Home Sweet Home

I know, I know! It's been quite a while since our last post. Sorry about that.
Well, our little Malakai has been home since April 24th and he was about 8 pounds at the time. Today, he's a whopping 12 pounds!! The day we were discharged was such a fast experience. First of all, on April 22nd, we were given the opportunity to have a couple of overnight stays w/Malakai at the hospital in our own room. The room was small, and it was tough getting through the experience of feeding little Malakai through the night, getting used to his crying, and trying our best to sooth him back to sleep. We had to keep track of how much milk he drank to see if he was ready to go home. So on Friday morning, the 24th, the doctor determined he was ready to be discharged because he met the volumes he had to drink.
Once all the discharging was done, it happened so fast that I was a little nervous to begin everything on our own. Once we got home, it was a little weird for me because I hadn't lived at home for months! It certainly took some getting used to, especially with an addition to our family. It was also hard getting used to not sleeping through the night......Aah, parenthood! Leon has been such a huge help with Malakai; a great father, that's for sure! It's awesome to see the love he has for our son.
We had a big scare the first night home. During Malakai's 3am feeding, he fell asleep drinking and had swallowed his milk wrong. He stopped breathing and his lips had turned blue! I kept tapping him & yelling his name and he was very limp. I gave him one good breath through his mouth & nose, rubbed his chest a little to revive him, and then he began to breath again! What a traumatizing experience that was. After that, I had some anxiety about feeding Malakai and it took a while to get over. We were more careful after that with the way we fed him.
It was a bit of a struggle to deal with Malakai having to come home with oxygen. The little stickers would keep coming off his cheeks and when we had to replace them, he'd get so upset. Once a week the home-care nurse would come by and test his oxygen level, which was going well. Eventually, the nurse gave us the 'go-ahead' to take off the oxygen. Boy, it was a relief not to drag the tubing all around the house, as it would get stuck under the couch or in the doorway.
Now that Malakai has been home for a little over a month, things have become a little more routine. We're starting to venture out of the house more, to doctor visits and to church. Malakai has still been eating about every 3 hours and a couple of times through the night...3-4 ounces at a time. He absolutely loves to be held! For bath-time, it depends on his mood whether he's cooperative or cranky about it. He loves to look up at our ceiling fan and he likes the vibrations of his bouncy for sure.
Life has never been the same, but we Thank God for our little chubby blessing.