Posting in CHUNKS

This is a quick post to let you know that we are posting in Chunks. What does that mean for you? Well, every time you log on, make sure you scroll down to the last post you read and go up! That way you won't miss anything. We apologize for the illogical order.. is that even a word? Either way, we know it is a mess. But the mess is worth it to get all of it in! So.. read on.

...Also.. we LOVE comments on our posts! Please feel free to comment anything you like on as many posts as you wish.. even if it is nonsense. Especially if it is nonsense!

Malaki's Birthday!

Now that Malaki is a month old, we decided to write about the day of his birth. Or maybe, now we just have time!

As you may have read in an earlier post, we had been waiting "patiently" for Malaki for what felt like quite some time. The day before his birth, we got to the point where we figured he was going to come when he was ready, no matter what we did. So that night we figured he wasn't coming anytime soon. Scott went to play basketball and Nicole watched a movie at the church and had a lovely walk.

Scott got home from basketball at like 11:30. Usually Nicole and Scott go straight to bed, but for some reason this night they decided to stay up late and ended up watching a movie about compost. At 1 am, they finally wondered what on earth they were doing, turned the movie off and went to bed.

After a long rest of 1 hour and 30 minutes, Nicole woke up in labor. However, she was tired enough that she was confused went to the bathroom and went back to bed. At 3:20 am Nicole woke up again when she couldn't quite get comfortable in bed. She thought that maybe she needed to go to the bathroom again. After 20 minutes of first confusion, then pacing and timing she had finally realized that it was go time. During this time, she discovered that her contractions were less than 3 minutes apart lasting about 1 minute. Malaki was finally ready!

After a phone call to the doula and midwife and 20 minutes of Nicole grabbing random fruits and and things to take with them they headed out to the birth and family center. Running red lights (not because they were in a hurry, but because it was 4 am!) and telling the hypnobabies lady on the ipod to shut up along the way.

We arrived at the birth center at 4:45 with Nicole dialated to a 5. Nicole spent time in lots of different positions. The whole time Nicole had an amazing attitude. She was loving every bit of labor. She was very focused and breathed like a pro! She refused to get frustrated and did a fabulous job of allowing the midwives and doula to give suggestions.

When Nicole was in transition, she commented after a contraction that it didn't even hurt and that it was just intense. She kept telling everyone how grateful she was and how she loved everyone! She told us how labor was beautiful. This is much better than the cussing that Nicole's mom had assured us would come. However, Nicole never cussed, never said anything negative, and enjoyed her birth! It was a truly amazing experience.

At 9:37 am., after about a half an hour of real pushing and some rope pullling, Malaki was born. He was pink and healthy. He had lots of long hair, and it looked really curly. Nicole's mom was pleased to announce that she thought that his hair looked African American.

Nicole says that Scott did really well during the birth as well. She says he was incredibly supportive and made all the difference. I think she is just being nice to him. How can Scott not be supportive when Nicole had such a great attitude? What should he say, No Nicole, this isn't beautiful, birth is hard! Ok. So, Scott did hold the barf bowl. That was a little traumatizing. Scott's favorite thing he did to help was pressurizing Nicole's hips when she was on the birth ball. He enjoyed that because in between contractions, he was asleep on Nicole's back. He always woke up when the next contraction came and Nicole said, "pressure!"

Malakis birth was a splendid event. It was terrific. YES SIR REE!!

Malaki is now 1 month old!

Cloth Diapering!

When Nicole was pregnant, she looked into cloth diapering. Honestly, I was scared. I was didn't quite know how it would turn out. However, it has been great! The diapers were a little more soggy than the disposable ones, but the more you use them the more absorbant they get. With the right cover (we use Thirsties) we have had NO problems with leaks or blowouts! We like them a ton better than disposables, and they are better for the landfills. He looks way cute in his cloth diapers, too! So, if you are thinking about going cloth, do it. Nicole can help.

The finished living room

It's actually been finished for a month. Oh my, it looks 1,000 times better than it used to. You really had to have seen the living room before to appreciate it. Nicole didn't want to post this picture because the room is all messy. When we get a picture of the living room when it is clean, I'll put a different picture up.

Waiting For Malaki

Nicole's due date was May 23. We know that a due date is actually just a guess of about when the baby will be born, and very unlikely that that would be his birthday. But, none the less, we became quite excited and restless as that day approached.

May 23 was a Saturday. The Saturday before that, Nicole had been very content and patient. People would always ask her if she was ready to pop, and she would say, "no, I can wait tell he is ready. I am enjoying being pregnant." The next day, Sunday, Nicole, Kennedy, and Scott went to the park to get organized for the birth. We put together a hypnobirthing folder worked on Nicole's "special place." A special place is a hypnobirthing tactic to have the mother think about and visualize a special place during labor to help them relax. Nicole's special place is the park. The park that day was so beautiful. We had a great time as a family. Scott tried to find a bird that had the most beautiful song. We think it is a little gray bird with a red head. Kennedy played in the sand and on the swings. Kennedy loved the park. Scott baked chicken and made mashed potatos to eat while there. It was just a great day at the park. It was a start to a wonderful week out in nature as a family. After the trip to the park, Nicole decided, "Ok, I'm ready for Malaki to come."

On Wednesday, we payed a visit to the midwife for a check up. Nicole was really swollen. Her ankles had completely disappeared. Her toes even had fat rolls on them. Nicole had also been having lots of braxton hicks contractions. The midwife was very pleased with Nicole and thought the baby would be coming very soon. She then did a check up only to discover that Nicole was dialated to a 3, almost 4. Honey, our midwife, told us she would be surprised if Nicole made it through the week without having the baby. We were very excited. We thought for sure Malaki would come during the weekend.

Nicole continued to go to work through out the week. On Thursday, during the Youth City celebration Nicole began to have regular contractions and was certain she was going into labor. After she got home, at about 9, the contractions went away. Nicole is very proud about the fact that during the contractions at the end of the Youth City celebration the kids had a dodge ball game. Kids vs. Parents. Nicole of course played for the kids team, and did awesome. She stayed in for a long time and got several of the parents out, and ultimately helped the kids gain victory!

About this time, Kennedy began to become very excited. Scott and Nicole were thrilled that she was so interested. Up until that time, Kennedy kind of seemed a bit nervous, and at other times apathetic. Kennedy did not want to leave Nicole or Scott's side. It was as if she thought that the second she left, the baby might come.

Nicole woke up Saturday morning, the 23(her due date), more swollen then ever, and puked. Nicole felt very different. Even her face was swollen. She was continuing to have braxton hicks contractions every 6 minuets. She was certain that today was going to be the day. While she was shopping at Toys'R'us she thought she was in labor. Because Scott figured that this would be the last Saturday before Malaki came, Scott took Kennedy up to Neffs Canyon in the late afternoon for some good time together. Just the two of them. Neffs Canyon was absolutly beautiful and Scott and Kennedy had some great bonding time. On the way home from Neffs Canyon, Scott and Kennedy stopped at Little World Chinese Food and picked up some fried rice and picked up Nicole to go to the park. Kennedy wanted to know when ever Nicole had a contraction. She kept asking how long her contraction was, and how long it had been since the last one. Scott and Kennedy laughed and played on the swings while Nicole enjoyed her fried rice. We all had a great time at the park

After the park we decided to go for a walk to help the contractions continue. Kennedy was very excited to go for a walk. She was willing to do anything to help Malaki come. She kept asking about the contractions. "Tell me when you have another one. What time is it? How long has it been since the last one?" She was just glowing she was so excited. The braxton hicks contractions continued to be about 5 minuets apart. Nicole was unsure of what a labor contraction would feel like, but she had never had one so she thought that the braxton hicks might be real contractions, and they might get stronger and come closer together. As we walked, we ran into neighbors who seemed to certain that we were going to have the baby tonight.

After the walk we put Kennedy to bed. Kennedy would only go to bed on the condition that if the contractions got to be 4 minuets apart, that we would wake her up and let her know. Before Nicole and Scott went to bed, they packed everything and got all ready to go to the Birth Center thinking that they would be heading in that night.

Nicole woke up at 7 am on Sunday. No contractions. No baby. Kennedy was a bit frustrated. Scott and Nicole were surprised, but Nicole knew that Malaki would come when he was ready. Scott was kind of glad that the baby didn't come on Saturday, because Sunday, the 24 was Grandma Barbra's 90th birthday. He thought that it would be really neat.

After church, Kennedy went to her moms to watch a movie, and Nicole and Scott thought they would go out to nature again and enjoy some time together. Scott decieded to return to Neffs Canyon. It was gourgous again. We hiked around a bit. Took some pictures and found a nice place to relax in the woods. Eventually a thunderstorm chased us back home. Later on Sunday, we sat down to dinner. Nicole decided to eat dinner while rocking on the birth ball. The contractions had started back up. Kennedy was so excited now that she had gotten out pencil and graph paper so she could graph the contractions. With Dads help she graphed the contractions for almost 2 hours. She ran to Nicole and said, "according to this graph you are going to have the baby tonight!" We told her he might not come today, but Kennedy had confidence he was coming. We had a really hard time getting her to bed again. We finally got her to go to bed telling her that she needed to be well rested for the birth and that we would wake her up if we were going to head in to the birth and family center.

Monday came, and no baby, and again, the contractions had gone away during the night. Ok. We were going to get serious about having this baby. We knew that he would come when he was ready, but we decided it wouldn't hurt if we helped a bit. So we (Scott, Nicole, and Kennedy) decided to climb Ensign Peak. Nicole was dialated to a four and having regular contractions (braxton hicks) and we decided to climb a mountain. Ok, it's more of a hill, but still, it was great. We started our hiked close to sundown and it was absolutly beautiful. Kennedy had never been before up there before. Both Nicole and Kennedy did really great climbing. We got to the top just as the sun was setting over the lake. We took some pictures of us at the bottom after the hike.