Welcome Baby Malachi!

On Tuesday October 22 Jon and I headed to the hospital for what we thought would be Malachi's birthday.  After checking on the baby the midwife sent us downstairs to finish with admissions paperwork and then we were supposed to head back upstairs and get things started.  When we got to admissions there was a problem with the insurance.  The insurance office was in the US so it wasn't open yet, and rather than take any chances with the insurance we decided to delay the induction by a day.

We did get this picture of my belly thinking it was the last day I was going to be pregnant.  I did get a final weight with this baby too, something I have never done.  I gained the most total weight with this baby out of the four.  

Here I am on October 23, we got the insurance issues worked out and we were ready to have a baby.  I was also having a few contractions that made me feel better about going through with the induction.  All three previous children had been born before their due dates so making it passed my due date and still not going into labor was something new for me.  It was a very difficult decision for us to make, but in the end we felt ready to have Malachi join our family.

The delivery room was a very sterile and surgical feeling room.  They had Jon put on this apron and booties over his shoes, a first for him.  Jon did manage to find a comfortable chair to bring into the delivery room, all they had for him was a little stool and we had no idea how long to expect to be here.

And then less than 5 hours later here we are.  It was a challenging delivery, even with an epidural, but worth every second.  

This explains part of the challenges, that translates to about 9 pounds 10 ounces.  When Jon first did the conversion on his phone I could not believe it.  Our other kids were 6 pounds 3 ounces, 7 pounds 9 ounces, and 6 pounds 13 ounces.  I did not have gestational diabetes or any other indicators that this baby would be quite this big.

Here in France they do not have clothes for the baby to wear, you bring your own.  I had brought this cozy outfit for Malachi, in a size newborn.  It is slightly smaller than a US newborn.  I knew we were in trouble when they measured his length and he was born at 54 cm, the newborn size here is 50 centimeters.  The outfit did work for that day, but I don't think he will get to wear it again.

Here is one proud daddy with out newest arrival.  We are so happy he is here safe and sound.

Another difference here in France is the length of hospital stay.  Because I had a normal, uncomplicated delivery my stay was only 4 days, the minimum.  

Here we are on day 2.  Friends of ours from Norway had gotten Malachi this shirt, it is so cozy and I was so excited for him to wear so I made sure to get it on him before he outgrew it.

A picture with Mommy.

Malachi loves to cuddle, and he is a lot of fun to cuddle with.

The next morning after I got up I left Malachi in the bed just for a minute.  I don't think he was quite ready to get up yet. 

I love his sleepy faces.

I was blessed with some beautiful flowers,

I felt so special.

And after 4 days in a hospital room it was nice to have something pretty to look at.  We also had some sweet friends come and visit us.  

The kids came up a couple of times, but most of the time Jon just came up to spend some time with us.

Here was the view from our window, a beautiful little side street with changing leaves.

And here we are leaving the hospital.

Malachi seemed so little once we left the hospital.

I love his pumpkin hat.

And here we are on the street outside our house.  You can see the Eiffel Tower over my right shoulder. I should be able to crop this picture for his baby book.  What fun memories for our family.

We are all home now, the kids are back at school and Jon is back to work.  I am so fortunate to have my mom here for a few more weeks as we settle into being a family of 6.  It is still hard for me to believe that we just had our fourth child.

Collecting Treasures

Nannie got here a week ago and has been settling in nicely to our routine.  In the morning she has been walking to the bus stop with Addie, Ben and Jon.  One day last week she came back very excited and told Garrett and I we needed to come outside.  It was big trash day and there were some treasures to be found.  

I had seen this once before right after we moved I noticed a lot of furniture on the side of the road and I also saw the trash truck collecting all of it.  It is a challenging thing to do with a belly and a toddler so I wasn't able to take advantage of any thing last time.  This month was a different story.  

Nannie was great about grabbing anything that I liked.  Here is a beautiful chair, we couldn't find anything wrong with it.  The other chair needed a recovered seat, but it now has a home in Addie's room.  

Here was our little helper, we got him dressed in a hurry to go out and help us so it was dress up clothes and crocs.

This round table was a great find, Nannie rolled it on down the hill and into our yard.

How fun is that?  Our house still needs quite a few pieces of furniture so today's haul was greatly appreciated.

Here is the new craft table.  It was quite heavy, but she got it all the way down the hill.  

There were several other pieces that were tempting, but they were too big for Nannie and I to bring home.  We have put this on the calendar for month though!

Another Chateau, Vaux Le Vicomte

This Saturday, while we are all patiently waiting for Malachi to join us, we decided to visit another chateau.  This time we headed out to Vaux Le Vicomte.  It was about an hour from our house, in the same direction as Fontainbleau, south of Paris. We got there around 11 and decided to dig into our picnic lunch.  We stood by the trunk of our car and ate sandwiches and chips.  The kids always have more fun when they are not hungry.  There were a couple of restaurants and cafes in the chateau, but we have found it is easier (and cheaper) if we bring food with us to these kinds of outings.

The temperature has started to drop here so I picked up gloves for each of the kids, they have been so excited to wear them.  

This chateau is out in the country a little bit and it does not seem to draw the same number of visitors as Versailles or Fontainbleau.  

The home is beautiful and the grounds are amazing.

Getting ready to head inside.  I was moving pretty slow today, but I did my best to keep up.

The gardens were designed by Le Notre, the same 

Our kids love the audio guides.

These two did pretty well walking through the chateau, 

at least we didn't set of any alarms today.

Here is an example from a bathroom at the chateau.  It is one of the first times I have seen what their equipment looked like.

Garrett got a little bored, but he was a  good trooper.  

The gardens were beautiful.

You can thank Nannie for all of the pictures today, I was doing my best to keep up and didn't take any pictures.

A family picture!

Here are the stables, they house a really neat museum of horse carriages.

There were so many different carriages that showed different ways of getting around.

Here is a beautiful shot in the gift shop.  They had a lot of really neat Christmas decorations, a sale table, and different items than you usually find at these gift shops.  

Over all I was extremely impressed with this chateau and what it has to offer.  I am looking forward to going back one day and getting to explore more of the gardens. 

I'm Officially a Soccer Mom

Addie and Ben's school has a soccer program that they are both able to be a part of.  They get to go on Saturday mornings and play for an hour.  I get to visit with some of the other moms and Jon and Garrett get to have some fun too.

Garrett was running out to get Daddy.

This boy LOVES his Daddy.  I am not playing much soccer right now so Daddy is a lot more fun.

Getting ready to kick the ball.

You can see Ben in the middle of this picture, he is the one in the red and blue walking away from the ball.  This is his first try at competitive sports and we are still working on the killer instinct.

Here is Addie, she is on a different 'team' from Ben.  She spent most of her time teasing a couple of the boys on her team, but she did go after the ball when she got the chance.  

I love watching her run.

You can see the ball at Ben's foot and the coach is even pointing.  These memories are so precious to me.  

Daddy and Garrett cheering Ben on.

Addie was playing goalie and when she saw me taking pictures of her she struck a pose.  The other moms around cracked up, but that is my girl.  

Of course soccer wouldn't be complete without a snack after!

And here is a picture of me, almost 38 weeks with Malachi.  After soccer we went and did some shopping and grabbed some lunch.  It is so amazing to me that we will be meeting our little man soon.