Thomas Michael: A Birth Story

Thursday night (12/9/10) we went to the mall.  I had been experiencing contractions regularly throughout the day but they were pretty far apart.  At the mall, I walked from one end to the other and my contractions stayed on pretty strong.  We got home and I started timing them on my iPhone (because as my mom says, we are yuppies).

 The times listed are from right before we went to the hospital.

I decided to go ahead and go to bed to try to get to sleep in case tonight happened to be 'the night'.  At 1:30 am, I had a contraction that actually woke me up from the pain.  But I was able to go back to sleep.  Then at 3:30 am, I felt an unfamiliar feeling.  I nearly peed my pants.  Well that's weird, I thought to myself.  I've gone 40 weeks and a day without peeing my pants, why would that start now?
So I got up and the "pee" never stopped.  I didn't realize it at the time but my water had broken.  Yeah, I know.  Duh? But I was kind of in denial.
The contractions started to get intense after that, about 4 minutes apart or less.  We called the doctor and he said, "Yep, come on in.  Sounds like you're going to have a baby today." 
We showered, packed, called our parents and then headed to the hospital. It took some time because I kept having to stop to deal with contractions.  We got to the hospital about 6:30 am.  They were about 3 minutes apart at this point.  When we pulled into the parking garage, I told Andrew, "If I'm only dilated to 3 cm at this point, I'm going to be really upset." 
In triage we found out that I was in fact only dilated to 3 cm but I was 90 % effaced at this point so it was still progress.  We met our nurse for the day who was awesome.  She took us to our super nice birthing suite.  Our parents showed up shortly after.  This was about 8:00 or 8:30 am. 

40 Weeks and 1 day, plus a fetal monitor sticking out on the belly 

I was still smiling at this point!  My doctor showed up and talked to us for awhile. My nurse was giving me advice and she said "You will probably not want to get checked very often at the beginning because it can be very discouraging."  I was experiencing some very painful contractions at this point.  Lots of breathing was needed to get through them.  They asked me how bad my pain was on the pain scale.

I said an 8 because it was, as the chart says "Horrorroso".  My mom and Cyndi were sure that my pain couldn't have been that bad. 

At about 9:30 am my doctor comes in and tells me that she has another patient to check on at the hospital 20 minutes across town.  She asked if I wanted to be checked before she left.  Only because she was leaving, I decided to have her check me. She immediately says, "Do you want an epidural? You need to get an epidural now if you want one because you're at 7 or 8 cm dilated."  I was in pain so I said, "YES PLEASE!"  The nurse starts my IV that takes a half hour before I can get the drugs.

About 20 minutes goes by and my body actually starts involuntarily pushing and bearing down on its own.  My nurse runs to get my doctor.  My doctor tells me this baby is coming and asks if I still want the epidural.  I opted out of it because I knew I was so close to the finish line.  

I started pushing at 10:30 am.  I had my doctor, my nurse, a resident, and Andrew all in the room.  Little Tommy was born at 11:06 am with the help of all my coaches.  I did cuss though.  It was the hardest thing I've ever done.  But it was amazing how the body actually worked.  The contractions were fairly close together, probably 2 minutes apart at the end.  But it was nice because I was still able to get a break.  Then when I was almost done pushing, the contractions stretched to about 5 minutes apart so I could get a break before the big push.  Just crazy.  

I don't know what hormone courses through the body during a natural childbirth but if they could bottle and sell that stuff for athletes, WOW! I was on a total high after he was born.  It was insane.  I am a very emotional person normally (i.e. crying during The Princess Diaries) but I had no emotions at the time.  It might have been traumatic shock, I guess?? Who knows.  I can't even describe it.  I didn't get tired or emotional until the second night after he was born.  That story will come at another time. 

Tommy was born so fast that he didn't get a chance to really get squeezed through the birth canal so he had a lot of mucus still in his system when he came out.  When they gave him to me, he was PISSED.  They eventually took him away and sucked the bad stuff out of his belly (about 13 cc's I think, a lot I guess).  That made him even MORE pissed.  But eventually he calmed down and fell asleep.  Before our parents came in, Andrew told me I looked like Alice Cooper because my mascara had smeared all over my face.  He wiped most of the make up off my face so that's why it looks like I had been crying.  I'll show these pictures here.  I'm not happy about them.  They are gross.  But it just goes to show how hard it was.  Natural childbirth is not for everyone.  I just happened to be extremely lucky that it was that fast, otherwise, I don't know that I could have done it.  Soooo... on with the pictures... Ugh.  

 Tommy with Grandpa Mike and me, Alice Cooper.  Just kidding.

 My first meal of the day, crackers.  I only posted this picture so I could show you the difference in my face in one day.  I had swelled a bit before he was born.  Maybe it was that Athletic Juice coursing through my veins that I'm going to somehow bottle and sell.  :)

  Tommy and me.  My face finally returned to a somewhat normal size.  Thank goodness. Ugh.  

Gram Cyndi and little Thomas.  Happiest new grandmother on the planet! 

Proud father of a perfect little boy

Normally they put babies in pink and blue knit hats but they just got the Christmas hats in that week so little Tom got a red and green hat instead.  Merry Christmas Tommy!

We tried to capture his gigantic hands in a picture but you just can't tell.  He has the longest fingers I've ever seen on a baby.  His feet are huge too.  When they gave him to me after he was born, Andrew said, "Look at his hands! He has Gollum hands!"  He was still having trouble regulating his body temperature so his hands were a little purple and very wrinkled.  They truly looked like Gollum's hands from Lord of the Rings. 

 Finding his hand, yum!

 Adam and Steph came to visit

 Brian is still not sure about this little guy.  He doesn't understand why he can't snuggle with him just yet. 

Sweet Sleeping Baby Thomas

 

Little Tommy is starting to stir so I have to post and go but here's one last picture.  Merry Christmas from Thomas Michael! 

He's Here!!!

Thomas Michael Thornburg born at 11:06 am on 12/10/10.



He was 6 lbs 12 oz and ALL Boiler.




Mom and dad are doing great. We couldn't be happier.


He's the sweetest thing!!!


We came home today. This is a picture from his first car ride.

Now that we're home I hope to post more pictures so stay tuned!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

40 Weeks: Preggo in Review

Let's start with hearing from people who know WAYYYYY more than I do about this stuff...

Babycenter.com:
It's hard to say for sure how big your baby will be, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long. His skull bones are not yet fused, which allows them to overlap a bit if it's a snug fit through the birth canal during labor. This so-called "molding" is the reason your baby's noggin may look a little conehead-ish after birth. Rest assured — it's normal and temporary.

Alphamom.com:
Your Baby:
-get out get out get out.
-get out get out get out get out.
You:
-get out get out get out get out get out.
-get out! get out get out get out.
-and for real: GET OUT.

Pampers.com:
Chubby cherub. Your little one has probably reached his final birth weight and length—the average baby is 7.5 pounds and 20.5 inches long (boys are a bit bigger than girls). Because he's been producing fat over the past few months, 15 percent of his body weight is now from fat, which will help him stay warm in the outside world. The rest of him—organs and body systems—is ready for life outside the womb too. He's stored starch in his liver to be made into glucose after birth, and he has extra fluid on board as well. Like a camel, he's well equipped to get through birth and the day after while your breast milk comes in.
Wonder-full changes. As you near the end of your pregnancy, take a moment to reflect upon the incredible transformation your body has undergone in the past nine months. Your uterus is now a thousand times as big as it was when you conceived! And your breasts are two to three times larger than before you got pregnant; to prepare for breastfeeding. Each breast has gained about a pound and a half.

Hmmm... reflecting on three pounds of boobage and a thousand times bigger uterus???
Holy Lardass Batman. 
Sooooo let's take a look back at the past 40 weeks, shall we?

14 Weeks: 

Compared to what I look like now, GIRL eat a sandwich! :)

16 Weeks: 

18 Weeks: 

Andrew still agreed to take pictures at this point. 

20 Weeks: 

This is where he quit and I started taking my own.  He only lasted 3 blog posts. :(

22 Weeks: 

24 Weeks: 

The experts say I will probably look more like this when I come home from the hospital.  This is 6 months. Bummer.  You mean my body doesn't automatically pop back to what it was before? (Only if you have a plastic surgeon in the room after delivery!)

26 Weeks: 

Brian becomes a regular.  (He haz a sad.)

28 Weeks: 

Poor, poor dog. 

 

30 Weeks: 

Now I haz a sad.

31 Weeks: 

32 Weeks: 

My feet hurt just looking at this picture. 

33 Weeks: 

My ears hurt looking at this picture. 

34 Weeks: 

He's the one that wanted to be a turtle for Halloween.  I think he meant Ninja Turtle.  Or as my brother would say, "Muntanant Injun Turtle".

35 Weeks: 

 36 Weeks:

37 Weeks: 

38 Weeks: 

I'm really not wearing the same shirt two weeks in a row. This one is a tank.  Not that it really matters.  But of course I would worry about that.  :)

39 Weeks: 

40 Weeks: 

We. Are. Ready.

So today is my due date.  I'm still working.  I guess it's better than being at home.  I would just drive myself crazy.  So instead I go to work and let other people do it. 

"Hey, you're still HERE?"

"You had that baby yet?"

"When ya gonna have that baby?"

"When is your due date again? TODAY??? WOW."

"Tell that kid to hurry up." 

"Can you have the baby tomorrow?" 

"Do some jumping jacks...eat spicy food...drink castor oil... shovel the driveway... re-roof the house... eat raw chicken... get drunk... take up smoking..."

Oh wait wait those last few can't be right. 

Must be the pregnancy hormones.

This is a great episode of 30 Rock.  Another great line is, "She has put on considerable boob weight.  She’s not use to that and sometimes she… just falls over."

It's really not driving me crazy, I promise.  I'm enjoying the comments.  The best one I've gotten so far is, "Wait, did you know you were pregnant?"  I laughed out loud.  Anything to keep from being at home and not having anything to do.  I can find stuff to do at work, always.  But at home, it's a bit harder.  Which is probably why Andrew is going crazy working from home this week.  Poor guy.  Anyone have anything he can do? ;)

My doctor's visit this week told me I'm now at 2 cm dilated.  So that's good news. 
They like to use the word "anytime!!" a lot. Well it better be! We're waiting on you, little Thornburg.  Come out and meet everyone!

Pregnancy and Childcare Instructions for Week 40: 

 

They are good Thanksgiving pants. 

Darn. :(

Christmas Time is Here!

This year we decided NOT to creep on our neighbors Christmas lights and instead just celebrate our own. 

Andrew did a wonderful job of putting up the lights this year.  They look lovely!

Brian looks like a Christmas Ghost Dog in the doorway.  His eyes really glow. But like always, he wanted to be in the picture. 

We decided to get our decorations up early with the baby coming, so shortly after Thanksgiving we started decorating. 

We got a NEW Christmas tree from Menards.  Sooooo excited! I love it! I think it's perfect.  Our poor tree that we been using the past few years needed to be retired.  It was pre-lit and half the lights weren't working so we would pile on more lights and the poor thing was just overloaded. It was time to retire the poor guy. 

We got red, green and white lights which I love too and a new tree skirt.  So much fun! We chose to put our tree in our kitchen.  Is that weird?  It may sound weird but it really is the best place for it.

We stole a tradition from Travis and Katie in the past few years and we started collecting ornaments when we would travel places.  I took some pictures of some of my favorite ornaments that we've collected over the years. But we haven't been doing this very long so we don't have all that many.

The ornament on the left is from San Franciso when we visited Jake and Aditi in 2008.  Some woman on the street was selling them and she offered to personalize it for us.  It's Lombard Street, the curviest street in America! The ornament on the right is from Chicago from our babymoon. 

I think this ornament is so neat.  I got it at Disney World when I went with my grandma, aunt and mom in 2009.  Reminds me of Lady Gaga's gyroscope outfit. 

 We decided to get ornaments this year with our names on them. 

We also bought one more ornament with a fourth name on it and wrapped up the name part.  When we took all four up to the counter, I looked at all the names and said, "Wow, that's a bunch of boys names."  Haha!  But no, seriously, I get addressed as Mr. Thornburg in my letters and emails all the time.  I thought it was gaining popularity as a girl's name, dang it! Oh well.  So yes, we have decided on a first name.  The middle name will be a game time decision though. 

We've hung our stockings by the chimney with care.  These are our stockings from last year for Andrew, Brian and me.  We decided Baby T needed a stocking too. 

Aww, Baby T's stocking! How adorable is that? Don't worry, Baby T. We'll get you a grown up stocking when you arrive. So hurry up and get here!

39 Weeks: "How ya feeling? Any news?"

 Nope.  No news.  Still at 1 cm but at least a little more thinned out.  She said 80% effaced this week at my doctor's appointment.  So I guess that's progress. 

 Brian sees Christmas coming...

and tries to escape.

I have to draw stuff over his eyes because occasionally his eyes flash green and I can't get the red eye corrector to take it off.  So I just draw on his eyes instead!

Time to check out what the websites say for 39 Weeks. 

Babycenter.com:
Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

Alphamom.com:
Your Baby: He is full-term, almost done, probably about a medium-well on the Burger Scale. He is about 20 inches long and over seven pounds, maybe, depends, who knows. (Seriously. No one knows. If you have an ultrasound this week or next, take the measurements and weight guesses with enough grains of salt to season a fresh batch of fries. Late-term ultrasounds are ridiculously imprecise, with a margin of error of up to TWO POUNDS in either direction.)
You: Oh, please. Like you need ME to tell you anything about what you’re going through at this point. I’m just gonna stand over here, out of your way, and maybe silently nudge this pint of ice cream on over to you.

ME: 
Ummm, yeah.  Am I done yet? Cuz I'm totally ready.  It takes several attempts to get a picture of me without a sexy double chin.  I continue to grow and gain weight even though "they" say I should probably stop gaining at this point.  His movements are sharper and actually caused me to yell out in pain this week at work.  A little embarrassing.  But he jabbed my bladder HARD.  What was THAT for, Baby T??? OUCH! Everyone and their brother is asking me how I'm feeling and if there's any news.  Even my parents! It's so hard to not get my hopes up.  Is it going to happen any time soon? I don't know.  Only he knows.  But it would be nice to know because I've got so much stuff going on at work right now!  Which brings me to segment I like to call:

Worst Times to Go Into Labor
Tomorrow I will be driving a team of people around to look at space to lease for a new office building... in someone's government car...in 30 degree weather.
If my water breaks, they may not give me a ride back to the office!! :) Who wants to clean someone's amniotic fluid out of their work car? Barf.   Not in MY job description!

So Baby T, if you're coming soon, try not to come at a time like that!

Makes for a good story though. 

Well anyway, that's all I have to complain about.  I'm just super excited/anxious/nervous for this child.  I think Andrew and Brian are too.  They jump at any odd movement from me.
What is it? What's wrong? Are you having the baby??
Oh, just wait.  You'll know when the time comes.  :)

Now for your weekly lessons...

 I would do that at this point, if it would make me go into labor.  ;) Jackhammer time!

Poor kid.  I would only do that to my dog. :)