This is the story of the birth of Jack Thomas, though the point at which this story starts, he wasn't yet known as Jack Thomas. Whether he was going to be a boy or a girl was also unknown to us. The actual beginning of this story starts on a Monday evening, January 11, 2010, at Portillo's. Mary and I were in the suburbs and decided to have dinner with my parents. As we arrived, Mary started to notice some intermittent contractions, however, they didn't happen with any regularity.  Later that night, we kept wondering if this was just the beginning or just a false alarm.  We called the doctor, who said because they weren't five minutes apart, that it wasn't quite time yet.  We hardly slept that night, as with each contraction we checked to see how long it had been since the last.

The next day, Mary started to have some more contractions that began to build in intensity and regularity. By late afternoon, they were so strong that they would stop her in her tracks when one came. After a quick call to the doctor, we got the green light to head to the hospital. It was time! We loaded up the hospital bag along with Bentley and his things, took a few last minute baby bump photos and set out for the hospital.

At about 9:30pm, we arrived at the hospital. Mary's dad was there waiting for us to take Bentley for a few days. After saying goodbye and giving a few words of encouragement to the anxious soon-to-be-parents that we were, he drove off. We went up to the Women's Health department to get checked into Labor & Delivery. Since the doctor called ahead, they were all ready for us, so it didn't take long. By 11:00pm, the anesthesiologist had arrived to start the epidural.

By about midnight, at that point it was January 13th, 2010, Mary started to feel some numbness in her legs from the epidural. The anesthesiologist came back to adjust the dosage several times over the next few hours before Mary's numbness, while never completely going away, seemed under control. During this time, the nurse started to administrator pitocin to encourage the labor process. Both of us settled in after this and ended up sleeping on and off. It wasn't a lot, but much more than expected and it definitely helped.

At about 6am, after a couple hours of sleep, I awoke in a very hazy state in my chair-bed as several doctors and nurses came flooding into our room in a relaxed sense of urgency. At the time I was unsure of why and later we learned that the dosage of pitocin was putting some stress on the baby, causing all kinds of alarms to go off outside of our room.  It was decided to stop the pitocin altogether for a time and check the progress of the baby.  Being a first time father, I half-expected them to say, "okay, it's time."  Not quite.  The baby was nowhere near ready to make his entrance, so the pitocin was started again, but at a much lower dosage. This was the first time the doctors uttered the words, "we might have to consider a c-section," but indicated that they would wait and continue to check the progress.

Minutes drew on and progress was slow, but there was still progress. The baby was descending at his own pace, perhaps proceeding cautiously and without haste. Smart boy.  Over the next several hours, the pitocin had to be backed off and re-started at lower levels three or four times. Each time, the doctors told us that we might have to consider a c-section, but they would keep monitoring the baby's progress. This made for a tough morning and afternoon, but knowing that there continued to be progress was encouraging.  Our little guy might have been moving slowly, but there was surely no stopping him.

It was encouraging to know that our families and friends were thinking and praying for us.  I wished I had something to report to them, but there was little to report. We had a special friend, however, that we were really hoping to see. Father Ron Galt, who married us at St. John Cantius Church in 2008, also was chaplain at our hospital. The nurses kindly put in a couple of calls for us, requesting that he stop by when he started his shift. At about 2:30pm, he arrived in our room. He greeted us warmly and, although he couldn't stay long, he talked for a few minutes and gave us a great blessing.  Father Ron's blessing was aptly timed because at 2:40pm the doctor came by and said that Mary was fully dilated and the baby had dropped. At 3:00pm, she would start pushing!

At 3:05pm, the nurse came in and instructed me on how to position myself so Mary could push. When we began this process with just the nurse and myself assisting, I was quite confused. My first thought was, "Umm, shouldn't there be a doctor or three in here?".  I had no idea this was really just the "prep" work and the doctors wouldn't be in for a bit. We went through about four rounds of pushing on the contractions, resting in between. While the doctors didn't come in and stay, they did come in every few minutes to monitor the progress and see how the baby was doing.  Apparently, there were a few babies on their way that afternoon.

After about 25 minutes, the baby started showing some signs of distress, so Mary took a break from pushing to rest and recuperate. The doctors once again talked about the possibility of a c-section, or perhaps using a vacuum. Why no one mentioned a vacuum to us before that point is beyond me. It seems like that would be something good to tell couples BEFORE they are in labor!  I was glad to find out later that they don't really use clamps anymore.

Just after 4pm, Mary started pushing again. This time, more and more doctors and nurses came in and out of the room and with greater frequency. As time went on, more seemed to stick around. The nurse and I were still positioned to help Mary push for six or seven rounds. As the pushing progressed, the intensity built. What seemed like seconds was minutes and time was flying by. At 4:27pm, the baby's head came and the doctor quickly said to Mary, "Stop! Stop! Do not push!".

Normally this would have startled me, but from my position, I could see what the doctor was doing. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, so he had to immediately clamp and cut it.  After a few quick and decisive moves by the doctor, Mary was instructed to give one more push. As she pushed, the doctor exclaimed, "Look! Look! Look! Look!" as he delivered the baby and held him up for us to see! Jack Thomas Minster was born!

The next several minutes, again, seemed much longer. While the pediatricians immediately took Jack T to get him breathing and do all those things that they do for brand-newborns, I was at Mary's side. Amazed. Awe-struck. I couldn't believe what she had just done.  I couldn't believe what she had just been through, with so much bravery and so much grace.  I remember whispering in a trembling voice, "You did it! You did it!".  At about 4:30, Jack T was crying and getting cleaned up.  As I watched from much closer, a nurse asked, "what's his name?".  I looked over to Mary and she looked at me.  "Jack Thomas," I said with pride.  Our son, Jack Thomas, was born, weighing 8lbs 11oz and 21.5 inches long.

I think the title says it all...

As a last minute treat, my office closed between Christmas and New Year's.  This gave Mary, Jack T and I a chance to spend some awesome time together both having fun going out and just hanging around the house.  We also (finally) got to use three of the Groupons we'd purchased over the last few months!

Our first event was a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry.  There are sooo many exhibits there we'd like to see, especially me since I haven't been there since the good ole' days of Highland School.  This Christmas we found out that Jack T LOVES Christmas trees.  Every time we turned on the tree lights at home, his face lit up as he pointed to the tree with jaw dropped.  So our first stop was to see the Christmas trees from around the world.  We walked through the entire exhibit, and stopped to look at the trees that we liked the most.  Jack T really loved it, almost as much as Mary!  After the Christmas trees, we spent a little time looking at the model trains in The Great Train Story exhibit.

A few days later, we decided to stick with the museum theme and we went to the Chicago History Museum.  This is something Mary and I have wanted to check out for a while, so we were excited to finally get to it.  Although it's not big, it was really pretty cool.  There really wasn't that much for Jack T to look at, aside from the old trolley car, but there was a lot of great Chicago history to soak up.

We also finally got to take Jack T to his first Gymboree class.  The first session was all about tunnels.  Big tunnels, little tunnels, long tunnels, short tunnels, I think you get the idea.  The class was about tunnels.  Jack T was a little skeptical at first, but with a little coaxing and patience, he finally decided to crawl through most of them.  He also loved the parachute at the end of class, but I think could have gone without getting bubbles blown in his face!

That same night, Steve and I had a man-date to go see Tron: Legacy at the Navy Pier IMAX Theater.  It was my first 3D experience, and while it took a little getting used to, I'd have to say it's the only way to see that movie.  Awesome.

Finally, we spent New Year's Eve with some close friends.  We enjoyed dinner, some baby play time, some adult Wii time, and comparing New York city's countdown events to Chicago's countdown events.  I have to say, as much as I love Chicago, it has nothing on NYC's New Year's events, despite Ryan Seacrest.  Although I wasn't looking forward to going back to work after the time off, I truly felt mentally refreshed after having so much fun with Mary and Jack T!

As previous months, Jack T had a lot of firsts in his 11th month! Mommy noticed Jack T staring at her while drinking water from a cup, and so upon offering him water, he drank several sips of water directly from the same cup. He got a big toy bus to push around the condo and chase Bentley. After playing with it he went from taking a couple tentative steps on his own to full-fledged walking in about two weeks. He tried all kinds of new foods including cantaloupe, pineapple, blueberries, cheese, turkey, sweet potatoes, and stuffing (yummy Thanksgiving food)! He had his first really bad cold, however, despite being stuffy and tired, he was still a very agreeable baby. His 7th and 8th teeth came in on the bottom and, after several months of showing him the baby sign, he started making the baby sign for “milk.” Jack got to enjoy lots of time with family and friends for Thanksgiving; seeing both sides of his extended family, “playing” with all his cousins, and spending time with Mommy and Daddy's friends when they hosted Friendsgiving.  After Thanksgiving, Jack also started to enjoy his first Christmas season by going to see Santa Claus (of course he had been a good boy all year 'round) and gazing in awe at Mommy's beautifully decorated Christmas Tree!  Every time we turned on the tree lights he was simply delighted!

(If you're viewing this on Facebook, be sure to click the "View Original Post" link to see the pictures)

This month was packed with exciting new things for Jack T. Just after his 9-month doctor appointment, he started some finger foods. The first item on the menu were puffs. After about three days of trying he was eating them with no hesitation. After a couple weeks of puffs, he started (slowly) eating some other finger foods like banana, cheese and bread. We also took Jack for several mini-adventures like a 5K walk to support the fight against breast cancer, a trip to the pumpkin farm, and trick-or-treating for Halloween! Of course, he also got to spend some quality time with his best buddy, Ben C. Jack excited us this month with a lot more interactivity. He started responding when prompted with “so big!” by raising his hands straight up in the air over his head. He also started waving when someone says “hi” or “bye” and clapping both on his own and when prompted. At the end of the month, he started pushing things around while standing up. It won't be long before he starts walking!