Hannah's birth

I always love to hear the stories and experiences of having a baby and so we remember July 28, 2008, here it goes....

Jon and I went to our scheduled OB appointment on Monday morning, knowing that there was the possibility that she'd send us to the hospital. We were hopeful that would be the case. Over the weekend, Jon had taken some of my urine to the ER and we discovered that the protein level had increased. While waiting for my doctor, we could hear lots of talk in the hall about one of the doctors being in a C-Section, another woman was crowning and 2 different hospitals were on the line for my doctor. I kept thinking that there was no way she was going to add us to the list of laboring families! But, she walked in and said "it looks like you're having a baby today - the protein level is even higher." Yeah! I was dilated to a 3, but the baby was still really high. So, we headed over to OSU Medical Center and started our day.

The hospital put us in triage so they could draw blood and see if my doctor would still let us do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesearean) or if she'd just want us to do a C-Section . We ended up being in triage for 4 hours. Oddly enough, when they put the monitor on, they discovered that I was contracting every 8 minutes. A couple hours later, it was down to every 5 minutes and a couple of hours after that, every 3 minutes. All that, without any pitocin. I'm beginning to wonder if I just need to walk through a hospital door to get started in labor! We finally got the go ahead that some liver tests were slightly elevated, but the doctor was still going to let us try. By this time, my mom and Becky had arrived at the hospital.

We went up to Labor and Delivery and got settled in a room. There were technical difficulties going on in the room with the wiring, so they had to wait until that was fixed so they could read my monitors at the nurses station. They got the pitocin started at 4:00. Because of testing positive for Group B Strep with Lindsey, they needed to get 2 rounds of antibiotics in - ideally 4 hours apart and ideally before breaking my water. They turned on the antibiotic and pitocin and we started. However, shortly after, Hannah's heart rate took a dive and they turned off the pitocin, had me turn on my side and I had to have an oxygen mask on most of labor. They decided they need to go ahead and break my water so that they could get an internal monitor on. The resident and nurse kept commenting on how much fluid there was, but it was clear, so we were glad about that.

They turned the pitocin back on, at the minimal amount and we continued. I asked for the epidural at 5:00. It took effect great - yeah! and after another dip in Hannah's heart rate, everything settled down. Jon and my mom left to go pick up the kids from Kirsten (who had had them all day), take them home, feed them dinner and come back. Our Bishop's wife, Caryl, came over at 7:30 and put the kids to bed.

My mom and Jon got back around 8:00ish. About an hour before that, I had only dilated to a 4. Around 8:30, I felt pressure and told the nurse. I guess by your 5th baby, you know what to report to the nurse. She checked me and sure enough, I was fully dilated and Hannah had moved down. They called the doctor and she said she's be there in 15 minutes. Rather than start getting me ready to push, my doctor told the nurses to wait until she got there (one of the blessings of delivering with the same doctor). She got there at 8:45, changed into scrubs, they got me ready and I pushed. About 3 pushes later, at 9:04 p.m., Hannah was out! It was incredible!

Jon, my mom and Becky were there and it was such a great moment to see this sweet, little baby take her first breath. They placed her on my chest, Jon let Becky cut the cord (which we discovered had a knot in it) and we started to adore her. She was breathing great, but wasn't crying, so they took her to the warmer to evaluate her. She was great (9 & 9 on the Apgar), but she just didn't want to cry. She was perfect and we instantly fell in love with her!

We're so very, very grateful that everything went so well! We were very much watched over and taken care of and we'll be eternally grateful for this new addition to our family! Welcome to Bowen craziness, Hannah!

Hannah Rebecca

Yeah! We are so glad that she is here! What a great blessing this little one has already been in our family already! (Thank you Becky for putting the post on the other day!) We did officially name her Hannah Rebecca Bowen. Hannah is the name of my great-grandmother, a woman of great dignity, testimony and love. Rebecca is the name of both my sister and Jon's sister. As Jon and I had our final "name discussion" at the hospital this morning, it FINALLY felt right to give her the name Hannah after this particular ancestoral line.

I will do a post soon about her birth! Her sisters can't get enough of her. They all love holding and kissing her. Jack, on the other hand, has only wanted to hold her once (and that was with a reward of M&M's). I think he secretly adores her, but apparently oohhing over a baby isn't his idea of manly. Hannah is a calm little baby and loves nursing, being held and talked to. It's fun to have a dark-haired baby again and we're anxious to see if her eyes are blue like the other kids or if she'll have brown eyes (which would be the first of 22 grandchildren for Jon's parents).

Thank you so much for all of the love and support we've received over the past several days, weeks and months!

She's here!!

Jeannette and Jon have another little baby GIRL!! She was born last night at 9:04 p.m, weighed in at 6lbs 6 ozs, and was 20 inches long. The name is still undecided but will most likely be Hannah Rebecca Bowen. Both Jeannette and the baby are doing great and the other kids were so excited to meet their new sister and happy she's finally here! More details coming soon

100% girl

Hopefully this isn't boring everyone to hear the baby updates...I went in today for a nonstress test and ultrasound this morning. Thankfully, the baby did great during the nonstress test and the ultrasound confirmed 100% that she is a girl. She weighs 6 pounds and has some hair. The tech tried to get a look at her face, or at least a profile, but she was facing away and then she had both her hands and feet up in her face. Comfy!

So, the next step is another urine test on Friday and then the doctor will see us on Monday morning for our scheduled appointment. Our last appointment on Monday gave us the sense that she was hoping to get through a few more days and then induce. Today, she gave me the sense that we'll just go as long as possible. That is great with us, as long as things don't go bad. The end of my pregnancies are really like an impossible puzzle to figure out! We'll keep you posted!

She may be here sooner than we thought!

Well, we had another doctor's appointment today and I am definitely showing signs of preeclampia again. So, the doctor has put me down on true bedrest (not just modified). I'll go back in on Wednesday for a non-stress test and ultrasound to see how big the baby is. They also took blood and urine for toxicology testing. Those results will be back tomorrow. But, she said that we will probably have her by the beginning of next week. Ahh! We're excited and nervous at the same time. We're just praying for some quick lung development!

Oh, what a week it has been!

This week's blogging hasn't been interesting at all...not too much to report. I'm happy to see this week come to an end, as we had several unexpected things (but nothing major - thank goodness) happen!

On Monday, the doctor discovered traces of protein in my urine. I went back Friday and they remeasured. Sure enough, there are traces, so I will go back Monday for another check and see what she wants us to do. We've hit the 36 week mark, so we're very grateful about that!

When I got home from the doctor on Monday, the washing machine was making a high, squealing sound and had a burning smell to it. Tuesday, the repair man informed us that it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Wednesday, Jon hit the streets to buy a new one. He was back within an hour and a half with a new one. (For those that know Jon - this is a record! I had imagined hour after hour of searching. We did that for our first Christmas tree and I nearly had to vow that I would never Christmas tree shop with him again). He brought it home, set it up, left for something and then I could hear this awful sound coming from the basement. I went down to find that it had shifted 90 degrees and was shaking vigorously. Oh no! The repairman came back on Friday and discovered that we had simply forgotten to remove the "discard this" label from the back that was attached to a small, metal pin. Thankfully, we have a fully functioning washing machine and the trips to the laundromat are a distant memory.

We also got notice that our landlord was raising our rent - again! And then I got stung by a bee on my toe, which really made me waddle for a day! We did get the rest of the bedrooms rearranged. We are getting bigger and our apartment is not! But, considering we'll have 8 people living in a 3-bedroom apartment, it's not that bad. I just have to be careful to not whack my head on the filing cabinet when I get out of bed.

Anyway, it really wasn't that bad of a week! It's nice to see week's like this come to an end. Like in all weeks, we've been extremely blessed with more than we deserve! We hope you're all keeping cool!

Father's & Son's Campout

Jack had a dream come true this weekend - he got to go camping with his dad! It finally worked out this year for Jon to have the Father's & Son's night off, so he and Jack headed to the hills for some camping. Jack asked every night of the week if it was Father's & Son's yet and was so excited when Friday night finally came. They had a great time roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, sleeping in a tent and just being together.

Pampering Shower

My incredible friend, Kirsten, threw me a "baby" shower this last week and it was so much fun. I had told her that it would be fun to get together with some friends and just have dinner together, but she always goes above and beyond. She had organized a "pamper Jeannette" shower and it was so much fun. We all met at a local restaurant called The Old Bag of Nails and we ate dinner. Then, all of these wonderful women, gave me so many nice things. I got gift cards for clothes, a quilt store and The Gap. Then, I also got some darling outfits for the baby, a new diaper bag, blanket and nursing blanket. Kirsten even topped it off with a yummy chocolate cake and party favors. It was really, really great and I feel so blessed and so lucky to have such amazing friends (and sister!) in my life! Thank you again Kirsten - and all of my dear friends!

How a 4 year old takes care of a 2 year old

Here's another funny Bowen story for you and a glimpse into our lives...last night Becky had an interview with her Bishop and I had a recipe exchange that I went to. I decided to take Emily and Lindsey with me, which left Jon, Jack and Kate home. The night before, Jon had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep since he was preparing a lecture for the next morning. Becky left, then I left with the girls. When I left, Jack and Kate were sitting at the kitchen table and Jon was asleep on the couch. I set a timer for 10 minutes and told Jack to wake dad up when it went off and then he'd give them a bath.

Fast forward an hour and a half later....Becky walks through the kitchen door and finds Jack and Kate still sitting at the kitchen table and Jon is now sleeping in the La-Z-Boy instead of the couch. Jack is playing Webkinz on the computer and Kate is just watching him play. Apparently, Jack had woken up Jon after the 10 minutes, Jon re-set the timer for 12 minutes, but it went off after 1 minute 20 seconds and then thought he'd just doze for a couple more minutes.

I got home about 5 minutes after Becky and we discovered that in order to keep Kate happy, Jack had gotten a pile of zoo pal plates out, then had gotten a package of grasshopper cookies out of the pantry and then finally, given her a glue stick. Kate had thoughtfully glued about 30 circle punches together that I had punched out earlier in the day. When I asked her about it, she was proud of her work and said "You're welcome" after I thanked her for her help.

I was grateful that the damage from an hour and a half on their own was only picking up a stack of plates, brushing cookie crumbs out of their teeth and scraping glue off the kitchen table. Thanks Jack! What a guy!

Let Freedom Ring!

We had a great 4th of July! It was rainy a lot of the weekend, but it cleared up just in time. We started the day going to the Upper Arlington parade. It's a great community parade. The kids were able to decorate and ride their bikes, thanks to Becky, who was willing to walk with them. Kate and I sat with Beth, Kyle and Kirsten and her kids and watched. Afterwards, we picked up the paraders and their very muddy bikes and headed home.

Jon woke up and then we all went to Wendy's for lunch! Then we had a relaxing afternoon while Becky went to a single's activity. Then we went to a BBQ at the Rasmussen's house. There were about 30 people and it had rained up until about an hour and a half before it started, but it ended up being great weather. It was nice and cool. We had yummy food, the kids played on the trampoline (with no one getting hurt, except for Kate, who's inexperience on a tramp caused her to just run off into a big puddle of mud), participated in a "ladder ball" tournament and enjoyed everyone's company! (Thank you Ammon & Kirsten for hosting such a fun celebration!) Then we went to watch our community's fireworks. The kids all loved them this year and it was a fun way to end the day. Jon also made a CD of patriotic music, so we drove home listening to "I'm Proud to Be An American." We are proud to be Americans!!! I think the 4th of July may be one of our family's favorite holidays.

Emily, Lindsey & Jack on their bikes

The kids with Becky

Kate

Jack with a nervous smile because of the sparkler

Lindsey

Emily

All 7 of us!

Chuck-E-Cheese

Becky took the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese this morning and they had a great time. We try to get there first thing when it opens because it's empty and many times they've checked all the games and there are already tickets hanging out of them. It's great to print coupons online and get even more for your buck. The kids played, traded their tickets for the usual junk and all came home with smiles. You're great Becky!

Winning tickets from skee ball

Becky & Jack