Our Little Girl

Natalie Ann Murray is two weeks old today. 

Here are her stats from her check up: 

Length 21.25 in. 75th-90th percentile

Head Circumference 37 cm 75th percentile 

Weight 8 lbs. 14 oz. 50th-75th percentile 

She is a healthy little girl. She surpassed her birth weight of 8 lbs. 7 oz. which we are very excited about! 

It seems like Natalie has always been here as a part of our family. She has brought an additional sweet spirit into our home. We love her so much!

Jordan has been the sweetest big brother to Natalie. He loves to hold her, give her kisses, say good morning to her, and he already wants to involve her in his playing (like sword fighting). We look forward to when they can play together, but we tell him for now she is too little. We are thrilled Jordan loves his little sister so much. 

 Natalie is quite the cuddler. She loves to be held and sleeps best on her Mommy, which makes me feel awesome. I am happy she's so cuddly because I am too. Like mother like daughter.

Here is Daddy and Natalie having some cuddle time together. I have almost an exact picture of Preston and Jordan like this... super cute. 

Here's my mom having some grand-kid cuddle time. Does she look like a happy Grandma or what?

Our precious little girl. 

We are so grateful to know that she is sealed to us for all eternity. Families can be together forever and we intend on making ours a forever family. We feel so blessed and are so grateful for our family. 

Baby Natalie

On Tuesday, October 16th I called Hill at the end of my workday to let her know I was on my way home. I rode my bike the short uphill miles home and greeted both her and Jordan with my customary "Hey Guys!". She looked at me seriously and said, "We need to go for a drive." I said "Really?" She said "Yes, now!" I then put myself into top gear and changed out of my biking gear and into something more presentable for a baby delivery in about 30 seconds. Hill was quite impressed, especially since I was wearing spandex which takes extra effort to remove. It turns out while I was riding home Hill's water had broken and she had everything ready except for me.

With me clothed in more normal people appropriate clothes. I was speedily putting Jordan in his car seat and Hill was gingerly climbing into the front seat of the car. We set off at a fast pace (only slightly over the speed limit) to our friend Rachel's house so we could drop Jordan off while we went to the hospital. Rachel was home and ready to take Jordan when we arrived at her place and we were off to the hospital. About this point Hill's contractions were getting stronger and were about 4-6 minutes apart. She held on strong while we drove the final 25 minutes.

I dropped Hill off at the Women's Center so she could get in line to be admitted. To my great chagrin, after I parked the car and went in Hill was sitting on a seat waiting in line to be admitted. In front of her was a calm girl who was not in pain and looked rather board as the hospital worker filled in her information. With difficulty, we waited patiently while Hill's face turned red and pained as each contraction hit her. The worker must have noticed since she sped up and got Hill admitted.

At the Women's Center they have an area called Triage where the nurses separate the women ready for birth with those that just think they are. The nurse was very nice and got Hill dressed in a stylish open-backed hospital gown and fancy underwear. She then got us situated on a bed and promptly forgot about us. Ok, she most likely did not forget about us but we sat there for a good 45 minutes before she came back, and she really only came back because Hill was ready to puke and needed something to do it in. When the nurse checked her Hill was dilated to a 7. The nurse said, "You are handling this really well!" I think Hill was ready to punch her.

As a side note, the Women's Center we went to usually delivers 6-7 babies a day. On the day the Natalie was born they delivered 13. The poor nurses were really overwhelmed so that is why things were slower than we would have liked.

Once the nurse discovered that Hill was indeed going to have a baby, she kicked things into high gear and got us in a delivery room. On the way she called the anesthesiologist who met us at the room. The new delivery nurse checked Hill as soon as she was on the hospital bed and said, "You are just one shade away from being ready to deliver." At this point the anesthesiologist saw that Hill only had half of the IV bag in her (she needed to have a whole one). The nurse then chimed in and said, "She is ready to deliver, we need to get the doctor." I will not grace you with Hill's response to all this drama (in addition to the third nurse who was insistent she filled all the blanks in on her forms), but needless to say the lack of an epidural was disheartening.

About this point the doctor came in and saved the day. He checked Hill and said, "This baby will be out in just a few pushes, probably in the next 5 minutes." Hill's spirits skyrocketed and we were off to the races. The nurses and doctor got all dressed up in their sterile gear and went to work. Hill pushed through one contraction and Natalie started to crown. She pushed through another contraction and poof! Out she came! She was the cutest, messiest little girl you ever did see! We finally had our little girl with us! She was 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. She was healthy and did not have any issues after the delivery. Hill's water broke shortly after 5 PM and Natalie was born at 7:37 PM. Talk about a fast delivery! I will need to take some emergency delivery classes for our next little one, just in case things go even faster!

It has been about a week now and mom and baby are doing fantastic. Natalie took to nursing like a champ and mom is adjusting to two kids instead of one. Suzie (Hill's mom) is here for extra support too and life is complete. We love our new family and look forward to the fun times ahead!

Proud Daddy

Happy Big Brother

Mommy, Daddy, and our new little girl.

Natalie all ready to head home. 

Pumpkin Festival

 This past Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Patch and Farm Festival out in Marana. We all had a wonderful time! It was so fun to do so many fun fall festivities. Jordan had a blast! Now that he's getting older he is able to participate in more activities. It's really fun for us parents to see him have so much fun! 

 Here is Jordan picking his very own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. He was very proud of himself. He felt so strong holding it up on his own. 

The Murray family with our specially picked pumpkin. Next we'll have to see what Jordan thinks about carving the pumpkin. 

There were many fun things to do at the pumpkin festival. Here's Jordan feeding some animals at the Petting Zoo. He liked feeding the goats, pigs, and pony but he steered clear of the cows. Even the baby calf was too big for his liking. 

There were many things to ride at the festival. Jordan being the little boy that he is loved this. He rode with us on a little train, four wheeler, mini tractor, and pedal bike. He was in little boy heaven. 

Jordan had fun climbing too. He found a rope spider web to climb all over. He also climbed up the huge straw mountain. Jordan enjoyed the tunnels through the straw mountain as well. He's always ready to try most anything. We were surprised when he decided that the jumping pillow was too scary. We moved on and watched the Pig Races instead, which he loved seeing by the way! 

It was an awesome Fall fun-filled day! 

Pregnancy Update

-Pregnancy Update- 

I am 37 weeks along, which means that Natalie is safe to come at any time. It is exciting to get to this safe zone and it's also very exciting to know we'll be meeting her soon. I went to the doctor this week and found out that I am dilated to a 3, 75% effaced, and she is sitting very low head first. It's nice to know those Braxton Hicks contractions I've been having for a while are doing something.  Now we just wait to see when our little lady wants to arrive.

I finished up my sewing projects and am done for a while for obvious reasons. I am excited about what I've made with the help of my good friend Sheri. Here is a car seat cover that I made! It is very green which is a perfect neutral baby color and it's also a color that I love... so it works great for lots of reasons. It'll be nice for giving Natalie a dark place to sleep when we are out and about and it'll protect her from people who may want to hold her when Mommy would rather they didn't. 

 -Baby Shower-

Sheri and Suzanne in my ward gave me a Baby Shower this week. They are so sweet and thoughtful. It was a fun shower at the park with visiting, eating food, and opening cute baby girl items. Thanks so much ladies!

 Jordan helped me open some of the gifts until he got distracted by the awesome balloons. 

He's such a cutie and understands a least a little bit that Natalie is coming soon. We've talked a lot about her to Jordan and how she is his little sister and friend. Today he talked about how he wants to play swords with her when she comes... how funny and sweet.

With all of the preparations we have made for our little girl we are now just excited for her to come and join our family. What a special time. We feel so blessed.