Dean has arrived!

Wow, so my blog has been extremely neglected!  In the time since I've updated, I've had a baby boy!  Dean Carter Bowen arrived on May 3, 2012 at 5:50pm.  I wanted to document his birth story so I wouldn't forget it, so I figure here is a good place for it.  So below you will find a detailed description of his birthday.  Enjoy!

Dean’s birth story 5.3.2012

We decided to get induced.  It was scheduled for Thursday May 3^rd.  Just two days shy of my due date.  At my 39 week appointment on Tuesday May 1^st 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!