A Good Sleeper

Malachi has been perfect! He went to bed at 10:00 p.m. last night, Sarah had to wake him at 3:00 a.m. for a feeding, and then he woke at 7:00 a.m. on his own. He has been gaining weight already too. Yesterday he was 6.01 lbs. and his new pediatrician was very happy with his progress so far. He has an echocardiogram on Friday the 29th and a weight check on Friday the 7th.

I am hoping he learns how to read next week so there will be something more exciting to post about.

Home from the Hospital

We are home! Malachi and Sarah were released on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. It has been fun to have him in our own environment. What a good sleeper he was last night. I woke him at 1:00 a.m. to take my turn feeding him and Sarah woke him at 4:00 a.m. to take her turn. Then I got up with him at 8:30 a.m. this morning. He really never cried at all and had to be woken up to eat. I have now changed at least five diapers and it is going faster and easier every time! Here are some pictures from me giving him his first bath yesterday at the hospital.

Malachi's Third Day

Well, it was a pretty good day. However, we are not home free yet. There may still be a problem with Malachi's heart after all but for the time being he will probably be coming home on Saturday morning. They will continue to monitor him closely through echocardiograms perhaps on a weekly basis until they can figure out why it looks different. The best case scenario is that while he grows the heart will correct itself. Regardless, Malachi is super-content (so far) and enjoys being held. His dad has fed him from a bottle six times.

Today's visitors included Sarah's sister Rachel, Sarah's mom, Ryan, Megan, and Braden, and Ed and Becky. Malachi's nurse for the day in the Level 2 nursery was Lori who setup John and Sarah for their first date in August 2002!

Malachi's Second Day

Things are going well with little Malachi. His IV lines were taken out of his belly. He is still hooked up to a heart monitor and in the Level 2 nursery. He is very content so far; his dad hopes that he will have an easy-going personality! Thursday's visitors included Amy, his grandpa and grandma Sands, Pastor Gene, Pastor Steve and Lori, Sarah's sister Kristi, and Roxie and Amanda from Bamber Valley. Roxie and Amanda surprised us with supper from Buffalo Wild Wings!

Malachi should be having another echocardiogram this morning (Friday). If that goes well, he may be able to go to the regular nursery and may be coming home tomorrow (Saturday).

Malachi's Heart Update

Malachi had an echocardiogram this morning. After reviewing it, the doctors have determined (at least for the time being) that there is no problem. For today, he is to be moved out of NICU at Saint Mary's Hospital and moved to Level 2 Nursery at Methodist Hospital. He could very well be scanned again before we leave to make sure that things still look good. We are very thankful and blessed knowing that a lot of prayers on his behalf seemed to have worked. Malachi should be discharged and sent home with Sarah on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Malachi Carlson

John and Sarah Carlson are happy to let you know that Malachi Winston Carlson was born early this morning at 12:48 a.m. Just like the other surprises we encountered during this 41 week pregnancy, it was yet another surprise for us!

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, the doctor decided to have Sarah induced into labor beginning at 7:30 p.m. We were coached into thinking that induction would be a day-long event since Sarah was not having any contractions at the start. However, by 11:45 p.m. the doctors on duty in labor and delivery decided that it would not be wise for Malachi to be born normally because his heart rate was not holding steady. An operation was quickly moved forward and he arrived by caesarean section within an hour. We are still spinning from all the fast moving activities.

Malachi weighed in at 5 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 ½ in. long. He stayed at Methodist Hospital until 2:45 a.m. and then was transported by ambulance to Saint Mary’s Hospital where he is in the neonatal intensive care unit. Since he is very stable, the cardiologists won’t be doing any follow-up work on his heart until it gets closer to “normal business hours”. We still believe that Malachi will undergo surgery within the week and may be in the hospital a couple of weeks.

Malachi is a name that both John and Sarah picked together and Winston is John’s grandpa’s first name.

Again, Nothing New

Here we are four days past the due date and there is no baby yet! Our regular appointment yesterday was fine and another one for Tuesay (41st week marker) has been scheduled. Sarah is ready to go in and I am anxious too. Our schedules were completely free today because we thought we would be in the hospital by now. I think we will go to the mall, go to a movie, and go to church tonight.

Nothing New

I am here to report that there is nothing new to report. We went to our regular Dr.'s appt. on Friday, and we're still in a wait-and-see mode for baby. As I suspected, the information we were receiving from the other Dr. we've seen for the past 3 visits regarding an induction was more a matter of personal opinion/ philosophy. Our regular Dr. is back and not really interested in inducing labor at this point, so I guess we'll see what this week brings. I was really hoping not to go back to work tomorrow morning, but unless something happens in the next couple of hours, I'll be back! I also have my last evening of conferences on Tuesday night-- I've prepped the kids to do student-led conferences so my sub could cover for me if need-be. Also this week in my classroom we have scheduled 2 field trips- one on Wednesday, and another on Thursday. I'm not sure what I want to do about that if I still haven't gone in... Hmmm... something to consider.

Anyhow, John built a bookcase for the nursery this afternoon, and now everything looks absolutely great. He's also done with ref-ing hockey for the season, so we are really ready! We'll let you know if the baby decides to come anytime soon!

Sarah's TOP SECRET PROJECT!

Alright folks! This is the post you've been waiting for! I finally reveal my TOP SECRET PROJECT!

Since sometime in September I have been doing a special project in the nursery. I decided that it would be really fun to paint murals of storybook characters on the walls of the nursery. I also figured that I love art and have always been fairly artistic, so I was prepared to tackle this project myself, as opposed to hiring someone. So, armed with my collection of storybooks (I'm a teacher, people!) I picked out 7 characters I thought would be fun to incorporate. Below you can see pictures of me working on the newly finished project! Hooray-- I FINALLY finished on SuperBowl Sunday (before the game started, of course!). :)

I kept it a secret for quite a while because I figured if it didn't turn out, I would just paint over it and no one would have to know! Once I finished one part of it and saw it was probably going to work, we started to leak the information (that's why some of you already knew about it). Here are some more pics!

(The opening page of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Curious George)

(Here's the Very Hungry Caterpillar)

(Now you see the cows from Click, Clack, Moo, Clifford, and Chrysanthemum)

(Continuing clockwise around the room- it's Froggy!)

Some closeups...