Malcolm Flynn

Well, I could give you all a minute-by-minute recounting of Mal's arrival to the world, but I won't bore you with the details, since some of it was quite gruesome (and far bloodier than I'd expected).

Mal was coming up on 10 days overdue and the Doc had suggested inducing labor on Monday night around 7. We called in to confirm and were told that a flood of ladies who were in natural labor had arrived, so we were put on the waiting list. "Call back in 12 hours or so" they told us. Morning arrived and we called in, only to be told that things were still busy and they'd check with our OB about things. The OB insisted we get in there, so we checked in at 11am or so on Tuesday the 14th.





Lyzz got started on a drug called Cytotec, which was supposed to help efface the cervix and perhaps start contractions. Much waiting ensued. Early the morning of the 15th, about 8am, the doctors added a Pitocin drip to the IV and things took off. Contractions got more intense and Lyzz got a lot more unhappy about the whole labor idea. Dilation proceeded and by 8:39pm Mal was pushed into the world amidst a bunch of fluid and blood. Gross.

We got transferred to a post-partum room to give Lyzz and Mal some time to recover, and so the nurses and doctors could prod and poke the poor little guy. A good night's rest (relatively, anyway), and more tests, doctor's questions, etc. awaited. For Lyzz and I, the whole thing was still kind of surreal. The fact that this little guy is OUR child hadn't really sunk in yet.

Once this morning rolled around, we started to feel pretty good about the whole "parent" thing. Of course, this means that we actually have no idea what we're doing. However, we are finally starting to realize that Mal is our boy. As much as the thought of being responsible for another human being freaks me out, I'm excited for this new adventure. I can't wait to take him to the beach and go tide-pooling.


Merry Christmas indeed.

Mal's Cartoons

So I'm 2 days late. I'm anxious but not worried. I have my next doctors appointment tomorrow at 2:40 pm so we'll see how things are then. Anyways, Sam and I have had this idea in motion for a while, longer than we knew that Mal even existed, cartoons. We wanted to created our own cartoons that Mal could grow up with. We would decorate his room with them, and even write stories and books for him. Although, for a while, we had no idea which types of animals or cartoon style we really liked. But finally we have finished the first designs for them. And here they are. The only animals I knew we would have were a panda and orangutan. The rest of them just kinda fell into the idea. Mal's room ended up being monkeys and lions, so we added a lion. The elephant has a funny back story so we decided to add him as well. And well the giraffe and fox... no idea. Just like the way they were drawn.

So here's the break down. First there's Zaius (named after the orangutan from Planet of the Apes). He's the bold adventurous type with the typical orangutan style of being able to get out of anything. Then we have Tusko (named for an elephant billed for being the meanest). However he doesn't actually have tusks so he over compensates by being a bully with a squishy center he tries to not let anyone know about. Zara (named after the giraffe given to Charles X of France from Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1827) is the "princess" of the bunch, however overly clumsy. Ying is a silly panda who tries to be as daring as Zaius, but just doesn't have the charisma. Kit is a foxy fox who tends to be the one who gets Ying out of her predicaments she gets into by following after Zaius. And last but not least there's Nemean (named for the lion Hercules had to defeat for part of his trials). However, Nemean is not actually a lion. He's just a house cat that tries to be every part, tough and brave, like his name's sake. He wears a faux lion's mane and tail to look the part.

So that's what we've got for Mal. I think it's a great cast of characters for him to get to know. We'll see how these preliminary character types stick. They may change overtime but this is what we've got so far.

I just hope Mal decides to show up soon. I'm sick of being pregnant.