Matthew Ryan Murphy.... arrives safe and sound!

Here's daddy kickin' it with Jen as he patiently waits and keeps the ice chips and water handy! Boy, what hard work:) Read that magazine and take it easy.........I luckily got him out of rehearsals and piano lessons so he was pretty stoked:) Oh, I keep forgetting to do the pictures in reverse order. Sorry, a picture of Matthew at home safe and sound is below:) I'll try again.

Ughhh! Here I am posing in my HOT outfit at the hospital the morning of Wed. Sept 17th. I was feeling pretty good! My water apparently ruptured the night before but I wasn't sure since it was draining slowly and in spurt. I thought that maybe I had lost utter control of my bladder or something. I didn't know a slow leak could happen, but I guess it can if the sack breaks up high enough. So I went to my doctor that morning and said I wasn't sure what was happening but something definitely strange was. Sure enough they confirmed that it was amniotic fluid that I was leaking and my doctor asked me why I didn't call her the night before?! Well, I wanted to sleep and didn't realize what was happening:) Sorry!

So they rushed me upstairs to Labor and Delivery (since my doctor's office is in the hospital...convenient, aye) and started the IV's. I had been dialated the week before to 4cm and about 70% effaced. I knew I was a walking, ticking baby time bomb! I wasn't feeling any contractions but they said I was having some pretty good ones. Around 4 pm they gave me my Epidural and started me on Petosin (sp?) to help speed up and regulate the contractions. It finally kicked in around 7:30 as they began to get stronger.

Around 9pm the doctor asked if I was feeling any pressure and I said "no" then quickly changed my mind as I suddenly felt a lot of pressure. The doctor checked my and said.....He's COMING NOW! So within 3 more contractions I pushed him out quickly and with a little tearing. Sorry if this is toooo much info! But he arrived safe and sound:)

Here he is...........Matthew Ryan Murphy!!!!!!! Born on Septmember 17th, 2008 at 9:18 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. 3.4 oz. and 19 inches long. He looks like a mix between Hailey and Megan, I think. He has some really blonde hair on the sides and slightly light brownish-goldish hair. His eyebrows and eyelashes are blonde-ish white! We're not sure about the eye color. Hailey thinks/hopes they'll be brown, but I think they might be hazel or blue. We'll see:)

He is such a sweet boy! He doesn't cry very much (of course, when he's hungry). We named him Matthew because in Hebrew it means "gift of God" (which he truly is after all of our worry about his health and my puky pregnancy) and because it sounds sweet, yet strong and nice with Murphy as well as fitting well with the rest of our names. His middle name is Ryan after his daddy's first name. We feel sooooooo BLESSED to have him in our family. It feels so right!