The Fruit Loop

We have a yearly tradition every fall of heading to Hood River and enjoying the Fruit Loop. The fruit loop is a series of about 30 farms to walk through and buy fresh fruit and enjoy their fall festivities! This year was extra special as it was the first time we got to enjoy this tradition with a little one.

Farmer Mal

We brought home 27 lbs of my very favorite apple in the world - HoneyCrisp to make some applesauce! We love those fresh farm prices!!!

Overall, I think Malachi had a great day, although he was sick of the carseat by the time we got home and he was exhausted (as was I!) He went down around 6:00 at night and we tried to wake him up around 7:15 but he was very upset at us for doing that, so into his jammies he went and back to sleep-sleep land. He was out for 13 hours or so - a very tuckered out little boy for sure!!!

My Ornery Child!

Well little baby Keyser sure gave me the scare yesterday! Last week I was supposed to go in for my every 4 week OB appointment. My appointment got cancelled twice last week because my doctor was busy delivering babies! So I was rescheduled for this week.

So yesterday I went in for my appointment. I am just shy of 17 weeks. Right when I got there the doctor was running out to deliver a baby. They told me I could wait probably about 30 minutes or I could reschedule. I figured it would be easier just to wait. Well, 30 minutes turned in to 2 hours of waiting. My doctor felt so bad and kept apologizing. She said this was her 3rd delivery of the day and she had one more woman who was close to bring that number up to 4 for the day and she was already at 33 babies for the month! She was so tired and was just praying that no other woman would go in to labor that night.

So on to my visit: She brought in the doppler and started searching for the little baby's heartbeat. I expected that she would find it easily since 5 weeks ago she found it instantly. She searched and searched and searched. She made me cough several times but still just silence. I was starting to get nervous as I knew the silence was not a good sign. By almost 17 weeks, there should be no problem finding a heartbeat. She kept searching and was asking me if I was still experiencing any pregnancy symptoms. I knew why she was asking.

Finally she gave up on the doppler and said she would go get the ultrasound machine. I was really nervous at this point. I just couldn't imagine this was going to end well and I could tell the doctor was concerned. I had a flurry of thoughts while she was gone. She started with the ultrasound machine tilted away from me...... typical when there is concern. Finally she said "THAT is an ornery baby." She was surprised to see the baby in a really tight tucked ball with his/her head between their legs. She finally let me see the heart beating away. The baby finally untucked and started waving his/her hands above their head and the doctor was laughing because the baby was shaking their booty at us. I was so relieved and we were both laughing at how ornery this kid was. The doctor kept talking to the baby, explaining how tired she was and she did not need this little one being difficult and scaring us. She told me "I feel sorry for you. You have to raise this one." We were both very relieved.

This was the final shot we got of our ornery baby. His/her hands are above their head and s/he has their foot resting on their opposite knee in a totally relaxed state. I figured since Malachi is behaving so well that this one is bound to give us a hard time :) Bring it on!

Seriously though, I am so relieved that everything is okay. I am already so attached to this little one and thinking that this life was gone, even for a brief moment was really hard. While we were waiting for Malachi, I had to give all control over to God. I quickly realized that my children were God's and anytime I am given with them is completely up to God. I have had that same outlook with this pregnancy. At just 4 weeks pregnant, I was so nervous about the many things that could go wrong in the coming weeks. I gave this little one over at that time and decided I would enjoy everyday I was given with this little one, regardless of how long I had them.

Fortunately, this life is still with us and last night ended much better than it could have. I am so thankful for both of my little one's!

Daddy

I knew my husband would be a great Father, but how deep his love for Malachi is completely blows me away.

Something I admire about Peter is that he did not want to just settle and let me have my way when I wanted to start our family. He was honest with me that he just wasn't ready yet, and that he wanted to be "all in" when we had kids. So we waited, and he is definitely "all in"!

From the moment we started the adoption process, he has loved Malachi. Months before we even knew who our son would be, he loved him. All summer, as we waited for court dates and for travel approval, he was ready and antsy to get our boy home.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when we came home with Malachi. Peter had no experience with caring for a baby, but he jumped right in! He is a pro at feeding and changing diapers and rocking Mal to sleep. He has no problem letting me sleep in and caring for Malachi in the morning (when he isn't working). He can't wait to get Malachi in his arms after a long workday!

His patience, love and devotion for his son are truly special! Malachi loves his daddy so much! They definitely have a special Father-Son thing going on :) We have always had a good marriage but I had no idea that I could fall so much further in love with my husband watching him as a Father.

Happy 5 Month Birthday Malachi!

So........... I'm a day late, but Malachi is now 5 months old! He is such a blessing in our lives. To say this little man has captured our hearts is a huge understatement. He is such a sweetie!

Malachi has learned so many new tricks this months. He just figured out how to roll all over the place and now wants nothing to do with laying on his back. He is starting to sit up on his own. He has become very interactive with all of his toys and loves time in his exersaucer! We also discovered that this boy loves the swings at the park. He would swing for hours if we would let him!

He has much better sleep habits now. He takes 2 - 2 hour naps during the day (in his crib! Huge victory!) He also sleeps from about 9PM-5AM and then goes back to sleep from 5-9AM - All in his crib! He loves his crib! We are much happier with this sleep schedule!

He is also trying all sorts of new foods! He has tried apples and peaches and he loves sweet potatoes, but is not such a big fan of the peas.

He is 27" long (81st percentile) and 20 1/2 lbs (95th percentile). He is quickly filling out 12 month size clothes for length!

Happy 5 month birthday baby boy! We love you so very much!!!

A big month of changes

From this:

To this in one months time:

This has been a month full of changes and transitions for all 3 of us. Malachi has come so far and we have found some things that work well and some that don't.

The biggest physical changes for Malachi are that he is getting stronger every single day. When we met him a month ago today, he had no neck strength. His head was very wobbly. He has made huge leaps in strength. He can hold his head up for a very long time when on his tummy and is even starting to lift himself up on his hands. He also was unable to put weight on his legs for very long at all and now he can play in his exersaucer for an hour no problem. He has really started grasping and playing with his toys. He also has learned how to roll over from his tummy to his back, but he can't quite get that heavy bottom half of his body over to roll from his front to his back. He is also starting to be able to sit up, but not for long. I imagine within the next month he will be a pro at sitting up.

This month has been filled with changes to his sleep pattern. We are finally establishing a good schedule with him. We originally started with co-sleeping as recommended by our adoption agency. The problem with that, is that Malachi was used to being woken up in Ethiopia every 2 hours during the night for a bottle. Most of the babies in care are malnourished so I believe they do that to help them put on weight. Malachi was never malnourished so this was really unnecessary for him and was a huge pain those first few weeks home. He was getting to the point where he was waking almost hourly for an ounce or two and then would fall back asleep. I made the tough choice, against my husband's wishes to move him to the crib in his room. This has been a wonderful change and in just one weeks time Malachi now is only waking once a night for a bottle! He is also starting to take 2 good long naps during the day so we are definitely starting to figure a schedule out!

Malachi is also starting to eat some solids. We tried them a few weeks ago and he just didn't show a lot of interest. Now we have tried them out again and he is really taking to it. So far we have only tried cereal in the morning and some sweet potatoes around dinner time.

It has been a huge change for all of us, but overall I think the adjustment is going very well. We are finally getting in to a routine which has been wonderful and Malachi is changing so much on a daily basis. We definitely feel very blessed to finally have him home! We've waited a long time for this little guy :)

Pregnancy Week 15

15 weeks and finally starting to look different :) Little one is the size of an apple now. That is big if you ask me, but only a small portion of how big he/she is going to get. Oh boy!

How far along: 15 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: none, perfectly sitting at my starting weight
Stretch marks: no
Belly Button: in
Maternity clothes: I am still wearing normal clothes with the exception of needing the belly band to wear jeans. I have started wearing maternity tops or big t-shirts though.
Sleep: Still pretty tired. I do have bouts of insomnia at night and that can be annoying.
Food cravings/aversions: Peaches and lemonaide
Gender: Don't know and not going to find out, but my guess right now is girl.
Movement: Nothing yet, hopefully in a few more weeks.
Best moment this week: having more good days than bad days with nausea
What I miss: feeling good
I am looking forward to: my next doctor's appointment next week. I am anxious to hear the heartbeat again and hopefully get the mid pregnancy ultrasound scheduled!
Weekly Wisdom: Don't worry about cleaning the house - nap when Malachi naps!
Milestones: 37.5% Done!