Welcome, Owen James!

What a busy week it has been! Owen James Lowder was born on May 6^th at 3:55am. He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. He is the picture of health – and perfection!

 

I took the first week of May off of work, praying I’d have a baby before my paid time off ran out. I walked and walked and walked…then walked some more. I even begged my doctor to induce me but she wouldn’t. On Wednesday I was having contractions that would last for 2-3 hours, be 8 to 10 minutes apart but they didn’t hurt bad enough to go in – just bad enough for me to call my doctor and demand for her to get the baby out. She didn’t. And wouldn’t. So, I walked more. Thursday morning around 2:30am I started having contractions that were 6 minutes apart and extremely painful. I insisted that Clayton go to work but told him to keep his phone on and texted my mom to let her know it may be soon. Around 6:30am the contractions stopped. I went through 4 hours of contractions 6 minutes apart and so painful I would cry through them for what seemed like nothing. I was convinced I’d never have a baby.

Once Jack woke up that morning we went on a very long walk. I had two contractions. I was so frustrated I decided to just sit around all day and become comfortable with the idea of having a baby in my belly forever.  When Clay got home he insisted we walk so we did. And the contractions started again. And they didn’t stop. They got more and more intense until I couldn’t handle it anymore. Around 9:30pm we called my mom and she came over to be with Jack.

We were admitted to the hospital around 10:30pm and I was dilated to a 6! I, for some crazy reason, decided I wanted to walk around instead of get an epidural right away – that lasted all of 5 minutes. Around 11:45pm I had my epidural and was able to rest. Around 2:30am I was feeling a ton of pressure and was so terribly uncomfortable. The nurse checked me and said I was dilated to a 10 but only 95% effaced, she tried moving my cervix out of the way but she couldn’t. So, I sat up in bed which forced Owen’s head down. By 3:30am it was time to push. My doctor wasn’t on call and I hadn’t met the doctor that was on call – just a super sweet Resident who said she would page the Doctor when it was time to deliver. I pushed through three contractions and then the nurse told me to stop. So, I stopped. But, I could feel Owen’s head moving out and sure enough with the next contraction the nurse yelled to the Resident (who was frantically trying to figure out how to page the doctor) ‘You better come over here and catch this baby!’ She did, barely. He just slid right out!

At first he was breathing really fast and they were worried about him but after some cuddles with mommy he calmed down. He nursed right away, and hasn’t stopped! We were able to come home on Saturday.

Jack has been doing really great. He loves to kiss Owen’s head and point out his body parts. He has been acting out a little but nothing more than expected. I am doing great. Daddy loves having a baby around again. Owen sleeps like a champ and hardly ever fusses. I feel so lucky to have such a great little family!