Finn, Man of Many Poses!

Last week, Dena took Finn and Tucker to have pictures made. The session was mainly for Finn, but we got some great pictures of the two of them. Just like with Tucker's 2 year pictures, we used our friend Kelsey and her amazing Everlasting Moments Photography. She does a great job, so check out her website if you need some pictures!

Enjoy!

Baby Finn!

Finn's 1st minutes

Finley Thomas was born this morning at 2:44am. He weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and was 20.5" long. He is doing very well and eating like a champ. Dena is also doing really well. She is up and moving around, I'm very proud of her!

Finn's 1st morning

Finley in the afternoon

Tucker got to meet his little brother today and he seemed to like him, although I'm sure things will change when this weird baby comes to Tucker's home. 

We will probably get to go home sometime tomorrow, but I will update if something changes. In the meantime, we are at Medical City Hospital in Dallas.

Yes, Tuck, that is your little brother!

Giving sweet kisses

Tucker is holding his brother for the 1st time

 I have included some of the best pictures from today, enjoy!

newborn Tucker vs. newborn Finley, do they look alike?

 ~Trent

Almost FINN-ished!

This past Sunday, Dena passed the 37 week mark in her pregnancy. Finn is almost ready to make his appearance. In fact, we thought he was going to come two weeks ago.

In case you didn't hear, Thursday, April 26th during our monthly grocery trip, Dena started having regular contractions. We called the doctor and she wanted us to come in to the hospital. They checked her out and found that she was dilated to 1cm and having real contractions, so they kept us there for a while for observation. After about 3 hours, she hadn't progressed any further and the contractions had slowed, so they sent us home.

Since then, she has had some more contractions, but nothing regular, and she hadn't really progressed much more. Yesterday, during the weekly OB check-up, they wanted to take another look at the baby with ultrasound just to get a better idea of his size. It was not a surprise to us to find out that he is going to be a big boy. At 37.5 weeks, he weighs between 8lbs 10 oz and 8lbs 14 oz. At his point in a pregnancy, a baby will gain about .5lbs per week, so if he goes until the due date, he will be at or over 10lbs. 

Dena's doctor discussed the option of an elective c-section, but we don't really like that idea unless it is an emergency. She also made sure we knew that she couldn't induce labor until 39 weeks, which is on May 20th. When they checked her, she is now dilated to between 2-3cm, which is good progress. The baby still hasn't dropped, but she expected Dena to be "favorable" by sometime next week.

All that being said, it seems like Finn is about finished up and ready to make his appearance. He has huge checks, big, wide feet, and seems like he is going to be another clone of me. Oh Joy! Dena and I are both ready for him to arrive and I actually think Tucker is warming to the idea too.

Dena is going to continue working until he gets here, secretly hoping that some kid will send her into labor. 

We would appreciate your prayers for continued health for Dena and Finn. Also, for a quick, safe delivery when he decides to come.

I will update if something changes.

~Trent

Surprise...AGAIN

Well, today we learned why cardiologists don't usually use their ultrasound machines to determine the gender of a baby.

Today we had our final appointment with the perinatologist, Dr. Weiss, who looks very closely at the baby to make sure that there is nothing wrong with any part of the baby. He, obviously, looked closely at the heart and he also looked at all of the other organs, appendages, etc. He also took some blood from Dena to run some tests on it.

The doctor said that everything looked great with the baby. There are the proper number of fingers, toes, ventricles, blood vessels, eyes, ears, etc. Everything looked perfectly normal and he said that there was no way that the baby had HLHS. WHAT A RELIEF!!! It doesn't appear that we will have any scary surprises this time and we are very thankful!

Profile of the new baby

After he had looked at all of the important stuff, the doctor asked us if we wanted to know the baby's gender. We told him that we did want him to confirm it for us, but that one of the cardiologists had told us last week that she was 95% sure that it was a girl. He replied, "I will be the judge of that and then I will text her and tease her if she was wrong!" So he began to move the baby around and then he said, "Well, I guess I have to text her." Dena said, "WHAT?" The doctor replied, "It's a boy!" Then Dena said, "But the cardiologist said that it was a girl!" So Dr. Weiss said, "Well, if this is a girl, then she has a weenie!" I nearly fell out of my chair laughing! Then the doctor showed us the visual evidence that the baby indeed is a boy.

It's a Boy!

After leaving Dr. Weiss' office, we met with Dr. Thomas, Tucker's cardiologist, to look again more closely at the heart. Last week when he looked, he couldn't see a number of the things that he needed to look at, but today he could see everything. The baby has 4 normal ventricles, a normal aorta, no evident septal defects, and normal blood flow in and around the heart. That is about as clear and normal as you can get at this stage of development. He actually even said that he was confident enough in what he saw today, that we probably don't need to come back for another look. What a blessing!

As I mentioned last week, we were hoping for a girl, but, above all, we want a healthy baby. I think that we both felt like it was a boy deep down. Regardless, Tucker will be a great big brother and we can't wait to watch them grow up and play together.

I do want to say that we have no hard feelings about this surprise! We knew that the cardiologist is not an expert at determining the gender of a baby. She told us that she was pretty sure (95%) that it was a girl, but that she couldn't guarantee it. The cardiologists use different wands for the ultrasound machine than OBGYN's use, they are designed to look at hearts, not at babies inside the womb. The cardiologist also isn't as skilled at manipulating the baby to get good shots of the parts.

Now the hard part will be changing our plans. We will have to repaint the baby's room, but we won't have to buy near as much stuff, since we still have all of Tucker's old clothes and toys. The hardest thing will be coming up with a name. We have had a girl's name picked out since before we got married, but we don't have any ideas for a boy's name. With Tucker, we saw the name and just knew that it was right, but I spent a while earlier tonight looking at boy's names and none of them really sounded right to me. Right now, the only two names that we even remotely like are Case and Reed, but we definitely are ready to stop looking yet.

We hope that nobody else had purchased anything for a baby girl yet. We did receive a few girl things at Christmas, but nothing big. We apologize for the change, but I can assure you that we were more surprised by today's events than anybody, except for maybe the cardiologist.

So, let's try this AGAIN...Surprise...It's a...

We hope that everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

~Trent

Plus 1!

For those of you who know my family, you probably wonder how much bigger we can actually get...well, it seems like we get bigger every day!

Aunt Dena with Beckett

Beckett relaxing

Uncle Trent and Beckett

I told you a few months ago that my brother and sister-in-law were expecting a baby boy. That addition to our family arrived this past Wednesday, March 2nd. Beckett Hayden Hamilton came to us last week, weighing in at 9 lbs. 12 oz with a length of 20 in. We are all very excited about Beck and we are happy that mom and baby are doing great. Beck is a big boy and he likes to eat! As excited as we are, I don't think that anyone's happiness can compare to the big sister, Maddie!!! Amelia and Beckett were discharged from the hospital today and they are all at home tonight...hopefully getting some rest.

Proud big sister, Maddie, and Beckett

The Hamilton Men!

Beckett is following in daddy's footsteps!

We can't wait to go see Beckett again, but we have to get our little man well first. Tucker was sick all day yesterday and we took him to the doctor today. In addition to an upper-respiratory infection, he is dealing with the flu. Needless to say, he is not a happy camper right now and we are ready for a stretch of health for our family! You can read more about the crazy, sick last month for us at www.caringbridge.org/visit/tuckerhamilton.

Finally, I want to share with you about a new family that we have been connected to through our friendship with Matt Hammitt. I was introduced, through email, to Alexis and Vince about a month ago. They are a very young, married couple who just found out that they are expecting a daughter, Scarlet, who has HLHS. Because they are young and newly married, this is especially hard for them. I have been in contact with Alexis over the last few weeks and have been trying to show them love and support like we received. They live in Las Vegas, so it is difficult to help a whole lot, but we are trying to be there for them and answer any questions that they have. Alexis went for a check-up with the cardiologist this week and she received some difficult news. The doctor told her that part of Scarlet's hard is not letting enough blood get to her lungs and that she may not survive until birth. I know that God performs miracles every day and I would appreciate if you would begin praying for a miracle in Scarlet's life. I also know, that God has a perfect plan for this family and that it may mean that Scarlet doesn't survive. Please also pray that God will look after and bless this young family, especially if they have to deal with loss.

Thanks for visiting us, leave a comment to let us know that you were here!

~Trent

CHD Awareness Week - Day 5!

7 People Who Helped Save Tucker's Life

1. First and most importantly, our amazing God and our lord and savior Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:13).

2. Mary, the lactation consultant in McKinney who first noticed something was wrong. If it hadn't been for her keen eye and quick thinking, we would have been discharged from the hospital and Tucker would have died in his sleep that night.

3. Dr. Reyes, the on-call pediatrician in McKinney who caught the murmur. Even though he is not our pediatrician anymore, we are still very thankful for Dr. Reyes, because he was the first person to recognize that the problem was with Tucker's heart.

4. Dr. Lucena, the neonatologist in McKinney who decided to send Tucker to Plano for further testing. If Dr. Lucena had decided to keep Tucker in McKinney for even 30 minutes longer, he would not have survived.

5. American Medical Response ambulance team, specifically Glen and Misty, for being so careful during transports to two different hospitals. Also, Misty kept us updated while they were working on a diagnosis in Plano and she was the first to tell us that something was horribly wrong. She could have waited and let the doctors tell us, but she knew that her gentle, motherly way would be better for us.

6. Dr. Tim Thomas, our pediatric cardiologist, for catching the true culprit and sending us to Medical City. He knew immediately that something was seriously wrong and made quick decisions that helped save Tucker's life. Since then he has become as much of a friend as a doctor to us. We thank God everyday for Dr. Thomas and his wonderful wife, Andrea!

Dr. Thomas with Tucker and Heart Friends

7. Last, but certainly not least, Dr. Eric Mendeloff, the amazing pediatric heart surgeon that fixed our baby's heart. Dr. Mendeloff is a master of his craft. He can repair hearts that are only the size of a strawberry and work on blood vessels that are only millimeters in diameter. He is also special because he is not like any other surgeon that I have ever met, and I worked in a hospital for 3 years. He is not arrogant, he listens to his patients and parents, and he uses his time and his money to support our group, Amazing Little Hearts...he is our "Rock Star"!

Dr. Mendeloff and Tucker

There are many more people who played a part in helping to save Tucker's life, not to mention all the people who helped us through the roughest of times and kept us sane!  We could not have made it without the love and support of all of our family, friends, and co-workers!

Thank you for keeping up with us and this blog and please take a minute to write something in the guestbook and/or share this site with someone else.

Our last event for CHD Awareness week is tomorrow. We are having a blood drive and party at Medical City Children's Hospital tomorrow afternoon.  The blood drive will be from 10am - 4pm and the party will be from 10am - noon. Please join us and help support our kids. Also, the blood supply in Dallas is dangerously low, so if you can donate, we REALLY need you!!!

With love & Heart Hugs!

Trent, Dena, & Tucker

Add Another for the Hamiltons

We are so excited to announce that Dena and I are gaining a nephew and Tucker is getting another cousin.

We found out, in July, that my brother Greg and his wife Amelia were pregnant with their second child.  They went to the doctor yesterday and got the news that they would be having a bouncing baby boy.  Our niece, Maddie, is very excited and they let her announce the addition to everyone through a video posted to Facebook.

It will be awesome to have another member of our growing family.  It should also be interesting to see how much trouble Tucker and his cousin get into in the future.  Tucker probably won't need any help in this area and they are sure to keep us busy and entertained.

Trent