Jay and Julie: Theo

Our family has seen so many new changes:
1) Jay accepted a new job in Tucson, so we moved states
2) We bought a new car, a red 2009 Pontiac Vibe GT
3) We moved into a new townhouse
4) We had Theo!

I don't know how much time I have to type before Theo wakes up. I edited photos with him in my arms and let him eat, but now he's down in his Pack and Play napper (thanks, family who got that for me!)

I have had so much I wanted to put on here and I think I was waiting for a time when I could write everything and have all the photos I wanted before I shared. Well now Theo is almost 6 weeks old, so we'll just go with what I have. This morning became an impromptu photo shoot under the Christmas tree.

Jay accepted a job offer in Tucson. He'd been looking for over 6 months, thinking how great it would be if we were around family when the baby came. He had also been looking in Utah where his parents own a house and he has a sister and I have a brother and extended family on my mom's side. We were excited, but knew it was going to be a lot of work. But I realized that while moving in the 3rd trimester isn't a great idea, it's probably still easier than moving with a newborn.

I got instructions from my new Tucson doctor to move no later than 35 weeks pregnant. At 34 weeks we packed up our things into a Upack cube, cleaned our rental home, had dinner with great friends -- Kim and Haley and their kids, who cried when we left -- and then drove the truck to Tucson. We managed to his LA right at rush hour, which was terrible. Also, whenever I got hungry, baby Theo would get active and push in my ribs so I would be both hungry and in pain. Ouch.

Don't worry, Jay always made sure we stopped for food when I needed it. But we still had our moments.

When we reached Tucson we stayed at my parent's house. My parents were on their mission in Chile at the time and my cousin Devon and his 2-weeks-more-pregnant-than-me wife Zinah were house sitting. They were very nice hosts and tolerated the fact that I kept drinking all the milk.

(Side note: When pregnant I drank sooo much milk. Since giving birth, not as much. Also, my Devon and Zinah were also big milk drinkers. And we did take turns buying lots of milk.)

We had a few things on the agenda, but they were important: find a car (since our pick up truck only has 2 seat belts), find a place to rent, get my health insurance paperwork completed, and mail a card.

After 3 days I had utterly failed at all of those. I remember telling Zinah, "Each time I go to the store, I can't even remember to buy a stamp so I can mail my card! I can't cross anything off my list."

We saw drove around a lot and saw lots of cars that weren't in the condition promised or just weren't what we were looking for. We saw lots of rental homes that we just hated. I had signed Jay up for temporary health insurance, but decided to use the COBRA law to stay on my existing insurance from Jay's old job since I'd already paid my deductible and would reach my maximum out of pocket faster with that plan. Well the companies were sitting on the paperwork, so that couldn't get done either. Luckily, my doctor is used to insurance companies giving people grief and so she saw me for my appointments anyway. The insurance, by law, works retroactively, so she is going to get paid for the services and there is no gap in the insurance.

The next week we finally bought a car and then I bought a car seat so that whenever little Theo was born, we would be able to take him home from the hospital.

Days later, Oct. 31, we saw not one but two places for rent that we actually liked.

When I was 36 weeks pregnant the realty company we went through took forever to process our paperwork. Finally on Thursday of that week I got a call that if I could get a money order for our deposit and first month's rent in the next 45 minutes, they might be able to move us in that weekend.

Let me tell you, I was exhausted and angry that they just called me up and gave me 40 minutes for a task while they had had our paperwork for 5 days, but I jumped through their hoop. We moved in on Saturday with the help of family.

Tammy gave us her couches, which was nice because we had given ours to Will.

That Monday I had to take my car back to the car lot. They had gotten a replacement motor for the rear windshield wiper and were replacing it for me. They were out in Marana, so I spent the time at my grandparent's house. This was so nice, but the repair took quite awhile. I got home exhausted after7.5 hours away, and our home was still needing unpacking, cleaning, and organizing. Jay and I stayed up late doing that.

On Tuesday I had a sonogram because my new doctor thought Theo felt big, and well, I was a brand new patient to her. At 37 weeks he was estimated at 7 pounds 14 ounces. That's also when they found that his left kidney was really swollen. They couldn't tell me what that would mean.

Wednesday I had a cold and was exhausted. I sorted and washed baby clothes and had a repairman fix our faucet and trim a tree that was hitting our roof. At 4 p.m. I knew I should pack a hospital bag, but I was so tired I just couldn't. I decided to do that the next day.

Jay got home that night and I was feeling so crappy. I remember I told him I really wanted hot, fresh bread, but I didn't have energy to even make biscuits. He ran to the grocery store while I folded the last load of baby clothes. He got me hot bread!

I went to bed at 9 p.m.

Technically Thursday morning, when I was 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant, I woke up to use the bathroom and noticed some blood. Discovering I had left my pregnancy books at my parent's house, I just called my doctor. Where I wasn't having contractions, she said she wanted me put on a machine to just see what was going on. I woke Jay, grabbed my cell phone charger and a pair of warm socks, and we headed to the hospital.

There Jay dropped me off so he could figure out parking and I headed up to labor and delivery. There I was told that my water had broken and we would be having the baby today! Surprise!

And I had heard most first time moms take longer than the estimated 40 weeks to go into labor.

Why didn't I know the water broke? Apparently his head was down and plugging the hole so not much could get out.

Jay was assured he had time to run home and get supplies. While he was gone, I decided to get an epidural. He got back as they were finalizing everything. The anesthesiologist was really good. She told me that by talking to me and seeing how I react and how small I am, she was only going to give me half the regular adult dose. Sometime after my blood pressure dropped and Theo's heart rate went into distress for 8 scary minutes. They gave me drugs to stop my contractions and raise my blood pressure while they prepped an OR for an emergency C section. Then his heart rate resolved. Everything was okay again.

They gave me the option of still trying to give birth traditionally or a C section. I said I would try again without the C section. They backed my epidural to I believe 1/3 of a regular dose. I could feel my body tensing, but no pain.

I really think that if the doctor had given me a full dose of epidural, I would have had a C section. On the other hand, I really liked having the mini epidural. I got to sleep some, though not deeply.

Around 8:30 a.m. I was awake and hungry, so I settled for just sitting up and rocking to try to move labor along. My doctor checked on me, just 7 hours after arriving at the hospital, and told me that I was dilated and effaced completely. After 29 minutes of pushing, I had my baby!

As they lifted him out, he peed. That made me feel better about his kidney. They put him on my torso where he rooted and latched and then fell asleep. It's so amazing to have a new baby!

After probably 30 minutes, Jay asked what names I was thinking, now that we saw him. I admitted something: As nice as the snuggling was, I hadn't really gotten to see his face yet! All I had see was his head, part of his cheek, etc.

He read through the list and we agreed to throw out our top pick and came up with 2 names. We also agreed to get some sleep before naming him.

It actually wasn't until the nest day when they took him from me for 55 minutes to run a kidney test in radiology that I really wanted to name him --it was my first time away from him and I was suddenly sad that he didn't even have a name!

We picked Theo, Theodore Jack. We figure if he prefers there are lots of nicknames he could use :)

Theodore was a name we liked. Jack is a derivative of Jacinth, which is Jay's real name. Jay was named after his great grandpa, also Jacinth, but went by Jack.

There is more to tell, but it will have to wait.

I did want to share an e-mail I sent out explaining his kidneys:

Today we saw a specialist in pediatric urology for Theo's enlarged kidney. The bottom line is that he will have surgery to remove a blockage on Feb. 3. It's a small surgery. He will probably be hospitalized for 1.5 days after it. He is currently acting just like a healthy baby.

Details: his left kidney is severely enlarged/swollen from a blockage. On a scale of 1-4, it is enlarged to a 3 or 4. It is probably processing about 35% of the total urine, so the right kidney is processing more than its share -- 65%.

The right kidney is also enlarged, but mildly. It is only ranked a 1 out of 4. The right kidney also has a valve that works incorrectly, allowing urine to flow both in and out, increasing a risk of infection. The left kidney needs surgery, as described above. The right kidney has a 70% chance of repairing itself. In 1 year its function will be reevaluated. The specialist does a lot of kidney blockage removal and so has lots of experience. He says this happens to about 1 in 1,000 infants and they recover well.

Theo seems very healthy otherwise. He weighed in at 8.9 pounds. The reason the surgery is in Feb. is they are waiting for Theo to be a bit bigger and stronger before surgery.

No editing to post. Theo needs me.