Sunshiny Day

So many funny little things have happened lately that I decided to do a blog post in point form instead of writing paragraph after paragraph and having all my readers fall asleep in the process.

1. Saturday was my 29th birthday and it was good. Nate took me for dinner on Friday night and we had a great time with no babies. My mom was great in offering to watch Jericho and Malachi so I could just enjoy my time with my husband. He gave me furniture - YAY!

2. We went to church on Saturday night and right in the middle of two songs, my little Kai made the loudest pooping sound ever and sent quite a few people standing nearby into fits of giggles, including myself.

3. Jericho has turned into the entertainment capital of our household. I can't believe how funny he is. His new thing is to start to laugh and bend his head into his hand as he giggles away. It's hilarious. He didn't startle at all when we watched the Canucks game last night - and there was a lot of noise!

4. My kids are so cute when they cuddle in the blue chair together! Oh my... I just have to watch closely and keep my hands very tightly attached to Malachi because Jericho likes to 1) try and push him away when he's 'done' and 2) tries to bang heads with him. Goof.

5. My brothers girlfriend gave me two cartons (2!) of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 'Nuff said.

6. I got a large gift certificate from my mom for Reitmans... also 'Nuff said.

7. I get to go to the SPA!!

8. Jericho is currently using Crayola washable markers to colour me a picture. He basically just sits in his high chair and takes the lids off, puts them back on, etc. But in the process he makes some little marks on the page and it's cute!

9. Nate's thesis is basically done. We may be going to Minnesota in May while he defends it. I'll just go shopping with his parents who will be meeting us in Winnipeg, as he doesn't want any of us actually in the room while he does it. I don't blame him. I can be a loud cheerleader.

10. Malachi slept 6.5 hours straight last night. It was amazing. The sucky part was that Jericho woke up 4 times and was wide awake and needed cuddles and diaper changes. I'm glad at least one of them gave me a break... but it's really unusual for him to be like that. Must be those 4 eye teeth he's cutting. When they're all in he'll have 16!!

11. I know WAY too many people who are pregnant. I'm especially excited that my parents will have 5 grandkids by the time Jericho is two. For those who are counting, there's only three right now and two are still cooking.

12. For my birthday I had a few friends over Saturday night after church. There was lots of cheese and laughter and it completely made my day. Thanks!

My two sons

Aren't they cute?!?! This experience of getting professional shots taken wasn't fun. Jericho was extremely distracted by all the cools toys, so Nate ended up holding him in position. As you can see, Malachi slept through most of it.

Life is different, but good. I am completely taken with the men in my life. Malachi is still a really good baby, he's had bad gas a few times - but he still manages to almost completely sleep through the night. When he does wake up for a feeding - he just happily goes back to sleep. Jericho has been a real goof lately. He does anything for attention and most of it is hilarious. He bounces so hard on his zebra toy now that he gets a bunch of air. He also loves to run into his room and climb on his stool and watch the "Eee's!" (Horses). The only time I find hard with two is when I'm trying to nurse Malachi and Jericho wants me to help him with something - most of the time it's to help him collect toys he's thrown under the couch. But we're doing well.

The baby is now weighing in at 9 lbs 13 oz. A gain of almost a pound since birth... and that was on Tuesday. I'm sure he's 10 by now.

And tomorrow I turn 29. Twenty-nine. Wow. I can't believe I'm 29 and have two kids. I know some people who are completely done and have kids in grade school by the time they're 29, but I didn't get married until I was 25. Nate will be taking me for dinner tonight while Mom watches both boys. This will be my first time away from Kai for more than... well, I've never been away from him. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have some people over to celebrate with me after church... if you wanna come let me know!!

Here's to the next 29 and watching my beautiful boys grow up.

Weight Gain

When I had Jericho, he was not the best at nursing and we had lots of problems with him not gaining weight. Malachi does not have this problem. He LOVES to nurse and often is hooked up every 2 hours or so during the day.. then from about 10:00 pm til around 12:00 am he nurses quite a bit. Then not at all until at least 5 am. I love his schedule, it enables me to have uninterrupted sleep. Well, he was born and weighed 8 lbs, 14 oz. On Friday we weighed him and he had lost 6 oz, which isn't that bad. Jericho had lost a whole pound! Anyways, the midwife came by today and the little guy already weighs 9 lbs, 5 oz! He gained 13 ounces in 3 days. WOW!! I'm so proud of my healthy, big baby!

Kai Update

The midwife came by today and... my second baby does NOT have jaundice! He is quite talented when it comes to breastfeeding and has only lost 6 ounces. My milk actually came in yesterday so he didn't really have a chance to lose much weight. It's awesome compared to Jericho's loss of a whole pound. I find myself comparing them all the time. They look a lot a like, but are very different. I can already tell even though M is only 3 days old. Jericho was a very good baby, but when I compare them... Malachi is EASY. He sleeps about 5-6 hours at night and nurses well.... it's soooo great. It will likely change, but for these first few days where I'm still recovering, it's been a huge blessing to have a baby who rarely cries, sleeps well, and gives me no trouble when nursing.

I also learned that I have a pelvis that is usually only found in African women. Huh. It's like finding out you have a rare blood type. Apparently most Caucasian women have a certain pelvis that enables the baby to drop a few days before labour, but the labour process takes awhile as the baby needs to maneuver through. I have a gynacoid pelvis which means the baby does not drop until I'm well into the labour process and once it descends, it moves very quickly. Because I had an epidural last time, it wasn't as evident as it was this time. Apparently it's really rare in white women. We'll see if I ever put it to good use again.

Other than all that we're doing really well. Jericho adores his brother and is always trying to see him, hug him, kiss him - grab him and run away... it's fun. As much as I said I thought I was expecting a girl - I'm overjoyed to have had a boy. They are so cute together! I'm also saving soooo much money by not being tempted to buy all those adorable little girl outfits. Do you know how many items of clothes I have?! Mostly thanks to Michelle ;)

Anyways, I should get off this hard chair and go sit on the couch with my cuddly little man while Nate and Jericho are shopping. Thanks for reading!

Malachi Sage Robinson

My son has arrived!!!

Ok, so do not want to that again. Apparently I did very well, but it sure didn't feel like it. Here is the little miracle story of how my second son came into this wonderful world.

He was due March 2nd and I was getting slightly annoyed he was taking so long. I know babies are often overdue, but it didn't make it any easier seeing as I was huge. But I was fairly adamant I didn't want to be induced again as that process was unpleasant to say the least. So I got lots of advice from my awesome midwives on how to try and hurry things along. I had tried all of them until I went in on Monday afternoon and they gave me a recipe for a Labour Induction Cocktail. Lovely. Ingredients: almond butter, verbena oil, apricot juice, and castor oil. Scary. I took it at 3 pm and by 7:00 I was having contractions. I had them through the night and as uncomfortable as they were, they still weren't horrid....yet. I slept about 3 hours that night in spite of them. By about 6 am they were 5 minutes apart and getting more and more intense. I had a bath and shower to make sure, and they kinda slowed down a little... and I lost my plug at that point as well. I called the midwives and since I had an appointment for that afternoon, they recommended that unless they got really close and intense then I could just come in then for a check.

It was a long morning. Then as we were about to start getting ready for my 2:45 appointment, I sat up from the couch and my water broke. That was 2:00. I had a shower and promptly lost my lunch all over the shower and my dear wonderful husband. In spite of all these things, I still made it to my appointment. There we discovered, to my obvious delight - that I was actually 4 cms dilated already. I cried tears of joy and thanked God. We decided to head to the hospital as I was so tired and just wanted to get hooked up to an epidural. Pathetic, I know. We arrived at 3:30 pm and I laboured intensely and waited quite impatiently for my 'light at the end of the tunnel' epidural...which never came due to both an over-busy drug man and my ability to deliver my child quickly. At 5:30 they told me the epidural wasn't going to come. I was more than a little devastated. With Jericho it just helped so much with those last few hours.... but they did give me an IV this time and said they would hook me up with some drugs. Problem was there was a miscommunication and I went 25 minutes or so with saline. I was quite disappointed in the usefulness of those drugs that's for sure.

By 6:15 I was experiencing extreme pressure and had the feeling like I needed to push. My midwife checked and at this point I was fully dilated. The problem was they had many issues with trying to locate the baby's heart rate. I had to keep moving in the middle of contractions which SUCKED. I think at one point I said I wasn't doing it anymore...and at another point I said I wanted to die. But no one really listened.. they kept being really annoyed and saying I was doing great. But it would have been rude to tell them to shut up already. Anyways... this is the point it got scary and also the point I realized a lot of people must have been praying for me and for my baby. When they did find the heart rate it was dipping below 80 - which is NOT GOOD. At this point I saw the first sign of panic in the midwives faces. Also - NOT GOOD. They told me I needed to get the baby out NOW. They called in the OBGYN and said he would need to vacuum him out if I couldn't push him. There's something about that statement that made me push like I have never pushed. It took 4 contractions and he was out and born right at 6:30 exactly. Fifteen minutes. Fast. But the drama wasn't over. My son came out blue and not crying and limp. It was the scariest moment. My mom and Nate told me later they both thought he was dead. But like I said, someone was praying for us and within 3 minutes he was perfectly pink and cuddling with his Mommy.

We thank God for this BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL gift.

For those who love all the juicy details:
His full name is Malachi Sage Robinson Searle and his nickname will be Kai.
He weighed in at a hefty 8 lbs and 14 oz.
He was 22" long and his head was 36 cms.

EVICTION NOTICE

This is to notify the sweet little one in my uterus that as of today, I am serving a notice of eviction. You have lived rent-free for a very long 41 weeks and now is the time to join the rest of your family. You have an expectation to live up to - you need to come out. Be born so we can meet and love you.

No Baby Yet...

I'm officially 4 days late. Not too bad. I went to the midwife yesterday and she said everything looks good. The only problem is that the baby is still posterior. Just means labour will be more painful than usual unless I can get the baby to turn around. My blood pressure was 128/72 which is higher than it usually is, but I'm also 9 months pregnant.

I've been having TONNES of pains, almost every night. It usually stops after I have a warm bath, but it gets annoying... you start to think that maybe tonight's the night and then NOTHING. But I think my little babe is warm and cozy and will come out when he/she is good and ready.

I'm scheduled for membrane sweeps (don't ask) and a non-stress test next week. Fingers crossed it won't get to that point, but I won't be surprised. We've been given some fun instructions from the midwife and Rachael, so maybe tomorrow...