It's been so long since I've posted something that I almost don't know where to start. But I think I will finally blog about Bowen since he's now 3 months old. Better late than never!
Bowen Reid Adair arrived 9 nine days early on May 21st at 3:12 p.m. This also happened to be grandma Anderson's birthday! Well, he had to do SOMETHING to be the favorite grandchild since there are 6 other darling cousins who have preceded him :). I had visited the hospital the night before because I'd had a nagging headache for over 16 hours and finally decided that I had better rule out pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). Well, my blood pressure was higher than normal, but it eventually came down on its own after a couple of hours of being on the monitor with zero intervention. I was only dilated to a 2 and my labs were normal so they sent me home. 6 hours later my water broke. Like an idiot, I figured I could sleep in and had been playing Scrabble on my kindle until 2:30 a.m. My water broke at 4:45 a.m. You do the math. I was one tired chica. I even went back to bed in my stupor thinking, "I have 24 hours until I get an infection, I can sleep for a little bit longer." But when I laid down again, my water continued to trickle out making sleep impossible. So I went into the next room to get Marty up (we were sleeping in separate rooms due to my tremendous pregnancy induced snoring problem) and told him that we were going to have a baby today. Pretty exciting. I called my doctor and then we got ready to go to the hospital. I was really calm and we checked in at 7:00 a.m. It was about then that the contractions really started kicking in and I was anxious to get my epidural. I was dilated to a 4 upon admission so I was able to get it. The epidural was in by 9:15 so they started the pitocin at that time as well. The timing would have been perfect had the epidural worked right away. But it took 45 long minutes of pain before the medicine finally kicked in. I was pretty emotional during that time because not only was I in pain, but I began to worry that it wasn't going to work at all and I was a little anxious. But when it did, I was in heaven and was even able to sleep a bit until I had dilated to a 10 and was ready to start pushing at around 1:30 p.m. I couldn't feel anything so pushing was strange. But I pushed with all my might and even burst 3 blood vessels in my eyes. My right eye had become so swollen that I couldn't see out of it. After 1 1/2 hours of pushing, I was given a choice. I was afraid that one of the options would be a C-section because I could feel the tension in the room and knew that Bowen was in distress. His heart rate would dip after each contraction so time was beginning to be of the essence. But my options were these: rest for awhile and then try to push again or use forceps to assist Bowen out. I asked Dr. Lunt how long I would have to push again if I chose that option. He said 45 minutes at least. The downside of the forceps was there would be trauma to the birth canal and there's always a risk for the baby. But I didn't have it in me to push anymore and knew Bowen needed to come out sooner rather than later. So they got the NICU team to come be on standby just in case and then with the next push, Bowen was out! It was incredible and I was overwhelmed with emotion realizing that after 37 years of waiting, I was finally a mother. Marty did great the whole time. He was trying to take pictures and video while also cutting the cord and trying to be there with Bowen while they got him measured and cleaned off. I was exhausted, but so ready to see and hold my baby. It took Dr. Lunt 45 minutes to sew me back together because I tore in all directions. But it was all worth it.
My nurses were fabulous. Shar was my main nurse and she reassured me that I had made the right decision to use the forceps because "Bowen wasn't going to come out otherwise." Turns out the cord was pinched inside somehow and my pelvis was 'marginal' according to Dr. Lunt. Plus, my uterus wasn't contracting hard enough on its own and I needed the pitocin the entire labor period even after I was dilated to a 10. So I was glad to be in a place where I had very competent medical care to deliver my sweet son. Bowen was only 5 lbs 13 oz and 18 inches long.
We were discharged 2 days later and Bowen weighed 5 lbs 8 oz. The lactation nurse noticed that he was tongue tied and suggested we get him clipped to improve latching on. 2 days later we did go to the pediatrician's office to get it taken care of and Bowen's weight had now fallen to 5 lbs 4 oz. My milk had just come in the night before but he was still not great at nursing. The pediatrician said I needed to pump and feed him through a bottle or start supplementing with formula. I pumped AND nursed AND fed him through a bottle at every feeding. It was extremely time consuming. But I didn't want to do formula if I could help it. We went back to the office again 2 days after he got his tongue clipped to get him circumcised. When we weighed him this time, he had gained 3 oz. He was now 5 lbs 7 oz and I was feeling more at peace. I tried to remain calm and collected during that first week in spite of Bowen's fluctuating weight and did pretty good. But it was a huge relief to see him start to trend in the right direction.
At 2 1/2 months he weighed 10 lbs 15 oz and was 22 1/2 inches long! He is a joy and we are more in love with him every day. He smiles all of the time and loves to look at his octupus on his mobile. He is now 3 months old and changing constantly. Lately he started grabbing things on his mobile and loves to squish a blanket into his face over and over again. He rolled over a couple of times one night from his belly to his back, but hasn't been interested in doing it again. He had developed an umbilical hernia at about 3 weeks old that stuck up about an inch. With all of my research, I discovered that it should repair itself by age 5. I didn't want it take that long! But I was glad it was fairly common and it didn't alarm his doctor (or me once I had read about it). However, it has already started to repair and is getting smaller all the time. Happy day!
Another thing unique to Bowen is his Thumper foot (it's like the lower lip quiver, but in his legs). He also LOVES to arch his back and look at the world upside down. Bowen gets entranced by lights and ceiling fans or sometimes nothing at all. He could stare at a blank wall for minutes at a time. I like to think he's looking at his angel friends he recently left in heaven. He is finally taking day naps for longer than 20 minutes (which is why I can finally blog again) and sleeps at least 6 hours a night. Though a couple of nights ago he slept for 9 hours straight! That was nice. He is the cleanest baby I've ever met. He never drools and rarely spits up. His blowouts are a thing of the past now that I have the right-sized diaper on him. But I wasn't going to waste the small diapers - too expensive! As far as nursing goes, we don't. For my sanity and his I just pump every few hours and he is breastfed via a bottle. I supplement with formula, but he usually only needs 1-2 bottles of formula in a 24 hour period. He never did latch on very well even after his tongue got clipped. But we are happy with this situation and this way I can wear normal clothes and Marty can easily help feed him. Bowen LOVES his carseat and so traveling has been easy which is nice because we've already taken him to Las Vegas and to Salem twice.
Bowen was blessed on July 3rd and ALL of my family minus Jaron (you were sorely missed) were here for the occasion. Which is a miracle because they are literally spread all over the world. It meant a lot to us to have you all here. Marty's family was mostly there as well. Even Brook and Joe came up from Arizona. Bowen is really lucky to have such a great family on both sides :).
And Marty and I are lucky and blessed to have little Bowen. It really is amazing how much love you can have for another person you just met. I still look at him in awe sometimes and can't believe he's all mine. Marty feels the same way. We are so excited to be his parents and scared to death at the same time. We already talk about how old he should be to have a cell phone and how he needs to date. It's a different world than the one we grew up in. But we are up for the challenge and I absolutely love being a mom.
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