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| Malachi James Hockey - 8 days old, December 2012 |
We have had Malachi home from the hospital for nearly two weeks now, and while we have had a pretty seamless transition in our family, life is full-on and I have had trouble finding time to blog about his birth. But I am currently sitting in bed next to the two big kids, watching Blues Clues, and Malachi is sleeping peacefully next to us in the pack n play. So now is the time! To at least get started :)
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| The whole Hockey family at the hospital, December 3, 2012 |
So Malachi's due date of Nov 27 came and went uneventfully. Patience was my big tester as the days continued to tick by with no actual labor starting. On Friday night of that week, after a lovely little dinner date with my husband, I came home and started having bad abdominal cramps. Not contractions - I definitely knew the difference after weeks and weeks of Braxton Hicks - but horrible, sharp pain in my lower abdomen. I called my doula, Caroline, to see if this seemed normal (and checked in my "What to Expect" book) and it seemed as though this was a sign of pre-labor. How "pre" it was though still gave me a shock. Ben and I went to Target to get some last minute Christmas decorations and see if walking helped the cramps at all. It absolutely didn't! Walking made it intensely worse. Once we came home we went to bed and laying down made the pain go away, but the next morning when I got up, the cramps started again. Still not in labor though!
We went through Saturday and by the end of the day I was mentally and physically exhausted. I just felt so tired of wondering when I would go into labor and on top of it dealing with so much pain with no end in sight. At least once labor starts there is an end to it - the baby! I took a bath that night after we got dinner out (with my mom, who had been visiting for a week now), and went to bed as soon as possible. Around 5 in the morning on Sunday I woke up to some mild contractions, but they felt the same as all of the other ones I had been having for a while, so I refused to get my hopes up that I might be in labor. After a handful of them though, I decided to start timing them on my app on my phone. They seemed to be regular - about 10 minutes apart and lasting for a minute each, so I woke Ben up at 6:00. We just stayed in bed and kept timing everything for another hour, then got up and started the day. The contractions, while regular, weren't that painful yet, so when it came time to get ready for church we called Caroline to let her know that as far as we could tell, I was finally in (early) labor!
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| Caroline, our doula, and I, shortly after Malachi's birth |
My mom laughed when we woke her up and told her we were going to church. What else was I going to do? The cramps had also stopped which meant I felt better than I had in two days. As the morning went on we continued to time the contractions, but they failed to progress. After we got the kids down for their naps, Ben and I headed to the mall to walk a bit. The cramps came back! Fail. So we gave up on walking and went to Starbucks before returning home to my mom and Adelaide and Charlie. It was around 3pm that I could tell the contractions were getting closer together - about 8 minutes apart, and finally seemed to be getting a little stronger. This went on for several more hours, so we just continued on with the day, eating dinner then getting the kids in bed. We told them both that we would be going to the hospital that night and they would come see us in the morning. (We had faith that the labor would continue!) Adelaide surprisingly had a big cry that she would miss us, and it had me in tears as well. I talked to the doctor on-call at the hospital and because I was group B strep positive, Ben and I decided to head to the hospital around 9pm and at least get checked out, praying that I had progressed. By the time we got into a triage room, it was 10pm and my contractions were close to 5 min apart. The doctor was unsure if I should be admitted yet since I was only dilated to 4cm, so they told me to walk around a bit and then they would check me again. As soon as we walked into the hospital hallway my labor picked up pace. We went quickly back to our room where I threw up and started having very painful contractions. The nurse didn't bother checking me again - she could tell I was in active labor now.
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| Malachi searching daddy (wrong person) for a bite to eat |
I must admit, the rest of the night is a bit blurry in my memory. We got admitted into a room and they started my IV for the group B and also my intermittent monitoring - so that I could get up and move around when the antibiotics were done. The contractions just continued to get more painful and every time they checked me I was dilated more. My doctor, Dr. Kyzer, called to say she was coming in for me once I was dilated to a 7. Caroline arrived at the hospital while I was still being monitored. When I was done I got in the shower and sat on my birth ball while Caroline rubbed my back. I was having pretty bad back labor. Dr. Kyzer arrived next and I didn't leave the hospital bed after that point. I was just too exhausted! My fear was that my labor would stall out like it did with Charlie and that I would need pitocin, but praise God, that never happened. In fact, the baby's head was down and ready to go before I finished dilating. It was so hard to be patient at this point as my contractions were full on and in between each one I just laid my head back and tried to rest. During this time I asked (or demanded!) Ben to come and pray for my cervix to finish dilating, and he was already on his way over to do just that! Many time over the next hour or so I thought that I wouldn't be able to continue on, but Ben and Caroline (and my nurse and doctor) just continued to encourage me and said I was doing a great job. I didn't believe them, but I had no choice except to continue! I turned around on the head of the bed on my knees to try and help the pain a bit and this is when my water broke. A very exciting moment, but it also increased the contraction pain, something I didn't think was possible. By 3:00am, the nurse said I was finally dilated all the way. On the second push, once the head was crowning, I was determined to get the baby out, and continued pushing until that happened. Ben excitedly announced, for the second time, that it was a boy!!
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| Daddy and Malachi |
I don't think any words can quite describe the feelings of meeting your child for the first time. Those who have been blessed to be in my shoes will understand what I mean. There was also such a sense of relief with this baby, that he was finally here. The pain was gone and forgotten and I now had my baby in my arms. We had picked out a boys name only hours before the birth, when we were driving to the hospital. Ben and I settled on the name "Malachi James" - Malachi from the Bible, which means 'messenger of God,' and James is Ben's middle name, as well as a family name on my side of the family, including my dad's name. Since the name was so new to my mind, it took me a little while to get used to saying it. Now though, two weeks later, I can't imagine any other name that would fit for my baby boy.
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| Malachi, 7lb 2oz |
Malachi weighed 7lb 2oz at birth (only 1oz bigger than Charlie was) and was 20in long. He has dark hair, just like both his brother and sister did at their births. Some of my first words to describe him when the nurse handed him to me was - "he's beautiful." And he is :)
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| Oma meeting Malachi on his birth day, December 3, 2012 |
