Grandma Hoyt is Here!

My mom and my sister Marissa arrived a few days after I came home from the hospital with Stacia.  They stayed for a week, and while they were here my sister Noelle and her kids came over from Pocatello.  We certainly had a full, and fun, house for a few days!  It was great to have my mom here, because she helped with everything from cleaning to laundry to baby holding.  What we would do without moms to help us out after having a baby??  The boys were sure excited to have her here and get them all to herself for a few days - they felt pretty special!

Big Brothers

A few days after we arrived home, Hoyt and Jett felt that Stacia needed to play with some toys or at least look at some toys.  They brought out their castle, some stuffed animals, a spider man mask, etc. for her to look at.  They were pretty certain that this would make her happy! 

Hoyt has been concerned about Stacia from the moment we came home.  He wants to be by her constantly and tells me that he is just making sure she is OK.  He can usually be found sitting next to her seat, helping her with the pacifier or just looking at her and talking to her.  He came to me one evening and asked me if he could sleep by her bassinet in our room.  When I asked him why he said, "Well, I just think I should be by her in case she needs me!"  So sweet - he is a pretty great big brother.   

Bringing Stacia Home

Two and half days in the hospital is plenty for me, so I was ready and excited to get home; even though going home to two rambunctious boys with a newborn was a little daunting.  She seemed so tiny going into her carseat, as newborns always do, but she seemed especially small to me because she was just under 7 pounds when we left the hospital.  The boys were so excited to see us and went to work right away trying to be good big brothers!

Stacia Starr Murray

And here she is!  Stacia Starr Murray was born at 11:17 on Tuesday, August 20th.  She weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 inches long.  Ryon and I keep saying how tiny she is, while all of the nurses agree that she is average sized.  (I just keep telling them that I am used to 9 pound boys!)  My C-section went very smoothly, even though I was nervous.  I had a great anesthesiologist and great nurses, so my experience was definitely a good one. 

After they delivered Stacia I was able to see her for a minute until they took her to clean her up a little and take all of her vitals.  Ryon went with her while I finished up with my fun operation!  In recovery they brought her to me and she was crying and crying.  She finally calmed down after I held her and nursed her, but she was definitely upset.  The poor, sweet thing did not like being taken from her warm, comfy home and brought into the cold world!  When I was put in my room she was calm and decided to sleep the rest of the day away. 

Later that afternoon, Ron and Kathy brought Hoyt and Jett to meet their little sister.  They were both enamored with her, especially Hoyt who wanted to hold her the whole time he was at the hospital.

I have always know that if I had a girl I would want to name her Stacia after my sister who passed away shortly after birth.  She would have been about 18 months older than me.  I also knew that her middle name would be Starr, which was my great-grandfather's first name and also my brother Gareth's middle name.  I have just always thought that Stacia Starr was the perfect girl name and I'm so happy that we could use it.  How excited we all are (OK....maybe just me) for bows, headbands, frilly dresses, accessories; I could go on and on.   

For now I'm going to try and treasure every moment with her because I have a feeling that she is our last.  We will not be doing any other rounds of in-vitro so I think she is our final, sweet baby doll.  How I love her smell, her tiny fingers and toes, her sweet pink face and perfectly shaped lips, again I could go on and on.  I will try and remind myself often to slow down and cherish this last baby of mine!  

 

Off to the Hospital

Today is the day!  We are so excited to meet this sweet little girl who is coming to our family.  They had first scheduled my C-section for 7:30, which meant I would need to be at the hospital by 5:30; however, they switched my time to 11:00 so happily we didn't need to be at the hospital until 9:00.  I was happy to be able to stay home and get the boys up and fed and say good-bye to them before Ryon and I went in.  Here are a few pictures before we walked out the door, and a few pictures at the hospital before I put on my gown and they prepped me for the C-section.   

Swimmer Hoyt

After practicing his swimming skills at my parents house, and two weeks of one-on-one swim lessons, Hoyt has really begun to swim well.  I had originally signed him up for group lessons, but after one day of those decided that the one-on-one lessons would be much better for him.  I'm so glad I switched!  He loved his teacher and she was so good with him.  By the end of his two weeks of lessons he was jumping and diving (I'm using that term loosely) into the deep end and swimming by himself to the side.  Great job Hoyt!  Jett is excited for next year when he can take swim lessons too. 

Little Photoshoot

I thought that before this sweet girl arrives, I should take the boys out and try to take some pictures of them.  Good idea, in theory, but they were not all that interested in having their pictures taken and the vast majority of the time were whining and asking if they could go inside!  After I took the pictures I realized that Jett really needed a haircut, but oh well.  I think a few turned out pretty cute!  Hoyt is a few weeks shy of being six in these pictures and Jett is 2 years and 8 months.  The final picture is what the boys were doing in most of the 60+ pictures I took!