Meet Thomas Warren Foote

It was very important to me that Nora be the first one to meet the new baby. She was the first one in and the first one to hold him. It scared her a bit to see me in the hospital bed, but I reassured her that I was okay, and she was suddenly interested in tiny Tommy. She held him for about a minute, got bored, and said "Here Mommy. You can have him back." It's the same way about a month later. She's very proud of her new brother, but still not interested in holding him too much.

Giving little Tommy a big sister kiss!

Being cuddled by Grandpa Joey...

...and by Mema.

With Grandma Shawver...

...and with his namesake, Papa Shawver

We named little Tommy 'Thomas' after my father and 'Warren' after Warren G. Harding, President from Ohio and Warren Foote, one of Quinn's ancestors. Warren kind of started out as a joke - we wouldn't tell anyone the name before the baby was born, so Dad started calling him Warren. By the time he arrived, the name was stuck. Lucky it's a good one!

Labor & Delivery

WARNING: If you are sensitive to words like dilated, contractions, and umbilical cord, you should probably just skip this post.

After the drama of Sunday day, we rushed to the hospital to be induced. Of course the nurses and doctors do this every day so this is run of the mill for them. We were a touch more hasty. Things started smoothly though. I was dilated 2 cm. The doctor tried to break my water but it was too painful, so they started the pitocin instead to get the contractions moving along. Quinn and I watched a few episodes of Pawn Stars and tried to be patient. The contractions started getting pretty strong around 11:00 pm so the nurse called in the anesthesiologist for the epidural. About an hour and a dozen needle sticks later (not kidding - ouch!) I finally had the good stuff coursing through my veins. The nurse said my spine is oddly shaped and that's why it took so long to get the needle in.

The next couple hours are very blurry. I know the nurses came in often to check on us and do minor procedures, but Quinn and I slept through most of it. The contractions were coming fast and I was progressing very quickly. I dilated four centimeters in about 30 minutes. It was a little disorienting for things to progress so quickly. When Nora was born, she was in such distress that the nurses kept turning the pitocin up and down, and I labored for more than twelve hours. Not this time.

Around 2:30 am I started to feel like I really needed to push. Like really. An epidural is a weird thing because you can feel the pressure, but not the pain. And I really had no experience with it since the epidural for my first pregnancy worked during labor, but not delivery. Quinn worked really hard to distract me as I tried not to push, but finally I told the nurse that I had to. She checked me again and told me I was fully dilated - go time. I pushed about a dozen times, with my doctor there for the last three, and our boy was here!

We were all surprised by how big he was: 9 lbs 8 oz and 21 inches. More than a pound bigger than Nora! I got to hold him right away for a few minutes, but then medical personnel whisked him away to do their things.

As you can see in the pictures his nose and skull are a little smashed, but he's a pretty good-looking baby. All thanks to my wide birthing hips!

I don't really think anyone looks good in these hospital gowns...

Texting everyone a play by play.

He was pretty mad... It must be very disorienting.

He's a little smashed up, but a very handsome boy! And look at his round belly!

I think that's where all the weight is from because he is so skinny otherwise.

Grandma comes to visit, and leaves before the baby even gets here...

Tommy's due date was July 26th so my mom, Marilyn, flew in the 21st just in case things started happening early. No luck there. The due date came and went. We did all the things you're supposed to do to try to induce labor, including getting an induction massage from a professional. As the days went by though it became clear that I would be going with the scheduled induction time - 7am Monday, August 1st.

Unless you've been pregnant in July, there is really no way to understand the discomfort. No amount of air conditioning can stop the sweating. No amount of sleep can alleviate the exhaustion. This pregnancy was a lot harder than my first - more sickness and more fatigue. But then again, I did have to keep up with Nora this time. It's really lucky Mom was here because she was a big help with Nora. Mom has a lot more stamina than me, especially stamina for shopping. I felt bad that on every shopping trip we would just go to one store, and then I'd have to come home and rest.

Fast forward to Saturday, July 30. Just after everything had settled down for the night, Mom told us she was feeling some numbness in her legs. With no idea what it could be, we decided to see how she felt in the morning. It was bad enough in the morning that she decided to go to the ER. Okay, I'm freaking out. After hours of tests, she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre disease, a disorder of the nervous system which causes numbness and paralysis. It's not permanent, but it can get worse fast, so the doctor said she needed to go home right away. Of course I'm thinking that she can't leave yet - I need help with the baby! You just got here! I want my Mommy! The less selfish part of me is thinking that the doctor is absolutely right - she needs to go home and get treated before she's unable to travel.

Plans were quickly made for my dad to fly out and travel back with her to Ohio. At this point, we were figuring that Mom and Dad would come and go without even getting to see the baby. I decided to try something drastic: I called my OBGYN and asked him to move up the induction. Maybe a simple question like that doesn't seem so drastic, but it made me nervous. My doc and I never really clicked - he's efficient to the point of seeming not to care and I was really spoiled by the midwives that treated me during my first pregnancy. Anyway, I explained a little bit of the 'family emergency' and he reluctantly agreed to induce me 7pm Sunday night, twelve hours early. Maybe an insignificant difference to some, but it would probably mean my parents would at least get to see the baby before they went back to Ohio.

We quickly finished packing and sped off to the hospital...