Theodore Scott is Here!!!

Theodore Scott Bowman was born on December 1st at 8:26 am. after 22 hours of labor. He weighed 8 lbs and 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long and his head was 14.5 inches around. He is a happy healthy baby boy and we are so glad he is finally here.

Here is the full and complete story of the birth. If you don't care for details or don't want to hear my whiny version, just skip the words and look at the pictures.

My induction was scheduled for Monday morning (November 30th) at 6:00am (or so I thought). We got to the hospital a little before 6 and they said that my appt wasn't until 7:30 but that I could start on the paperwork. We did that, drove around for a little while, tried to go back in at 7 but they said to come back at 8. We took a nap in the car and then went in. They didn't get the pill in me until 10:10 am but I was already dialated at a 2. That got our hopes up because with Vivian I was at a zero and no progress was made for awhile with her. However her labor was only 15.5 hours so I guess it didn't matter, she still beat him.

Dee Adams is my CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife), she came in at 7:00 pm to break my water. I was only at a 4 by then. By midnight I was complete so they got everything ready but for some reason I wasn't ready for it. I started complaining a lot. So Dee left and told the nurse to call her when the head got to a certain point. I was annoyed. Everyone started getting really mean and I don't like mean people. I was begging for drugs which they didn't want to give me (because it would slow things down even more) and I started begging for a c-section. (which is totally ridiculous because I just spent the last 2 months terrified of the idea of one)

They finally agreed to give me one more dose of meds as long as I promised to get serious when I woke up. I don't remember the nap at all. I remember a glimpse of her putting the meds in my IV and then the next thing I know I'm feeling contractions again. Sooo NOT COOL, I wanted to enjoy that nap, dang it. So I felt like I got no break from them hounding on me. I was immeadiately shoved in the shower. When I got out I was still complaining and begging for a c-section.

The nurse finally called Dee and they gave me 3 options, 1)I could push the baby out. 2)They could give me pitocin (a drug which intensifies contractions) and I could push the baby out. or 3)They could give me pitocin and a spinal (their version of an epidural, which numbs the bottom half of your body) and I could push the baby out. So I took that as prettymuch 1 option which was to push the baby out (which annoyed me even more) however I did choose the second route and choose the pitocin to speed things up. (I think they gave me that with Vivian too but I don't remember it being a choice, maybe that is what the difference in time was.)

It was around 6 am when they gave me the pitocin. I was still complaining and I really wanted them to call Dee and tell her to come. They kept saying if I got the head to the right spot, she would come and I kept insisting that if they tell her to come, I would get the head to the desired spot while she was on her way. They didn't believe me (I wonder why). They had a shift change around 7 am. I seemed to handle the new nurses a little better.

I told my mom to call my dad, I wanted a real blessing with oil. She called and told him he didn't have time for a shower to just get there. He got there around 8 am, I had made quite a bit of progress by that time. He had forgot the oil but gave me a fathers blessing anyways. I ended up having a contraction in the middle of it so I think he cut it short a little. (He probably felt weird with me bearing all force into it.)

Somewhere around the same time I heard one nurse telling the other to tell Dee to get there "...no if, ands, buts, about it, just tell her to come now!" FINALLY!!! Ok, so Dee was on her way, my dad was there, I started getting serious.... And it hurt.

This is where I will leave out most of the details. If you want them, you can ask me.

Dee got there 3-4 minutes after he came out. I'm glad it wasn't any later because my cuts were stinging and the nurses aren't allowed to sew me up. She was proud of me that I did it. I was proud of me too. I did it without the Vacuum and without Dee and with my Dad there. (Maybe I'll have a special post tributed to my Dad later.)

Here I am on drugs. John took a video right after this picture and I kept bobbing my head and I was actually trying to eat something at the time too. He asked me how I was doing and my response was, "Go away."

Here is my pushing face.

Here Theodore is napping between my legs in our hospital room.

Michael proudly holding his new little brother.

Vivian was really wanting to get the "yax" (ear wax) out of Theodores ears. The video was adorable but way too big to upload.

Here I am telling Michael what all of my bands are for.

Vivian's turn to hold her little brother. I think she is looking at his 'pointer' and 'thumbkin' as she always calls them.

I wish I knew what happened here but she looks thoroughly entertained.

Grandma holding her newest grandson. Thanks mom for being there and for bringing the kids to see us.

This is them saying good-bye to baby Theodore.

Here is baby Theodore before we left the hospital wrapped in the blanket Grandma made for him.

Here I am on our way out of the hospital.

I was trying to get a good picture of that dark hair. We are still not really used to it.

This is how we keep him pacified when he is awake. (Which isn't very often yet.)

Theodore is such a good baby. He is nursing well and doesn't have a very loud cry (yet). He usually only cries when we take his blanket off. He sleeps well (for now) and likes to pretend he is still in the womb with his arms tucked to his chest like a dead chicken. The kids love looking at him but they are pretty good about leaving him alone.

John appologizes for not being as diligent about taking pictures this time. We didn't get one of him on the scale with his birth weight or of his first bath (probably because it wasn't a real one like they did with Vivian.) And for some reason the family pictures we took in the hospital didn't end up on our camera so I will be posting those later when I get them from Nana or Grandma.

We came home from the hospital Wednesday night. I figured I could get better sleep without the nurses coming into my room every time I fell asleep. Theodore is happy and healthy and I am on the mend taking it as slow as I can. John has had this whole week off which has been nice. And Tammy and her girls have been a great help with the kids. I hope you enjoyed the update and that all is well with you.