Our unplanned family portrait Jeff 50 Amber 46 : )

Avery Lynn Murray (5 years old)

Sawyer James Murray (approx. 5 mo.)

Caleb Jefferson Murray (approx. 5mo.)

A little bit about Caleb at this stage. He is a very happy baby, loves to share his smiles with anyone who makes contact with him. He thinks his sister is so funny and he loves to laugh at her. He sleeps through the night and wakes up kicking his feet or hiding under a blanket with a big grin . He loves peek-a-boo! He finds comfort sleeping with something covering his face. He snuggles and loves to be snuggled. His cry is quite quiet not very demanding only happens when he really needs something, he leaves the demanding fits to Sawyer and laughs so hard when Sawyer and Avery throw fits. He thinks it is so funny! He is such a sweet little boy we just love him!

Avery turns " 5"

This year we did a combined swim party with Avery's friend Ellie, who's Birthday is the day before hers. They are really great friends of ours, it's nice also because their son Lockland was born only 3 weeks before our little guys. So we have a good thing going. The pool party was super fun they had a bunch of friends come. We dumped treasure in the pool for them to find and dumped water balloons in the pool filled with water and some air and had a relay race to see who could fill up their bucket by popping the water ballons into the buckets. They had a blast and so did the boys.

On Avery's actual Birthday we introduced her to build a bear. Where she built Hello Kitty and where we spent more money on the kitty's underware than I've ever spent on my own, but it is such a fun little place and well worth the memories. This was one of the boys first outings to the mall

Blessing Day

Sawyer James Murray and Caleb Jefferson Murray

( so hard to get a picture of both babies being happy together, this was the best we could do that day : ) I chose these cute rompers from Naartjie instead of suits. I loved them! They were so comfy and snuggly.

Quick IN N OUT

" Went IN and wanted to run OUT"

What is that???

Anyone else like to finish off a nice run with a juicy burger???

Kindergarten

Avery's first day of Kindergarten, we had some great friends who were able to come stay with the boys while we took her to her first day. She did great in fact better than Jeff and myself. While Kindergarten was a lifesaver at this time in our lives it was also so hard to see our little baby growing up and to be away from her all day.

So far school has been quite a good experience. I hate how the other kids have such an influence though on your little baby. For instance, she tells me now that she only watches Diego because the little brothers like to watch it and that Kindergartners watch big kid shows like magic school bus. She also won't wear her Hello Kitty shirt anymore becaue the kids say it's for babies. Things like that just make me want to smack the other little kids but the nice thing is she has learned so much, it is so fun to watch their little minds grow and develop. Avery is very responsible and always makes sure she is right up and ready for school all on her own. She gets a bit of a stomach ache from being away for so long from us but she doesn't let it show. She's so kind to all the kids in her class and is very complimentary of all the good things her classmates may do. She's quite a little cheerleader and we love her so much!

Our Little Ones

I never got around to sending out a birth announcement because life was just to chaotic, but a good friend of ours is a professional photographer and he helped us capture this early time in their lives when they were so little, so helpless and so precious.

Right after

Caleb was intubated but was determined he didn't like the tube down his throat and pulled it out. He also continued to pull his oxygen off so the doctor decided he could do without he was then on to tanning and trying to make up for weight loss before he could go home.

Sawyer had a bit of a rough go of it. He was a little more smashed and swollen, poor little guy. He had to have the C-pap and didn't get to eat after the first day because he never passed the meconium plug. His poor belly became distended and they had to do a lower G I scope to rule out any blockage. He passed the meconium plug eventually and the doctors never found a lower blockage so we were then left to believe he might have an upper blockage, this news followed with the neonatal specialists telling me that the boys most likely had CF Cystic Firbrosis and the story goes on from there. We eventually ruled out that neither of them had cystic fibrosis at 3 months when we could do the chloride sweat test. The boys are both very healthy despite the need for many doctors appointments they will be as normal as can be. We are so grateful to have them here safe healthy and sound.

Sawyer with the C-pap

Caleb catching some rays breaking down his belliruben (sp?)

Getting Ready

Triage- and the most uncomfortable bed ever. Thanks to my cousin Brittany Avery was able to go and get some sleep while the rest of us kept the hospital up and running through the night.

Birthing/laboring room- Wed. June 16th at 36 weeks I delivered 2 beautiful baby boys 6lb. 3oz. and 6lb. 1oz. approx. 20min. apart.

The O R - They deliver twins in here just in case baby B were to flip and they have to do an emergency C-section/vaginal birth, and for other high risk issues. I was fortunate not to need a C-section but they did have to pull Caleb out with forceps which worried me, they had to convince me it was necessary (which wasn't to hard to do) I saw Sawyer for a brief moment then they wisked him away and it was time to push Caleb out. After pushing once of twice Dr. Mourad looked at me and smiled and said " so do you want to deliver this baby today or tomorrow" He said "I can use the forceps and he'll be out in one push or you can keep trying." I insisted I could do it myself and pushed a few more times then my exhaustion kicked in when they told me he hadn't even dropped into the birth canal... and I gave in. One push and some brutal strength from the doctor and I'll never look at salad tongs again without it taking me back to this moment, and there was Caleb. Both boys looked great when they were delivered but shortly after both boys were struggling to breathe. Sawyer stopped altogether and they used forced air with the C pap (sp?) and they helped Caleb breathe until they were able to get them both stablized in the NICU. I was fortunately unaware of all the stress the boys were having and was grateful for each of the individual teams who were there to take care of my sweet boys.

One thing I never expected was to have 15 people in the room when I delivered. When I delivered Avery there was a Doctor a nurse and then a couple more nurses came in after I delivered but when I went into the OR to deliver the boys I realized that's where all the parties are. They had music playing they strapped my arms out away from my body and I sat there and watched as person after person came into the room to do there jobs, however when it was all said and done I was grateful for every single one of them.

The Calm before the Storm

It was a beautiful hot Arizona day I was 35 weeks and 6 days along. My mom had come to visit and was leaving in 2 days. Jeff took the day off and we went to golf at Ocotillo. Our plan was to golf the first 9 and then drive to my appointment come back and golf the back 9. Needless to say we didn't golf our back 9 that day. 2 hours after my appointment I was feeling tired. I went to lay down on the couch. I was so uncomfortable though I sat up to reposition and felt a pop. I suddenly felt as though I had peed my pants but then I thought about it when I couldn't stop and realized one of the boys bags of water had broke. I announced to everyone in the room that I was soaking wet and needed to get to the hospital, and that this better be my bag of water or something is seriously wrong with me. So of course Jeff panicked while my mom just smiled and acted happy and excited that she wasn't going to miss the event and we rushed to the hospital. I was admitted and hours later we had 2 handsome boys.

On our way off the course my mom turned around to see something and flew us off a curb. I think that might have contributed to the events later in the day : )

Golf one thing a son-in-law and mother-in-law can agree on : )