Our 2 Week Check-Up!

We took little Malachi to the Dr. yesterday for his 2 week check-up and got GREAT news!! He has gained 5 oz and is up to 6 lbs 2 oz!! The Dr. said just NOT LOSING WEIGHT at this point is the gold standard, so he's thrilled! He's also grown 1/2 an inch and his head has grown 1 1/4 inches! He is absolutely our life. You know, it's funny, we knew our lives would completely change when we had Malachi, but we never dreamed how much richer they would be. Today is our 4th anniversary and it's funny that 4 years ago we were just beginning our life as man and wife. Now, we're just beginning our life as mom and dad and we can't believe how blessed we are! The one thing we've said we couldn't wait for was to lay our son between us on Saturday morning and just watch him. This last Saturday, we had the opportunity to do that! It was GLORIOUS! It was so special to watch Thomas looking down at Malachi and watch Malachi looking up at Thomas. They look so much alike and it's such a blessing to watch them together! Your whole identity changes once you become a parent. No longer am I Jamie, who works at PRPC. I'm Malachi's mom and Thomas is Malachi's daddy! It's a title we waited so long to have that we are thrilled to give up who we were! We're SO thankful!



We're finally settling down and starting to figure out how things are going to work with the baby! He's still eating every 4 hours and we're getting his tummy "situation" figured out. He's getting gas drops when he eats which is settling down his tummy and really allowing him to sleep well. Last night, in fact, he ate at 10:45, slept until 2:45 and ate again. Then, he slept until almost 7 and ate again. So, we were able to get some good sleep. Since it's our anniversary, tonight, Lolli is going to watch him while Daddy and I get to go on our first date in who knows how long. I bought a new dress this weekend and we're going to Marty's for dinner! It'll be nice to get out and spend some time just the two of us! But, I'm sure we'll be ready by the time dinner is over to get home to our little boy too!

We are having so much fun!!

1 Week Old Today

Wow! We can't believe it's already been a full week since we brought our little boy into this world! It's crazy that one week today we were calling the Dr. and starting the process of birth. The first week has been pretty hectic, trying to get into a schedule/routine with Malachi. But as hectic as it's been, it's been 1000 times more rewarding! Malachi is doing really well. He's eating 2 oz every 4 or so hours and spends the rest of the time sleeping. He has his days and nights mixed up, but I think if we keep him on a good feeding schedule, he'll even out pretty quickly. It's incredible though when he recognizes your voice and turns his head towards you. It's incredible when his little eyes focus in on yours and you know that HE knows you're his parents. It's incredible to realize that this little miracle is ours and that we made him. There are no words to describe the feelings that come over you when you know that this little life is your responsibility and that you have been entrusted by God with him. It's scary, fun, exciting, anxiety enducing and unbelieveably thrilling all at the same time. We've been saying for a while that we can't wait to have our son laying in bed between us just looking around and those days have finally come. We've been saying that we can't wait to hold and kiss and cuddle him and those days have finally come! Yes, the first week at home has been hard at times, but you will NEVER hear us say that every second isn't more incredible than the next. We have a beautiful baby boy who loves us and who has taught us more in one week about unconditional love than we could have ever learned on our own in a full lifetime. How blessed we are to have this incredible honor bestowed upon us!

2 Have Made 1

As most, if not ALL of you know, we welcomed our PRECIOUS son, Malachi into the world on Friday, May 16, 2008 at 2:44pm. I woke up Friday morning feeling overall pretty crappy. I didn't sleep at all Thursday night and just didn't feel right. I had horrible nausea and was very anxious. So, I called my Dr. at 8:00am on Friday morning. I was having some small contractions, but nothing major, and they were about 10-12 minutes apart. Definitely not the 5 minutes apart they had told me the contractions would need to be. But, the nurse sensed my anxiety and told me to go ahead and come in and they would check me. By this time, Malachi had "dropped" and I could BARELY walk. I literally looked like a duck. The nurse told me to come in ASAP and by 10:00 we were at the office in Amarillo. I told Thomas before we left to pack everything in the car because I just felt like this was it. When we got to the Dr., they immediately took me back to a room to check me. The Dr. came in and told me I was 4-5 centimeters dilated. Keep in mind, however, that I had been dilating slowly for 6 weeks by this point, so we weren't REALLY surprised. Previously the Dr. had told me that he would break my water at a 5, so that's kinda what I was expecting. However, he asked me in the office if I wanted to know what my options were. At this point I asked him if I could TELL him what I wanted. He laughed, and obliged. I told him I was ready to "get the show on the road" and meet my little boy. He rubbed my shoulder, patted me on the leg and said get to the hospital, we'll call and tell them you're coming and I'll see you a little later on this afternoon. They asked me to wait a little while because they didn't quite have a room ready, so we came back to Canyon, picked up my little brother from school, my dad from work and Aunt Kelly came from the daycare. We walked into the hospital Friday at 11:30 and the charge nurse, Jennifer, who is a good friend of ours, set up a room with a BEAUTIFUL view for us. She immediately put me on the monitors and we started playing cards. I was having contractions about every 7 or so minutes apart by this time, but I was talking through them like they were nothing, so I didn't think anything would happen anytime soon. The nurse even mentioned that the contractions were pretty strong, and I was feeling pretty good that I could do it without drugs if this is all it was! (haha...yeah right) The Dr. came in around 1:40 and checked me again and said I was definitely a 5. He pulled out his little crochet hook, and broke my water at 1:47pm. About 5 minutes later, the MAMA contractions started. I grabbed Thomas' hand immediately and actually had to start breathing through them. I had always said that if I could make it without drugs I wanted to, but it all depended upon how quickly I would progress. After about 10 minutes, I told them I wanted drugs and they gave me a shot of Fentanyl (sp?) to take the "edge" off. The nurses then started running around my room like mad. I wasn't really sure why, but I figured it was normal. At this point, the nurse checked me and said that I was around a 6. She told me she didn't know if I would get an epidural or not because the anesthesiologist was in a C-Section, but she told me she would tell him to hurry. She even said on the video that in a few minutes I would be playing cards again...yeah right again. After about 15 more minutes I began feeling the urge to "push" and told the nurse tech. She ran and got my nurse who came in and checked me during my next contraction, which were now coming about every 2 minutes or so. She raised her eyebrows, told me I would not be getting an epidural because I was "conservatively" a 9. She ran out into the hallway, told my Dr. I was a 9, and came back in to get ready for the big moment. She told me on my next contraction to push and push is exactly what I did. I pushed 3 times through the first contraction, took a few deep breaths, ate an ice chip and got ready to push again. This contraction was a little more intense and my yells told the story. Finally, the next contraction, after letting out a "little" scream, the nurse told me to gain control back, and I took a deep breath. The next thing I heard was my incredible husband crying telling me how much hair our son had and that he could see the head. My mom came down to my level, (all while holding my leg up for me) and gave me one last bit of encouragement. Finally, I felt one more contraction, took one more deep breath, and at 2:44 pm our son was born! Malachi weighed 5lbs 13oz and was 18 3/4 inches long! Thomas did SO incredible. For anyone that knows him, you know that his stomach isn't exactly made of iron and he didn't even think he would be able to handle it as well as he did. The only reason that things went so well for him is because he didn't have a chance to think about it! He held my foot, held my hand, kissed me, encouraged me, and watched our son being born! He even cut the cord!!! I am SO glad that he was able to do all of the "traditional" father duties and enjoy the birth! Nothing in this world can describe the incredible feeling of bringing a child into the world with the one person you love the absolute most! There truly are NO WORDS to describe the feelings!

Thomas has taken to fatherhood so well! I felt so very blessed to have my husband hand me our son for the first time! We have a GREAT picture of the moment, by the way! I cried, he cried, he kissed me, I kissed him, we both kissed Malachi and it was AWESOME! Our hospital was great. They pulled down a queen sized Murphy bed for us and we were able to sleep together (well...not REALLY sleep...haha) with Malachi in the room and for the first night, we were sleeping as a FAMILY! My mom stayed for most of the first night just because I needed her there for support, and I am VERY grateful for that. I have a feeling that Lolli will be a source of LOTS of advice over the course of Malachi's lifetime! Thomas hasn't been the LEAST bit apprehensive about Malachi. He feeds him, holds him, changes his diapers and does everything that I could possibly need. Not to mention, he has been cuddling me a lot while my hormones try to level themselves back out. In fact, last night was pretty rough for me, I was just exhausted. He kept encouraging me, took Malachi, told me to go to sleep and all three of us were finally able to settle in. I don't know what I would do without him! He is my rock and I love him more now than I ever thought was possible. There truly is nothing more special than to look at my husband holding our son, that came from our love and God's grace!

We had lots of visitors in the hospital. Everyone from Malachi's aunts, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, adopted grandparents, friends and other family members came to welcome him into the world! We truly had the PERFECT childbirth experience and thank God for it. Every prayer that we prayed was answered so specifically. I prayed that God would allow Malachi to be born on a Friday, during the day, after I was able to get up and get ready. I prayed that we would have a particular nurse. I prayed that we would be able to get through without drugs and that the birth would be uneventful and quick. I prayed that Thomas would be able to participate fully. Most of all, I prayed that we would have a healthy son! EVERYTHING happened the way we had hoped and prayed that it would! It was TRULY PERFECT! We are SO very blessed and give God the glory for everything. He truly orchestrated the entire pregnancy and birth and deserves ALL of the credit for it. Now, it's our turn to give our son back to Him and allow God to do with Malachi what He will. My only prayer is that we will be Godly parents to teach Malachi the ways of the Lord and show him how much God blesses you when you stay in HIS will!

We love all of you so very much and will be sure to keep updated pictures on the blog!! Please help us welcome our new son, Thomas Malachi Allen into our life together!

We're a 4!!

Today is Thomas' birthday and we had another Dr.'s Appointment! We got great news. The baby is doing great, he is in perfect position for delivery (head down,) and his heart rate was in the 130s, perfectly normal! I am dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced and the Dr. said at a 5 he was going to break my water. So, I've been walking, jumping, doing squats and PRAYING like the dickens that my water would just hurry up and break so we could have this baby already! It would be so special if we could have him on Thomas' b-day, but it's all in God's hands! We'll update as soon as anything happens! Hopefully the next update will come with pictures of our son!

Houston, we are go for launch!!!

This is the future father to be speaking. I have yet to post anything yet, so I decide I'd better go ahead and do so. Well, we went to the doctor yesterday and probably got our last sonogram until Malachi is born. Currently, we are at 35 weeks, 4 days, and full term starts at 37 weeks. So, we are just 10 days away from Malachi being considered "done." Between the weeks of 37 and 40, not much really happens to him but weight gain. His lungs should be fully developed by now, so we are thankful for that. So if he were born now, the chance he would stay in the hospital and not go home is very low. On the sonogram, they estimated his weight to be about 5 pounds, plus or minus a few ounces. He is in the 26 percental for weight, meaning he is a little small, but still in the normal range. He will probably not be an 8 or even a 7 pound baby. The biggest he probably will get is 6.5 pounds, if we even make it to 40 weeks. So, he will just be a small bundle of joy for us. The important thing is that he is perfectly healthy and has no signs of being stressed right now. We also met with our doctor yesterday and he said he is very happy we made it this far. Jamie has been on bed rest for 4.5 weeks, so we did not expect to make it this long. We have had several times that the contractions have started to pick up, but they tend to go away on their own. I know that the time will come when the contractions will just keep coming, and we will be off to the races. The doctor checked Jamie, and she is currently dilated to a 3 and is 70% effaced, meaning that her cervix is still thinning. Last monday, she was a 3 and 60% effaced, so the contractions are doing a little to the cervix, but she has not dilated anymore. If she reaches 100% effacement, then the odds of labor go way up. Odds are we will not make it to 40 weeks, so I expect that Malachi will be born within the month of May. My guess to when Malachi will arrive is May 19 (full moon that day). We are as ready as we can be for his arrival. Everything in the nursery is finished and ready to use. Our bags are packed and the camera is charged. So, hopefully the next time we go to the hospital, we will come home with Malachi. Surprisingly, I am looking forward to the late night feedings and diaper changes. I know that the change from it being just the two of us to the three of us will be very exciting. I look forward to mowing the yard with little Malachi and his bubble mower. I look forward to him riding his first bike and going to school for the first time. I also look forward to his first birthday to see if he can put on a birthday hat or not!!! There are so many things that I look forward to, but the most is the one moment that could happen any day now. So, keep your cell phone handy, we could be having him at any moment!!!

Okay...It's Got To Be Time

We went to the Dr. again this morning and he said he was thrilled that we had made it this far! Obviously, if we can make it to 36 weeks, the Dr. will be even MORE thrilled and he even said he'd leave us alone after that! But, he also said anything after this is icing on the cake! So, it's time! I'm still officially on bedrest, but I have asked and prayed and begged God to PLEASE give him to us SOON! So, EVERYONE please pray that we will get to meet our son ASAP!!!