Trip to Glenwood Orchard

Now that Mommies are back home and fall is in full swing, we decided to head out to Glenwood Orchard and give Mommy Tina a little break at home.  (by the way, this is Maggie again ... it's my turn to write!)  I've been asking Mommy for a pumpkin for a couple of weeks, so today was a perfect day for me to get my pumpkin fix and for Mommy to get her apple fix.  We also decided to make an apple pie, so we picked up some extra apples for that.  (and for the record, it was DELICIOUS!!)  First we went in to pick out our apples, then we headed outside to get four pumpkins to represent our new family of four.  After all of that, we decided to walk around and explore the rest of the orchard.  We went through the corn maize, pet a donkey, and even played on a little train.  The orchard is still relatively new, but it's growing and they have some pretty cool stuff!  Mommy couldn't help but remember the last time we were there.  I was about 10 months old and was terrified of the pumpkins.  I would scream every time mommies tried to get me near one.  My how times have changed.  :)  It was an unusually nice, warm day out, and I'm so glad I got to spend it with Mommy, Grandma, Papa and Tommy.  Oh, and the pumpkins look great on our front porch.  Can't wait for Mommy to carve them!!

I was so excited to be there I was literally jumping up and down when I got out of the car!

Walking through the corn maize with Grandma and Papa.

Having fun with the cut-out boards at the orchard.

Driving the school bus.

Tommy came too!  He slept through most of it.  :)

Climbing up the mountain of hay.

Crawling through the train.

 Being silly.

Driving the train.

Sitting on the train with Grandma, Papa and Tommy.



Mama I'm Comin' Home!

After two days and two nights in a tiny hospital room, Mommies were thrilled when we were given the "ok" to go home on Saturday at around noon.  Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa Morawitz agreed to stay an extra day, so when we got home, mommies handed me off to Grandma so they could take a much needed nap before Maggie got up from her nap.  As soon as they got up, Maggie was so happy we were home!  (I think she missed us!)  Mommy Susie headed outside with Maggie while Mommy Tina and I hung out inside and got to know each other.  (i.e. practiced nursing ...  I'm getting REALLY good at it!!)  Saturday night Grandma and Papa picked up Papa Murphy's and we all just got to relax and hang out.  As far as sleep is concerned, I did pretty well my first night at home.  Like most babies, I definitely sleep more during the day than at night, but I did give mommies a really good streak from 3:00-7:00.  Doesn't sound like much, but compared to what they were expecting, they felt like a million bucks!  I think we were all happy to be home and to have more space.  And Mommy Susie asked that I mention how happy they were to have their bed back.  Sleeping in uncomfortable beds for 2 nights in a row makes you appreciate what you have.  :)

Mommy took this picture of me right before we left the hospital.



All loaded up and ready to go home.

When mommies woke up from their naps, this is where they found me, on my sister's lap!

Maggie had a few surprises waiting for her when we got home.  Several of our visitors had brought gifts to her too.  This is a picture of her opening a gift from Aftin & Bailee!

Leyton and Cal bought her a Daisy Duck toy last week when they went to Disney World. She's on a huge Disney kick right now, so she was pumped!!  (you just can't tell by her face because she refused to let mommies put her hair up)

Maggie's such a good big sister.  Here she is reading to me a book about what big sisters can do that little brothers can't do.

Here I am hanging out with Papa watching football.



I Am One Lucky Boy!

Hi!  This is Tommy again!  Maggie and I discussed it, and we've decided we're just going to tag team the blog depending on which one of us has something to say.  Right now, I've had a crazy couple of days, so I'm full of things to write about!  The first topic - all of these great people in my life!  I am one lucky little boy to have so many people who love me and who wanted to come see me at the hospital!  Thursday night ended up being a long one, so all of the visitors held off until Friday.  I had lots of visitors on Friday (including meeting my sister Maggie for the first time!), and I also had several on Saturday before we headed home.

Aunt Kelly stopped by on Friday morning on her way to work to say hello.

My big sister Maggie visited on Friday morning too.  She immediately bounced into the room (she has a lot of energy!) and wanted to hold me and kiss me right away.  She's so sweet!  I hope I always feel that way about her.  ;)

So happy!

Grandma Morawitz looks very proud to be holding her 3rd grandbaby.

So glad Grandma and Papa Morawitz could come see me.  (and mommies were thrilled to have the extra help with Maggie and the home cooked meals once we went home!)

I bought Maggie a doctor's costume as her "big sister" gift.  I think she liked it.  :)

Hanging out with Grandma.

After Grandma & Papa and Maggie left, Grandma McNamara came to visit.  She looks pretty happy to see me.  :)

Grandma and Ella.

The Weimert family came with Grandma McNamara.  Here I am with my cousins Ella and Lauren.  Mommies are certain Aunt Jessie held me, but they didn't get a picture.  I know she was there though ...  Uncle Dan and Luca came too!

On Friday night, our friends Lance and Melissa came to visit.  I'm not sure what "camping" is, but mommies said we go a lot, and the Nelson family are their favorite camping buddies.  Lance and Melissa even brought me my own "Team McNelson" onesie.  :)

Cuddling with Melissa.

On Saturday morning, Aunt Kelly came back with my cousins Grace and Lucy.  Here I am with Grace and Aunt Kelly.

Posing with Aunt Kelly, Grace & Lucy.

Me and Lucy.  (and Aunt Kelly!)

Aunt Becky also came to visit on Saturday morning!



Surprise ... I'm Here!!!

Hi!  This is Tommy again!  I've only blogged one other time, but I'm back and will likely be blogging a lot more frequently now that I've joined the real world.  As with Maggie's birth story, Mommy thinks it's easier to tell the birth story from her perspective, so I'll hand the computer over to her and take a nap while she writes this one....

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.



My First Trip to Como Zoo

Mommies love to take me out on little adventures, and we've been a lot of places, but it dawned on mommies last weekend that I had never been to Como zoo.  They were suspicious that it might be our last weekend as a family of 3 (their suspicion was right!), so on Sunday morning we decided to head over to the zoo to check it out.  Como Zoo is definitely smaller than the Minnesota Zoo, but we actually liked it more due to the animals (a little more exotic) and Como Town, which has lots of fun rides for little ones like me!  I think the highlight for me was the orangutan exhibit.  They were SO goofy and really friendly!  I can't wait to go back in the spring!

Enjoying the view (and a treat) from my stroller.

Hi Mr. Orangutan!!

I was all smiles on the swings.  Mommy Susie went with me.  She was all smiles ON the swings, but her face turned a little green when the ride was over.  She's excited for when Mommy Tina is no longer pregnant and can start going on rides with me again!!

Weeeeeeee!

Fishing for a prize.

I went on many rides, but this was definitely my favorite.  I went in this blue car about 8 different times.  I would finish the ride, then sprint back in line to get to the blue car again.



Playdate with Aftin & Bailee!

Last Saturday mommies and I met Melissa, Aftin & Bailee at Mary Park in New Richmond to play and enjoy the crisp fall weather.  We always have such a good time together and we definitely bring out the "sillies" in each other.  At one point, I was walking around with my hair in my face and my sunglasses over my hair, causing mommies and Melissa to call me Cousin It.  I think the concept of "Cousin It" was before my time, but it sure kept the adults entertained.  The highlight of our trip to the park was the train that went by just as we were getting ready to go home.  So fun to see a real train! 

Aftin & Cousin It.

Riding the dinosaur.

Watching the train go by.

A picture with no sound didn't quite capture our silliness, so Mommy made a video.