Missing Home

I can't believe how long it's been since I lived at home in Santa Fe! I miss home deeply. I miss being w/my best friend...my beloved Leon. I can't wait until I'm home with both him & Malakai...our little family. I miss my church family as well, and I can't wait to get back to church to hear God's word through my Pastors' teachings and sing worship songs through Ken's gifted voice leading us. I can't wait...

But I must. Malakai needs time to grow still and I don't want my will to get in the way of course. Our little son is on his way though! All he has to do is eat his full feedings from the bottle at each feeding, which he's working up to. His feedings are every 3 hours with 53ML or 53 "CC's" and was eating all that through the tube or "gavage"...until currently pacing his feeds throught he bottle. Yesterday, the Occupational Therapist (OT) had the Dr. put in an order for him to feed 20CC's by bottle and the rest (33CCs) through the gavage. He gets 20CCs by bottle because that's what he was drinking on average. Before that, his order was to eat by bottle whatever he could take in at twice a shift change. So that means, one shift is from 7am to 7pm and the next shift is from 7pm to 7am. So since Malakai was for certain eating the 20CCs, his order is now to eat that every feeding, so every three hours and in order to keep practicing his bottle feeding w/out getting too tired. It's been said that at 36-37 weeks gestation, a baby will just have a light go on and something will trigger them all of a sudden to eat a lot by bottle feeding coordination. We're just waiting for that light to go on in Malakai! On Wednesday, he'll be at 36 weeks gestation.

He's gotten so chubby and we can tell that his skin color is getting dark too. We love kissing his little head and smelling his hair. *sigh* Our sweet Malakai!

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Please pray for God to help Malakai on his way to eating good, so we can be together at home soon.
****Don't forget to leave your comments here too!!!!

Almost Home!

Malakai is close to going home. The more he eats out of his bottle and not his feeding tube the closer he gets. Which is driving us crazy because I ( his daddy) still has to set up his crib and get most of the house disinfected for Malakai's homecoming. Sonya and I are getting so excited as we see our little one start to get chubby and just to see his personality at this age is amazing.

I wish that I could spend more time here with Sonya and Malakai but my bosses are not too understanding and it's hard to just come and see him for the weekend. So on Friday I had some issues with our vahicle not starting... God's way of making me take a day off and coming to see my little family. When I finally got here after dealing with our vehicle it was a blessing, God has shown me so much through this trial that when I see Malakai and Sonya it's evident as to what God is doing. So much has changed in our lives and not just from the baby but from the trial at hand. God is awesome and through this trial He has revealed His love to us and He is blessing us with Malakai. So the way I see this trial now, compared to when all this began, is that God is in control and we can cry all we want to but he has the last word. I guess what I'm trying to say is when we face a trial we should not blame God or not seek him, but as the scriptures say we should glorify him for his mercy on us and rest in the shadow of his wing.

So with all that said God has blessed us that Malakai J. Moncayo is almost on his journey home. It's been a long stay here in Albuquerque and we still don't know when he is coming home, but the way he is improving shows that it will be soon!

5 pounds!

Yaay, Malakai hit the 5 pound mark a day after being 3 weeks old. He's doing so good, Prais God! Our love for Malakai has grown everyday for him. He makes us so happy...and all he does is sleep, eat, & go potty. Oh, and every now & then he'll give us his goo-goo eyes and crack a smile for us! Monday night, the 17th, he ate from the bottle for the first time! It was only a 'lil bit (7 cc's), but that's great news and he coordinated his sucking, swallowing & breathing very well. He'll be trying his bottle feedings every shift change for now, which is 7am & 7pm every day. Then, if he does well, they'll feed him the bottle twice every shift. Yay for our son!
**Please pray that Malakai keeps doing well with his feedings and that he weens off the oxygen well...and in God's timing for him to go home w/ us...soon. :o>
(Darn, I can't post a photo w/these computers @ Ronald McDonald House...soon to come)

Our bundle of Joy!

Well, things have been progressing w/Malakai. In the past week, he's moved from the admitting room & graduated all the way down the hallway, where babies go before they get to go home! He's gaining weight w/momma's milk & some fortification to it. Also, his oxygen keeps getting decreased because he'd doing so well breathing on his own a little more. All he has now is the nasal tube and his feeding tube. In the next week or so, we'll see how he does w/a bottle.
Oh yeah, no more blue light for jeandus and no more incubator either!
It's possible we'll have our little bundle of joy home by Easter! He'll most likely go home w/oxygen for a while though.
*Thank you All So Much For All Your Thoughts & Prayers!
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Please pray that my milk supply increases, as I've been having trouble w/that.
(Also, if any of you know of someone who has an extra little commuter/loner car they can lend me, that would be most excellent and more convenient for me)
I'll try to blog more this week!

Baby Announcement

Gift delivery changed to Sunday, March 15th instead...

Malakai is Here!!

(March 1st)

*Sigh*....Where to I begin?

What an experience it's been since Malakai's birthday. Early evening on Sunday Feb. 22nd, I was given my epidural. I chose this, not only to avoid a painful delivery, but because of the pain my fibroid might have also caused. I thought for sure I'd deliver on 2/22/09, but my contractions were not strong enough until around 10pm or 11pm. The Dr. wanted to use a uterine catheter to get better monitoring of my contractions, but as he began to do so, Malakai was on his way! I was supposed to deliver in an operating room near the NICU, but there was no time.

So at 12:52 A.M. on Monday February 23rd, Malakai was born into the world at 3 pounds 15 ounces, 16 inches long. We got to hear our son's first cry as soon as he was born, but as he stopped crying, Leon cut the umbilical cord and he was transferred to the baby table where he cried only once more before he stopped breathing on his own. The NICU team quickly gave him some oxygen, let me see him, and rolled him off to the NICU to get him all hooked up the necessary equipment. I spent about 4 hours in my Labor & Delivery room before I could go to my Mother/Baby Care room. Since I hadn't eaten Anything since breakfast, I was starving! The nurse gave me a sandwhich to munch on before the epidural wore off and by about 4:30 A.M. I was wheeled off w/ Leon to see my son in the NICU. What an emotional time it was. Since I couldn't sit up for a long time, I had to be rolled to my Mother/Baby Care room with Leon.

Although Leon spent all day with me during my first day of recovery, he had to leave that evening to go to work Tuesday morning. That's when I began to feel alone...No husband, no baby...just alone. That's when I cried out to the Lord. I had to release all that emotion that was built up in me. I needed the Lord's comfort more than ever, and of course He was there! Even though I could not help but cry, He was there!

Before Wednesday the 25th came along, I got to either roll over in the wheelchair by a nurse to see Malakai and eventually walk my way over. I adored being there with him, but then came Wednesday. Leon took 1/2 the day off to get me home, but after being in Albuquerque for a month....I felt just so weird, so awkward. It was an unnatural feeling...We were leaving a part of us behind. Although I was home that night, it was another weird feeling. I was broken...and so was my beloved Leon. We wanted our son with us but at the same time, we had to be thankful he was in good hands at Presbyterian NICU. The nursing care is amazing there and Malakai's doctors are so kind to inform us of every detail that goes on with him. We need to remember...God Is In Control. He knew this would happen, He knew exactly when Malakai would be born, and He knows when Malakai will come home with us.

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Please pray that God provides an extra measure of comfort as Malakai is absent from us.

Please pray that God guides us with how to get the appropriate lodging in Albuquerque to be near Malakai. (Ronald McDonald House is our first option)

~Thank You All