Dean’s birth story 5.3.2012
We decided to get induced.
It was scheduled for Thursday May 3rd. Just two days shy of my due date. At my 39 week appointment on Tuesday May 1st
I was dilated to 1 cm and about 70% effaced, baby was at a -2. We arrived at the hospital on Thursday at
7:00 am. I got checked in and hooked up
to the monitors. My nurse’s name was
Wendy. Dr. Downey came by and chatted
with us. He gave us an idea of what to
expect. It took the nurses a while to
get my IV in. Two failed attempts, then
on the third got it in. On the first
attempt the nurse tech blew my vein and I almost threw up/passed out. It was not a pleasant experience. Wendy finally got my IV in and we started
Pitocin at about 9:00 am. They checked
my cervix, it was the same as Tuesday.
They slowly increased the Pitocin throughout the morning. Contractions were tight and slightly crampy,
but not too painful. My Mom, Dad, and
Shane were all there, as well as Trey of course. It was nice to chat with them during the more
relaxed part of labor. Dr. Downey came
back at about 2:00 pm and checked me. I
was at a “tight” 3 cm. He decided to go
ahead and break my water. Mom, Dad, and
Shane headed out to the waiting room for the rest of the labor. Dr. Downey broke my water. I immediately told the nurse to prep me for
the epidural. I remember how strong
Pitocin contractions are after the water is broken. She started me on the bag of fluid needed
first and went to get the anesthesiologist.
I’m so glad I did that, because the very next contraction was hard and
strong! For about 30 minutes I had
extremely hard and fast contractions. I
could not talk through them anymore and had to hold Trey’s hand and breathe
through them. At about 2:30 pm the
anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. It immediately started to work and I had
great pain relief. I was still able to
move my legs some, which was different than my previous epidural. Eventually my left leg went totally numb, but
I could still move my right leg some. I
could also feel slight pain in my lower right abdomen during contractions, but
nothing too bad. At about 4:00pm I felt
some pressure so Wendy checked me. I was
completely dilated and baby was at a zero.
We did a practice push and baby was ready to go. They called my doctor to get him there to
start pushing. They couldn’t reach him
so they left a message at his office.
Over the next hour and half we waited and they kept calling Dr.
Downey. It turns out he was with a
patient at his office who had very high blood pressure and was being sent over
for a c-section. He got to our room at
about 5:35 pm. We started pushing about
5:45 pm. The first push revealed baby
was “IOP” or face up. Usually this means
lots of pushing. All of the doctors,
nurses, and Trey were joking how I only had to push twice for Charlie and this
time might be different. The next push,
baby turned sideways…that was fast. Dr.
Downey got really excited and told Trey “watch it will be face down next
push!” Sure enough, one last push and
baby was face down, shoulders came out and out they pulled. I said, “I guess I’m a professional
pusher!” Everyone laughed at that. We did not know the gender, so this was time
for the big reveal. Dr. Downey put the
baby on my stomach. I couldn’t see what
it was because the leg was covering.
Everyone was waiting for Trey to announce. As soon as I saw it, Trey said “It’s a
boy!” Dean started crying and we all
started cheering. I said to Trey “I told
you!” Dean looked so much like Charlie
did when he was born. They clamped his
cord and one of the nurses said “Look at that beautiful cord!” I guess it was very full of blood. Daddy cut the cord and they took Dean over to
get checked out. Dean’s head was a
little lopsided and Trey said “Must have been all that time waiting in the
birth canal” to which I said “Not pointing any fingers (while pointing at Dr.
D)”. That got a lot of laughs. Dean scored a ten on the APGAR, right after
Dr. D said, no baby ever gets a ten J. Dean was 7 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. Overall it was a really great birth
experience and I wouldn’t really change anything about it.
Dean’s full name is Dean Carter Bowen. Dean is a name both Trey and I love; it goes
well with Charlie’s name. We later
discovered it means “from the valley”.
This has significant meaning to us as Dean is the baby we conceived
after we lost a baby to a miscarriage earlier last year. He is our sunshine from the shadows and he is
our blessing after coming “from the valley”, the lowest point in our
lives. At the time we picked that name
we never knew the valley ahead, we never expected where life would take us, but
now we see God’s smile in the meaning of the name. He knew all along what was ahead and that Dean
was waiting for us. Carter we decided on
in honor of my Pawpaw Buster Carter. He
is my dad’s stepdad whom raised my dad from the time he was 4 years old. My PawPaw had one daughter of his own, whom
unfortunately passed away when she was a little over a year old. He had no other children so his last name
“Carter” would end with him. We wanted
to honor him by passing on that name. We
also later found out that Dean is a big family name in his family as well!
That’s the story of Dean’s beginning in life. We waited a long time for him and had no idea
who he was, but we are so thankful to God for the blessing of his life and
health. And we cannot wait to see how
our boys grow as brothers!
