2014 and part of 2015 in review

I have been horrible about posting updates but will try to be better about it. Maybe I can get the blogger app if that even exists. So 2014 was a huge year of ups and downs and definite surprises. Dad lost his long battle with his horrible health. He ended up passing away on May 29, 2014 after a bout of pneumonia. He also had COPD and emphysema along with congestive heart failure. Long story short he was ready to go. He also didn't qualify for life insurance so Tom and I footed the bill. He begged us not to cremate him and we agreed. He's buried in Grove City Cemetery West in Grove City, Ohio. My grandma Kathie and I have ordered his headstone and he will soon have that on his grave as well.

In July of 2014 I found out that I was expecting and was extremely terrified. It had been 6 years since my last pregnancy and I was terrified to even tell Tom that I had a positive pregnancy test. He was of course so happy and I called first thing Monday to schedule my first appointment. My due date was March 8, 2015. Long story short I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy except for the extreme nausea. We found out through the CVS sampling at 11 weeks that we were expecting a boy and decided we should call him Little Tommy and he would take his dad's name. I waited around for the CVS sampling test to come back to show if Tommy would have the chromosomal imbalance like I do and it turns out he has the same balanced translocation as me. It just so happened that Tom and I were in New Jersey visiting my best friend Nancy and her kids when I found out that everything was good. We had a pretty terrible winter with a lot of snow and ice. One day while taking my lunch break and driving on the freeway I slid on some snow and crashed my car into the embankment. I was so worried something happened to the baby boy and ended up in the emergency room. He was fine and I didn't end up going into labor. Of this I was very thankful. Fast forward to the weekend of my due date. I felt miserable from Friday night on. I ended up going to the emergency room with severe back pain. I was dilated 3 almost 4 and they sent me home early Saturday morning. That whole day I was miserable and ended up back in the Emergency room that night and was dilated up to 5. They had me walking and I managed to dilate to 6 and they admitted me. By this time the contractions in my back were so bad they were coming every 2 minutes or so but my water hadn't broken. They gave me my epidural and broke my water. At first I was feeling no pain and everything was progressing nicely. Then the epidural moved and the numbness went away. Wait a minute. Isn't this supposed to happen after the baby comes. So at this point I'm feeling 100% of my contractions and have dilated at least to 8. Little Tommy's heart rate kept dropping and I ended up signing papers to have a c section done. I also asked that they tie my tubes. One is it for us. We're going to count our blessings. They took me into the operating room and gave me the spinal block. Right away I felt nothing from the neck down. They started cutting on me and the next thing I knew I was hearing baby boy cry. Tom got to hold him shortly after he was born. I got to see him, too. He was so perfect and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect miracle. Thomas Robert Hayden Jr. came right on his due date March 8, 2015 at 4:42 AM weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long at Dublin Methodist Hospital. He ended up having to go into the NICU unit because of low blood sugar but eventually on March 14, 2015 we took our baby home! He is such a miracle and is now almost 5 months old. I plan to use this to record all of the daily things Little Tommy is doing. I love him and Tom to the moon and back. Oh, and it worked out that my grandma Kathie (my dad's mom) and my aunt Stephanie (my dad's sister) watch him Monday-Wednesday and Tom watches him every Saturday. It makes for a crazy work schedule but I'm so thankful. I thank God for everything!