Malachi's Hospital Stay

Malachi was born on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 5:20 am. We received a call from our social worker at 5:25 saying that he had been born, and we rushed to the hospital to see him. We got there around 6:30 just after his first bath. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and was 19.6 inches long. His birth mother, Ashley, had gotten to the hospital at 5:00am and delivered him just 20 minutes later - no medicines or anything! She was absolutely amazing! We spent most of the day with Malachi (or Mac as we like to call him), but we had to spend our time with him in the nursery with the nurses, because there wasn't enough room in the hospital for us to have our own room. We got to feed him and change him, and the nurses were great about letting us be with our new son.

Later on Saturday afternoon we took him to see Ashley. She held him and fed him while we went home and changed clothes. We came back later Saturday evening to check on him, but he was doing great. Ashley had friends and family there with her, and they were going to try to keep Malachi in her room for the night, so we went on home. Leaving him was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Ashley has 10 days to revoke her intent to give Malachi up for adoption, so there was a nagging fear in my mind, and I woke up at 2:00am worrying. God just kept reminding me that He is in complete control and that He loves Malachi even more than we do, and I have to rest in His love.

After a very short night, we headed back to the hospital about 6:30am. He had actually spent the night in the nursery, because he had been kind of fussy with Ashley and she needed to sleep. So we spent most of Sunday in the nursery with him (this time they let us use the "lactation room" - love the pictures of boobs and babies on the walls), so we had a little more privacy. He again spent part of the afternoon with Ashley and then spent the night with her. We got to stay at the hospital, but we didn't get to see Mac, because he was with Ashley.

Monday morning we were getting excited about taking him home, but unfortunately the "busy" doctors were too "busy" to do his circumcision until around 3:00, so we had to wait for the rest of the day! Ashley kept Malachi with her for a good part of the morning and early afternoon. He was finally circumcised (and there were a lot of tears our part, even if he didn't cry that much - it killed me to hear him in pain!). Ashley came to say good-bye to them, and we waited in our hospital room. She and her mother Krystal came in to see us, and I've never been part of such an emotional experience. The four of us cried and hugged and cried some more. We are so grateful for Ashley and her mother. They are truly amazing and love Malachi so much. What a blessing to have a birth family like that.

After all of the emotions, we finally got to sign the paperwork around 5:00 and we left the hospital about 6:00pm (They even let me carry him out! No carseat or wheelchair! Crazy!). After 3 long days, we were finally taking him home.