Our Baby Story - Thomas

On Sep 14, 2009, I went to work as if it was a normal day. I noticed I started having mild contractions and I was a little distracted at work. A couple of times, I told Marsha, "I should probably just go on home." I stayed and ate lunch. Mike swiped Bill's peach and the three of us ate it as we sat eating lunch along with Robin at the farmhouse table. I headed out to my doctor's appointment.

My doctor told me I could "go at any time" and asked if I would like to be induced. I told him no. I wanted the experience of going into labor on my own and Jason bringing me to the hospital. So, he sent me home! I called Jason and gave him the news. He figured it was still days away, but I had a plan. I'd been talking about cajun catfish and I figured I'd see if I could find any at the store. Jason had looked when he was there last, but didn't find any.

I found a small pack of cajun chicken breasts and decided to buy ingredients for chili along with some other groceries (such as cereal bars) that I wanted to have at home when we arrived after our stay at the hospital.

Once at home, I put the chicken on the Foreman grill and started my chili.
Jason called and let me know his friend had invited him out to dinner. I thought that was great and hoped he had a good time. I told him I had chili for dinner, but him going out to eat was just fine. (Chili is always good as leftovers.)

After I enjoyed my spicy chicken I made a few calls. I gave my mom and dad the update and gave my brother- and sister-in-law a call as well. I invited them over to have some chili since they hadn't eaten. I think I was on the phone with my dad when I heard a knock at the door. It was Jon and Barbara. I didn't expect them, but there they were! They wanted to come visit in case I went into labor. We ate chili and Joanna came home from Nana's and we all went for a walk and let Joanna play at the park. Barbara's kidneys were hurting her but she was a trooper anyway. She played with Joanna and helped her go on the slide. Back at home, Jon colored with Joanna and I took a shower.

At 8:30, I was getting out of the shower when my first "real" contraction started. I wasn't 100% sure it was active labor yet, but around 8:45 I told Barb that we ought to start timing them! They were around 5-7 minutes apart already. I remembered the doctor said to call once the contractions were 5 min apart for 2 hours. So I waited. I called Jason and told him that and he figured he still had some time. He and his friend had finished dinner and were just chatting. I told him that Jon and Barb were with me and he wished I would have told him that they came over. I told him something like they came to see me, ha ha! So, he wasn't in a huge hurry to come home yet. I wasn't worried either.

However, about 9:30, the contractions started getting closer. I called Jason and told him he'd better get here, NOW! It was really close to time to go I had already called Nana and let her know that Joanna would be coming back over! I started packing Joanna a bag of clothes and Barbara washed our dishes and helped give Joanna a bath.

Once out of the bath and in her pajamas, Joanna ran around the house in circles, sensing the excitement, I guess. Keeping busy between contractions wasn't too hard.
At one point, I folded a few clothes, but soon became too distracted to do that!

Amusingly, Chris's girlfriend called. She was in Chris' car, broke down with Tim at Food City. She'd already talked with Dewayne (I later learned that he actually told her not to call us.) and he was going to help her, but she wanted to know something about the battery with the car. I let her know that Jason wasn't going to be able to help tonight since we would be quite busy. (I was a little ticked at the principle that one really shouldn't call the previous owner of a car a whole year later to find out service history info about a car.)

Once Jason was home, I tried calling the doctor. I had to punch in a callback number in order to leave a message and I ended up putting in Nana's number! Barbara took over at this point and left a message that we were heading in.

Joanna was happy to go to Nana's. She even knew to take her bag. She had it and was ready at the door for Daddy to take her to Nana. Daddy wasn't in a hurry though. He chatted with Nana for a few minutes. Barbara helped me repack my bag really quickly. I had a last-minute change of heart about which bag to take. Well, it was more like I needed more space to shove in last minute things, like Jason's clothes! :-)

We were off at a about 15 minutes past 10 pm in our Honda Service Loaner CR-V to the hospital. Did I feel every bump in the road or what? We made a few phone calls to tell everyone that it was time! My mom was sick as a dog at home and we told her we'd call again when we got to the hospital for an update. She wanted to come, but we were assured by the nurse that they wouldn't let her come in there since she was sick.
Also, she wasn't sure what exactly she had, so it would have been awful to get us all sick!

I think we were at the hospital about 10:30. We went right up to the labor and delivery area as directed by my doctor, but a nurse sent me to triage and Jason down to registration. There were two other ladies there at the same time as me. I waited and listened as the nurse instructed the first lady about what to do with the gown and the bag for personal belongings. Then it was my turn. She showed me the room I should go in after dressing and finally a nurse came in to examine me. I was at 8 cm. Doctor Stephens was on duty that evening. He came in and introduced himself and he sent me over to labor and delivery. I had him get my cell phone from my bag so I could call and tell Jason to hurry up so he wouldn't miss the baby being born!

Once in labor and delivery, the head nurse came in and started my IV and positioned the fetal monitors on my belly. She let me know my nurse, Lindsay B. was on her way in. Her personality was a lot like my best friend, Audry, so that made me really happy and as "at ease" as I could be, but not by much! Jason arrived from registering me and
another nurse came and asked me loads of questions.

Jason was helping me count and breathe up to this point, but I wasn't very cooperative! At one point, I was looking away from him and told him he wasn't being very convincing! The nurse asked me if I wanted a wet wash cloth, and I just said, "o.k." It was surprising how the cold rag on my neck actually was nice.

I got an epidural, but since it was so late, it didn't take all the pain away. I'm so thankful for the relief that I had. It was much easier to labor then! I felt like it was time to push and I let the nurse know. My water still had not broken, so she checked me (I was at 10 cm) and she had me push to see if I was ready to push. I was. She called the doctor and they broke my water. I pushed 5 times and I did a fair amount of hollering at this point and Jason told me the nurses at out in the main area commented about hearing me yell.

Thomas arrived at 12:13 a.m. I got to hold him, but not for long. The nurse took him and started cleaning him. Jason and I watched the nurse clean him off. She brought him back to us then and we got to hold him for a while. I don't remember if I told Jason to go tell everyone he was here or if Jason thought of it. However, Jason went out and gave everyone the good news.

Welcome Thomas Michael!

Thomas Michael was born on September 15 and was 10 lbs 1.4 oz and 21
1/4 inches long.

Here are some photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=amyjokidd&target=ALBUM&id=5384683600852177393&authkey=Gv1sRgCKj9ifT19sKBSw&invite=CJO6rC4&feat=email

LLL Meeting

I went to a La Leche League meeting today. It was very helpful, but
mostly encouraging. It was nice to be around other mothers and babies.

Joanna says "mine, mine, mine!"

Joanna really likes the word "mine" now. She figured it out a short while

back and everything is "mine!" She says, "No, Mommy, that's mine!" and
wants me to get off of the chair. It's kind of cute. With the new baby
coming, I'm sure that she'll say everything in the house is "mine" when he
comes home.

We got her "Tinkerbell" sheets and beadspread for her big bed. She really
likes them. We wanted her to have something clearly her own. And we are
moving her into the full bed. Maybe this will be fun for her. We read
stories in the bed last night and will do it again tonight. Perhaps
tomorrow we will put her to bed in her big bed.

Lazy bones

I told Jason that this baby doesn't move around as much as Joanna did. He said, "I hope he doesn't turn out to be a lazy bones."

I laughed and said, "Well, I was just hoping he'll just be laid back like you."

Corn on the Cob

Fresh corn on the cob is great. You get a good ear right from the garden and pop it open, but there is usually a little corn worm feasting on a few kernels near the top of the ear. No big deal, just chop it off and boil the rest of that yummy ear of corn for a few minutes and enjoy.

There's nothing like a good, fresh ear of corn. But, the same as in life, you have to deal with the worm. The question is, will you throw out the whole ear and go hungry for fear of the worm? Or will you get rid of the worm and seize the corn for yourself?

When I was small, I stayed a weekend with my Dad when he lived in a single-wide trailer on my Grandmother's farm. He had opened a can of corn from our local grocery store which begins with an "I" and I feasted on the delicious kernels. (Yes, I have always liked corn.) To my great surprise, there was a big ol' fat worm in the can. Of course, after that, I couldn't eat any more of the corn. Dad put the corn back in the can and sat it in the fridge to take it back to the store, I suppose to get a replacement. It turns out that a day or so later, he forgot about the worm and was hungry and the remaining corn, worm and all. He recalled to me that he sure felt silly when he remembered what he had eaten.

Joanna Hollers "Daddy, Drink"

Last night Joanna and I were reading "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama" and got to the page where "Baby llama wants a drink" and Joanna says,"Drink?" and starts hollering, "Daddy, drink! Daddy, drink!" She climbed down out of the bed and went to seek out Daddy and her drink. I just thought this was so funny that she was hollering for Daddy to get her the drink when I was sitting right there with her!