Picture Mania Part Dos

Uncle Bill drove down from Austin to see Malachi

Malachi rockin his Houston Rockets taggie his Ghi made for him


wow that's a cute dude
precious little crossed feet

posing with his legs crossed--Molly calls it his old man pose

Mommy bragging about her boy

put 'em up, put 'em up

I'm pretty sure he knows he's cute

Daddy and me

Mommy and me

Give me food!

he likes how daddy looks

wearing the Rockets jersey because Malachi asked me to

the Monkey and his monkey

Steve changing his first diaper ONE HANDED--may I add, he put it on backwards first

Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Jana came by to see him but Jana eluded the camera

Molly holding the dude, still hooked up to the IV. good times of over-hydrating

yawn yawn yawn... stretch stretch stretch.

Tomorrow is the day--Homecoming Day! We FINALLY get to leave our little spackled prison and go to the place Mommy's been dreaming of since 5 am Tuesday morning--HOME!!!! The past few days have been an interesting ride to say the least. We went from me telling everyone I was "READY!" to have him any day on Sunday...to thinking we were just going to a check-up on Monday to then be told we were going to be induced...to almost nine hours of labor and a C-Section ending on Tuesday...and that is just the beginning of our week!!

I have definitely been going through some serious changes. Let's start with the obvious of going from no one's mommy to the most important little boy in the world's mommy. Then there's the physical change of a giant, stretched out belly to the stapled-up skin flab that I have now. Most recently (like ten minutes ago) there is the crazy emotional change...men of pregnant women, watch out for what's coming! Malachi had a mild screaming fit and I just couldn't figure out what he wanted (I think he has bad gas...and FYI...the hospital nursery WON'T give them medicine for it. don't ask. sore topic.) and the emotion of feeling helpless to "fix" my child just made me cry with him. So poor Steve (the emotionally stable one of the bunch) just has to stare at me, hand me some tissues, and do his best to pretend like he understands.

I have the greatest, most supportive husband in the world and I cannot imagine creating such an incredible life with anyone else. This whole parenthood thing is still a mystery but I wouldn't want to figure it out without him. Steve, you are the best daddy on the planet...not to mention the incredible best friend I need right now. I love you!!

Truly unworthy,

Molly (aka mommy)

Picture Mania 1

Molly writing scripture cards for Malachi's crib

Molly's contraction monitor going nuts

Entertainment during labor is essential

Molly staring at Malachi making moves inside the "hot tub" after Dr. Levin pulled the drain plug

Wheeling Molly in to take out the dude!

First shot EVER of Malachi James Milillo!

Malachi's nude photo op

Malachi's first sight. Scary, huh?

One proud daddy

Milillo feet if Dad's ever seen 'em. Sorry, kid.

Mommy meets her boy :)

Mommy, Daddy, and Malachi

KK holding her first grandson

Ghi holding Malachi

The dude meets Papa

Jamie and John hanging with their honorary nephew

Malachi and Mommy

more soon...

He's here!

He finally came! Malachi's beautiful and healthy and looks like the perfect combination of both Molly and I! He's got my huge feet and long toes and monkey hands. Little blue eyes shaped liked Molly's and her cowlick too!! We love him!!!!!!!!!!

7 lbs 4 oz

20 inches

Come on, come on, come on...

At 7:10 this morning, Dr. Levin came in and broke my water and cranked up the Pitocin. I learned two things:

1) Pitocin works fast. (It skips that whole "light contractions every thirty minutes" part and goes straight to the "intense pain every minute or so")

2) I would wish manual breaking of your water upon no one.

After an hour and a half of some sudden and intense contractions, it was time to surrender to the epidural! :) The insertion process wasn't bad at all...it actually hurt more to get my PICC line put in than the epidural. After about 15 minutes, my body was on cruise control. There is still a pretty sharp and annoying pain in my back with every contraction, but the epidural can only do so much. It took away all of the pain (knock on wood) in my abdomen but the back pain is inevitable. But, God is good and His love is being shown to Steve and I in a whole new way today. We have a running tab going on everyone's guesses of what Malachi will weigh. Feel free to comment with your guess! :)

The winner gets to babysit for FREE!! :)

UPDATE: Dr. Levin just came in and checked me. She said I was 3 cm (she wanted 4) but I was 90% effaced--which is the hard, slow part. She will check me again in an hour and hopes I will be 4 cm. From there, she said we should start rolling. We shall see!

Unworthy,

Molly

Playing the waiting game...wanna play?!

We arrived here at the hospital at 4:55am to find out that the entrance we parked at was closed. So, as we already have all of our bags out of the car, we re-pack the car and drive around to the main entrance. Good times. We then make the trek to the right elevators and up to the fourth floor (Labor and Delivery! Yay!). They put in my IV around 5:30am and got it on the first try! We prayed for specifically that in the car on the way here. :)

The nurse said they don't usually start Pitocin until around 7:00am so we are just waiting in our room. At first I was a little annoyed because the sound on the TV in the room wasn't working, but then BAM! The volume control fell and hit the floor and wouldn't you know it...it was fixed! :)

To make things even better, we can actively update the blog from the comfort of our room thanks to the wonderful world of wireless technology. We will keep you posted as things start to happen today! Keep checking back...soon there will be a picture of the cutest baby boy in the world!

Unworthy,

Molly

TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a morning of high blood pressure (158/103), Dr. Levin came in my room with the news that I was to go home immediately, lay on my left side all day, and meet her at 5 a.m. TOMORROW MORNING to be induced!!!!! Praise God!!!!!

I am SOOOOO ready to meet my little boy and am just praying that my body keeps him as safe as possible until they get my labor started. Pray for Steve as well...I know he is just ecstatic!! We will post pictures as soon as we can! :)

Unworthy,

Molly

p.s.--we will be at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center!

My my my...

Whew! What a week!! So much has happened in the past seven days! We have definitely had our hands full so sorry for the delay in posting.

Let's start with how Monday morning's OB/GYN visit went. As of Monday, I was 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced, and Malachi's head was at a -2 position. (All very normal). If you read the last post, you will know that our family welcomed Baby Drew Nordlander on Monday afternoon at 2:16pm. It turns out that he was a week or two younger than they projected, so he technically is a "preemie" (maybe he can wear Malachi's preemie clothes since he may not need them!). Drew is doing great now and is happy as a clam when he's with his mommy, daddy, and proud big brother. He will be in the NICU until tomorrow morning while they wait on some blood tests to ensure he is perfectly safe to go home with the rest of his family. I know it has to be incredibly hard for Dana and Rob to leave their little one at the hospital, but hopefully it will only be one more day. We are all ready to see Drew in HIS house!

Last Saturday began the reconstruction of our house from the hurricane damage!!!!! Yay!!!! While I was SOOOOO glad that it was getting done before the baby, the completion date went from Wednesday...to Thursday...to Friday at noon...to today. There are just a few minute things left to do (mostly touch-ups) so I believe they will truly finish today! I am VERY ready to have my house put back together...and to plop my very pregnant body on my couch and just relax in my living room (now that it has a ceiling).

This past Wednesday also marked the reconstruction of Steve's finger. :)

Dr. Lou did an incredible job putting my Humpy Dumpty back together again. He said it's not every day that he gets a fracture like that lined up PERFECTLY, but judging from the x-ray, after he was done he couldn't even tell where it had been broken. Steve is dealing with some pain (could be from the two pins sticking out of his finger) but thank the Lord that doctors give you good medicine! :) To further amuse myself, here are some pictures from surgery day (a BIG event since it was Steve's first!)...

Steve's finger in the emergency room waiting area...a little shorter and a little more crooked than God created it.

No one wears a gown better than my husband!

This is what Morphine does to a grown man...I believe Steve reverted back to his days in the womb during his time in the recovery room.

And this is what we came home to...life in the construction zone! Ahh!

All in all the past week has shown me a lot. I have seen how God pieces things together perfectly in His timing, how selfless Steve has had to be to take care of ME when I've had surgery, how physically limited my pregnant body is getting, how ready we are to hold our little monkey, and the sense of humor of the God we serve is definitely one that I love.

Unworthy,

Molly

p.s.--we go back for our 38-week check-up on Monday!