Caroline Opal Bowman

Caroline Opal greeted the world Friday, March 20th at 9:17 pm weighing in at 7 pounds and 5 ounces. We arrived at the hospital around 5:30 pm, were admited about 7 and she was here a little over 2 hours later! She has made a reputation as the baby who had the super fast delivery. After they broke my water, she was here about 45 minutes later. Without an epidural, it was definitely one of the most painful experiences of my life, but the recovery has been amazing. We wish we were headed home tonight, but since she arrived late in the evening, we'll be headed home tomorrow morning. Jack seems to be okay with her since she brought him a gift of helicopters and airplanes. We'll see what it's like once we get home. Pictures to follow soon!

38 weeks

I am now 38 weeks pregnant and ready for a baby! At this point, I am 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. I think I was a bit jinxed when the doctor said I wouldn't make it through the weekend. With that in mind, Jack went to spend the weekend with Grammy and Grandpa in Knoxville so that he would be well taken care of if we had to jet to the hospital. Since everything was all in line and it would have been very convenient, no baby yet! We've definitely missed Jack, but know he's had a blast visiting. We'll get to see him later today.


So now we just keep waiting to see when this baby is going to decide to come. Back to work again tomorrow! I keep hearing, "why are you here??" I can't just sit at home and wait for the baby to get here. We've been trying all kinds of the natural induction methods, but nothing yet. I'm really hoping not to be induced as I want to have a drug-free delivery if possible. So any suggestions on how to get things moving would be great!

Progress!

I am currently a little over 36 weeks along now and making a good bit of progress towards baby being here. After my doctor's appt today, I am almost 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced (not in labor though). That's exciting, but I really need to work one more week so that I don't have to go back this school year. So it sounds like we could have some exciting days to come here soon!

35 weeks

Again, I can't believe how fast the time is going! Here is an updated picture from last weekend (34 weeks). Can you tell I'm just about ready? I'm down to weekly appointments now at the doctor. This next week they will check me to see if I've start dilating or effacing (not that I'm going to get my hopes up if I am!). Anyways, we need to keep baby in a few more weeks so that I don't have to go back to school this year. We've had so many snow days that I will be cutting it close.

Anyways, here's a picture courtesy of my mom. Grammy and Grandpa came to visit last weekend and let Tommy and me go on a date for Valentine's day! You know you are married when you go eat the best and messiest ribs on what is supposed to be the most romantic day of the year. We had a really nice time though.

30 weeks

30 weeks (or really 31 now that I'm finally posting this!)...wow! I can't believe it has gone so fast (up until this point anyways). So far things have gone really well, but now I'm getting incredibly uncomfortable with not being able to sleep and having horrible indigestion. The past week it has not been uncommon for me to fix the boys one dinner/meal and then I just eat oatmeal. Nothing else seems to really have any appeal. Hopefully the baby will drop a bit here soon and give me some relief.

On another note, we had a fetal echo last Friday and the baby's heart looks great! They were able to watch the blood flow and see that there don't seem to be any holes letting blood pass to places it shouldn't. They were also able to tell us that the baby is looking big! The baby is measuring about a week and a half bigger than normal. They didn't indicate whether that could mean an earlier baby or just a big baby. I guess time will tell! I even got to have a couple of 3-D pictures taken. The baby was in an odd position and up against the placenta, so they weren't the best. Here's one decent one though. Still though, we resisted on finding out boy or girl!

Getting bigger!

Jack likes loving on the baby.

Baby's face

Baby feet

3-D picture of the baby's face. You can see the nose, mouth, eye and an arm over the forehead.

2 years ago today

2 years ago today was probably the scariest day of our lives. On January 8, 2007, Jack, who was 3 months old, was taken in for open heart surgery to repair the ASD/VSD that were greatly impacting his life. I take today and reflect back to the emotions that Tommy and I shared that day as well as all that we have been through over these past 2 years. All I can say is that we truly are blessed by God to have such a precious little boy. Here are a few pictures of Jack the day of surgery...

His chest before surgery.

Getting ready to head to the hospital.

A few days post-op

Several days after surgery and starting to play again

Back home with a new chest!

I also took the time today to read back over the carepage posting that I made over the first day of surgery. Here it is below. I actually wrote this the day after....

January 9, 2007

WOW. What a 24 hour period it has been. We finally got to see Jack around 4 yesterday afternoon. Nothing could have ever prepared us for what we would see. He was hooked to a ventilator and had tubes coming out from every direction. It completely broke our hearts. To be honest, we thought before surgery and the wait during was going to be the roughest part. Boy were we naive! Nothing could ever compare to the emotions we've felt in the last 24 hours. We know this is all for the best and the surgery has fixed Jack, but what we wouldn't give to see him give us that gummy grin!

Some of you are probably wanting to talk to us and see how things are going. We will probably not be making phone calls for a bit longer. We are completely drained and still trying to take in all of these changes. But also, there are absolutely no cell phones in the CICU. So, be patient with us. We will update and make calls as soon as possible. All of your thoughts are so appreciated. It has made us feel so good to read all of the great posts! We truly are blessed people!

So, here's a rundown of how things went last night. The nurses were optimistic that Jack would rouse and have his ventilator removed last night. Unfortunately, Jack's blood pressure got to be pretty high and stayed that way. Some of the reasons were that he was given some blood, he had his hands restrained (to keep him from pulling out his ventilator tube and other lines), and that his heart rhythms were a bit out of balance. This last reason caused the doctors to use the pacer wires that were put in during surgery to hook Jack up to a pacemaker. Apparently it is fairly common for little babies' hearts to get a bit out of coordination after heart surgery. So hopefully a couple of days with some pacing will get him back on track. They tried to take him off of it this morning, but he still needed a little help. Because of the ventilator still being in place, the nurses had to give Jack some extra sedation to stay still. And being the wiggle worm that we know and love, he fought it. They ended up having to give him a pretty heavy sedating medicine to let him rest. This morning Jack woke up from his sedation and was ready to move. The doctors were hoping this might mean that he was ready to come of the ventilator. They were going to take it out, but they tested him first to see how he would breathe on his own. Unfortunately, his oxygen levels dropped to between 50 and 60. The levels should be above 90. So, they decided to keep him on the ventilator alittle longer. They are going to check him again later this afternoon to see if he is ready.

Tommy and I are spending every moment with him. He can still grip our fingers with his little hand. He responds to us when we talk to him and we rub his head. We like to think these little things give him a bit of comfort in this time of overwhelming new things. We hope that sometime tomorrow he will be transferred to the step-down unit. We'll also be axious to see if with his fixed heart he wakes up with a big boy appetite. Only time will tell.

We thank God for bringing Jack into our lives. All of this really puts things in perspective for us and makes us enjoy life and Jack so much more. I am even looking forward to hearing his cry and changing his diapers again! But even more so, watching his face light up and almost hearing a belly laugh as we sing "Old McDonald." He is such a little warrior. Fighting during surgery and even know as he is recovering. We know he has an amazing future in store!

Back to the present:

So, a lot has changed since that day. You can look back to see all the pictures of Jack the last couple of months. We saw the cardiologist, Dr. Hirsch, today for Jack's yearly check up. The doctor was so impressed with how well Jack was doing. Of course, he mentioned that Jack is not the biggest child that he has ever seen, but he has definitely gained weight. He also mentioned the mischievious grin that he possesses. Wonder what side he gets that from? Anyways, long enough...just sharing our blessings and thanking all for their love and support!

Santa...

We finally made it to see Santa this morning. Jack has been talking about him non stop. Last year's photo was also rather interesting. I'll post it first and then see if you can see an improvement for this year. I thought the Grinch shirt was a nice touch (thanks Grammy!).

Last year....

Now this year...

Maybe nest year will be a little less tearful. It could be more intesting though, considering we will have 2 in the picture.

We hope everyone has a great Christmas. We'll be here at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We will head to Knoxville for a visit the day after. We look forward to Jack's Christmas morning tomorrow. More pictures to come!