Life and Times of the Murphy Five: June 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Craft Time

I've been trying to keep Riley busy while I'm home, but she's been finding ways on her own:

It's hard to believe that Harper is already one month old. It's amazing how complete she has made our family feel. Like most parents, I was really worried how bringing another child into our family would change things. We truly feel blessed to have our family complete with our two girls. Here is what Harper has been up to her first month of life:

This girl can eat! She is eating between 3-4 ounces every 3-4 hours. She goes on spurts where she is eating every two hours and sometimes we feel that she isn't on any schedule at all. I've been pumping mostly, but there are times where she will fuss until I nurse her.
She is sleeping about 4-5 hour stretches at night. If we time her night time feeding just right she will sleep until almost 4 am. As much as we thought we were prepared for the lack of sleep, we weren't. I do notice this time around that I really don't nap during the day.
She is still wearing her newborn outfits. I'm not sure how much she weighs, but I would guess around 9 lbs. She can fit into a few of her 0-3 month outfits, but most of them she is swimming in.
She has started to stay awake for longer stretches during the day. Sometimes she'll be awake for a couple hours.
She still has all of her dark hair, but it does seem to lightening up.
She likes to be held upright on your shoulder.
She could care less about her swing and won't tolerate it much longer than 20-30 minutes.
We are battling the baby zits. They don't bother her, but it takes everything for Brett and I to leave them alone.
She still likes to be swaddled with her arms loose.
She likes her paci, but doesn't have to have it.
She is perfect!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Riley Nicole: 2 Years, 10 Months

Riley absolutely loves being a big sister. She has been wonderful with her little sister. Here is a glimpse into her personality these days:

She loves her "swimming pill" and her blue bike.
She is constantly saying "its ok baby. I here with you."
She has the best nose for smelling out stinky diapers...or any stinky smell.
She is very curious about breastfeeding and pumping. She always wants to be there and says "I help with you."
She loves playing in the new basement as sneaks down there as much as she can.
She's become a picky eater. She will always eat her veggies first. She loves peanut butter sandwiches, mandarin oranges, pasta, macaroni and cheese, sour cream, lunch meat, and bananas.
She no longer wears pull-ups when sleeping.
She is constantly saying "that sounds like a good deal."
She wakes up more than her sister at night.
She loves going to Hedy's and being the "big kid."
She thinks we are going to the park with the princesses this summer...Disneyland...and we're not.
She likes to watch Backyardigans, Max and Ruby, and her movies. Its fun to listen to her tell us what is going on in the episode.
She wants to be in control all the time! Something we are working on daily.
Her hair is finally starting to grow! Yea! We finally got some special shampoo to help with her dry scalp...$33 later. I'm praying that it works.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Harper Grace:The Birth Story

This has been long time coming. I feel so out of the loop since I haven't been blogging for the past month. Finally, I have a second to sit down and update everyone on the past three weeks. Here's the story of how Harper came into the world:

Thursday, 5/26/11, we packed Riley up and sent her home with Grandma Sheryl. Then we headed to Mercy West Lakes at 9. After getting settled into our room (we were the only people there at this time) I received my first dose of cytotec. Brett snored on the couch (which apparently was very comfy) while I tried get some sleep. At 2 am I received my second dose of cytotec. I was only 1 cm dilated. At 5 the nurse had me sit in the whirlpool for awhile just to relax. I never thought that I would ever use the whirlpool tub, but surprisingly found it very relaxing. By this time one woman had come in and delivered her baby. Unfortunately for them they had to be transported downtown. Around 6 am, the nurse started the pitocen. I believe that I received less than one dose of pitocen and the nurse shut it off since I began to contract regularly. Around 8:30 Dr. Fahnlander came to check me. At that time I had only progressed to 2 cm dilated and barely effaced ( I don't remember the specifics). She decided to break my water and see if it would speed things up. By 9:30 I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the contractions. By 10:30 I had my epidural. There were two other women that had come in during the morning and one of them had requested an epidural. I'm glad that the nurse recommended that I go ahead and get my epidural while the anesthesiologist was there (he had to come from downtown), because things went really fast from there. My blood pressure dropped really low after receiving the epidural and I needed two doses of some sort of medication to bring it back up to normal. Harper's heart rate dropped some so I was also given the oxygen mask. I was 4 cm dilated. Around 11 am things were a bit more stable and I suggested that Brett and my mom go get something to eat. Brett decided to get something from the cafeteria and my mom decided to take my car back to my house and get hers in case Brett's mom needed to go get Riley from Hedy's for us. Within an hour I started feeling the contractions through the epidural on my right side. The nurse had me roll to my right side which didn't seem to help and I started to feel them every where. At that time the uncontrollable tears started and Brett called the nurse back in. She checked me again and was surprised that I was complete and ready to push. Thankfully the doctor's office is attached the hospital and Dr. Fahnlander was there within minute. I had Brett call my mom and she barely made it back in time for the birth. I think I pushed through 2 or 3 contractions and Harper was here within 5-10 minutes. I'm not sure why, but this time around I seem to remember a lot more. I don't know if I had less nerves, or if it helped that we were prepared this time around.

We did have one slight scare. When Dr. Fahnlander came to check me at 8 am she asked us if there was a concern with Harper's kidneys. We had no idea what she was talking about. She then informed us that when we had our ultrasounds the tech had measured what she thought looked like a mass on one of her kidneys. Of course, we immediately started to worry. Thankfully, Dr. Fred had Harper taken down to radiology within a couple hours of birth to have an ultrasound. We were thankful to learn there wasn't a mass and Harper was as healthy as could be.