Kids' Dr. Visit

On Monday we took the kids to the Dr. - Malachi for his two month checkup and Mysia for a follow up on her ear infections. Both went really well, Mysia no longer had any fluid in her ears which was a big praise. Malachi is developing perfectly, he's in the 50th% for his age, in both height and weight. He's 24 in. long and weighs over 11 lbs. Unfortunately there isn't anything we can do about his cold, on the other hand, we are fortunate that it is just a cold and not anything more serious. The Dr. also suggested giving him a little cereal to help him not spit up so much and it seems to be helping. It's also helping him sleep all night. Hooray! He's been going to bed at 9:00 and sleeping 'til 5:00, which means Mommy is getting more sleep to and feeling much better. Well he's waking up so I've got to go.
Lydia

My list of things to be thankful for

I'm thankful for:


My husband
My children
good health
a home
a wonderful year

God bless you all!

Lydia

Thanksgiving

Hi Everybody,
I just wanted to write and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day, we went out to Aunt Sharon's and ate dinner there and spent some time visiting with the family and playing games. I started a game of Risk with Uncle Ivan and Titus but had to give up my spot to Silas when Malachi decided it was time for him to eat. We headed home about 6:30 and spent a good part of the evening setting up our Christmas decorations. Lycia spent the night with us and she and I got up early and went shopping. I really didn't want to go out, but the groceries wouldn't buy themselves. It really wasn't that bad and Lycia was able to get some really good deals on some Christmas gifts. After we got done shopping Lycia went home and I got started on my cooking. I made two Thanksgiving Casseroles, one Sweet Potato Casserole, two Pumpkin Pies, 5c. Salad, and a double batch of dinner rolls. When Matt got home from work he and Mysia started decorating the tree, she was really excited and had so much fun hanging up the ornaments. We got the kids in bed about 10:00 and finished the cleaning and setting up for dinner the next day. We got to bed about 2:00am. Saturday we got up early and went to Sears and got our family pictures taken. As you can see from the new pictures on the blog they turned out pretty good. Then we ran home and put the casseroles in the oven to get ready for dinner.
Garry, Vicki and the kids came over about 12 and we celebrated Garry's birthday and then ate dinner. After dinner Garry and Vicki went to do some Christmas Shopping and the kids stayed and watched White Christmas with us. We started to play Star Wars Life but didn't get very far because Vicki called wanting the kids to come home. On Sunday my family came over for lunch to help us finish up the left overs. All in all we had a great weekend. With much to be thankful for. Hope you all had a good time too and much to thank God for.
Lydia

Malachi's Birthstory

Well, after six weeks of having contractions off and on, I woke up Friday, September 14, 2007 around 4:30 am feeling very uncomfortable. It wasn't until I got up at 6 that I realized what it was, I was having contractions, but since we had all the false alarms I sent Matt to work, promising to call if anything changes. Boy, was I miserable. By 4:30 I was calling Matt to make sure he didn't decide to pick that night to work late. After he got home and the kids got picked up we took Mysia to Granny's and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 7:30- 8:00ish checked into Triage, where they put me on the monitors and checked me I was between a 2 and 3 so the doc on call decided to let me walk the halls for an hour and see if there was any change after that. So we walked, by the time the hour was up I was stopping ever 2 min to breath through the contractions. We went back to the triage room and the nurse checked me again, not much had changed, but after listening to me try and breath through the contractions and being unsuccessful at hiding my pain the nurse convinced the doctor that it would not be a good idea to send me home and it was a good thing too, by the time they got me moved to the Labor and Delivery room, had my blood drawn and got my epidural (about an hour and a half) I was dilated to a 5. The doc came in and broke my water and I napped a little. At about 2:30 am I was an 8 and some of the nurses got a little ahead of the game and got all of the stuff out and ready for the delivery, sending everyone but Matt out of the room. It was about an hour later when my epidural was beginning to wear off and I started feeling the urge to push, unfortunately the doc was in the middle of delivering twins, so they made me blow through the contractions and stay laying on my side, with my legs closed, that was really hard because I could feel him sliding down and I couldn't stop it. Finally the doc got there and they flipped me on my back, which made me get sick and vomit, but then I was able to push and felt him slip out. The next thing I felt was some thing wet splat on my leg, the nurse brought the towels over so they could lay him on my tummy but the doc sent her straight back over to the warmer with Malachi then we heard a weak cry. Matt told me he had the cord wrapped around his neck, twice. They whisked him away to the NICU where he stayed for the next 5 hours. But now he is doing great and we are home recooperating
Lydia

Malachi Update

We haven't had much sleep yet, hopefully we will later!

Malachi was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice, so we didn't get to even held him until 8am! He was pale, and having respiratory problems. But Malachi is ding fine, he is pink now and breathing pretty good. We are were having some time getting him fed (well, Lydia is anyway!), but thats not too unusual with newborns! We've got to hold him several times, and have passed him around to friends and family who have stopped by.

So far, Mysia has only seen him through the nursery window (his temperature was a little low when she was here). So we're hoping that the next visit of hers later this evening will have better results. She was excited, but a little restless waiting in the room. Oh, but when we were commenting on Malachi when looking through the nursery window, Mysia must of thought we were being too loud, because she turned around to all of us and said, "Shhhhh...! Be Quiet... he's sleeping!" LOL... two year-olds are sooooo much fun!

~Matt

He's here!

Finally little Malachi Lee has arrived. He was born at 3:40 am on September 15, 2007. He weighs 7 lb 14 oz. There was one minor complication; he was born with the cord wrapped around his neck twice and is currently in NICU because of respiratory problems. We haven't even got to hold him yet, it's really hard, but I know that they are taking every precaution necessary to help him get on his feet quicker. 7:48 Matt just came back from getting breakfast and said that Malachi is out of NICU and they're bringing him over to feed in just a few minutes. PTL
I'll post more on the birth story later.
Lydia

And to think that I saw it on MY street ...

Yesterday I had my usual H&R Block class, and because I've been having contractions off an on all day and was afraid of my water breaking and having to take an ambulance to the hospital and Matt not being able to get to the hospital because I had the car and Mysia's car seat, I had Matt drive me to my class and then go visit with his mom, so he'd be close by if I needed him. As it turned out it was a good thing I did. No, Malachi did not decide to make his appearance. But as we were making our way home about 9:25 we found our street was blocked from both ends. Matt got out and spoke to the police man at one end and was told, No we could not go home there was a man barricaded in one of the corner houses with a shotgun! So we went back to Vicki's to await word that it was safe to go home. Luckily, by the 10 o'clock news the whole situation was cleared up and we were back home by 10:30.

Here's the official news report:

Authorities arrest suspect on firearms warrant after negotiations

Springfield police had to use a negotiator last night to apprehend a man on a federal firearms warrant.

Lt. Jay Huff said police assisted federal authorities in arresting Russell Metcalf before 10 p.m. near Oak Grove Avenue and Atlantic Street.

Metcalf, 45, is charged with felony firearm possession in federal court.

Huff said police set up a perimeter around a house where the suspect was located. A negotiator talked the suspect into leaving the house without any problems, he said.

The Combined Ozark Multi-jurisdictional Enforcement Team; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Missouri Highway Patrol were involved in the arrest.

I continued to have contractions the rest of the evening but after I went to bed they tapered off and by this morning, nothing. So I suppose one of these days I'm just going to wake up and find this little booger laying next to me (haha) either that or I'll be forever pregnant. :(
Well I'll write more later,
Lydia

"Oh Boy!..... uh... not yet..."

Yesterday evening, Lydia was having contractions all through evening service. They were a minute apart. So we decided to make a run to the hospital as services ended.

We got there, and they plugged her up to the machines. After about 45 minutes with more contractions, but because she wasn't dilated any, we were sent home. She was given a Ambien to help her sleep through the night in case the contractions kept going. It drugged her good. She was a little (or more) loopy.

The night went well, but she's still having contractions here and there. I guess we'll see what today holds!

Howdy Folks

Just a few Lines to get you caught up on everything that we've been doing this summer.
For those of you who don't know we bought a house this April. It's a cute, little three bedroom house, it has 1 and a half baths, an attached 1 car garage (which has been turned into Matt's music room and the family exercise room). It also has a beautiful yard and we were given a fort-swing set and have bought a wadding pool (that Mysia absolutely loves) so we try to get out at least for an hour each day.
Mysia's growing like a weed. She talks non-stop and has really gotten into playing pretend. Her favorite movies are Curious George, Dora, Veggie Tales, and Elmo's Potty Time. Speaking of which, she has finally "mastered" the use of the Potty, at least during the day, she still wears pull-ups at nap and bedtime. She loves to sing and dance and play games and is very smart. I think the highlight of her summer was getting to be a flower-girl at Uncle BJ and Aunt Ana's wedding. In fact just the other day we were washing her bed-sheets and she drapes it over her head and arms and let's it trail out behind her and is walking around prissy like and says "Mama, I wedding, I wedding like Ana" I could not stop laughing, it was so cute.
Matt is keeping busy with work and church activities. He still works for Bass Pro but just recently got a promotion to a Designer Position, which means more pay and more benefits, where he gets to be more creative in his work. He's also very busy at church mostly as a fill-in helping when others are sick or on vacation, he helps with the power-point presentations and drives the vans as needed. He also helps with any graphics that the church might need. We also just finished VBS for this year. Being the directors (along with his parents) was a little stressful especially since it started on Sunday right after BJ's wedding on Saturday but it was fun even if the boys won the penny offering and I got pied :). The whipped cream actually tasted good :). But it did scare the daylights out of Mysia, she couldn't believe Daddy would actually do that to Mommy. It took her a while to get over it. Matt also keeps busy doing yard work and fixing things around the house.
I think that I have been the busiest person in this family. I started Babysitting again the beginning of July, I have two infants, Mia who is 9 weeks and full time and Aaron who is 11 weeks and only part time. Both of their mothers work for Bass Pro and contacted me through Matt. They enjoy the convenience of being close to their work (we live about 15 min. away) and the low rates and I enjoy being able to bring in a few extra dollars and still stay at home with Mysia. I'm also taking more tax classes this year for H&R Block so that I will be eligible for rehire this next tax season. Combine that with all the work of keeping the house clean, cooking, keeping Mysia entertained and getting ready for Malachi to get here ( just a little over 6 weeks to go) and I am one busy person. Add in all the stuff I do at church and I wonder how I get anything done.
Speaking of Malachi, the doctor says that everything is going good. I felt him turn the other day so he's now pointing up and down instead of laying sideways. I was having some contractions over the weekend not close enough, hard enough, or consistent enough to be labor but enough to make me uncomfortable and miserable. But I though I'm getting to the point that things are getting uncomfortable I'd much rather he wait until closer to his due date. Mysia told me today she was going to give me a baby for my birthday (Aug. 18th) I would rather not share my birthday with him, but that would be better than him being born on our anniversary and anyway God knows best and he will be born when he's born. I've gained right around 10 lbs. with this pregnancy which I am very proud of and hope that it doesn't go much higher then that.
Anyway that's what we've been up to this summer we'll update more as time goes on.