Thomas Joseph: A Birth Story

Birth announcements and thank you cards picture in post were created on Minted.com, see bottom of post for a chance to win $150 to Minted. 

Time flies when you’re having fun. The past 3 months have flown by, and they have certainly been fun. Thomas Joseph arrived November 3rd and has brought so much joy to our family. Life sure has been busy: with a newborn and the holiday season, I’m finally sitting down to share his story. 

Maggie and Alex both arrived past their due date. Maggie was a week late, and Alex was due in August and didn’t arrive until September 7th. So, as excited as we were for our third little one to arrive, as September turned to October, I felt no sense of urgency to get ready. I was due October 24th and my guess was always that the baby would arrive around Halloween. 

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays now that I have kids. So, in anticipation of being in the hospital on Halloween, we did every Halloween activity I could find in October: pumpkins, parades, parties, etc. Then as I prepared for the baby, I prepared detailed list of where to find the girls costumes, treats for their classes and who would take pictures for me at their school parades. My due date was on a Friday, and although our October had been packed with Halloween fun, we planned nothing for that weekend. It was the first weekend in a long time that we had no plans, and we enjoyed every minute of it, as a family of four. People kept asking me if I was getting anxious that my due date came and went with no sign of baby, but I wasn’t. I had brought a new baby home twice before, and knew how crazy those first weeks were. To have an extra weekend to relax at home with my family, was a blessing. The house was clean, the laundry was done and we spent the days just enjoying Maggie and Alex. We went to our favorite breakfast spot, watched movies in bed and played. 

The following week, already a few days past my due date, there was no sign of baby. My girls are on opposite school schedules: one has AM preschool and one has PM. The week past my due date, I walked, pushing both girls in a double stroller, back and forth to their school 4 times a day. I thought for sure this would help. Each day I’d run into neighbors and people in town, and each time i’d hear “no baby yet?” The week went on, and to my surprise I was the one getting their girls ready for their school Halloween parades. Then, Halloween arrived, a full 7 days past my due date, and I joined my family trick or treating. We had a blast with the girls on Halloween. Maggie realized I didn’t have a Halloween costume and asked if I had an orange shirt. She decided I could make my belly a jack o lantern because it was “big and round like a pumpkin”. As much as I was getting more and more excited to meet the baby, it was a fun surprise to get to celebrate Halloween with the girls. It’s also a treat to be 40+ weeks pregnant and have access to all the m&ms and Milkyways you’d like. 

That weekend Julie came to visit. When she planned the visit, she thought she’d get to meet the new baby, but to her surprise, she just got to visit a very pregnant lady. Our kids played and then Julie’s family headed back to our friend Shannon’s house. The three of us ladies planned to meet for coffee the next morning. That night I started to have contractions. They were consistently about 10 minutes apart for a few hours. I called my doctor and she said when they were closer together, to just come in. About 30 minutes later, they stopped all together and I went to sleep. The next morning (now 9 days late), I felt great and walked to town to meet Julie and Shannon. While I was there my doctor called to see what happened and Tom told her I was out with friends. She told him to have me call her asap. When I did, she said she was getting concerned that I was approaching 10 days past my due date and that contractions had started and stopped. She wanted me to come to the hospital to see her. She said she wanted to monitor and see if I was still having any contractions and then break my water. She said labor would start soon after. I was very scared/opposed to being induced. My doctor knows that and is never in a rush to induce anyone. So she said after she checked me out, I could go back home if all was ok, but she also told me that once I went too far past my due date, the risks would begin to outweigh the options of just “waiting” for baby to arrive on their own. 

So I walked home, called my parents to come watch the girls, and started to get ready to head to the hospital. It was a very strange feeling to get ready casually, with no signs of labor. With Maggie, I was absolutely terrified once I was in labor and went to the hospital at the early signs of contractions. With Alex, the labor was coming so fast I was literally running full speed out the door and thought I might have her while we were driving. This time, when I told Tom what the doctor said, he said “ok, can I head to the gym first?” I said of course, since we were in no rush. My parents arrived, Tom and I were ready, and we were all getting very excited. It was nice because I could leave feeling fine and relaxed when saying goodbye to Maggie and Alex. I often thought of what their reactions would be if they saw me in hard labor at home, like when I was in labor with Alex. 

We checked into the hospital and were sent to the waiting room until a room opened up for me. All of a sudden I realized I hadn’t eaten anything and once I was in a room, there would be no food until after baby. These are the times I am glad my purse/diaper bag is a bottomless pit. I had a lovely meal of fruit snacks, Halloween candy and a bag of pretzels. 

I headed into a room, and once hooked up to the monitor, saw I was having some small contractions. Here’s when I started to panic. My doctor was at the other local hospital and wouldn’t be back until later on. I was going to be in the hands of another doctor until then. When they checked me, based on the position of the baby’s head, it was not possible to safely break my water. They suggested Pitocin. I’ve been terrified of Pitocin for three pregnancies. I’m not sure why, I guess it’s because I’ve heard, from too many friends, bad stories. I trust my doctor 100%. She is wonderful, and despite having to travel quite a ways for doctors visits, I would never change. I’ve always said, having a doctor you trust is very important, and for me it’s a must. The doctor suggesting the Pitocin was a young man (I had nothing against young doctors or male doctors) and despite seeing how terrified I was, just kept rattling off statistics about the medical safety of Pitocin. That is not what I needed, I needed my doctor. The wonderful nurse sensed that, and immediately got my doctor on the phone. She calmly talked to me, and said that I needed to have this baby, and that we were at the point where there were risks of waiting. I asked her what her best recommendation was, and she said she highly recommended the Pitocin and she felt once started, I would have a quick, easy labor and she’d be back to the hospital in no time. But, she still gave me the choice to go home and wait.

After some tears and time to talk to Tom, I decided it was time to have this baby, and an induction was the way to go. The nurse hooked up the Pitocin and I spent time walking around the room and watching Netflix. The nurses told me to let them know when I wanted the epidural. I started to dilate and the baby’s head moved. It was now safe to break my water. The nurses said that once they did that, labor could come even faster, so they recommended the epidural. I agreed.  It was around 9pm. A few minutes later I was all set, water broke and I was relaxing in bed watching House of Cards with Tom. I joked with the nurses that I “better not have this baby before midnight”. I love the nurses in this hospital, and my stay there with Alex was like a mini vacation. I had been looking forward to those first few days in the hospital, enjoying my newborn, with the help of nurses. I didn’t want my “vacation” cut short! 

At this point (yes, a little late) we decided it was time to figure out what we were going to name this baby. We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl. We had a hard time deciding on Maggie’s name an even harder time naming Alex, and at this point we were really out of girl names we agreed on. Our nurse was from Ireland and joined in on the conversation. She helped with some good Irish names to go with Byrne. With both Maggie and Alex, if they had been boys, they would have been named after Tom. This time, he said he wasn’t 100% sure on naming a boy the IV, and was suggesting a few other boy names. We narrowed it down to 2 girl names and 2 boy names. 

After that I dozed off. I woke up to the nurse telling me she wanted to see how things were progressing. It was dark in the room, and both Tom and I had been sleeping. The nurse said “ok are you ready to have this baby?” I looked at her confused, then rolled back onto my back and said “oh my gosh, yes it’s time to push!” It was 11:45 on the dot. We woke Tom, my doctor came in, prepped the room and it was go time. Both of my girls were born during the day when it was bright outside. Something about the room being very dimly lit, made me a lot more relaxed. I was suddenly so excited and ready for this baby to arrive. A few pushes later, at 12:03AM the baby arrived. The doctor turned the baby towards Tom, so he could announce the gender. He started to cry and yelled “it’s a boy”. They placed him right into my arms and I cried too. We were both laughing and crying, and in shock that it was a boy. Like I mentioned, we weren’t set on the name. But, I looked at Tom and he smiled and said “Thomas Joseph Byrne IV”. He was here, our sweet little Tommy. He looked right at us with giant blue eyes and a crazy amount of hair. It was very quiet and peaceful in the hospital at that time of night, and we had hours before the sun came up and we prepared for our first visitors. We spent the night relaxing and enjoying our new bundle of joy. In the morning, Maggie and Alex came to meet their little brother. They were giddy with excitement and just wanted to kiss his toes and pet his soft hair. We all took turns holding Tommy, and just like that, we were a family of five. 

Thank you  all for the kind words and congratulations over the past few months. We feel very blessed and we’re loving every minute with our baby Tommy. This was the first time I was on a little “time crunch” to make birth announcements. I felt like I should get them out before our Christmas cards! One of my friends is a wonderful photographer and came over when Tommy was a week old and took some adorable pictures for us. We turned one into our announcement and one into a thank you card. 

Giveaway: 

I designed both cards at Minted. In honor of us sharing Tommy’s birth story and birth announcements today, we’ve teamed up with Minted to give away $150 site credit to one lucky winner (ends 2/2).

To enter: Comment below with what you would created at Minted if you won the $150. Do you have a new baby to announce? Would you design a photo gift for someone? Let us know!

For an additional entry, visit our Birth Story Facebook post and comment there too! You can comment again tagging a friend that might like to enter. 

*The winner must be a Facebook fan of both The Chirping Moms & Minted. So be sure to “like” both pages before you enter. Good luck!