The DandJ Edition

My younger brother Garrett has been in town since Zach was born on July 1st. We decided to go swimming last Friday so he could have a chance to get out of the apartment. Hanging out all day with a new mom and her baby was probably getting old for a 17 year old boy.

I got some free swim passes to the Helaman Halls pool and Derrick got off work a little early. We decided that since we were going swimming Zach should dress the part (even though he slept in his car seat the whole time). In case anyone was worried, we kept a close eye on him the whole time. Here are a few pictures to document Zach's first trip to the pool.

Zachary is officially 3 weeks and 2 days old today. It's been really fun to see Zach grow and learn that there is a world around him. He still needs to eat about every 2 hours and sleeps a lot but his periods of alertness are getting longer.

His 2 week appointment was on Tuesday, July 15th. The stats are as follows:
Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz (birth weight was 6 lbs 8 oz)
Height: 20.5 in (birth height was 19.75 in)
Head: 38 cm
These measurements were all pretty close to the 50 percentile.

Last Saturday (the 19th) I was changing Zach's diaper in the morning and was surprised to see that the raisin-like umbilical stump was no longer attached. (It'd fallen under him in his onesie). Zach has now joined the majority of people in the world and has a real belly button.

So not surprisingly, becoming a parent comes with lots of changes. The main reason I have time to post right now is because Derrick and my siblings who are currently in the area are at the movie theater watching The Dark Knight. Zach is sleeping as usual and making his funny grunting noises. That kid is going to be quite the sleep talker.


Just making it so Derrick and I can see this movie we've been anxiously waiting to see has been quite the juggling act. Because Zach eats like crazy and sometimes can't even wait 2 hours between meal times, we decided going to a 2 1/2 hour long movie on Pioneer Day when the theaters are crazy wasn't a good idea. To have any chance at getting good seats you have to get there extra early and I'd feel like a terrible parent making Zach wait so long for food while I'm at a movie. Also, that babysitting experience probably would have scared my sister Melissa and her husband Nate away from watching Zach again. The only reason I let Derrick go without me (and am not bitter about it) is because he's busy M-F working and Saturdays he works at the temple so this is his only day off until Labor day. Also, my dad and I are going to go see it as a daddy/daughter date when he comes out for Zach's baby blessing this next week. My mom is great with Zach and can help him happily wait the 3 - 3 1/2 hours he'll need to wait between feedings. Who would have thought going to a movie would take so much planning?

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

We checked into the hospital at 1 am and I was told to change into a gown and was checked to see if my water had broken like I guessed it did. That test proved positive so they started hooking me up to monitors. It was such a weird feeling to realize that the next time we went home we would be parents. I was calling my mom throughout the night giving her updates. Since none of us expected the baby to come so soon or so fast (and in the middle of the night) she was pretty unsure what to do. She decided she and my brother Garrett would start driving early in the morning but they were so excited that they gave up trying to sleep and started driving at 3:30 am.

When I got to the hospital I was pretty effaced (I wasn't told any exact measurements) and dilated to about a 2. I steadily continued to dilate and was at about a 5 between 3 and 4 am. Every time I started to relax and go to sleep my contractions seemed to get worse so by 3-3:30 am I asked for the epidural. Having the needle stuck into my spine by a guy wearing a do-rag scared the heck out of me but was completely worth it once the epidural took effect. It was really weird to lose feeling from my waist down. My left side went a lot more numb than my right. I couldn't move my left leg at all and at one point couldn't find where it was under the blanket. (Hard to explain). I was jealous of Derrick who got to sleep for about 2 hours. Every time I almost fell asleep some nurse would come in to measure something.

Around 4:30 am I was put on pitocin to speed things along since my water had broken so long ago. The baby's heartbeat started to slow down and worry the nurses but luckily would pick back up every time they did things to try to wake Zach up. By 5:30am I had dilated to a 10 and Zach was ready to come. My bed was missing a stirrup so a nurse went hunting for one to take from another bed and my doctor was called into the room.

Everyone got into position about 6 am and I started pushing. It was really hard work and got exhausting fast. I was very glad I didn't need to feel the contractions while I was focusing on pushing. Epidurals are wonderful. Derrick was great and right next to me the whole time helping me get into position between pushes. We had to stop for a couple minutes in the middle of pushing so I could get a quick 2nd dose of penicillin through the IV. After a few more pushes Zachary James Bowen was born at 6:21 am. We stayed at the hospital until around 4:30 pm July 2.

Visitors at the hospital: Grandma Jones, Garrett Jones, Melissa Sharp, Nate Sharp, Grandma Bowen, Tara Anderson, and Bishop Thorne.

So I've been meaning to write for awhile now about my experience having Zachary (for journalistic purposes) but surprisingly (said with sarcasm) I've been tired and kept busy. Now that I've gotten around to posting, here it goes:

- Caution: I will be including terms like mucous plug and dilation so feel free to skip if you'd rather not hear about that :)


Monday, June 30, 2008

This was my last day of work because it was the day my student status expired. I graduated back in December but was able to extend my student status for 6 months because there had been a shortage in student employees. Also, Derrick and I attended the ward camp out Friday night and Saturday (June 27-28).

In the morning before work I noticed that I was having some weird discharge (don't worry, I won't go into detail there). I called a nurse at my OB/GYN just to make sure that this was okay. I was told that I had passed the mucous plug. I was first told to go to labor and delivery which seemed weird since I wasn't having contractions. The nurse called back about 10 minutes later to tell me she had talked to my doctor and I didn't need to rush to the hospital. I could go into labor either today or in a couple of weeks (the due date was 2 weeks away) so I should wait to go to the hospital until I was having contractions. Thanks nurse.

Since labor didn't seem pending I went swimming with my friend Tara and went to work as usual from 12-5 where I said my goodbyes and was given a plant which Derrick and I have surprisingly not killed yet. After leaving work I noticed that I was leaking a little. I found out later this was because my water broke but I didn't think too much of it at the time because it wasn't the dramatic flood I'd been expecting.

That night Derrick and I went about things as usual. We took a long walk for FHE and by the end I noticed a stomachache, backache, and that I was starting to waddle a bit because walking hurt. We turned on a movie when we got back and I worked on the crib bumpers I've been making for Zachary.

Around 11:o0 pm I noticed that my stomachache was cramping and decided to call my mom to see what contractions were supposed to feel like. She was able to confirm I was having contractions and told me to start timing them and let her know when they were 10 minutes apart so she could have time to drive the 8 1/2 hours from Colorado. I went to Derrick and surprised him with the news that I thought I was going into labor and we started timing contractions. The contractions were a constant 6 minutes apart and starting to get stronger and more painful fast. By 12:30 am the contractions were only 3 minutes apart so we jumped in the car and drove to the hospital and called our parents to let them know the grandson was coming.

So the out of town parents were hoping for a few more pictures of the grand-baby. Here you go, two weeks down, 5510* to go.


Here's a close up of Zach-o in his very first Sunday outfit. About 15 minutes after this picture he had his very first Sunday diaper blow-out and had to switch clothes. Now he's back to being a pirate. (it actually was his first official blow out as well, as I'm sure you are excited to hear)

Our dignified after church family photo shoot.

It took a coupla tries to get a dignified photo from the shoot.

One of the times when Daddy was sleeping but Zach wasn't. Usually Zach is most awake between 11 and 1:30 at night.

He's been quite the professional pee-er, and managed to squirt through all the extra clothes we packed (as well as Derrick's lap and Melissa's shirt). We brought him back from Great-Grandparents Jones in a toga made of a waterproof lay down thingy and burp cloth.

This is what happens when Jen takes a nap and leaves her family to take care of Zachary

oooo, cool hat.

oooo, cool hat.


He's an excellent driver.

The Official 1 week picture of the momma and the babe.


*(that's assuming he lives to be 106)

oooooo how cute....

So our little boy apparently got impatient and decided to come 12 days early.

Stats:
Name: Zachary James Bowen
Birthday: July 1, 2008
Birth time: 6:21 am
Weight: 6 1/2 pounds
Height 19 3/4 in.

We were really blessed. Zachary and I are doing great. The labor went quickly, epidurals are wonderful inventions, and the baby had no complications. Derrick or I will add pictures of our really cute baby and more of the details once I get more sleep.