tate's first riverboat days {in which we realizied we missed summer 2013 completely}

A few weeks ago on our daily family walk, we discovered some crunchy leaves on the ground.

It made us pause and think, "Wait. Aren't we still waiting for summer to come?"

And then we realized it.

We had missed summer.

The whole dang thing.

I was cooped up inside with a huge preggo belly and a crazy toddler while Tyrel worked worked worked and built up vacation time to use when Tate came.

I think the extent of our summerness was coloring with some sidewalk chalk and mandatory lawn-mowing.

We decided to squeeze as much summer as we could once Tate was born, just so we didn't waste our time together, especially since Ty is in school during summer next year.

---------------

We unfortunately had to say goodbye to some of our greatest friends, which bummed us out completely.

Luckily, we had Tate just in time to introduce him to everyone.

Poor Kemry still asks every other day to go play at Harlow's house.

I guess that just means we will have to fly to Arizona come wintertime, just to say hi!

 These next few pictures just kill me. 

Look at that man.

How would I NOT want to have his babies??!?!!?!

Future husband and wife

---------------

Since we live in the state of 10,000 lakes, we figured that we were terrible people if we didn't take advantage of the beach.

The only time we had made it out earlier in the summer was on a rainy, cold, yucky day for a church activity.

We stayed for the food then dashed, true to Vandy form.

Luckily, we had plenty of hot days left in the forecast, a number of them spent with our toes in the sand.

---------------

Somewhere in there, when Tate was just over a week old, we decided to go back to Yankton for Riverboat Days.

We met up with a handful of friends but mainly spent time with my family.

While Tate's first Riverboat Days went a lot like this:

...so we celebrated for him.

Yes. The theme was Comic Book Heros. And this float depicted Jesus chatting with Captain America, Spiderman, and the Hulk. Hands down the best float of the whole summer ;)

 

---------------

And that essentially wraps up our summer.

Tyrel's parents fly in tomorrow to spend 10 whole days with us, and WE ARE BEYOND EXCITED!

{which also means that my bathroom is super clean now, and I LOVE it...because, really, do you ever CLEAN CLEAN your bathroom until you have company coming? Nope.}

 It will be a nice bid farewell to the warm weather and a good way to usher in the beginning of the fall crispiness, I think :)

feeling so blessed

Yesterday we went to the Pediatric Specialist office for a chat about Tate's kidneys.

We learned quickly after his birth that, believe it or not, his heart wasn't really much of a concern.

They were choosing to be a little more cautious about his kidneys, though.

Not that anything too serious could come from having his funky kidneys, but they wanted to assess the risk of frequent infections and see if his bad kidney needed to be "replumbed" to his bladder.

We had run a procedure at the Children's Hospital the day before and now got to hear the results.

We were thrilled to hear that there is no need for surgery.

True to form, his kidney is odd but working fine.

And the oddities should go away as he grows.

It was a good day for us.

It was essentially the last appointment to really check on his anatomy and make sure there was nothing to worry about.

We were never too concerned about his health during pregnancy, but like any parent, you would want to know that everything checks out just fine with your little bundle of joy.

I left the office feeling so blessed.

There are many people who don't get good news when trying to have babies, while pregnant with babies, or when holding their babies for the first time.

Even though each defect he has could have been serious if it had been bigger, they managed to stay just the right size to not affect him.

He was perfectly pink when he was born.

He had hardly any jaundice.

He nurses like a champ.

PLUS he is now tipping the scale at 8 lbs 12 oz {keep in mind that one week ago he was 7 lbs 9 oz...}.

 Each doctor tells us that his is just an odd but very healthy little guy, but we will take odd over sick anyday!

 

I am so grateful to be a mother.

There is nothing else in this world that brings me greater joy.

 {well, maybe when Tyrel telling me he likes my cooking ;)}

Each time Kemry yells, "Mama! I tooted!" or "Great job, Mama! You did good!", my heart just explodes.

And now I have this sweet little guy who fusses and fusses until I hold him, instantly calming him down.

Even though both kids were up last night, only getting about 4 hours of sleep myself, eating breakfast at 11:00 this morning, and typing this in my smelly pajamas, I still really like this gig.

Now, if you will excuse me.

Kemry just informed me that daddy is sleeping and wants me to come tickle him with her :)

oh my goodness, i just had a baby {round 2}

{There are pictures at the end of this post if that is all you want, you boring person, you!}

 

Ladies and gents, we have survived the first two weeks of being a four person family.

And I absolutely love it.

While it seems that all has been quiet on our end, I assure you it has not.

There has been lots of warm cuddling, kissing chubby cheeks, feeding, burping, pooping, giggling, smiling, and general happiness floating through our house.

{And to keep things real, yes, there has been some yelling, crying, sleepless nights and snippiness, but that comes with the territory, right?}

Tyrel is on paternity leave from work, so every single day I get to spend time with my best friend/hubster, cuddle with a sweet, sweet newborn, and giggle with an energy-filled toddler.
I am on Cloud 9.

Tate's birth story is seriously uneventful.

But we were SO SO SO glad it was.

{You can read Kemry's here}

Around 37 weeks, we kicked it into high gear trying to get him to come out, just like every mom does.

We tried every natural induction method in the book.

But nooooo baby.

We had been talking with our doctor and decided that we would be okay with an induction at 39 weeks if baby didn't come by then.
Since we were wary of all the kidney/heart problems we might encounter coupled with the fact that I was Group B Strep positive and needed antibiotics when I went into labor, we all decided that a more controlled setting might be better for all of us {but mainly me and my nerves}.

We would only go on with the induction if my body had progressed far enough along to lower the risk of c-section.

At 38 weeks, I wasn't ready {so we couldn't schedule one ahead of time for the next week}.

At 39 weeks, however, I had progressed just far enough that we were good to go.

We went into the hospital at 6:45 am on the 7th.

Just before we left, I kissed Kemry on the forehead and suddenly burst into tears.

She was sleeping so quietly and looked so perfect, and I felt so guilty ending my one-on-one time with her. 

The next time I would see her, it would constantly be two-on-one time.

But I pulled up my big girl panties and got in the car.

They monitored me for an hour and then started the Pitocin at 8:30.

I had heard all of these horror stories about how awful Pit made labor for some women.

Not for me, thankfully.

Around noon, they told me that the doctor wanted to come in soon and break my water.

That was when labor got really painful for me last time, so I asked for my epidural.

This time around, I felt the doctor put the epidural in, and it hurt a little more than I would have liked.

And it only numbed one leg, but it got rid of the contraction pain.

It took 2 doctors to break my water since little boy's head was pressing right up against it.

Unfortunately, there was more blood then they felt comfortable with once it did rupture, so they put me on internal monitors, just to make sure that the placenta didn't tear away from the wall {which is serious business, and thankfully it hadn't}.

The contraction pain slowly came back, this time right smack in between my legs.

I knew I was getting really close to having the baby, and the fact that I could feel ANYTHING in between my legs scared me to death.

But after a little pain, some tears, and lots of pleading, they got the anesthesiologist to come in and give me a booster dose.

That stuff is nectar of the gods.

Seriously.

Around 4:00 I paged the nurse and told her that I felt more than just contraction pressure.

To her surprise, I was at a 10.

She told me to try a practice push but then made me stop about 2 seconds into it because the baby was coming.

  She frantically ran out to find the doctor, worried because he had just been delivering another baby.

They all hurry in {along with a NICU team, just in case}, and tell me to start going at it.

20 minutes of pushing later comes the sweetest little cry!

We were thrilled! 

A baby!

But then we realized that now he was here. 

And we had a few tests to pass to make sure he was okay.

I tuned everyone out and listened for the Apgar score.

A 9!

Thank heavens!

His five minute score was a 10, and the nurse was just so tickled because she had never been able to give a 10 before.

It all happened so fast, and it was all okay!

He was perfectly pink and perfectly perfect.

 

The team started to sing Happy Birthday, and I just erupted in tears.

It was the sweetest, most perfect moment.

{Poor Kemry got robbed of a sweet moment because of a 22 hour labor where I fell asleep in between contractions. They didn't even put her skin to skin with me! Looking back, I am pretty disappointed at the whole process at the hospital with her...but her NICU stay was amazing, so I guess that makes up for it}.

And that was that!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for his heart and kidneys, let me sum it up:

-Echocardiogram showed all the heart defects we thought plus a few others, but overall, they were all very small and shouldn't be a problem. He might have to have surgery when he is 60ish to replace a valve?

-Kidney scan looked fine...we are meeting with a doctor tomorrow to make sure he doesn't need surgery to reconnect things to the right places.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And a few things we have learned about our little Tate over the past two weeks:

 

-He doesn't really cry much. He is a whiner. Just like his dad. When he does cry, it comes out as a loud, girly sounding shriek. We still can't help but laugh every time. And there is no cooing. Just grunting.

-He has huge hands. Ty was exceptionally proud of this, already planning his success as an NBA All-Star. 

-He also loves it when you play with his hair. Also just like his dad.

-Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. He wanted to eat every 30 minutes at the hospital as opposed to the 2-3 hours that is "normal." Thankfully, he has stretched that to every 2 hours now, allowing me to get a GLORIOUS 45 minutes of sleep at night in between feedings...gah...

-Speaking of hungry, he surpassed his birth weight by day 5. They hope for babies to do that around week 2 or 3. He shall be our fatty baby :)

- We think he will keep his dark hair and that his eyes will be brown. Right now they are a very very very dark blue, so dark you can't quite even see much of the blue.

-Like any good boy, he is super gassy and poops constantly. CONSTANTLY.

-Tyrel gets credit for passing on his good looking genes for this one. He hardly looks like me at all.

 -He has stolen his big sister's heart. She loves him to pieces already. She is the first one to get to him when he is upset, reassuring him that "It's okay. Kemry right here. It's okay. Don't cry! It not scary in here!" She also thinks he is "so cute" and "so sweet" and "so tiny." He is the first thing she wants to see in the morning and the last thing she wants to kiss before bed.

And now, what you really wanted, pictures:

introducing baby tate

Tatem Redge Murri

8/7/2013

4:23 PM

7 lbs 5 oz

20 inches long

And, oh my goodness, do we just love him to pieces already!

Welcome, Tate!

We have been waiting for you ;)

Posted with Blogsy