Category: Family

This second time around Matt had been giving Andrea progesterone shots for months (and getting a bit better at it by the end) so we made it all the way to the night before our scheduled c-section at 39 weeks. That Sunday night we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner with Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie Kristi, and Tyler. Tyler saw a birthday cake arrive at the table behind his highchair and definitely wanted some…but he did a pretty good job keeping himself in check. No S’mores this time, and everybody went to bed around 9.

Since this was a planned procedure, we knew exactly when the last possible minute would be for Andrea to eat. Matt and Andrea got up bright and early at 6 AM for an early breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and not-so-good muffins (apple & oats, pretty dry). We went back to bed around 7:15 to squeeze in just a little more sleep (since certainly there was a shortage ahead). Grammy, Grandpa, and Auntie Kristi got up with Ty and had breakfast before Matt and Andrea got up for good around 9:30. Auntie Kristi had some work to do remotely for Epic, so Grammy and Grandpa took Tyler to get his haircut.

Just after noon it was time to take Toby to daycare and head to Swedish on First Hill. We got to the hospital a bit early (around 1:30), so we had to wait in an itty bitty, sort of triangle-shaped waiting room. There were quite a few other families there and they were very busy at the hospital, so after about 45 minutes they moved Andrea to a triage room (familiar territory, since this is where we’d landed at 2 AM when Tyler arrived early). We met Elizabeth (not Ellie, not Liza, not Beth, she made this clear in a very friendly but awkward way) and Debbie who would help prepare Andrea for surgery. Andrea got poked quite a few times to place the IV (oops), but thankfully she has a much stronger stomach for such things than Matt (who quietly tried to pay as little attention as possible).

Next we got transferred to a birthing room, which was actually just around the corner from the waiting room we’d started in. We met Cathy (or Kathy, not sure), who would be with us through the whole process. Around 4:20 PM the anesthesiologist came in. That first introduction was pretty stiff and a bit short on info (not that we were concerned at this point), and very shortly afterwards around 4:30 we headed to the OR.

Andrea got another spinal injection for numbing. Matt asked for a chair right away, ’cause we just weren’t going to take any chances. The doctor held Andrea’s hand during the early epidural…the nurses preferred Matt just ride this one out before coming any closer. The numbing took a lot longer this time, and the medicine did not sit well with Andrea’s tummy. So it evacuated itself into a kidney bowl, held by Matt, now in for the duration. After that initial wave of nausea the anesthesiologist added anti-nausea medication and we settled in for major surgery.

Andrea very specifically wanted pictures of the procedure this time, and somewhat to Matt’s chagrin two things happened: the doctor said that would be fine, and no one in the OR would be able to take them except Matt. But this was important stuff, so Matt went around the curtain to capture Theodore’s arrival in real time (looking through the lens helped disconnect a bit…).

The anesthesiologist got really chatty at this point and kept Andrea talking during the delivery. Little Teddy cried right away and headed over to the warming table. The nurses took a little bit to ensure his oxygen levels were good, so Teddy thanked them by pooping on the scale. He weighed 7lbs. 14.4oz (without the poop) and was 20″ long. He was downright enormous compared to his older brother.

We were transferred back to the birthing room and Andrea had to hold Teddy on her chest on the journey, which was pretty awkward since she was still numb. Teddy cried for the first 2 hours of his life, with no end in sight. He seemed to be sensitive to light, but thankfully liked being tightly swaddled (thank you nurse Cathy/Kathy). First Tyler came in to meet his little brother, which was pretty uneventful since he wanted to get back and watch TV with his family in the waiting room (can’t expect much more from a 2 year old). Then our family came in to meet Teddy 2 at a time. Grammy and Grandpa, Kristi and Grandpa, Kennedy and Autumn, and finally Christina all came through to say hello.

Now we were transferred to the postpartum room (488, represent!!). Grandpa, Christina, Kennedy, and Autumn got Matt food from a Mexican place nearby. It was a gigantic burrito with green sauce (and heaven-sent, since he hadn’t eaten in many hours). Andrea would still have to wait a bit. Teddy latched on pretty quickly; much quicker than itty bitty Tyler could. So everybody got to eat except Mommy Andrea. But she’d get a chocolate shake later, so no worries.

After cuddling and introducing and feeding for many hours it was bedtime. Teddy went to the nursery that night (and every night we were in the hospital) since we’d learned how very precious that little bit of extra sleep would be.

It was a travel day, coming back to Seattle from Chicago for the holidays. Andrea had handled most of the intense packing the night before (and crammed a good chunk of Christmas bounty in our luggage in the process), so we weren’t in a big hurry leading up to the flight. For lunch we ate leftovers from the previous night’s trip to Wok ‘n Fire (which was a whole different adventure, replete with impatient Tyler and expensive sushi rolls).

We’d had a great holiday trip. Of course we loved the Vitale family Christmas party. We visited Great-Grandpa. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Dr. Seuss exhibit with Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie Kristi, Wayne, Kim, and Bennett (Bennett and Ty finally got to meet in person). We got to go to ENO for wine and Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, which was good but crazy expensive. Also totally worth it for a no kids date night. We used a Groupon to stay at the Allerton hotel (bleh) near Water Tower Place. We even got to go to United Center to watch the Illini men’s basketball team (though they sadly took their first loss of the season to UNLV). Tyler learned to open presents for the very first time (a skill he would repeat happily moving forward).

We flew out of Chicago in the afternoon of Tuesday Dec 20. We met a girl on the plane who’d grown up with her parents in Magnolia and headed off to Columbia College in Chicago to study photography. She’d cleverly smuggled her cat onto the plane in a very non-cat carrier looking bag, saving herself the $100. We didn’t really talk to her much, and she spent most of the time sleeping while we spent most of the time keeping Tyler glued to his favorite Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc. We watched it, Frosty the Snowman, and Disneyland Fun on both the slate Matt borrowed for the trip from work (which never did quite get touch working in the PR build…grr) and Matt’s work laptop. We had no hesitations about keeping Tyler completely enamored with movies the entire time. No orange juice this leg of the flight; Ty’s first ever major diaper rash on the way there was a minor disaster. Ty was an extremely good boy and made friends with the little 6 yr. old girl across the aisle…she shared his love of Frosty and hadn’t been to Disneyland yet. One of the flight attendants had a son named Tyler…although he was 21 years old.

We landed back in Seattle that evening. Pat came and picked us up. The car seat was nowhere to be found…as it turns out the oversized baggage for Alaskan didn’t come out at the oversize baggage pick up right next to our belt, but a claim and a half away instead. Oops…took Matt a little bit to figure that on out. Our row-mate from the flight had the same problem with her oversized bag.

We picked up Skippers drive-thru on the way home and caught up on the recorded shows we’d missed (including the Biggest Loser season finale; John deserved to win, and we liked Antone, too).  Ty went to sleep pretty quickly when we got home and was clearly exhausted.

Andrea headed off to use the restroom and thought why not use one of the Clearblue pregnancy tests we’d picked up recently? After all, Nov 13 was the last start and we were a bit behind at Dec 20. We certainly wanted to grow our family again but couldn’t say we were particularl…Huh…no s. May be another August special event…

We spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Greenlake. Matt played some volleyball, Andrea (35 weeks pregnant) lounged on the grass since she was finally nearing the end of 8 weeks of bedrest, and Seattle was finally displaying some semblance of summer. Bob and Val were visiting from Oregon for Mom and Dad’s (Pat and Carol) 39th anniversary, so that night we joined them and Christina for dinner and S’mores, which Andrea was in heaven over. Bob had found the largest marshmallows in the universe, and we worked on perfecting the “chocolate in the middle” S’more. It was a fun, sunny Seattle day and we soaked in every bit of it. We slowly dozed off as we were watching Outbreak on AMC.

At 2 AM Andrea woke up to 3 major gushes, realizing her water had surely broken. We both jumped out of bed and grabbed our half-packed hospital bags. Matt nearly made himself sick running around the house and had to lay down for a few seconds before tearing off for more toiletries. Neither of our cell phones had been plugged in, so both were nearly dead. Andrea called the hospital, quickly called both sets of parents, and we drove off for Swedish Hospital on First Hill. We left almost every light in the house on, packed no clothes for Matt, packed no cell phone charger for our dead phones, and brought no movies, books, or music. We didn’t even have the car seat in the car. We couldn’t have told you otherwise at the time.

Andrea was quickly admitted to labor & delivery as it was clear that her water had broken and the baby was still footling breech (head up, feet extended down). Later it would turn out his cord was also loosely wrapped around his neck and leg (so he was accessorizing just less than little Bennett Young). We headed to the operating room, with a brief stop at the restroom.

In the OR the anesthesiologist got to work on Andrea’s epidural. Matt held onto her shoulder and hand…and empathized a little too much. Turning very pale, Matt’s tell-tale eye twitch started so he sat down with his head between his legs. Failing this, he laid down on the cold floor to stabilize. That did the trick, and after about 2 minutes he was back up sitting with Andrea, holding her hand as she was prepped on the operating table. A wave of nausea hit Andrea so she started dry heaving. Some anti-nausea medication was added and everything calmed down for the big delivery.

Our doctor was Dr. Martin, and she performed the c-section speedy quick. Little baby boy’s feet and butt easily made their way out of the small incision, but his head was stubbornly hanging on. Finally free, he was moved over to the warming table to be cleaned and a few seconds later let out that precious first cry. Of course to mom and dad those few seconds felt like rotten minutes. Born at 4:08 AM, he weighed in at a bulbous 5 pounds, 3.7 oz. and 17 inches long. Things said by mom and dad at the time included “There he is”/”good boy”/”listen to those powerful lungs” and “he’s ok honey”/”you did great.” Andrea’s a medical nut, so naturally she wanted to meet the placenta, too. It kept her baby alive for 8 months…and she’d heard that it’s crazy stretchy. They brought it around, we took a look, and said no, we weren’t keeping it. Nurses brought him over to the table where he got his first kisses (3 from mommy). Andrea really wanted to hold him right away, but sadly had to wait.

After they checked him out on the warming table they decided to take him to the NICU for transitioning. His oxygen saturation level was a little bit low and he was working a little for each breath. Matt went with the baby and Andrea was wheeled to a recovery room. After about an hour she met up with Mom, Dad, Bob, Val, Christina, and Alex. They visited briefly, and Andrea didn’t reveal the new baby’s name. That was going to be Matt’s job (and Parenthood moment).

Meanwhile, on the way to the NICU, little baby boy’s breathing and saturation level had both stabilized. He was putting on a warming table to keep him toasty and hooked up to heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation monitors. Matt’s comment to the nurses was “my wife would really love to see this room, with all the little babies.” The nurse monitored his vitals, gave him a glucose test, and said our little boy got an A+. Such an over-achiever already. Sadly in this same room there were at least 4 other little ones that weren’t quite so lucky. We remember a little baby Leo who had been born on May 2 and was still in the NICU. He had a little arrhythmia episode while Matt waited with our new baby boy. 2 other babies were in incubators, and 1 last baby was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and machines. Matt held our little boy’s hand and took some pictures…and quietly hoped to get the hell out of there. The nurses kept offering to take Matt’s mask and OR suit, which he refused. He wanted that traditional movie moment: coming out in the full get-up to announce baby’s safe arrival and mommy’s stable condition. So he hung out in the NICU in his suit, hat, mask, and booties.

While there, the nurse decided he should get some food, so Matt fed him his first 1 cc of formula. He let out a good strong burp, so we knew he was ours. After this began a long stretch of just waiting…he was looking great, but needed to show it consistently. After about an hour our nurse (maybe Sue?) wheeled Andrea’s bed into the NICU where she could hold him for the first time. This was just before 7 AM, so we only got about 15 minutes all together. At 7 there was a shift change and they needed to exchange notes, something we’re not supposed be around for. Andrea and Matt headed back down to the recovery room.

Matt brought everybody in and announced our new healthy baby boy, who we’d named Tyler Hughes Wood. Matt called his parents to spread the good news and his new name. Next we called Kristi, our visitors headed for home, and we sat in a big empty room thinking “this isn’t exactly what we expected.” Around 8:15 AM we were wheeled to room 1012 in the southwest wing (post-natal) and little Tyler was waiting for us in the room. That was wonderful news and we were all together at last.

I (Matt) acted as a table coach for a MEC (Management Excellence Community) Connect event, namely “Delivering results through your team.” The event focused on delegating, managing up, and creating teams with good communication and accountability. It only lasted about an hour and a half, and the table coach part was pretty simple, mainly just providing topics, keeping the conversation moving. The other people at my table came from all kinds of disciplines and teams, including finance, games, and health care. We had a pretty good conversaton. Strange timing, but also on this day another 800 positions were eliminated, in another stage of cost cutting at work. Andrea and I didn’t know anyone who lost their job. 

A copy of Windows 7 was shipped to Uncle Steve, I came up with a quick fix for horizontal mouse wheel scrolling in Publisher (due to an IntelliPoint change), and the 2009 Holiday Party was announced, although Andrea and I wouldn’t be able to attend because of SCUBA certification class.

I (Andrea) worked at Gregory Heights that day.  In the morning I was a substitute in the Kindergarten class for 2 hours, working with Peggy Recker, whose son I went to school with and she subbed for classes back when I went to Gregory Heights. Then I worked with the special needs kids for about 2 hours, had lunch, and subbed in the second grade class for about an hour. After that I subbed in the 4th grade class with Lorraine Adams, who taught 4th grade when I went to Gregory Heights. It was a pretty odd set of coincidences.