eric kissed me and cut the cord and then was touching her and saying "it's okay baby girl", then they wiped her off a little and put her skin-to-skin right on my chest for several minutes!  she stopped crying and just looked around while we talked to her and cuddled her, it was wonderful.  After I delivered the placenta and got stitches they finally took her and weighed her and Eric got some pictures:

 Surprise surprise she was 9 lbs 13 oz! and 21 inches long. Cute little chunky baby, that's how I make them!

 She was so awake and calm, just looking and looking at us!

 Such a hungry girl lol

Hello pretty Maris!

 Welcome to the world sweet girl.

 I got to nurse her and we hung out for about an hour before we had to move to a different room.  We were thrilled to finally have our beautiful precious baby girl!  Looking back everything went so smoothly and we are so blessed to have another healthy delivery and baby.  What a great life.  What a miracle.