The Journey Begins by Kenyon Murray
News Bulletin
"Are you sitting down?" Those were the words spoken to me by my then 5 1/2 week pregnant wife, Michelle. At this time, I was the assistant men's basketball coach at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa. My first coaching job and I was at one of the most successful programs in the country. So with that, I spent a lot of time at the office or on the phone. This was a phone call I wasn't expecting. Michelle worked in the radiology department at Ottumwa Regional Hospital and she had had one of her fellow techs do a quick ultrasound on her. At 5 1/2 weeks, our baby was barely the size of a grain of rice. I immediately asked her, "Is everything okay?" The thought that something was wrong with the pregnancy engulfed me because only a few short months ago, Michelle had miscarried and I was preparing myself for the worse. "What do you think about twins"?
Dream Come True
I was ecstatic over the news! Secretly, I always thought it would be cool to have twins. Twins ran on the Murray side of the family, but in every case, it doesn't matter if the father has twins in his family, having a background of twins only pertains to the mother's side. That is a sobering piece of information, because like all dads, we want to take a lot of the credit, when our part is only a matter of minutes (hopefully) and the mother's part changes her for years. There were many times before Michelle and I were married that I dreamed of having twins. I had never shared that with her, but with the news, I was on cloud nine. I told Michelle how happy I was and the best thing about learning we were going to have twins, "we have 2/5 of Team Murray!!"
Pregame Preparations
So when we decided to let "nature take its course", Michelle and I were planning on having "a" baby, but now we had to "course correct" with everything we initially thought we had to do to prepare. Michelle immediately scheduled a doctor's appointment. The doctor performed a "trans-vaginal ultrasound" about a week later and saw two heartbeats. The doctor informed us that 50% of twins don't make it and on numerous occasions, the parents never know there were two fetuses. Fast forward to week 8 and Michelle was already showing and could no longer fit any of her clothes. She came home in tears because she returned from the Gap and explained to me how she just burst into tears in front of the sales associate. She was at that "in between" stage where she couldn't fit her clothes, but she wasn't at the maternity size either. Let the body changing stage begin. She was narcoleptic, vomiting daily and on an emotional roller coaster where she would burst into tears for no apparent reason. When she wasn't puking, she was eating us out of house and home. She definitely was eating for three. I would routinely have to stop at Arby's to get her one of the biggest sandwiches to hold off her hunger whenever we would drive anywhere. I was already getting tired of Arby's and Chinese food, because that was what she wanted to eat ALL OF THE TIME!! But back to reality, having twins meant we were going to have to "two" of everything. This meant we were going to have to have a bigger apartment, a bigger vehicle (we just purchased a Honda CRV) and double the clothes, diapers, stroller and cribs. We were living on the campus of Indian Hills due to the fact that I was a dorm supervisor, as well as a campus recruiter and basketball coach. We found an apartment off campus, upgraded to a Ford Explorer and our family was great in helping us purchase the necessities for Baby A and Baby B. It got overwhelming at times for us both, with my being in season with the basketball team and Michelle dealing with the rapid growth of these two bundles of joy.
Special Gifts
Routinely Michelle would wake up in the middle of the night clawing at her belly. This was due how fast the babies were growing and her skin was trying to expand to accommodate the Murray Twins. She developed a rash so the doctor put her on an anti-itch oral and topical medication. By the end of her second trimester (after 6 months), Michelle was already measuring full term and the Braxton-Hicks contractions were setting in. Because of this, we decided to be cautious and Michelle stopped working at the hospital. We had also found out that we were having boys and before Michelle and I were even engaged, I told her I wanted my first born son to be named Christopher. That name was to honor my best friend and teammate at Iowa, Chris Street. He had been taken away from us in a tragic car accident on January 19, 1993. Michelle never balked at the idea and knew how much that meant to me. We threw a few names around, for the other boy, but we will get to how we came up with his name a little later. With twins being a "high risk" pregnancy, Michelle was getting ultrasounds every month, so the techs were taking measurements to determine the development of the babies. They would measure the femurs of each baby and they consistently measured 3-4 weeks larger than their actual gestational age. We had some BIG BOYS!! Being a lover of hip hop music, I was a huge DMX fan. I bring this up, because I would always be playing one of his tracks when we would drive any where. It never failed, when DMX came on, those boys would go crazy and basically do their best "So You Think You Can Dance" impression inside Michelle's belly. With the boys being on top of each other, we knew Baby A would come first, so he was going to be our Christopher, but what about Baby B? Our Baby B seemed to be a little more active on top and Michelle would have sore ribs from him constantly kicking her. So this little guy had some "fire" in his belly and we found the perfect name......Keegan (means little fiery one). Perfect, we had our names. Because Chris Street meant so much to me, I knew I was going to honor him, but I had to ask Patty Street for her permission on one thing. The Streets will always hold a special place in my heart, but like many parents, when you pick a name, there is a special attachment to why you chose it. In the case of Christopher, I wanted to put my spin on his name. So I asked Patty if it was okay if I spelled our Christopher's name with the letter K? She had no problem with it and so our boys had their names. Baby A would be Kristopher James (middle name after my dad) and Baby B would be Keegan Mitchell (middle name after Michelle's brother).
Game Time
Michelle's Braxton-Hicks contractions had been getting more and more frequent until on one occasion we put her in the back of our Explorer and rushed to St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids. We were going to have the boys in Cedar Rapids due to the fact that St. Lukes was a little more prepared for anything unexpected in a twin birth and, Michelle's family lived either in Cedar Rapids or Anamosa, Iowa. So at 34 weeks, we decided it would be best if Michelle stayed in Anamosa with her grandparents so that she would be closer to the hospital. I continued to work in Ottumwa, while Michelle stayed with her grandparents and kept off her feet. At 37 weeks, Michelle was measuring 52 weeks!! WHAT THE HELL!! She was uncomfortable and the fact that the boys were due in August, she was miserable with the heat. Best thing about Indian Hills was the fact that we worked Monday-Thursday. Being none of our players were on campus, I would jet out on Thursday afternoon and be in Anamosa with Michelle Thursday evening until Monday morning when I would head back to Ottumwa. On Saturday, August 19, 2000, we were having a family get together in Cedar Rapids. Michelle was having a hard time getting comfortable and when the contractions were coming pretty regularly, we made the decision to head to St. Lukes.
The boys were big enough that our OBGYN, Dr. Joy Olson, said it was go time with the boys. Because Kristopher was breach, we knew Michelle was going to have a C-section delivery. You always worry with C-section there could be complications, but in our case, every thing went great and at 8:49pm, weighing in at 7lbs, 8oz and measuring 21" long, Kristopher James Murray was born. Not to be outdone by his brother, Keegan Mitchell Murray joined us one minute later, weighing 7lbs and measuring 21" long. I was so happy, I ran out to the waiting room where our family had gathered and all I could say is, "They look like me!" Pretty bold and narcissistic of me at a moment where my wife, who had endured 37 weeks of her whole world changing, was laying on an operating table with her body numb and insides exposed. With the boys in the nursery and Michelle resting (not so comfortably), I made the rounds in calling friends and family about the boys joining us. When Michelle was awake and alert, the nurses wheeled Kris and Keegan into her room and our family was together. No bigger joy than having to healthy baby boys, crying, eating and sleeping in your arms. My heart was full and Team Murray was ready to tip off!
*If you enjoyed this blog post, share it with a friend!
"Are you sitting down?" Those were the words spoken to me by my then 5 1/2 week pregnant wife, Michelle. At this time, I was the assistant men's basketball coach at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa. My first coaching job and I was at one of the most successful programs in the country. So with that, I spent a lot of time at the office or on the phone. This was a phone call I wasn't expecting. Michelle worked in the radiology department at Ottumwa Regional Hospital and she had had one of her fellow techs do a quick ultrasound on her. At 5 1/2 weeks, our baby was barely the size of a grain of rice. I immediately asked her, "Is everything okay?" The thought that something was wrong with the pregnancy engulfed me because only a few short months ago, Michelle had miscarried and I was preparing myself for the worse. "What do you think about twins"?
Dream Come True
I was ecstatic over the news! Secretly, I always thought it would be cool to have twins. Twins ran on the Murray side of the family, but in every case, it doesn't matter if the father has twins in his family, having a background of twins only pertains to the mother's side. That is a sobering piece of information, because like all dads, we want to take a lot of the credit, when our part is only a matter of minutes (hopefully) and the mother's part changes her for years. There were many times before Michelle and I were married that I dreamed of having twins. I had never shared that with her, but with the news, I was on cloud nine. I told Michelle how happy I was and the best thing about learning we were going to have twins, "we have 2/5 of Team Murray!!"
Pregame Preparations
So when we decided to let "nature take its course", Michelle and I were planning on having "a" baby, but now we had to "course correct" with everything we initially thought we had to do to prepare. Michelle immediately scheduled a doctor's appointment. The doctor performed a "trans-vaginal ultrasound" about a week later and saw two heartbeats. The doctor informed us that 50% of twins don't make it and on numerous occasions, the parents never know there were two fetuses. Fast forward to week 8 and Michelle was already showing and could no longer fit any of her clothes. She came home in tears because she returned from the Gap and explained to me how she just burst into tears in front of the sales associate. She was at that "in between" stage where she couldn't fit her clothes, but she wasn't at the maternity size either. Let the body changing stage begin. She was narcoleptic, vomiting daily and on an emotional roller coaster where she would burst into tears for no apparent reason. When she wasn't puking, she was eating us out of house and home. She definitely was eating for three. I would routinely have to stop at Arby's to get her one of the biggest sandwiches to hold off her hunger whenever we would drive anywhere. I was already getting tired of Arby's and Chinese food, because that was what she wanted to eat ALL OF THE TIME!! But back to reality, having twins meant we were going to have to "two" of everything. This meant we were going to have to have a bigger apartment, a bigger vehicle (we just purchased a Honda CRV) and double the clothes, diapers, stroller and cribs. We were living on the campus of Indian Hills due to the fact that I was a dorm supervisor, as well as a campus recruiter and basketball coach. We found an apartment off campus, upgraded to a Ford Explorer and our family was great in helping us purchase the necessities for Baby A and Baby B. It got overwhelming at times for us both, with my being in season with the basketball team and Michelle dealing with the rapid growth of these two bundles of joy.
Special Gifts
Routinely Michelle would wake up in the middle of the night clawing at her belly. This was due how fast the babies were growing and her skin was trying to expand to accommodate the Murray Twins. She developed a rash so the doctor put her on an anti-itch oral and topical medication. By the end of her second trimester (after 6 months), Michelle was already measuring full term and the Braxton-Hicks contractions were setting in. Because of this, we decided to be cautious and Michelle stopped working at the hospital. We had also found out that we were having boys and before Michelle and I were even engaged, I told her I wanted my first born son to be named Christopher. That name was to honor my best friend and teammate at Iowa, Chris Street. He had been taken away from us in a tragic car accident on January 19, 1993. Michelle never balked at the idea and knew how much that meant to me. We threw a few names around, for the other boy, but we will get to how we came up with his name a little later. With twins being a "high risk" pregnancy, Michelle was getting ultrasounds every month, so the techs were taking measurements to determine the development of the babies. They would measure the femurs of each baby and they consistently measured 3-4 weeks larger than their actual gestational age. We had some BIG BOYS!! Being a lover of hip hop music, I was a huge DMX fan. I bring this up, because I would always be playing one of his tracks when we would drive any where. It never failed, when DMX came on, those boys would go crazy and basically do their best "So You Think You Can Dance" impression inside Michelle's belly. With the boys being on top of each other, we knew Baby A would come first, so he was going to be our Christopher, but what about Baby B? Our Baby B seemed to be a little more active on top and Michelle would have sore ribs from him constantly kicking her. So this little guy had some "fire" in his belly and we found the perfect name......Keegan (means little fiery one). Perfect, we had our names. Because Chris Street meant so much to me, I knew I was going to honor him, but I had to ask Patty Street for her permission on one thing. The Streets will always hold a special place in my heart, but like many parents, when you pick a name, there is a special attachment to why you chose it. In the case of Christopher, I wanted to put my spin on his name. So I asked Patty if it was okay if I spelled our Christopher's name with the letter K? She had no problem with it and so our boys had their names. Baby A would be Kristopher James (middle name after my dad) and Baby B would be Keegan Mitchell (middle name after Michelle's brother).
Game Time
Michelle's Braxton-Hicks contractions had been getting more and more frequent until on one occasion we put her in the back of our Explorer and rushed to St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids. We were going to have the boys in Cedar Rapids due to the fact that St. Lukes was a little more prepared for anything unexpected in a twin birth and, Michelle's family lived either in Cedar Rapids or Anamosa, Iowa. So at 34 weeks, we decided it would be best if Michelle stayed in Anamosa with her grandparents so that she would be closer to the hospital. I continued to work in Ottumwa, while Michelle stayed with her grandparents and kept off her feet. At 37 weeks, Michelle was measuring 52 weeks!! WHAT THE HELL!! She was uncomfortable and the fact that the boys were due in August, she was miserable with the heat. Best thing about Indian Hills was the fact that we worked Monday-Thursday. Being none of our players were on campus, I would jet out on Thursday afternoon and be in Anamosa with Michelle Thursday evening until Monday morning when I would head back to Ottumwa. On Saturday, August 19, 2000, we were having a family get together in Cedar Rapids. Michelle was having a hard time getting comfortable and when the contractions were coming pretty regularly, we made the decision to head to St. Lukes.
The boys were big enough that our OBGYN, Dr. Joy Olson, said it was go time with the boys. Because Kristopher was breach, we knew Michelle was going to have a C-section delivery. You always worry with C-section there could be complications, but in our case, every thing went great and at 8:49pm, weighing in at 7lbs, 8oz and measuring 21" long, Kristopher James Murray was born. Not to be outdone by his brother, Keegan Mitchell Murray joined us one minute later, weighing 7lbs and measuring 21" long. I was so happy, I ran out to the waiting room where our family had gathered and all I could say is, "They look like me!" Pretty bold and narcissistic of me at a moment where my wife, who had endured 37 weeks of her whole world changing, was laying on an operating table with her body numb and insides exposed. With the boys in the nursery and Michelle resting (not so comfortably), I made the rounds in calling friends and family about the boys joining us. When Michelle was awake and alert, the nurses wheeled Kris and Keegan into her room and our family was together. No bigger joy than having to healthy baby boys, crying, eating and sleeping in your arms. My heart was full and Team Murray was ready to tip off!
*If you enjoyed this blog post, share it with a friend!
Love this story! Parts of it made me laugh. Lover your comment when they were born about them looking like you. I didn't know you lived and worked in Ottumwa. I grew up in Fairfield.
ReplyDeleteWonderful story packed with interesting information! I just attended the Iowa/Indiana basketball game 2 nights ago. Both of the Murrays gave great performances which contributed to the fabulous win that Iowa had over Indiana. As a lifelong Iowan I have cheered on the Hawkeyes for years!!!
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