JJ's first Bath

 
 
 
 
So here are pictures of Joshua's first bath. The poor fella cried through the entire thing. It is funny, he hates sponge baths, but LOVES the little bath tub that we got him. Now he smiles through the entire thing.

JJ's First Outing

 
 
So JJ was born on Saturday and on Tuesday he had his first outing. After being cooped up at home for three days, we went on an adventure. A walk at Higgins Point. We decided it was BJ's turn to look pregnant so we put JJ in his little Baby Bjorn and wrapped him up good and covered the whole thing with a blanket - viola! BJ had a pregant belly.

In the Hospital

 

 

 

Here's Joshua

 

 

 

 

Ready or Not Here comes Baby!

 

So here I am on Friday, March 20th, my due date, feeling miserable and thinking that this baby is never coming out. Well what do you know,that night at 11:00 pm as I laid down to bed, I had my first contraction. Twenty minutes later, I had another one. BJ is sleeping at this point, so I just lay there in bed waiting to see if they continue. At 12:30am the contractions are now 10 minutes apart and are getting quite painful. So I finish packing my hospital bag. I wake up BJ at 1:30am because they were then between 5-10 minutes apart and I couldn't time them myself anymore. We call Labor and Deliery at 2:30 and they say to see if we can wait a few more hours until they reach between 3-5 minutes apart. So BJ packs his bag and takes a shower. At 4:30am we decide to go because they are 5 minutes apart and closer if I am up and walking around. That was when this picture was taken.

We check into the hospital and were lucky that a lady from our ward Liz was a nurse on shift. I was really nervous as I have never been in the hospital before so it was really nice to be around someone I knew. She was great. The contractions slowed down a bit and I was only 3 cm dialated (only 1 centimeter more than 2 days before). So we tried walking around, but that was really painful and I was so tired, next we tried the jacuzzi tub. That was really nice. When I was checked around 8 am I had progressed to 4 cm and decided to go ahead and get an epidural. I was starting to feel pretty nauseous so we ordered some breakfast. Unfortunately, after eating it, I threw it up. But hey - I lost my mucus plug at the same time- haha. I received the epidural around 10am and the dr came around 11 am and broke my water. I didn't feel a thing. My epidural was so strong, it was great. I couldn't tell one bit if I was having a contraction. My leg fell off the bed at one point and that was interesting. I had to have the nurse put it back up. Luckily I finally got a few hours of sleep. When they checked me around 2:00 - I think- I was almost completely dialated. I think I started pushing about 30 minutes after that.

I first thought I would only have the Dr's and nurses and BJ in the room with me. But I was really nauseous and decided heck with that. Bobbie - BJ's mom was great and stayed in the room to help me out. So in the end I had BJ, Bobbie, and Holly a high school girl that was job shadowing the labor nurses that day in the room with me. The labor went pretty well. I was nauseous through the entire thing and was throwing up in between pushing. There was one point where I went to push and almost passed out I got so dizzy and the room started spinning and going black. They gave me oxygen between pushing so that helped. Then at 4:12 pm, little Joshua Jay Fowler was born. He was 8 pounds 8 ounces and 19.25 inches long. They put him right up on my chest (where he pee'd and pooped on me - of course). He was beautiful, so perfect, and so worth everything.

Once my epidural wore off (about 2 hours) we moved to a regular recovery room. Recovery went ok. They almost put my catheter back in, but about 30 minutes befor it was scheduled I was able to drain my bladder so they didn't have to. I was able to eat a little bit that night which made me feel a lot better too. Little Joshua did so well. He got a bit cold so we snuggled up to each other for the entire night that first night. We actually left the hospital 24 hours after delivery on Sunday around 5:00pm. My mom, Janae was able to travel up to help me for a week, which was GREAT. We were so lucky to have everything work out so well. Joshua is and was completely healthy and there weren't any complications with anything. We definitely count our blessings.