A Letter to my One-Year-Old Rory Lou

Rory love, you turned one year old yesterday.  It seems so cliche to say that this year has flown by, but it truly has.  How is it possible that I brought you into this world 365 days ago?  It seems like yesterday and then again, you are such a perfect fit in our family that it's almost impossible to remember what life looked like before you were in it.

If I'm being completely honest Roars, while I was pregnant with you, I wasn't sure that I could love another human as much as I love your sister.  It seemed impossible that my heart would be big enough for you both.  But it is.  It so is.  You are my sweet little mama's girl and you always have been.  All those doubts about my love for you were washed away once I saw your huge 9lb 2oz self on August 31, 2015.  In fact, I feel that I actually cherished your infancy much more than I did with Ryan because I knew how quickly it would be over.

You have the most infectious smile.  You have the longest and darkest eyelashes ever.  You have olive toned skin and red hair!  You have always been such a beauty.  Some say you favor Daddy's looks while others tell me you look like me.  I'm still not sure, but I think you are mix of us both.  You talk and babble but not nearly as often as your sister did/does.  But you are a sneaky one.  Always dashing off to things you shouldn't be doing when you think I'm not paying attention.  And when I catch you, you laugh at me!  You know it's a game and you love it.

I am so excited to see you learn and grow.  You are already trying so hard to keep up with your big sis.  I know you are both anxious to be able to run around together but I am fine with you taking your time.  I hope that always know how much I love you.  You bring me so much joy every day.  As you grow into toddlerhood and childhood and your teen years and into your young adult life, my hope is that you always come to me with your doubts, fears, joys, dreams, and prayers.  I am your mama and I always will be, but someday, I hope that I'm also your best friend.

Happy 1st birthday my sweet second born.  I love you to the moon and back.

Love,
Mommy

Sibling Visit

We've had lots of visitors during the last few weeks which we always welcome with open arms.  When you have more than one child, an extra adult (or four) goes a long way in improving one's sanity!

All three of my younger siblings and my sister-in-law made the trip out to Massachusetts for a week in late October.  Bert, Rachel, Anna, and Adrienne all got to meet Rory for the first time and be endlessly entertained by Ryan's antics.  All four of them stayed at our house and at first I was a bit worried that it would seem crowded and uncomfortable and while it was definitely a full house, we had a great time.  Ryan would wake up in the morning and come downstairs to a living room full of bodies and say "Hi guys!"  Which I'm sure they totally appreciated at 6:30 AM.  She called her Uncle Bert, "Duncle Bob" and by the end of the week "Duncle Burp."  Anna was referred to as "Amy" the entire week, eventually she said Rachel the day before they left and Adrienne never did get an exact name!  But I tell you, Ryan certainly misses bossing around her adult playmates!

They watched the girls while I went to a dentist appointment, helped me take them both to the pediatrician for shots, played endlessly with Ryan, and helped console Rory during every evenings "witching hour."  They were all such a huge help to me and I tell you what, there is nothing better than watching your siblings love to love on your children.  Ryan and Rory are so blessed to have so many amazing Uncles and Aunties.

We did take a trip into Boston and got to enjoy some brisk but sunny weather.  I stayed with the girls for the day and the rest of them stayed a night in Boston and got to go out on the town as well as travel to Salem the next day.  At least they got to have some fun kid free moments while here in Massachusetts!

They also threw me a little 30th birthday party which was so sweet and thoughtful of them.  They may have thought it was somewhat silly but I appreciated it none the less.  I truly am so blessed.

Hopefully we didn't scare them away with our handful of kids!  Because I certainly would love to have them come visit us again, you know, cause I love free babysitting. :)

Welcome to the World Rory Louise!

Rory Louise Scurlock

Monday, August 31, 2015

7:09AM

9lbs 2oz

21" Long

**Disclaimer:  This will be lengthy/wordy but it is more for my own records and memories than anything else. :)

Miss Rory Louise was welcomed into the world, five days late, on August 31st 2015.  Her appearance, despite only taking half of the time as her sisters, was still about a 30 hour process.  However, we couldn't be more thrilled to have added this sweet girl into our family.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems like when you add a second child, creating a foursome instead of a threesome, your family begins to feel more like a tribe of "your people."

The Scurlock Tribe 2015

Regular contractions began Saturday, August 29th around 10:00pm.  I had had some the night before as well as off and on throughout the day but nothing super consistent or uncomfortable.  Josh was off on vacation starting that day and so we got to spend the late afternoon as a family of three, taking Ryan to the park and getting a nice bbq meal at a local spot for dinner.  In hindsight, it was the perfect last night as a family of three.

When contractions began late that evening, rather than coming on slowly, they began by being pretty uncomfortable and within a few hours, they were coming every 4-5 minutes.  I had been warned by my doctor not to waste too much time once they picked up because second labors can go rather quickly sometimes and since we had to get in touch with our babysitter to watch Ryan, we decided to call sooner rather than later.  She arrived at our house by 1:30am and we headed into the hospital.  Though contractions were already pretty intense at this point, I was somewhat excited thinking that this labor was going to go quickly.  In triage, I was checked and I was only 2cm dilated and 75% effaced, which is basically what I had been sitting at for at least 4 weeks prior.  Despite having regular contractions averaging 1-3 minutes apart, they decided to have me labor for 2 hours and recheck to see if any changes were occurring before admitting me.  Two hours later, I was the same and they decided to send me home.  I was SO discouraged.  The contractions were intense and close together and yet my body just wasn't progressing quickly and the whole situation began to feel eerily similar to my labor with Ryan.  I left the hospital in tears, not knowing how I was supposed to know when to come back since my contractions were already close together.

Josh and I arrived back at the house around 5:30am and sent the baby-sitter home with the instructions that we would likely be calling her to come back at some point that day, though we couldn't say when.  This piece of the labor puzzle only further frustrated and stressed me out because I felt awful for having to jerk her around and yet I desperately needed her to be available for us. By about this time too, my contractions started to lengthen out again to 8-10 minutes apart while still being extremely intense.  I got in the shower and had a long, tearful meltdown.

Josh and I had been up all night and there was no way I was going to be able to sleep through contractions, but of course by 6:30am Ryan was up for the day and Josh was forced to deal with her.  I felt really bad for him but I was also in no way capable of dealing with her while laboring.  By noon, my contractions had picked back up to 4-5 minutes apart.  I called my doctor who happened to be the on-call doctor at the hospital by this point, explained the situation, and he said to come in.  So, we called the baby-sitter for a second time to come back out to the house.  And as if the labor gods were playing a cruel joke on me, by the time she arrived, contractions were back to 10 minutes apart.

I pretty much lost my nerve at this point.  No sleep, plus intense contractions for 18+ hours, plus stress about Ryan's care, plus frustration with my own body for it's inability to progress normally had officially put me over the edge.  We didn't want to go into the hospital with contractions that far apart and risk being sent home a second time but we also didn't want to send the sitter home AGAIN.  Thankfully, amidst my tears, she agreed to stay and be there for us until this baby was born, no matter how long that took.  THANK YOU LORD.  She watched Ryan all afternoon while Josh caught up on sleep and I labored in our bedroom/shower.  Just knowing I didn't have to worry about Ryan was quite a relief.  I spent multiple hours on the phone with my Mom that afternoon just having her breath through contractions with me and help me focus on that rather than the pain.  Mom was my other lifesaver during labor.

FINALLY, at about 8:30 PM contractions were back to 4 minutes apart and at this point every single one was extremely painful, 8/10 on the pain scale.  We arrived at the hospital around 9 PM where I was checked by my own doctor and told I was now 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced and was definitely being admitted.  In fact, the nursing staff laughed because they had been waiting for me since noon when I had been told by my doctor to come in!  I, however, was NOT laughing at this point.

The original plan was to break my water and then receive the epidural.  However, it took 3 different people and 4 different tries to start an IV on me and so that process took almost 1.5 hours.  Gotta love tricky veins!  Because of the extended wait time, I wasn't sure I would last through having my water broken before having my epidural.  At this point it was almost midnight and I had been in labor over 24 hours with no sleep.  I was mentally and physically exhausted and knew that my contractions would only intensify once my water was broken and without an epidural, I didn't think I would be able to handle it.  The decision was made to administer the epidural first and break my water immediately after.  Thankfully, the cRNA who had been the one to actually start my IV was already in the room so he did the epidural at that point without an extended wait time.  Some relief was provided immediately and though I could still feel a lot of pressure, I was so much more comfortable.

My water was broken and within 10 minutes, my blood pressure dropped rather dramatically and babies heart rate began to drop too.  Because of this, they had me up on all fours, naked booty in the air, with oxygen and an entire team of doctors and nurses in the room.  Ahhh there really is NO modesty during childbirth.  They gave me some medication to bring up my blood pressure but also decided that the baby wasn't responding well to the loss of fluids so they inserted a line to keep pushing fluid into me throughout the duration of labor.

At this point, I was finally able to get a little sleep as was Josh.  The next few times that they checked me I was a five and I think the nurses and doctor began to get a tad nervous that I was going to stall out at 5cm and they would have to start pitocin, but they gave me some more time, put my legs on this peanut shaped ball and the next time I was checked around 5AM I was 8 cm.  Around this time, I felt like my epidural was beginning to wear off as I was having extremely significant amounts of pressure as well as tightening and pain through my abdomen.  The decision was made to up my epidural which in turn made me almost completely numb.

I rested some more but also started to feel quite queasy.  I didn't know if it was a lack of food for almost 36 hours, a lack of water, or just stress and exhaustion in general, but I did not feel good at all.  When the doctor came in at 6:45AM to check me and told me I was now 10cm and ready to push, I told him I didn't think I was up for it if it was going to take awhile because I wasn't feeling good.  Josh was asleep during all of this discussion (we'll thank nights at the hospital for making it possible for him to sleep through just about anything) but the doctor and I decided I would do a "practice push" and if he felt I would deliver quickly we'd go for it and if he felt it would take awhile, he'd let me rest a bit more first.  After one push, he told the nurse "we need to wake her husband up."

The doctor gowned up and the nurse woke up Josh and three contractions (9 pushes) later, our little Miss was here.  All 9lbs and 2oz of her.  Ironically, I couldn't feel anything during the delivery because of the upped epidural a couple of hours prior.  And they had taken off my contraction monitor so I was waiting on them to tell me to push because I couldn't feel my contractions and they were waiting on me to push and at one point I looked at them and said "aren't you going to tell me when to push?"  They all laughed and said they couldn't see them on the monitor anymore!

I was barely able to hold her after delivery as I got an EXTREME case of chills and was basically shivering violently for at least 15 minutes and begging for warm blankets.  At the same time, I was ridiculously thirsty and asking for water, which I chugged and then vomited up almost immediately.  I think my queasiness prior to her delivery was just my bodies way of telling me "it's time to push this girl out."  After I warmed up, I got lots of snuggles from this sweet girl and she nursed almost immediately.

Minutes Old.

Nobody could believe that she weighed in over 9lbs.  All estimates prior to delivery had been in the very average size range including an estimate on the Friday before (3 days prior to delivery) of a mid 7 lb baby.  Her delivery, while easy, left her with a broken clavicle on the right side.  I actually heard/felt a POP during delivery but assumed it was my own hips/pelvis.  Luckily, broken collar bones are not uncommon and all the doctors have said she will heal fine without any medical intervention needed.  We have just been being extra careful with her right side.  Other than a collar bone fracture, we've been blessed with another healthy baby girl who latched on immediately and has been great at nursing.  She has the chubbiest/yummiest cheeks just like her sister did/does and a full head of dark hair.  So far she has been a pretty easy baby even giving me some 4 hour stretches between feedings at night.

Ryan was a bit apprehensive of her arrival at our house at first, but has since warmed up to her and has really taken a liking to her Sissy "Roar-we."  I know it is going to be so much fun to watch as their sibling relationship grows and grows over the years.  There is nothing in this world like a sister. And I plan to do a blog post about Ryan's transition from an only child here soon.

First official Sister meeting.

The battle for Rory's name continued until the day after she was born (discharge day).  The birth certificate office only called our room about 6 times during the duration of our stay asking for it!  For those who are curious, we had three names that we were considering.  Louise was always going to be the middle name, after Josh's grandmother Louise Scurlock.  I had a favorite, Josh had a favorite and then there was Rory.  We both held strong to our top picks until the last moment and then decided that Rory was a good compromise and that she seemed like a Rory Louise anyway.  Now, I can't imagine her being named anything else but Rory Lou!

We are so glad you are here Rory Louise and I guess it was only fitting that you made a long, drawn out appearance just like your big sister.  I expect you'll be trying to mimic her every move for years and years to come.  We love you so much already and you fit just perfectly into this family.

Ryan's Pink Flamingo Birthday Party

We celebrated Ryan's 2nd birthday last weekend with a pink flamingo bash.  Where I got the pink flamingo theme from?  I don't know.  I think I subconsciously realized that flamingos are really "in" right now because after deciding on the theme for her party, I noticed that flamingos are seriously EVERYWHERE.  They are like the new "owl" craze from a few years ago.

 
I had all of these ideas in my head from Pinterest and elsewhere and when I began the planning phase for this party 8+ weeks ago, all my DIY ideas seemed much more fun to do than they ended up being at 33 weeks pregnant.  Ha!  I seriously wore myself out planning for this party, but it turned out how I envisioned it.  It was pretty and fun and overall relaxing.  And as a bonus, my Mom has been here from California to help out and give me a break in the last weeks of my pregnancy so I had some party prep help.  Praise the Lord, I don't know if I could have accomplished it all without her help.

Morning party prep.

We set up the backyard for the kids with a couple of Walmart swimming pools and Ryan's new swing set.  I had put on the invitation that there would be "swimming, food, and fun" which I then had a serious laugh session about the night before imagining Josh's boss showing up to the party in his swim trunks ready for a dip in the "pool." Although I'd be totally lying if I didn't admit I've spent my fair share of time in it during this pregnancy.  My poor neighbors. The blow up/plastic pools and sprinkler ended up being an absolute hit with the kids though.  Such easy, cheap entertainment.  I guess that's one huge benefit of having a summer birthday.

We had tons of food and desserts and waaaay too much left over, but we also had such a great time and it was fun to have a few of our closest friends over to celebrate Ryan and see our new home.

Please don't mind my 34 week pregnant self.

I still can't believe we have a two year old, but I also can't believe we are going to have a newborn in six weeks either.  Time continues to march on! Happy 2nd Birthday to my Ryan Cathleen!