And we have a ...

healthy, happy, beautiful baby GIRL!!!!

Elizabeth Joy was born 3/6/2014 at 4:17pm, 6lbs 6oz 19 1/2inches. 

She is Madison's mini me! 

We are all so in love with our newest princess and can't wait to see Elizabeth and Madison grow up together.

I can't wait to get home this weekend and write her birth story.

Thank you to everyone for your kind works of support and congratulations!

Xo's 

39 weeks and done counting

Well the time has come for the last of the weekly "bump-date" posts!

I know, I know its a day early .. BUT that is because tomorrow March 6th we will be a little busy welcoming our little one to the world!

I am set to be induced at 7am!

How far along are you?: 39 weeks 

Total weight gain: 24lbs

Maternity clothes? Yes, but not much longer

Stretch marks?  nothing new

Sleep: slept very well this past week!

Best moment this week: Find out we would be induced on March 6th!

Miss Anything? Walking up stairs without getting winded.

Movement: it has slowed down... baby has been sleeping lots in preparation to meet us!

Food cravings: nothing this week

Anything making you queasy or sick: nauseous at bedtime.

Gender predictions:  I think boy but it's probably a girl... we will find out soon! 

Labor Signs: lots of cramping, contractions and the baby has dropped!

Belly Button in or out? In .. Never popped with Madison.

Wedding rings on or off? on.. dont think they are coming off anytime soon!

Happy or Moody most of the time: happy, happy happy 

Looking forward to: finally meeting our little one.. and finding out if Madison will have a brother or a sister!

If you are wondering why I am being induced it is because we had some issues come about this week, and the doctors are concerned about a kidney infection as well as I am in a crazy amount of pain because of the pressure from the baby. Our doctor is happy that we made 39 weeks and is fine with inducing me now! 

It will be a different experience from Madison as I went into labor naturally with her, but I can't complain.. I am DONE!

This is the last post for a few days!

I will try to update quickly once the baby is born so all of you following along can see where our pregnancy journey ends and our 2nd adventure into parenthood starts.

xo's

March.. in like a lion.. Out with a baby?

Happy March Y'all!

It's the month that we in the Murray Household have been waiting for since the beginning of July!

It seems like it has gone by so fast but yet so slow. I am writing this blog thinking of all the fun, scary and emotional things that will be happening over the next few weeks.

This weekend was a fun one, Madison got to spend Thursday- Sunday morning with my parents!

They came down from Canada for a concert that we had gotten them tickets for at Christmas- George Strait and Martina McBride. Just one of the positive things about living so close to many awesome places is being able to host people when they come visit those places!

We all had a great time visiting and we are excited for their pending visit as soon as this baby comes!

I think Madison really enjoyed her time alone with them on Saturday morning, she got to go shopping and ride in Opa's truck (which she loves!)

She wasn't really into having her picture taken this morning.

This morning when she realized they were leaving, she threw herself on the floor like a typical 2 year old throwing a tantrum and cried because "Opa not leaving me".

We had some dinner visitors on Saturday night, Chris' cousin Lindsay and her son Ryan. It was so nice to have them up as Lindsay hadn't been to the house yet and Madison loves playing with Ryan!

Today we have some more excitement, it is Mima's (Chris mom's) birthday this coming wednesday, so we are having her birthday dinner with all of Chris' brothers and Madison is super excited to be able to spend time with her cousin Bella!

Hopefully Madison's excitement will continue as we get ready to welcome her little brother or sister!

38 weeks

How far along are you?: 38 weeks 

Total weight gain: 24lbs

Maternity clothes? Yes, BUT I can still fit into my non- maternity favorite jeans :)

Stretch marks?  nothing new 

Sleep: I nap alot .. sleep at night comes and goes. 

Best moment this week: Taking Madison to her "sibling tour" at the hospital

Miss Anything? Walking up stairs without getting winded.

Movement: yes a lot!!

Food cravings: nothing this week

Anything making you queasy or sick: nauseous at bedtime.

Gender predictions:  I think boy but it's probably a girl.  

Labor Signs: lots of cramping, contractions and the baby has dropped!

Belly Button in or out? In .. Never popped with Madison.

Wedding rings on or off? on.. dont think they are coming off anytime soon!

Happy or Moody most of the time: happy, happy happy 

Looking forward to: meeting our little boy or girl any day now!

This week was an exciting one, we found out at our Monday appointment that I am definitely progressing and our doctor thinks this baby will be here before our March 13th due date (would be nice because its so low its uncomfortable!) We have our second appointment of the week tomorrow so here is hoping we are closer!

People have been giving me different wants to induce labor at home.. so far NOTHING has worked. Chris has been making me eat spicy food and chinese food, I have been taking Evening Primrose Oil, started drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea.

Chris was awesome enough to go to GNC the other day to pick up the tea for me and the lady told him "It's buy one get one 50% off" to which Chris responded "I hope my wife doesn't need two".

We had some help from my brother in law Mike last weekend with the baby's room. He and Chris installed the fan/light!

We have the crib set up and the dresser and few little items, diapers, wipes, first aid items and rocking chair in the room but we have decided NOT to paint until the baby is here. I know I want to do gray and pink or gray and navy blue depending on the gender of our little one!

It has been so hard NOT finding out the gender this time around as we have so many girl clothes that we could part with if we are having a boy, but also the adorable nautical themed clothing in all the stores is calling my name. The girl's clothing this time around is just as cute and nautical as well.

Between my sister in law and myself I hope one of us has a boy so that I can buy the cute boy clothes with whales and anchors!

This week Madison got to go on a "Sibling Tour" of the hospital. This was such an awesome experience for both of us. There was one other little boy who is 6 months older then Madison, the two of them got along great. 

The tour started with a quick video about siblings and families. Neither of the kids were really into sitting still and watching the video, so they decided to dance and run around. After the video we got to go into the "alligator" (translation = elevator) and headed up to the maternity ward .. while there we got to see a room where I will be staying and then came the big part of the tour.. The Nursery.

We got really lucky, there was a 12hr old baby that Madison got to see. Her eyes lit up, she asked if she could take him, she had a hard time understanding that it wasn't our baby and in a few weeks we will have a baby to take home. After the nursery we headed back downstairs and Madison got to learn how to change a diaper.. and since then all she wants to do is change her dolls diapers.

Lets hope she is this helpful once the baby arrives!

This weekend is a very exciting one in the Murray house.. My parents otherwise known as "Opa and Grammy" are coming! Madison has been counting down the days to their arrival and today is the day Opa comes and Grammy is flying in tomorrow!

Their visit is going to short and sweet but its just what we all need! They are actually coming because my brothers, chris and I got them tickets to George Strait and Martina McBride for Christmas so this is their big date weekend :)

This is also the first time they will be seeing the house since we moved in! They saw it about 3 weeks before we moved so they are in for a big surprise with all the work!

Time to go and bake some cookies with Madison as she is requesting "chocolate chippy cookies"

Hope your all having a fabulous week!

37 weeks

Full term!!!!!!!

How far along are you?: 37 weeks 

Total weight gain: 23lbs

Maternity clothes? Yes. .. Im 100% sure I will NOT be saying no to this yet!

Stretch marks?  nothing new 

Sleep: comes and goes .. Getting used to running on little sleep 

Best moment this week: picking out boy and girl St Patricks day outfits 

Miss Anything? working out, coffee, my normal jeans!

Movement: yes a lot!!

Food cravings: buffalo quesadillas!

Anything making you queasy or sick: nauseous at bedtime.

Gender predictions:  I think boy but it's probably a girl.  

Labor Signs: lots of braxton hicks and lower back pain!... 1cm/ 50% effaced

Belly Button in or out? In .. Never popped with Madison.

Wedding rings on or off? on.. dont think they are coming off anytime soon!

Happy or Moody most of the time: happy, happy happy 

Looking forward to: having this little bundle of joy!!

Rounding the last corner

So many things are running through my mind this week - are we ready for this baby? will Madison accept another little one around, will I ever sleep again?, what will labor be like this time?

I know you can never truly be 100% ready for a baby because there are so many unknowns, will the baby be healthy, will the baby breastfeed easily or will it need formula, will the baby have sensitive skin and need a certain diaper etc.. BUT it is still something that runs through the mind of all parents and parents to be. How will we handle this!?

We got really lucky with Madison sleep wise, she slept in 3 hour clips consistently from the day we brought her home and that gradually grew to 12 hour nights.. so we can only hope this baby is the same way. On the feeding side of things we weren't so lucky .. She didn't take to breastfeeding at all so we needed to switch to formula. At 6 weeks old Madison was admitted to the Children's Hospital for 3 nights due to a stomach bug, it was also discovered then that she had reflux and needed medication daily to be able to keep her food down! It was an easy fix and she has no problems now.

This has made me decide that this time around I am going to exclusively pump, I know the benefits of breastfeeding but for me and what we went through with Madison, I am not ready for that again. So pumping is the best way to get the baby the nutrition it needs!

As for Madison accepting having a little baby around the house .. only time will tell! She LOVES other kids and other babies, so I can only hope this continues! It is going to be a massive change for all of us, we will need to learn to divide our time between the two but also spend time with both children together so Madison doesn't feel like she is being pushed out or any less important.

She has already started her "jobs" to help out around the house... feeding Bailey, picking up her toys, putting things in the garbage etc, little things that any 2.5 year old should be able to do! Hopefully this helpfulness continues in the next few months!

Labor.. well there is no way to tell how labor will be this time. This is not something you can predict, and no matter what you want to happen it doesn't always go the way to you planned. 

I was always told to have a birth plan, well that went right out the window with Madison.

Original Madison Birth Plan

• Labor should start while Chris is home and not stuck at work
• Monitor contractions and head to hospital when they are 4-7 min apart
• Once admitted - get epidural
• Have painless labor and have a baby 

As you can see NOWHERE in the plan was go into labor in the middle of the night and not realize it because you spent 6 hours throwing up, having back pains (which you later found out were contractions 3 minutes apart), have this all happen when Chris had to be in Brooklyn at 530am for work, drive the flooded SawMill in the middle of a massive rainstorm. 

It also didn't include needing pitocin because I wasn't progressing, epidural running out (ya that was a treat!) or laying in the hospital for 16 hours before our little one decided to finally come out!

Birth Plan for Baby #2

• Whatever happens, happens

This time it doesn't matter when it happens, or where it will happen when it needs to happen. I do know I want an epidural again (I don't do pain), I would love for it not to run out this time! If I can avoid pitocin that would be great because when I got to 8cm every contraction would drop Madison's heart rate drastically so they had to stop the pitocin. 

I would also LOVE for this baby to make its way to the world a little faster then his or her big sister but only time will tell!

We had another NST today (done once a week now because of size of baby), I had a few good contractions, but not consistent enough to be concerned on the bright side.. we might get to meet this little one sooner then we thought.. Doc doesn't think we will be making it to 40 weeks as the baby is super low! 

Which I am totally fine with .. I have hit the "I am done point", I am just so uncomfortable because of the baby's low position.

Check back later this week for a 37/full term update!!!

xo's

We all scream for snow cream...

For the past few days people have been asking me "What is snow cream" or saying "Must be a Canadian thing" so I figured on this snowy snow day I should do a post about this delicious homemade treat :)

First off let me say this is NOT a Canadian treat... A Canadian thing is warming up maple syrup and pouring it over snow to make a taffy like snack, and YES I fully intend to make this with Madison!

I did however make this one year in school I don't remember what grade or why but all this snow gave me the sudden urge to look up a recipe!

When we woke up this morning we put our "snow bowl" out on the front steps and waited for it to fill up!

This is the best one I found

Please excuse the messy hair.

1 cup half and half or milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar (adjust to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 to 6 cups clean, freshly fallen snow

The final product should be put in the freezer for 5 min just to get the ice cream texture back after adding the half and half!

Ours is sitting in the freezer a little longer as we are waiting until after Madison's nap to add some hot fudge and sprinkles to our snow cream!

If you have kids or are a kid yourself I highly recommend making this yummy treat!