Nate Murray's official web site

So we’re home and adjusting.  Things are going really well.  Jacob is growing fast.  He had his first Dr’s appointment on Tues. and as of that afternoon he’d gained 11oz. and grown an inch since birth.  Not too bad for the first 9 days of life.  Made me glad that I didn’t go over my due date or I would have been giving birth to a much larger baby.  

Last night we put him to bed at 10:30pm and he slept until 4:00am and then slept until 7:00am when I woke him up.  We’re finding that he’s a very low maintenance baby.  If his basic needs are taken care of, he’s content to lay in his pack n’ play by the window and just hang out.  It’s taken us the last 12 days to figure out what his basic needs are however.  Poor Jacob suffered through an entire night until Nate and I learned that he likes to be warm…  Go figure.  

So now we know he likes to be 
1. fed 
2. dry
3. burped
4. warm.  

If those criteria are met he’s happy as a monkey in a monkey tree.  But let me tell you, getting all 4 of those needs met at the same time can be quite challenging.  If he’s fed, then he needs burped, then he needs to be changed and has most likely leaked pee onto his clothes, so we have to change him head to toe, then he gets cold and starts crying which gives him the hick-ups, which makes him need to burp.  Five diapers and three outfits later you get all that fixed, and then it’s time for him to eat again.   

I wish that I had more interesting info to write about, but truthfully we’ve been sucked into baby world for the past two weeks and are just now gradually starting to resume bits and pieces of normal life.  I guess that next week will be the true test though.  Last week Nate was home all week, this week my sister Erin is here, but next week it’s just me and the kid.  Thankfully the week after that my mom is coming and all will be right with the world again.  She has that effect on me.  

Posted in ashley, baby, nate

Things around here are going well.  Today I’m 38 weeks pregnant, and feeling it.  We’re all set and ready for the baby to come.  We have the crib, the car seat, the clothes, a diaper bag, and a place to put it all.  Now if we only had the baby around to actually start using it.

We finished up our birthing classes and really enjoyed them.  There were some interesting people in the classes with us.  There was only one couple whose names we learned.  Maria and Orlando.  They were a very sweet older couple who were having their first child.  There were also the couples that we didn’t know but stereotyped.

• There was the Mail Order Bride couple:  a young Asian woman who didn’t speak much english, and the American husband who looked to be in his fifties and said that he had a 21 year old child from a previous marriage.
• There was the Big Ankles couple:  the name pretty much sums them up.  The poor mother-to-be had ankles the same size as her upper leg.  Pregnancy swelling seemed to have hit her quite hard.
• There was the Teengage Mother couple:  we’re not exactly sure how old this couple was, the girl still had braces and her mother attended each class with them.
• There was one couple who was very tall.  The husband was just a very very large man, and when the wife started asking questions about birthing balls, our friend Maria kept repeating that if she bought one, she would need to buy a very large ball to accommodate her height.  Nate and I laughed at how many times Maria emphasized to this girl that she would need to buy the largest size available.
• Another couple I felt sorry for the woman for being married to such a jerk.  There wasn’t anything completely terrible about him, he was just steadily sarcastic and made those, “I can’t wait for her to get over the pregnancy hormones and stop having those annoying mood swings” comments.  I don’t know the woman, maybe she wasn’t a walk in the park, but still.
• There was a single girl who always had my heart during “couples exercises” when she didn’t have anyone to couple up with.
• Then there was one couple in particular who seemed to not differentiate their behavior between a public setting and the privacy of ones own living room.  The husband was frequently seen rubbing the mothers belly in a slow petting way, and she would put her hand up her own shirt, or down the front of her pants to rub her belly, or feel the baby’s movements.  There’s just something shockingly inappropriate about seeing a very pregnant woman feel her own body underneath her clothing.  So weird.

Other than that we’ve just been hanging out.  Today we went swimming and had dinner with the Spanglers.  On Sat. Nate discovered the wonder that is Wii Fit at his parents house.  This Thur. and Fri. Nate is taking off work and we’re looking forward to having a nice long weekend of relaxing before the baby comes - if he’s not here by then.

We’re kind of skeptical that I’ll make it to my due date, but I’m not sure how much of that is based on actual evidence and how much is wishful thinking.  Yesterday I ate a big salad with balsamic vinegar on it, which is supposed to encourage labor and even if it doesn’t work, it’s still good to fill up on leafy greens.

I think as the big day nears we’ll also be taking some long evening walks to keep the baby headed in the right direction.  Hopefully we’ll spot Sprinkles, the neighborhood skunk while we’re out.  We’ll be sure to keep our distance.

Posted in ashley, baby, family, nate

Tonight we participated in an Infant/ Child CPR training class.

We both loved the class, and despite the fact that the heads on both the Infant and Adult mannequins that Nate was working on fell off, we feel much more prepared to respond in an emergency.

I learned that the standard number of chest compressions has really gone up.  When I learned CPR in high school you were only supposed to do 15 compressions and then do breaths, now you do 30.  The guy also said that the number of compressions is rising and in Seattle they’re experimenting with doing 400 chest compressions before doing any breaths and that they’re having a great survival rate.

We practiced quite a bit, and cycles of 30 compressions is tiring, I can’t imagine 400 at a time.  Maybe easier for someone who isn’t pregnant.  We also learned about what to do for a choking baby - something that you hear a bazillion wives tales about but never really know what to do.

 We highly recommend the class to anyone who is ever around people or is ever in public places where a person might need emergency assistance.  As for the people who are never around any one else, then it might be ok to miss it.

Also Mark and Aubs are here.  That’s fun.       

Posted in baby, family

For all of you who have been placing bets on the gender of our baby, it’s time to collect.  Or pay up if you’d put your money on a girl.  We had an ultrasound yesterday and saw that it is a boy - no mistaking it.  We also were able to see that he has four chambers in his heart, a stomach, and kidneys.  All good things to have. 

Next on the agenda is finding a name.  That should be an interesting task.  We’ve had thoughts of names in the past but we’re not decided on anything yet, so we’ll let everyone know when we’ve made our final decision.  If anyone wants to submit suggestions feel free to leave us comments.  I suggested to Nate on Sunday that we name our baby Pastor Scott.  That way when we’re late for church we can say, “So sorry we’re late, but we had to change Pastor Scott.”  That would be funny. 

Posted in baby

The other day a friend of ours told me about an old wives tale for finding out the gender of your baby. We’re planning on finding out the gender, but when I heard the test I laughed and told Nate that we should do it so we could post about it on the blog…so here’s the post.

The test is that you get powdered Drano and mix it with the urine of the pregnant woman in question, and the gender of the baby is determined by the color of the mixture. Warm colors like red, yellow, orange and brown indicate a boy and cool colors such as blue, green or purple indicate a girl.

So we got some powdered Drano (who knew that even existed), and mixed it in a small bowl with some of my urine. The mixture immediately started to smoke and give off these horrible fumes. It was sputtering and fizzing and Nate was saying, “Ashley! Don’t breathe that!!” We took the bowl outside and opened all the doors and windows, turned on the fans and waited for the lightheadedness to go away. After a few minutes we took a look at the mixture and the color was a brownish-greenish color. So we’ve conclusively decided that we’re having a boy… or a girl.

As a side note, we’d like to add that the test really should never be done since you are in essence mixing bleach and ammonia which is a toxic combination (pdf). So leave it to the professionals - like us.

We didn’t really want to post a picture of the test on the blog because let’s face it, that’s just gross. So here’s a picture of my growing belly (17 weeks) instead.

Posted in ashley, baby, family, howto, pictures

Nate and I have some very specific ideas about the kinds of toys that we would like our children to have.  While some of this is based only on preference, some of it comes from having 700 sq.ft. in our condo and knowing that we have no place to put 3′x3′ baby gym.  That’s 9 sq.ft. of precious floor space!  We were walking through Target tonight and saw things like Lincoln Logs and said, “We should totally get these for the kids someday.”  We also came across the battery operated dragon that roars, moves it’s head and “breathes fire” and said, “No way.”  We both have a traditional view of toys and have seen dozens of kids set aside the flashy new toy and play contentedly with the box it came in.  While we do appreciate the strides that mankind has made to improve early childhood development, we are confident that this can be made without the crib mounted remote control aquatic sounds simulator that we saw on the shelves tonight.  So here are some examples of things that if we receive as gifts we will be returning if possible or that may find their way over to grandma and grandpas living room:

• Little Tykes Activity Gym
• Little Champs Sports Center 
• Fantastic 4 Human Torch Blazing Stunt Bike  

Here are some toys that we love:

• Lincoln Logs
• Toy Dishes
•  Spelling Puzzle  

 Nate’s going to create a Baby Murray Gift Buying Guide Flowchart for the interested gift buyers out there.  Stay tuned, it should be interesting.  

Posted in baby, family, howto