Malachi: Fashionably late, but so worth the wait.

So first of all, I apologize for the lack of bumpdates past week 35. The last month of pregnancy kicked my butt. I was large, uncomfortable, swollen and past my due date. I was not in the mood to tell anybody anything about what was going on let alone to have my picture taken. I know at some point I may look back and regret that, but it is what it is.


Now that we have covered that, lets tell a birth story.

First of all, lets talk about his name. Now we announced several months back that we were naming our little guy Rylan. And at that time, we had every intention of doing so. It was a name that Nic and I both agreed on and we both really liked it. According to Auntie Bekah, it was a studly name haha. But about a month ago, God really just started working in my heart about the name of our son. We have received a few different prophetic words over our little man about who he is and what he will become. We believe that God has big plans for this little man, and we felt that his name needed to reflect that. Rylan is a beautiful name, but it means "man from the land of rye". At some point, our son will google the meaning of his name. Thats not the meaning that we want him to find. So we began to look at the things that we have been praying over our son since we found our that we were expecting. We have prayed boldness, joy and a prophetic voice. We have prayed a loving heart, and no fear in the face of the world. We have prayed that this little boy will love the Lord all the days of his life and that as we train him up in the way he should go, when he is old he will never depart from it. We have prayed that his life will be a testimony to the goodness of God's grace and that as he goes into the nations that they will never be the same. We have prayed greatness upon him. And we knew that when we called him by name, we needed to speak those things into existence. Calling him the man from the land of rye just wasnt what we wanted to speak over his life haha. So we began to look for a name that spoke those things over his life. We looked through all of our name books again. We searched the internet, and the bible and we decided that Malachi was everything that we wanted our son to be and more. It speaks greatness over him and we just knew. His name is Malachi. It always has been.

So everyone has this fantasy of what their birth experience will be like. Myself included. I expected to go into labor, try for a natural birth, push my heart out and end with a beautiful baby in my arms. This was most certainly not the case. On Monday the 3rd, around 4:45am, I started having regular contractions. They were far apart, but they were consistent. We started timing them over the course of the day. And come 2:00pm they were a consistent 5 minutes apart. We took the half hour drive to the hospital and got things rolling. They hooked me up to the monitors in triage and starting timing things. They got me up and sent me walking through the halls. We walked and walked for about an hour and then hooked me back up to see what kind of progress Ive made. Turned out I made no progress at all. And my contractions slowed themselves down instead of speeding up. So the doctor left it up to me whether or not I wanted to labor there or go home. The very rude charge nurse basically said go home, so we went to the Olive Garden haha. And hoped the night would hold some progress. Well, the contractions got harder and more painful through the night, but became completely inconsistent. 12 minutes, 8 minutes, 32 minutes, 45 minutes, 2 minutes 3 minutes. You name a time and it was one of our intervals that day. Well come 24 hours from the time we had previously been in the hospital I was at my witts end. I called in and talked to the on call doctor and she was so sweet and completely understood my pain and frustration. She told me to go ahead and come in and that they would give me something to keep my comfortable through the night and then induce me in the morning if progress hadnt been made at that point. So we did just that. We went in through triage again, and they admitted me for good that time. They moved us into our LDR room and got me completely hooked up and set for the night. They administered cervidil to try and get my cervix to fully thin and to start my progress. I took that through the night and just tried to get some rest. Little man was being as stubborn as ever though. They were trying to get his heart rate on the monitor and he kept running away. The nurse came in every half hour through the night trying to find his heartbeat because he had moved. So that made for a long night. But come 6 am they removed the cervidil and let me get up and shower and get myself ready for the adventure this day would hold. At 8ish the doctor came in and said that I hadnt made progress as they had hoped through the night and that I was still 2 days ahead of when they would normally induce so there was a chance I would be heading home again. I lost it at that moment. Completely. But Nic, my wonderful amazing Godsend of a husband, talked me down and got me on the right track again. The doctor decided to go ahead and start the Petocin and just see if we would make some progress. Well that stuff kicked in, and let me tell you. It worked. I went from 2 cm to 6 cm within an hour and they ruptured my membranes. Man did that one hurt. Like holy crap Im gunna die hurt. So they called for the anesthesiologist and got me my epidural. I cried through that one like holy wow, but the sweetest of nurses got me through it and I was a different person come the end of that procedure.

I was resting comfortably and even laughing with my family. They were wanting me to get some sleep to build up for the pushing that was to come, so my nurse Candy came in to check little man's heart rate. She turned me on my side in an attempt to get him to drop, but when they did his heart rate dropped. Drastically. And the beauty of that? Nic didnt tell me. I could hear it slowdown on the monitor but he just kept telling me he was fine and that it was still in that normal range. Apparently in these big situations its okay to go around the truth a bit to keep me from completely losing it haha. My doctor came back in and looked at my feed and saw that little man was not responding well to the petocin at all. Every time I would contract, his heart rate was dive. Doctor Mackay said he would be right back and when he returned he said that they were going to need to do an emergency csection. They didnt want to risk little man's safety by letting me try and finish laboring. Again, I panicked. And Nic got me in the right mindset, and ready to go. I had spent most of my pregnancy fearing a csection. I hated the very idea of it. I blame it on watching way too much "A Baby Story" as a child. But either way, I was terrified. So the nurses came in in swarms and started prepping me for my little man to arrive in a very unexpected way. My brother called me in the process and prayed for me in only the way that my brother can and helped to calm me down. They got Nic dressed in his scrubs and ready to go and within a half hour we were on our way into the operating room. The left Nic outside the room and got my strapped in and prepped and got things started, and this is where it got interesting haha. Because I was so fearful of it I was already on edge going into it. And because I had already had an epidural, they couldnt give me a full spinal. They just added more numbing meds to the drip I already had going, plus a whole lot of Morphine haha. But because they didnt do a full spinal, I could feel what was going on behind that giant drape. they claimed it should have just been pressure, but no sir. I felt what was happening. Well, three days of labor and pain built up and exploded at that moment. I hyperventilated. Yup. Loudly. And painfully. Luckily I had the sweetest anesthesiologists in the whole world that stopped everything and gave me the happy twilight medicine that made me calm down and breathe. Now this happy drug made me think that I was asleep, but according to my husband I was having a great conversation with everyone around me and was unbelievably talkative, which is hard to believe because if you know me at all you know that I dont talk to anyone ever. haha. My favorite doctor apparently came in to assist and I got very excited and had a conversation with her. Nic showed me a picture of Malachi three times before I finally remembered seeing it.  I fell asleep for 45 seconds and thought that I slept through the entire procedure. It was an adventure to say the least.

 When I finally came to, I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. My little man was crying the sweetest little cry. After what felt like an eternity, they finally brought him over to me and that little face stole my heart from the very first moment. As soon as he heard me talking he stopped crying and he looked right at me. Ill never be the same after that moment. They handed him to Nic and that little face locked on his voice and at that moment everything changed. We became a family of three. Life would never be the same. 54 hours and an emergency surgery, and it was worth every single minute of it. He was worth every single minute of it.

And that is how it happened friends. The next three days were a marathon of healing and bonding with this beautiful little person. It was such an amazing experience and I wouldnt have wanted to experience this with anyone other Nicolas. We made it through every obstacle, three days of labor and pain, and have learned to love and take care of this little person hand in hand. It has been worth every sleepless night, frustrated feeding and cry filled moment. This has been the most beautiful season that Nic and I have been through. And I never realized how much I loved that man until I saw the way that he loves this little boy. He is jealous for time with him. He holds him so close and keeps him so safe. He changes his diapers, feeds him his bottles and takes charge in every situation. He has encouraged me through the ups and downs of the emotions of postpartum and has made me feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world. And I really am. This life just became so much more beautiful than I ever thought it could.

Until next time...