And then there was six...

On Friday, August 17, Mark and I rushed to the hospital at 7 in the morning because I was having very heavy bleeding.  After a quick check it was determined that I was 4 cm dilated, and the reason for my bleeding was a placenta abruption - the placenta was coming away from the wall of the uterus.  This is a very serious condition and the doctor gave us 2 options: 1. break my water and see if my labor progressed or 2. do an immediate c-section.  We went with option 1, the doctor broke my water, and an hour later our little guy was born.

Malachi was born at 10:14 a.m.  He weighed 5 lbs 6 oz at birth and is 19" long.  He was immediately rushed up to the NICU, where he has been ever since.  The first few days were a blur as we tried to care for the other kids, deal with my healing and hospital rigamorole, and try to see Malachi as much as possible.  We now have a routine down and are waiting on Malachi to get stronger and able to eat consistently from a bottle.

First visit with our new little guy.  The thing on his face is called CPAP, it keeps his lungs open so he can breathe and also (I think) is oxygen as well.

After a few hours they were able to take off the CPAP and he was on room air for a few days before going back on oxygen, just the normal kind.

At first he couldn't maintain his temperature so he was in this special bed that kept him the right temperature.  The "horn" on his head is his IV.  They were able to take that out after a few days, but put in a feeding tube shortly thereafter to keep up his fluid level.

My parents watched the kids for the first weekend and brought them in to visit their new little brother.

Malachi had jaundice so in addition to everything else he had to be put under the jaundice light for 3 days, during which I could only hold him to change his diaper and try to feed him with a bottle, which was not very often succesful.

Finally Awake!  He is 1 week old here and had lost a bit of weight.  He got down to 4 lbs 12 oz before he started gaining back again.

 
We will keep you posted on when he comes home.