Welcome Malachi James!!

One last belly shot done at Valentines...35 wks


Malachi James born March 12th, 2009 into Daddy's capable hands!


I didn't get my first hint of labor until 11pm wednesday night.
Although I think all my coughing probably helped as well as the fact that the moon was still 99.7 % full!!! lol Seriously though, even at 11pm, I mentioned to Jamie that my water was starting to leak a bit and then shortly after that I felt a couple of crampy sensations....Jamie was getting ready for a bath (a staple when he's sick!!) and THEN he had a shower, and after that he went to Walmart to go grab the shower attachment we needed to fill the birth tub and also a birthing ball. Thus the beginning of me laboring on my own, which wasn't a big deal..I sat on the edge of my bed with a towel between my legs or sat on the toilet...I just went back and forth doing that until Shyla woke up and wanted to cuddle at 1am, thank goodness I was between contractions and was just sitting on my bed with my nightie on and a towel between my legs! So it didn't look too weird to her! I just told her mommy was still feeling sick still and that she should go back to bed, which she did without any fuss, she just wanted the hall light turned on!! yay!! By the time Jamie got back an hour later, which was just after 2pm, I was sitting on the can with my hand on Malachi's head preventing him from coming too fast and from being born into the toilet! HAHA The contractions had been piggybacking for about 1/2 an hour or so...but I was still surprised when my body started pushing!! I certainly didn't need to help much to push this baby out! He was doing fine on his own! So then, when Jamie came home and I was on the can, he thought nothing of it 'cause I spent quite a bit of time on the can while he was in the bath/shower...but then he noticed my hand was between my legs consistently and he kinda realized that, "Oh...THAT'S a HEAD!!!!" hehe
I'm talking to him between contractions and in my head I'm seeing the humor of the whole situation, while he's starting to freak out....what do I do? what do you want me to do?? I said, "you can forget about trying to fill up the birth tub and grab some towels to put on the floor and could you PLEASE pump up one of those birthing balls?" At least that's what I said in my head...I *think* all I uttered out loud was, "I don't know, pump up the ball" I've never seen a man pump a ball up so fast!!! LOL and then halfway through pumping up the ball, he's like, "is this noise bothering you??" LOL yes I'm hugely bothered by the noise of the air pump right now...NOT...I'm more concerned with birthing the baby into the toilet right now, PUMP UP THE BALL....lol (again this is in my head as I can't really talk much at this point....without sounding like a moron cause my body is trying to push!! lol)
So anyhow, he helps me off the can and onto the floor so I can lean on the ball with one knee on the floor and one foot on the floor and after another contraction his head is born, I barely pushed. Felt so much better since he'd been crowning for so long!! lol Then Jamie started wanting me to just hurry up and push the rest of baby out cause he was purple....I think Jamie forgot that babies DO tend to be purple when they are in the middle of being born! lol So I pushed hard on the next couple of contractions and tore getting the shoulders out...sigh...So then I sat down and Jamie was like "Wow, you did it!!" and he prayed a blessing over our son then started to pour a bath for us...unfortunately due to Jamie's "need" for a bath AND a shower, there wasn't a whole lot of hot water left!! grrr...but Malachi and I stayed in the tub until I birthed the placenta, which soooo felt like another head!!! ...and he nursed like a pro for a good couple of hours in the water and out. I realized when I was in the shower that I was feeling lightheaded and probably lost more blood than I should have. I convinced Jamie to cut off a piece of the placenta and put that under my tongue for a good long while, but it was such a huge piece (men lose all sense of what a 1inch square shape looks like in the throes of adrenaline highs!! lol) I bit it in half and ate the one half and left the other half under my tongue for awhile and then started taking my hemstop tincture after that, I should have taken it a lot earlier and much more frequently but hindsite is 20/20...it was close to 5pm by this time...I just wanted sleep! We phoned Juanita to come over and watch the kids around 6am so we could go get me stitched up as it looked like I had a 2nd or 3rd degree tear....it was 2nd degree...and I was pretty darn white from loss of blood so we went to the South Calgary Urgent Care Clinic, and then they sent us over to Rockyview General Hospital...my first ambulance ride ever!! lol what fun! (I know, I'm so juvenile!) Anyhow, baby rode with me and my husband followed... they got me stitched up, and even though we were there at the hospital for ME to be treated, they paid more attention to Malachi and didn't do anything about my blood loss...sigh...dummies! Got chewed out by the dr...since she could not believe the "chances we took" in having a homebirth ALONE!!! It was really hard not to roll my eyes at her, I did say that her response was quite typical for any medical professional, which is why we avoid them as much as possible and ONLY use medical professionals in cases of emergencies and I left it at that.
So because of the delay in me being able to nurse Malachi again...he had low blood sugars....if he'd been with me I would have been able to nurse him more frequently and we could have avoided the whole freak show that the low blood sugars caused...sigh...then they put him under the lights to treat his jaundice...sigh...so we were able to bring him home Wed. afternoon. I came home Sunday to pump and get my nursing tea into me...I guess when you hemorrhage even a little, it delays your milk supply...so I was home working on that and cleaning my house and doing laundry so baby has some clothes/diapers to wear! lol With a house full of sick people not a lot has gotten done in my absence! lol I just needed to make sure I didn't overdo it since I'm still lacking a bit in blood supply! lol Jamie stayed at the hospital with Malachi on mon & tues. then I stayed with him tues. night til he was discharged. We're all settling in nicely and Silas & Shyla both just love hanging out with their new brother!


So the stats are:
Malachi James born at 2:25am March 12th at 38wks from lmp.
weighed 9lbs 11oz.
head circ. 35cm
length 20.5 inches