Sweet Malachi

Because everything happened in REVERSE and FAST and FURIOUS, we did not have a chance to set up Malachi's room yet. Facebook Marketplace has been so helpful in purchasing gently used items at a reasonable price (crib, bassinet, baby monitors, bottles, etc)  Husband setup his crib this morning. It was a doozy! He swears the people we bought it from got it from TEMU! LMAO! If that's the case, we should've been able to put it together with scotch tape, right?! Anyways, it was a bit more complicated than we thought, but he got it DONE! The room which once held a queen size bed and our old dresser/chest of drawers now has a crib and glider chair and ottoman. Still need to hang some pictures and clean out the drawers to make room for Malachi's clothes, but we are much closer to having the room setup for him. Maximus has been sniffing around and wondering what the heck we are doing. I keep telling him it's all for his baby brother to which he looks at me like "Where i...

Malachi has been a trooper this week. On Tuesday, when the doctor called, she explained that he was still dealing with irritability related to the withdrawal, so they decided to increase his medication. Ughh... now he is over .60 of morphine. Our poor little guy!  They left him on this dose for Tues and Wed. When the doctor evaluated on Thursday morning, they decided to start the weening process. They have now decreased the med 3 days in a row and Malachi is holding his own! We are so pleased with this and are hopeful the worst of the withdrawal is over! As of today, he is on .43 and still eating like it's his job!  He had a sweet little nurse named Maddie on Thursday day and then Friday night. She was so good to him and I liked her approach to his care. If only all of the nurses were like her :) She even did a couple of crafts with his footprints and they are adorable. Husband and I just cannot wait to bring this sweet boy home. He is two weeks old and has spent the bulk of t...

The night/morning in the  NICU with baby boy has been interesting. Some of the nurses have been fantastic and others have been trash. First nurse I met was Olivia (I know, same name as the birth mom). Ironic right? Almost as ironic as the nurse on the original floor named Crystal and the attorney lawyer named Crystal. I guess the universe is confirming it's meant to be. Anywayssss, Olivia was so sweet. She came in frequently to check on me/baby boy. She asked questions about whether I was a new mom and then she provided extra tips and support. She was the day shift nurse so once 7pm hit, she was off duty. Next up were 2 nurses (one regular, one training) that start with K. I didn't learn their names because they did the bare minimum and only really came in at the 3-hour cadence for his med and bottle. Another nurse who was sitting outside of our room popped in and talked about seeing him the night before. Her name was Krishna (or something like that). She snuggled him, she came...

I don't know a whole lot, but want to document what I do know - for future reference for baby boy! I will do a post like this periodically as I learn more about her from her parents or her directly. 1. She loves cereal. All kinds of cereal. Cinnamon toast crunch (my fave), frosted flakes and fruity pebbles 2. She takes her cereal with almond milk because she's lactose intolerant. She didn't learn that until she was older  3. She is fiercely protective of her younger brother - often sacrificing herself and taking punishments to save him  4. She was a girl's girl growing up, but she is athletic and can hang with the boys. She can be scrappy!  5. She likes organization and making lists and checking them off (So do I!) 6. The birth father is believed to be an athlete. A pro baseball player. Seals the deal that baby boy will be an athlete of some kind 7. I don't know if birth father knew she was pregnant or that the baby was born. She didn't say much about him. I kno...

This week has truly been a whirlwind! Last Friday, when we chilled together in our loft, we had no idea that our world was about to be turned upside down in the best possible way. Today was the day we became baby boy's legal guardians. I am a mom. Rodney is a dad. Holy crappppp! We got a call a few hours before we were scheduled to be at the hospital for all of the legal document signing. Our caseworker shared that baby boy had been moved to NICU due to withdrawal, irritability and not eating as much as he should be. In addition, he had been holding his own and not requiring medication - but that ended today. Not only did he get a tube put in for feeding, but they also started him on morphine to ween him off of the withdrawal. I decided immediately that I would stay overnight with him to spend extra time and ensure we started to create a bond.  I was an emotional basket case all day. Literally everything was making me cry. My poor husband would look over, wonder what happened and t...

On Tuesday, we got a call from our caseworker. As it turns out, the birth mom did like us and asked if we could meet her mom. We were totally okay with that seeing as her mom was fully supporting the adoption plan for baby boy. We waited most of the day for confirmation of the meeting and time. I had been shopping for things on FB marketplace and went out to pickup some items in the afternoon. On my way back home, around 3:30-4, I got a call from our caseworker that we needed to be at the hospital at 6:30 that night to meet the parents.  The day itself had been long - waiting to find out what was happening and work... well, that's a whole other blog in itself. Because we already fell in love with the baby, we said we would be there. I suggested I pick Rodney up from work since his office isn't far from the hospital and so that's what I did. I sat in rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic to get downtown. I picked up husband and we arrived at the hospital a bit early - around 6p...

On Monday, Rodney and I were both off from work. So, when we got the call about a same day meeting with the birth mom, we rushed to make that happen. My husband was calm, cool and collected - like always. I was a ball of nerves and a hot mess. I swear, I felt like I was going to vomit like 6 different times before we got to the right floor of the hospital.  As we stood out in the hallway waiting for the social worker to give us the green light to go in, tears welled up in my eyes. So much anticipation. So much fear. So much unknown. We walked in and there stood Olivia holding the sweet, unnamed baby boy. She smiled at us, but I could tell she had been emotional. Within minutes of us entering the room, Olivia asked our caseworker and the social worker to step out of the room so she could speak to us 1:1. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't that right off the bat. Oh god. What was about to happen? She asked questions. About having an open adoption. About whether we had a ...

On Saturday, we got a call from our adoption caseworker. We had been enjoying a Saturday nap and then I woke up to 5 missed calls, 2 texts and an email. When I called her back, she told me about a baby boy who was born on 3/14. Pi day. There were some issues that she wanted to run by us before we were potentially shown to a birth mother. Rodney and I discussed and let her know within the hour to show us. On Sunday, we were shown to the birth mother. We knew another couple had already been presented to her, so with a 50/50 shot, it could really go either way. Monday rolled around. Rodney and I had taken PTO for a morning appointment and were enjoying a late morning nap since we were up early. When I woke up, again, I had several missed calls. When I phoned back, we were told the birth mom wanted to meet us. Same day. Holy crapppppp! For the last couple of months, it felt like we were at a standstill with no movement, no showings, nothing. I was beginning to wonder how long we may have t...