Rolling into the Holidays

Three years ago, my dad asked me what it felt like to be pregnant at Christmas. You know, the spiritual significance of it and all that. My answer? A poignant, “I don’t really know.” At that point, I still had 6 months until my due date, didn’t look pregnant, and didn’t feel pregnant. I just felt the same as always, so I couldn’t really say what it felt like to be pregnant at Christmas because in just about every way, I didn’t feel it at all. At that point it seemed to only really be an actuality in my head. This year, with a new baby at Christmastime, I feel the significance much more.

I had the Christmas music on earlier today and heard the song, “Mary Did You Know?” and it nearly brought me to tears. As I listened to the lyrics, I began to think about our boys and the hopes and dreams we have for them. While I don’t know that they will perform miracles or lead the masses (although you never do know, do you?), I believe they will do great and wonderful things. Thinking about that filled me with joy, holiday cheer, and a bit of sadness thinking of how quickly they are growing up and wanting to make sure I don’t miss a minute of it!

Jack amazes us all the time. He’s been holding his head up practically since birth, and last week, at only 5 weeks old, he surprised us by rolling over! Dave and I had, ahem, “debated” over who would be the one to give Matt a bath and put him to bed and I was upstairs taking care of that when Dave called up to me that Jack had just rolled over. Imagine my surprise (and annoyance over losing our debate!)! Matt was a few MONTHS old the first time he did that! When I was done putting Matt to bed I made sure to have a discussion with Jack about not doing anything “new” unless Mommy’s there to see it! The next morning, I tried to get him to do it again, and he did it twice! I got the second one on video because I could hardly believe it, so I had to make sure I had proof for others to see, haha! He has also started cooing, talking to his mobiles, and smiling from time to time. I have yet to catch that one on camera though.



We have been busy getting ready for the holidays, as everyone else is, as well. All gifts have been purchased and the wrapping is almost done. The lights are up, cookies are baked, and the tree is decorated. Now all we have to do is avoid the stomach virus that Matt seems to have brought home! He started with it on Saturday and continued a bit on Sunday, although he was acting his usual self most of the time in between. He did feel well enough to help with decorating the tree. He had fun doing it and we’re hoping he’s on the road to recovery and that the rest of us don’t get sick! Last time he brought home the stomach bug, it nailed all of us, so we’re really hoping to avoid that this time, especially with Jack being so young and Christmas being so close!

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday full of friends, family, and good memories. We’ll be sure to update with holiday pictures soon!

One of our nativity sets. My mom says it's blasphemous. I think it's cute :)

Questions People Ask

People always have questions when you're pregnant, recently had a child, are parenting, etc. We thought we might try to answer some of those questions (as well as some you didn't even ask, haha!) in a blog to keep friends & family up-to-date on things in the Murray household.

QUESTION 1: When we first announced last March that I was pregnant again, my cousin Chuck asked if I would be taking as many pictures of the new baby as I did of Matt. My answer was that I was certainly going to try! It's certainly not been as easy to do so, being that I don't have just a newborn to stare at and take pictures of, but also a 2 1/2 yr old to chase around, play with, and supervise at the same time. However, I will continue in my efforts to take millions of pictures. While I realize you most likely don't want to see ALL of them, my email has not been letting me attach pictures for quite some time now, and the Babysite I set up for Matt was too time-consuming to keep up with. Therefore, we are trying something new. I will update here with stories as well as pictures. Feel free to look or ignore, whichever you want! Enjoy these pictures from November:

QUESTION 2: What color is Jack's hair? Well, that's a tough one. If none of my parents' other grandkids had red hair, the answer would probably be "brown." However, many people are looking at pictures and saying, "Oh, another redhead!" Jack's hair seems to have all the colors of mine, Dave's, and Matt's. That makes for about a million colors. All together, it mostly looks brown. But depending on how the light hits it, it can definitely look red. I was staring at it for a long time the other day trying to figure out what color it really is and I noticed something funny. It almost looks like he has brown hair, but red roots! So we'll have to delay an answer to the hair color question till it grows some more or falls out & comes back in, or till we have some way of coming up with a more definitive answer!

QUESTION 3: You may not want to read this one, but it's frequently asked. "How does he sleep?" While the answer of most parents of a 3-week-old may be, "About 2-4 hrs at a time, feeding in between, continuing all day & night," our answer is different. We have once again been incredibly lucky and have yet another child who enjoys sleep as much as we do. Jack has slept well from the start. By 1 week old, he was usually sleeping at least 5 straight hours overnight. By 2 weeks, we were up to 6-7 hours, and now, at 3 weeks old, he is sleeping 8 hours overnight. We woke him at that point to eat this morning, so who knows how long he would have slept! We have no tips or tricks to offer, and while I feel badly for the extreme lack of sleep experienced by most parents, I am incredibly grateful that I am not generally affected by it. However, if it makes you feel any better, the nights when a child does NOT sleep well seem to be much worse than if it were something we dealt with on a regular basis (when Matt's not feeling well, he's up most of the night; he also experiences night terrors from time to time which are NO FUN at all when you can't settle him down & he literally screams at the top of his lungs for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours!).

QUESTION 4: How long were you in labor/how did the labor & birth go? As for long I was in labor, I don't really know when to officially say it "started" so that's difficult to answer. I got up for work around 6 that day, hopped in the shower, by the time I was out, I was having consistent contractions, but nothing I would have called the doctor about. By 7:30, I had decided to call the doctor, but wasn't really in pain yet, just uncomfortable. By the time we were in L&D triage at 8:45, I was as uncomfortable as I was when they gave me the epidural with Matt. Jack was born just under 4 hours later. Everything went well. Labor obviously started on its own, my water broke on its own around 10:30, Jack popped out at 12:38 pm. If you need/want more details than that, feel free to ask!

QUESTION 5: How are things going with the adjustment to "life with 2"? We all seem to be adjusting well. Matt loves his new baby brother, I'm learning to find some way to shower while having both kids here (usually happens during naptime with both monitors turned way up & within my line of sight through the shower door), I'm also re-learning how to do everything one-handed, as well as learning to feed both kids at the same time, etc. Matt is still going to daycare 2 days a week. We had to pay for it anyway, so we're sending him to keep him in a routine as well as not wanting to waste the money! I use those days to run errands, go to doctor's appointments, and the like. On the days he is home, he loves to "play" with Jack, showing him toys and reading him books. We took our first big outing as a family the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. We went to New York City to meet up with my college roommate for brunch. It was a long day (seemed even longer fighting the traffic to get out of the city!), but was very fun and absolutely worth going! I haven't seen Alana since her wedding, when I was pregnant with Matt, so between the 2 of us, that was 3 kids ago! It was great to see her and also nice to get out of the house with both boys, something I haven't done much of yet.

It's not a questoin that has been asked, but in case you were looking for an update on Jack, he was 9 lbs 2 oz at the doctor today! He's quite the little piggy!

So, things are well in the Murray household. We continue to have fun with the kids, and we're amazed every day at how smart Matt seems and how Jack seems to change so much from one day to the next. Hopefully we will be able to keep everyone updated on our lives (with pictures, haha!) via this blog. It's an idea I got from my roommate who has moved away from much of her friends and family, as well as my cousin who has done the same (moving all the way to Australia!). So thanks Alana & Rachel! Hope everyone is well & getting ready for the holidays! We can't wait to spend Christmas with 2 little boys this year!