Malachi’s Birth Video and Story

I have not posted on here in a while because I’ve been concentrating on keeping everyone informed through Facebook. So many of you prayed and are still praying for our little Malachi. This is our way of saying “thank you”. If you are a church and your church prayed for us, please feel free to show this to your congregation or distribute this to them. We are so grateful for you and your prayers. Our prayers for healing for Malachi were answered with a big “YES!” We are praising the Lord. Below the video is the birth story from my eyes.

I’ve been trying to get up the nerve to write this. I am having flashbacks of what transpired in the hospital that bring me to tears. Recalling what happened is really difficult.

On Friday morning the 4th, I was super nervous. More so than I remember with my other two (but that could just be my memory). For some reason I remember thinking that nothing was the same this morning. I had expectations that this experience would be similar to Ellis’, but it was not. Everything seemed strange, down to the room that I was in. Something seemed off. Call it my imagination or just the fact that I was nervous, but I believe God was preparing my heart for what was to come.

I was wheeled into the OR and given the epidural there. John and my mom came into the OR, and my OB was ready to begin. I remember crying through the whole thing. I remember feeling very scared. Then, before I knew it, the baby was out. But he was not crying “something is wrong” I thought. I could see the doctors look in her eyes. She was working on the baby trying to get him to cry. Finally, he did. I was relieved. All that worrying for nothing.

When I got to recovery John came in and explained to me that there was something wrong with the baby, Congenital Pneumonia. I had been given a sedative, I could not process this but I knew it meant that I would not be able to hold or feed my baby for several hours. I began to cry. After several hours in my hospital room, I could not take it any more and insisted on seeing my baby. So my OB had them bring in a wheel chair and they wheeled me to the NICU. The nurses could not believe i was up but nothing can separate a mom from her child. At that point, he only had oxygen in his nose. He was so cute, so vulnerable. At that point I did not realize how in danger I was to losing him.

By the evening our pediatrician said that he needed to be intubated because his little chest was working too hard to breathe. To see him was so sad. Then I came in after he had the tube down his throat. No words can describe (we posted the picture on Facebook). He looked helpless, and all could do was pray. It was all that I had in me to not rip those tubes out and take him home.

The rest of the time is a blur. From getting tubes surgically put into his lungs to relieve pressure, to late night therapy sessions, to desperately trying to find a blood donor for o- blood (here in Belize you have to find a donor before they release the blood to you). For the therapy, they had to beat on his back to loosen the mucus in his lungs. One night I was there for it and you could tell that he was crying, He was not making any sound but he had tears and his little chest was moving up and down. It was the lowest time for me. It had to be done and I could not do anything to help him from his pain. The therapy really did work and the prayers that so many people prayed worked! Everyone was calling him a miracle. Even though the doctors did not tell us then, I know now that they did not expect him to survive.

We had great care at the hospital. There were two pediatricians on his case. One took vacation time to stay with Malalchi. There was a pediatrician and a respiratory therapist in the NICU around the clock. They were all frustrated because they knew that they did not have the tools they needed to feel totally comfortable, but they were sure they could treat him at the hospital.

Miraculously, six days later we were in our own hospital room. A couple of days after that, he was pronounced “normal”.

God really took us through this. Even though we were worried, we had a peace that only God could give. I had my breakdown moments, but I did have faith that he would survive, and he did. I’m struggling now though with the flashbacks of my time in the hospital. I cry during the day especially when alone. I am hoping that as time goes on, it will get better.

Malachi is so chill and such a great baby. He is beautiful. He will probably have blonde hair and blue eyes, just what I wanted. His shaking has disappeared. I am overwhelmed by a great God who answers the prayer of His people.