Last Wednesday started out as a normal day. Tina went to work, took Maggie to dance, came home, napped, played outside with Maggie, then that's when things changed a little. After dinner, Tina started to feel some really bad back pain and a little bit of cramping. We decided to wait it out a little to see if they changed. When we went to bed, we discussed going to the hospital, but ultimately, Tina decided she was okay, so we went to bed, and she got up and went to work. We had a hunch after the pain on Wednesday night though that Thursday would probably be the day. I had planned to take a vacation day to paint the basement, so it worked out that I was going to be around. Also, my parents had planned to come up just in case, so we felt comfortable that we had a plan for Maggie in place depending on how things went.
At about 4:30 in the morning Tina called me and said she was still in some pain, so we decided to meet at Maggie's school to drop her off, then figure out what to do. So I loaded up the bags in the car and met Tina at Trinity. We dropped her off then basically just sat there trying to figure out what to do. Tina was still feeling some pain, but it wasn't consistent, and we were afraid to go in and get turned away. We decided to wait until 7:30 to call our doctor's office to see what she thought. (we had an appointment with her at 4:00, so we were wondering if she thought we should just wait) There were plenty of moments when Tina was uncomfortable, but there were also plenty more when she felt just fine. So, to kill some time we went to Home Depot, got the car washed and grabbed breakfast. After we grabbed breakfast, our doctor's office called back and mentioned to us that our doctor (Dr. Montague) was actually at the hospital doing rounds that morning so she suggested we just go in and get checked out. So we headed to United, not sure what was in store.
The process was pretty similar to how it went when we were in labor with Maggie. We checked in, then had to go to the back to verify that labor had started. The nurse checked Tina out and determined that she was between 6-7 cm dilated, so it was clear we were there to stay. :) (as a side note, how someone gets to 6 cm without any complaining or severe discomfort is beyond me!!) We headed back to our room to start an antibiotic treatment because Tina tested positive for strep b. The antibiotic needed to stay in her system for 4 hours, so we had some time to kill. Luckily, her contractions weren't awful during that period, so we watched several TV shows on the iPad and just kind of relaxed. After 4 hours had passed, Tina had reached 8cm, but nothing else was happening, so Dr. Montague ended up breaking her water. Once she did that, the final couple of hours of contractions came on pretty strong. At about 4:45, she reached 10 cm and it was time to start pushing. Oh, I should mention she did all of this with no epidural. Wow. That's all I can say. And when asked by several others if it motivated me to want to trying to have our next one with no epidural, my answer has been and will always be "no thank you."
Tina pushed for a little over an hour when Thomas Jon was born! I quickly glanced and saw 10 fingers and 10 toes and a beautiful little face. He was absolutely perfect. The nurses cleaned him up while our doctor was taking care of Tina when the complications began. Tina started to bleed out more than what's considered normal, so Dr. Montague determined she had a blood clot on her uterus. She took painful measures to fix it, and it seemed like everything was going to be okay. Unfortunately, shortly after, she started bleeding again, so they had to call in another doctor and some nurses, who found another huge blood clot. They removed the clot and stopped the bleeding, but it was quite a scary scene. (and I'm certain this paragraph doesn't do it any justice) We were so grateful to be in such good hands with Dr. Montague. She was fully in control of the whole situation and made us feel safe and well cared for. So, after all of that, Tina had lost 2.5+ times more blood than one should lose during labor, so we had to stay an extra night just to make sure she was okay. Luckily, Tina's a trooper and bounced right back. And in the end, we came out of this with our sweet Thomas Jon who we're already madly in love with! (and so is his big sister Maggie!) To say we feel blessed right now would be the understatement of the century!!
Tina before delivering Tommy.
Tommy's first moments out in the world. What you can't see in this picture is how happy Tina looks.
Tommy's first cuddles with Tina.
Dr. Montague checking him out.
Dr. Montague took great care of Tommy while he was in Tina's belly, and she will continue to take care of him now that he's out!
Sweet baby boy!
Tommy and Mommy Susie bonding.
Tiny feet.
