What A Morning...

After four and a half hours of labor and three minutes of pushing, I had a baby this morning. Five hours later, we were sitting on the couch at home eating In'n'Out while our dog sniffed Miss Serafina to get acquainted. What an unbelievable morning!

Serafina Fern Murphy
December 20, 2010
5 pounds 14 ounces
20 inches

Sean posted a lot of pictures on facebook, so you can check those out until I get some on here. I think I'll get Sean to write the birth story since he did such an excellent job with Matilda's. Stay tuned!

Pregnancy Recap at 35 1/2 Weeks

In the past, my blogging time has typically been while Matilda is napping in the afternoon, but for the past several months, I have found myself needing a nap even more than her during this time, so my blogging has suffered. One of the reasons that I have been needing the afternoon naps is because I tend to wake up anywhere between 3 and 6 AM and can't fall back asleep due to Baby Girl also waking up and me realizing that I am desperately hungry, so I have decided to use these hours of lonely wakefulness to my advantage by blogging and not just watch 30 Rock on Hulu.

When I was pregnant with Matilda, I never wrote anything about how I was feeling or reaching the various milestones. I think we only took one "belly shot" when I was around 22 weeks and then my sister-in-law took some pictures when I was 34 or 35 weeks. As I have been going through Round 2, I try to remember different details from before, but my memory is just not very accurate. I am dedicating this post to my pregnancy so that I can actually remember in the future. Plus, we have even remembered to take some (albeit irregular) belly shots this time, so I will include those pictures for those who have yet to see the bump.

FIRST TRIMESTER

• Morning sickness: basically nonexistent. With both of my pregnancies, I have been very lucky to not get sick. I have had some nausea, but it was more like feeling a little car sick and never prevented me from doing things. The worst of my "morning sickness" this time around coincided with a short trip to Vermont that we took in May. Unfortunately, whenever I think about the trip, I just feel car sick. I was still able to have a lot of fun though!
• The first trimester seemed to take forever. I just wanted to start feeling the baby inside of me and see the physical changes that say, "Hello, I'm pregnant." I kept thinking about how I had already done the whole pregnancy thing, so I just wanted to skip ahead to having the baby. Patience has never been my strong point.
• I was a bit more tired this time, but I think that had something to do with my responsibilities as a mother to Matilda more than any major differences between my two pregnancies. I didn't have the freedom to take naps whenever I wanted or to just sit on the couch and watch movies. Tilly definitely helped me stay more active and forced me to have energy, which I suppose is good practice for when I am a mother of two busy girls.
• Sean and I decided to go with a midwife instead of a doctor this time. Not only that, but I'm not going to deliver in a hospital. I will have the baby at some "birthing suites" in Orem, which will basically be like a home birth, only not at home. I will not even have the option of getting an epidural so we looked into a few different pain management methods and decided to give HypnoBirthing a try. Basically, you use self-hypnosis (really deep relaxation) to overcome your fear of pain and let your body take over the birthing process. We are really excited to have a new type of birthing experience this time around!
• Basically, my first trimester was great, especially compared to so many other women's experiences. I felt good, I graduated from BYU, and I had enough energy to teach dance/be a mom and wife/fulfill my church callings/etc.

SECOND TRIMESTER

• I felt the baby move for the first time around 14 weeks (with Matilda it was around 19 weeks). I think I just knew what to expect and could recognize the tiny flutters as movement earlier. Finally, some proof that I was pregnant!
• I never got the energy boost that some women get in the second trimester, but that is probably because my first trimester wasn't that bad. While I was still tired, any sign of nausea was gone, with the exception of a nasty bout of vertigo I woke up with one morning in July. I strongly recommend that you avoid vertigo. I woke up and the whole world was spinning. Sean had to help me walk around (very slowly), and even though I knew that I wasn't moving or being tossed around on the ocean, my body wasn't convinced and I would lose control and start vomiting and flailing around. It was really scary to lose all control of my body like that. Even when I had an epidural, the nurses were incredibly impressed by the amount of control I maintained on my legs, but then when I had vertigo, there was nothing acting on my body yet I couldn't sit up without eventually falling over and vomiting. Luckily, my dad has had inner ear problems for several years so he was able to reassure me that I was ok and I would get better soon. It was bad for about two days and completely gone within a week. I later asked Sean what I looked like, so he showed me a video of an incredibly drunk person on youtube. Ha!
• I had an ultrasound at 23 weeks and we found out that "it" was a girl! Those ultrasounds sure are amazing. Sean was only disappointed that it wasn't for about two seconds and has only been excited ever since. His only concern is that since Matilda is such a perfect little girl, anything different could only mean less than perfect, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel that way anymore, although I don't think either of us are naive enough to think that we will have another baby who sleeps through the night by 6 weeks or has the sweetest cry that is nothing like a screech.
• As is typical, I started showing earlier than I did in my first pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Matilda, I didn't announce that I was pregnant at church until after we knew she was a girl, so probably around 22 weeks. Several people were completely shocked that I was pregnant because I wasn't showing at all. I would say I started looking pregnant around 24 weeks. With this pregnancy, I think I started to show around 17 weeks, but then I didn't grow very much after that and I've been roughly the same size as I was with Matilda. 
• Once I started showing, it was much easier to explain to Tilly that there is a baby in my belly. Matilda loves "playing" with Baby Sister (aka my belly). When I am lying down, she loves to pull my shirt off my belly and put a blanket over it so Baby Sister can go night-night. She cuddles with my belly and always gives it kisses and hugs. She also thinks it is hilarious to tickle Baby Sister.
• Even with more movement and other physical proof that I was pregnant, my second trimester didn't go any faster than my first trimester in my mind. Time still seemed to go very slow. I have never been so anxious for summer to end, nor for winter to begin. Bring on the snow! (which did, in fact, come yesterday)

THIRD TRIMESTER

• This little girl is incredibly active! I think that she is more active than Tilly was, but since I never wrote anything down, I could be remembering incorrectly. Whenever the midwife listens to her heartbeat, she has to move the monitor several times because the baby moves around so much. I love feeling her move! After I had Tilly, I remember feeling so empty for months. There have been several times in the past two years when I have felt something in my stomach (i.e. gas) and my first thought was that it was a baby. And then I remembered I wasn't pregnant. I'm pretty sure this baby is in the exact same position that Matilda was in because I feel movement in all the same places. Feet right under my right ribs; shoulder in the lower left side of my abdomen; punches from little fists below and to the right of my belly button.
• I'm carrying this baby a little higher than I carried Tilly, but I still look rather small. Many people have been surprised that I only have about a month left. Sean, Tilly, and I got some lunch at the Costco food court last week and had a conversation with a nice man, whom Tilly called grandpa, for about 10 minutes. About 5 minutes into it, I mentioned how we are having another girl at Christmas time, and you could see the surprise on his face! He hadn't even noticed that I was pregnant.
• I have been fairly comfortable, even with just five weeks left. At my last appointment, my midwife asked how I've been sleeping and I told her that I have been sleeping just fine on my side, even though I am normally a stomach sleeper. She said, "Oh good! Do you just use pillows to support your belly and back?" I said, "No..." I really have been sleeping well (except for these early mornings). Even though I go to the bathroom a million times per night, I am able to fall back asleep immediately. I am still teaching four dance classes each week right now. Do you know how difficult it is to teach a tour jete while eight months pregnant? It's pretty darn hard. The moms have all been pretty impressed with how much I do in class. Sean is impressed that I've been able to sit through two BYU football games the past few weeks, one of which was in the bleachers.
• Heartburn. I hate heartburn. With Matilda, I started having bad heartburn right at the beginning and I went through many bottles of antacids. This time, I was able to manage it really well through the first and second trimesters, but now it is hitting me hard! I'm just glad to know that once the baby is out of my abdominal cavity, the heartburn disappears immediately.
• The baby has been head down since about 30 weeks and last week the midwife said she is anterior (facing my back, which is good). This means she is in the correct position for birth and is getting ready to make her grand entrance! While it is possible that she could move out of this choice position, it is unlikely this late in pregnancy. 
• One thing that I have been very grateful for during this pregnancy is that I have felt prettier and healthier than I did in my first pregnancy. I have focused more on eating good foods and staying a bit more active, which has caused me to gain less weight than I did last time. I have also focused on drinking more water, which I believe has helped my water retention and swelling stay down. I have gained about 20 lbs at this point and my BMI is still in the normal range (barely). Don't worry, I haven't been dieting or anything silly like that, I have just been making healthier decisions. Another plus has been that I have much less acne, although I still have plenty more than I would like. Last but not least, I have been lucky enough to once again not have any stretch marks. I put lotion on like crazy, but I think it has more to do with genetics than keeping my skin hydrated since my mom and sisters have never had stretch marks either. I hear my friends talk/complain about their stretch marks sometimes, and I realize how lucky I am. Believe me, ladies, I do know how blessed I am!

All though this ended up being a bit long, I'm glad I wrote it because now I have something to refer back to when I am pregnant again. I'm sure only other moms or women who are planning to be moms soon read through the whole post, so thanks to anyone who stuck with me through the whole thing! Here are some of the baby bump pictures Sean has taken of me. I'll try to get a more recent one up soon.

14 Weeks

24 1/2 Weeks-Excuse the outfit. I had just returned home from teaching.

26 Weeks

32 1/2 Weeks

Summer Fun in Oregon!

Due to the many, many things that keep us in Utah, we don't get to visit Oregon nearly as much as I would like. The past two Thanksgivings and Christmases have been spent in dear old Provo, and that won't be changing this year with a baby due on Christmas Day (my midwife changed my due date back). Because of this, I like to take somewhat "extended" vacations to McMinnville during the summer. I went home for a month while I was pregnant with Tilly two years ago; last year we stayed for two weeks; Matilda and I went for 10 days in August of this year. Sean couldn't go with us because we are trying to save his paid days off for when Baby Two comes. It wasn't fun to be away from Sean for so long, but we did have fun hanging out with my side of the family, especially Tilly since she has 11 cousins in Oregon. We were especially glad to be with my sister Allison and Sam, her son. Ally has been in Provo with me since I was a freshman at BYU, but they moved back to Oregon in May and we miss them a lot! Sam and Tilly are best friends and she still asks to go play with him everyday. Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip!

Matilda got so used to having Sam next to her in the car, she kept wondering where he was when we got home.

A day at the beach! It wasn't sunny, but it was fairly warm and not too windy.

She thought it was hilarious to shove her face in the sand and go "nigh-nigh."

Matilda, Kale, Sam, Jake

Playing at the beach with her cousins

These are two of the four pictures of me from our entire trip.

Tilly enjoyed counting the kites. Her counting currently includes saying 2 and 3 over and over, although sometimes she pulls out 8 9 10 or something.

Reading with McKenna and Zach

Matilda and Andrew had a joint birthday party. Andrew turned 2 just five days after Tilly. She was so excited to get outside and go swimming!

With "mama" and "bapa"

Every time Tilly sees these pictures, she says, "Ewww...yucky!" She likes to be clean these days.

Andrew's mom, Annie, brought a pinata to the party. The kids loved it! Matilda didn't quite get it though. While everyone else was grabbing handfuls, she was quite content with the first piece she picked up.

After the party, Tilly got some quality time with Sam and Andrew. She wants to play with them everyday, so we named a couple of her stuffed animals Sam and Andrew.

Drawing with Handsome Samson the day before we left.

We love you, Rudens! I can't wait to bring both of my girls out to play next Spring or Summer!

Bangs

Just in case American rap is a little too racy for you, I wanted to introduce you to some wholesome Sudanese-Australian rap. Enjoy!

Floored

Over two years ago, when we first saw the house that we eventually bought, we fell in love with it. I am still in love with our little 111 year old house. The bathroom, although very small, has a big clawfoot bathtub that, again, I love. The previous owners had bath mats that covered the whole floor and we just never thought to look under them to see what the floor was like...and then we moved in. We came to discover that the bathroom floor looked like this:

I'll bet you wish you had linoleum that looked as good as this. Not only was the floor thoroughly discolored, scraped up, peeling off, and ugly, but the subfloor beneath the toilet had rotted, and while the toilet was stable, it was slightly tilted to the right, which was quite the surprise the first time I sat on it. While my dad was here for my graduation in April, he graciously gave up one day of his vacation to help us fix this disaster. Here are a couple pictures after we took out the tub and toilet:

In this picture, you can see the slanted floor under the toilet

In the morning, I helped my dad measure and lay down the new subfloor.

Sean got off work early, so in the afternoon he and my dad worked and putting down the new laminate flooring. I say new, but really it had been sitting in our garage for at least two years. Luckily, the previous owners had extra flooring from remodeling the kitchen and there was just enough for the bathroom. Really, there was just enough. We only had about a foot of flooring leftover that we didn't use.

Now really, which one looks better?

No More Back to School

For almost twenty years, I never realized the importance of "back to school" days in the resetting of my yearly life-cycle. As I am sure many people would agree, it feels even more absolute as a new beginning than New Years Day, and so the absence of the event is making me feel a bit incomplete. I use to LOVE back to school shopping, and I don't mean clothes shopping, although that was nice too. I loved picking out all of my new pencils, notebooks, crayons, and boxes of tissues. When I got home, I would carefully organize each item exactly how I wanted it, whether it be in a pencil pouch, binder, or backpack pocket. I would then repeat this ritual every night until school started. The night before the first day of school was always restless for me. In fact, I had my first migraine on the first day of my junior year of high school because I hadn't slept enough the night before. I do not remember ever hating school like some people do. Even when I complained about it, I loved school.

This year, the only things that let me know it is Back to School time again are the ads in the stores and the influx of students in Provo. I am not making last minute changes to my schedule. I am not buying my books or any other supplies. I am not moving into a new apartment or figuring out babysitting for Matilda. Life is just continuing as it has been for the past several months, which is wonderful because I really do love my life, but Autumn is going to be very different without school.

So, the whole point of this blog post (before I turned nostalgic), is to blog about my graduation from Brigham Young University, which occurred in April. This won't be incredibly detailed, but I do want to post some pictures and tell a little bit about those couple of days.

First Day: Commencement

Commencement, which includes all of the graduates, was long and boring, but luckily I found some of my dance friends to sit with. It was pretty cool walking into a packed Marriott Center during the processional. Here are some pictures:

Very full Marriott Center

Sister-in-law Caitlin, mother-in-law Jill, my mom Judy, Matilda, and Sean (we didn't realize until later that the settings on the camera were weird, but it was also very sunny)

Second Day: Convocation

Convocation was a lot more enjoyable and meaningful for me. It included about a third of my college (Fine Arts and Communications), so it was much shorter than some of the other college convocations. One part that made it especially special for me was that the main speaker was Mary Bee Jensen, founder of the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble. Anyone who knows me knows that folk dance is a huge part of my life and my heart since attending BYU, and so it was incredibly inspirational for me to have such an important woman making the closing remarks of my college education. Now for pictures:

Can you find me in the front row of graduates, over to the right? Notice how I'm the only one who looks genuinely interested in what Mary Bee is saying?

My sister, Allison, came with Sam. We miss them a lot.

My parents drove down from Oregon for a few days.

On the morning of convocation, Sean and I found out some exciting news for our little family and we wanted to tell our parents in a creative way that would get a reaction. After Sean counted 1,2,3 to take this next picture, I said "I'm pregnant!" Sean's mom was the only one who believed me at first.

Once everyone believed me, we got a better reaction shot.

Here are just a few more pictures

And to finish things off, here is a profile shot of our newest little girl, due 4 January 2011.

I'm Making a Comeback

My last post was about my upcoming dance concert, which is now long past, so I think a couple pictures are overdue. I'm so happy that I was able to be a part of such a wonderful piece during my last semester at BYU.

Giving our wonderful choreographer, Marin, some flowers for being awesome

Ready to go onstage

Random dancing shot

Now rewinding back a couple of months to the end of December. Sean and I had our 3rd wedding anniversary on December 30, so we decided to take a trip. We decided on Disneyland since we had never been there together, so we dropped Matilda off at grandma's house for a week and hit the road. We spent two nights in Las Vegas and five in California, so we treated ourselves to 3-day park hopper tickets at Disneyland. I'm assuming that most people have seen the pictures on facebook, so I'm just going to put a few of my favorites on here.

Hanging out in Vegas for our anniversary

New Year's Eve at Disneyland!

We loved being there while the holiday decorations were up!

Tarzan's Treehouse

Thunder Mountain Railroad

One of my anniversary gifts was lunch at the Blue Bayou at Disneyland (you know, inside Pirates of the Caribbean). My husband makes dreams come true :)

Carousel at California Adventure

We had a lot of fun, although it was hard to be away from Tilly for a whole week. The end.