Our Little Guy's Birth

Now that Thomas is almost 6 weeks old (!), it's about time I start this journal...

Thomas was born 6 days early because I decided to get induced. I was afraid he was going to be as big as his sister (she was 9 lbs.), and I didn't really want to recover from another delivery like that. Well, as it turns out, Thomas was big anyway...9 lbs., 2 oz.! WHOA!

T.J. and I drove Malena to Mama Shirin's house at 5:30 a.m. on June 7th. She knew we were going to the doctor, but for some reason she thought she was going, too. So, it took a while for Shirin to calm her down. It was a weird feeling leaving her like that...knowing that was the last time I'd see her as my only child.

We drove to Blockbuster next to drop off a movie so it wouldn't be late, then we headed east on the 210 towards the hospital. It was a very different drive from the one we took when I was in labor with Mimi, that's for sure!

I actually think I was about to go into labor on my own. The night before I'd had contractions all night, so Thomas was probably coming either way.

We got to the hospital a few minutes after 6 a.m. T.J. dropped me off, and I waited for him in the lobby while he parked. After signing a few forms, they took us straight to the L&D room (I think it was #6) where they started taking blood, checking blood pressure and temperature, etc.

They finally hooked me up to the Pitocin at about 6:45 a.m. At about 10:30 a.m. I asked them for some pain medicine, but I wasn't ready for the epidural. They gave me Fentnol (sp?), which did nothing for the pain but made me feel pleasantly high as a kite. ;-)

By 11:30 a.m., I was pretty much dying, so I asked for the epidural. The anethesiologist showed up about 15 very, very long minutes later, and he kicked T.J. out of the room. It took another 35 minutes for the pain medicine to start kicking in. I was starting to panic that the epidural wasn't going to work, but alas, it did.

At about 12:30 p.m. or so, I told T.J. he better go grab some lunch because I felt the baby was coming soon. He brought back his lunch and the nurse kicked him out because she thought it stunk. I told him he'd better eat it close by! Not 30 seconds after he walked out of the room, I started demanding that the nurse "go get my husband and the doctor this baby is coming!" She checked me and sure enough I was 10 cm dilated.

Dr. Jick came in about 5 minutes later, and I started pushing 5 or 10 minutes after that. After the first push, the doctor said to stop pushing so he could unravel the cord from Thomas' neck. Two more pushes and out he came! I didn't even get to ask the nurse to refresh my memory on how the heck I'm supposed to breathe when I'm pushing the baby out.

As I was pushing, the doctor told me to lean forward to see the baby. I couldn't see anything until that last push and I could see everything from the baby's torso up. WOW! It is such a miracle.

Immediately after Thomas was born, the doctor laid him on my stomach while T.J. cut the cord. This freaked me out because Thomas was as blue as a blueberry and was making a horrible noise trying to get air. I didn't like this one bit and was very happy when the "baby catcher" told me she needed to take him right away. I don't know how much time passed, but it seemed like ages before the boy let out a cry. What a scary two minutes.

T.J. and I both looked at each other and said, "Oh, he's smaller than Malena was!" Well, we were wrong. They put him on the scale, and I yelled, "Are you kidding me?!" when T.J. told me 9 pounds, 2 ounces. Thomas was 21 1/2 inches, though, so he was taller than Mimi (20 inches). I guess that's where the extra weight went.

Lucky me, I had another horrible tear. It took a while for the doctor to sew me up. I finally got to hold Thomas and nursed him immediately. He latched on no problem.

Eventually, Thomas headed to the nursery where they found out his glucose level was low. So, we didn't see him for another 6 or 7 hours. They had to keep testing his levels. Dr. Jick returned a few hours later to circumcise the boy, so I never even got to see his uncirmcumcised penis...not that it really matters, but I've never seen one of those.

When Thomas finally came back to me, I was surprised that his hair was lighter than Mimi's was and that he had blue eyes. I'm sure they won't stay that color, so I'm curious to see what color they end up being. T.J. was at home getting Malena re-acquainted with Grandma Beth. She was not a happy camper and very much understood that things were changing.

My friend Emily (who ended up having her baby Leah 5 days after Thomas was born) came to visit that evening and she even changed a nasty meconium diaper for me!

The first night there was a blur. Thomas wasn't that hungry, so he stayed in the nursery longer between feedings. T.J. and I didn't sleep too well with all the hospital noise and me having to get up and pee constantly. It was then that I realized how much I missed Cedars-Sinai!

The next morning the pediatrician came to tell us that Thomas had a fractured clavicle. I was suspicious that something was wrong with his shoulder, so it was good to know that I wasn't crazy, but heartbreaking to hear that he was in pain! We spent the next 3 weeks keeping his arm pinned up as though he was in a sling. It developed a large "callus" of bone over the break, but that is just about gone now and his movement is much better.

Poor guy...first he was evicted from the womb, then he broke his collarbone on the way out, then he was strangled by the cord, and lastly he was circumcised...all on his first day! Can't get much worse than that I tell him.