She Has Arrived! And Is Here To Stay!

Meet our little lady  

Malia Nive Jan Bradshaw 

5lbs 11oz

19inches long 

We are so excited to have her here and that she has showing some real strength and resilience. She came a bit early due to Lady Hiva having several prior C-Sections. We found out two weeks ago that Lady's uterus was dangerously thin where her prior C-Sections scars were. So in an effort to have a win/win for both Malia and Lady Hiva's health we had scheduled a due date for 15 JAN. But last week the doctor's thought waiting the extra week may be risking it too much.

Last photo before we went into Surgery

Getting ready

So our little girl was born at 35 weeks and a few days of gestation. Lady Hiva was so brave during the C-Section. They had a hard time getting Malia out (I think she was bigger than they had expected). I was able to watch the entire surgery (really cool experience) and it was intense there for a few minutes. Lady Hiva even watched with a mirror above her head so she could see. Once the baby was out she went straight to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for an assessment. I was SO thankful that Malia started to scream and screamed for nearly fifteen minutes. To Lady Hiva and I that was music. It meant her lungs were developed enough to scream like that!

Miraculously the NICU declared her healthy enough to spend some time with us. So I held her close to Lady Hiva's head while the doctor's stitched everything back together. I took out my phone and sent a few photos to Madre and Kell to show Lucky Dragon. It was fun to get a photo back with his reaction.

Seeing a photo of Malia for the first time

On his way to meet us.

They were waiting for us when we came out of the Operating Room and he was so happy to show us that he 'bought' his mum flowers and Malia a bracelet. He wanted us to put it on her right then! Malia then had to go back to NICU for a 4 hour "Transition" evaluation to make sure that she kept her oxygen levels up, ate and that her sugar and temp levels were stable. She passed all those tests so despite our expectation that she would need to be in the NICU for some time as a premature baby, our little girl came up to join us. That made her big brother REALLY happy. He did not like that he was not allowed to see her when she was in the NICU.

Thank you all for the outpouring of love over this pregnancy. All the prayers, encouragement, thoughts, positive energy and love that we have been given truly did make a difference! We are excited to start this next journey with 4 of us.