He's here!

Better late then never.....

Introducing Memphis Bowlin!

born December 2nd, 2010 at 8:47pm

8lbs 7oz - 21.5 inches

Here's a very abbreviated birth story-

• Labor was induced at 6am
• Full force contractions started at 8am coming every 2 minutes
• Natural childbirth was thrown completely out the window and I accepted the epidural at 9am
• Sometime in the early afternoon, the doctor came in to break my water. Apparently though, my water had already broken at some point but no one knew when. Memphis obviously was very unhappy about this procedure because his heartrate dropped to 50. The doctors turned my pitocin off, rolled me on me left side, and started me on oxygen. After a while, it was determined that everything was back to normal and that Memphis was doing great.
• I was finally ready to push around 6:45pm.
• After 15 total hours of labor (2 hours of pushing), Memphis entered the world.
  

We are so blessed to finally have Memphis in our arms. It has always been my dream to become a mom. It seems so unreal most days that my dreams have finally come true. Now if only I could figure out a way to freeze time so that my new little man would stay this little forever :)

Lots to say

Things have been pretty eventful around the Bowlin house lately. There are several updates to write and many pictures to post. Hopefully I will find the time to write Memphis' birth story and his one week birthday updates pretty soon. Until then, here are a few pictures that were taken at the hospital when Memphis was only one day old. :)

35/35

Well, we've hit another huge milestone. Last Thursday marked my 35th week of pregnancy. That means that I had 35 more days until my due date. In about a month, we will be holding little Memphis in our arms! I have been so lucky this pregnancy and can say that for the most part it has been rather easy. The last few weeks have become harder though since I've become so much bigger. Bending over to pick things up has really gotten tough. Poor Jason is left to get things off the floor and even help me get off the couch. Now, I'm experiencing a lot of sciatic nerve pain. This has made walking a literal pain in the butt. lol Other than that, Memphis and I are doing good and just waiting until he decides to make his grand entrance. Right now, I'm trying to get everything ready to go so that if he decided to come soon we will be ready. :) Can't wait to hold you baby boy! We love you!!!

Updates!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Jason and I have been very busy with work and trying to get the nursery ready. Since I've started teaching again, time seems to be speeding by. I have soooooo many updates, that it'll be easier for me to put them in more of a bullet format. Please bare with me. :)

• Currently I am 28 weeks 5 days. Definately in the 3rd trimester now. Not too much longer. :)


• Jason and I have started our unmedicated birthing class. So far, we've benefited the most from the relaxation techniques. We have 4 more classes to go.


• I passed the glucose testing which means I don't have gestational diabetes. Woo Hoo! Currently though, my iron is a little low. I definately need to be more conscious about what I'm eating.


• Memphis is a very active little boy. I can feel him moving through out most of the day. I love it though. Every now and then I'll get a pretty strong kick or punch that will actually startle me. I can even feel him stretching now and pushing across my stomach.


• At our last appointment, our midwife said that she thinks he's already in the head down position which is a huge positive.


• I told the midwife that I was having some strong pains on the left side of my ribs. She felt around, laughed, and said that he had positioned his little bottom up by my ribs. That must be why my ribs hurt so bad. He is definately situated on my left side. That's where I feel the most activity.


• I have another ultrasound on Oct. 11 (32 weeks) to check out if I still have placenta previa. We are really keeping our fingers crossed that everything will check out okay.


• Nursery projects are finally getting finished. All of the painting is done, we purchased a crib and my dad stained our dresser/changing table. It's so amazing to see everything coming together. Once we have everything close to finished I'll post some pictures. The one I'll post now though is of DIY project I just completed. We are going to hang his name over the crib.

Thanks for reading!! :)

growing baby

This week, we had another OB checkup. The office visit was pretty uneventful this time. Memphis had a strong heartbeat at 163 bpm. The doctor said that everything still looks great with me and Memphis. I scheduled my next appointment for mid September which is when I will do the glucose testing to see if I have gestational diabetes. Fingers crossed that I pass it and everything goes great.

This week, we reached 24 weeks. I can't believe how fast everything is going. Jason and I have been a lot busier lately so that has made time go by even faster. Before you know it, baby Memphis will be here ready to meet everyone. He is already a very active little boy. I feel him kicking me throughout the day but at night, he seems to get really worked up and kicks even harder. Jason is actually able to feel him kick now and if you look close enough, you can see him kicking. :) He must have gone through a huge growth spurt in the past week because I have really "popped". See for yourself in the picture below. There's definately more of a baby bump there then there used to be. :)

Cutest Baby

We have the cutest baby ever! I guess all parents say that about their children but when you see pictures of your little one, even before they're born, you really do think that. Today, we went in for our 20 week anatomy scan. The ultrasound tech looked at Memphis really close to make sure he didn't have any deformaties and that he was growing like he should. (And by the way, he's still a boy. lol I had a fear that since we already painted the nursery, we would go in and they would say "Congratulations, but.....it's a girl haha.) The tech said that she didn't see anything wrong and that he was right now target as far as his weight and length. Right now, we have a 10.5 in, 14 ounce baby boy. :) I was starting to get concerned because I really haven't gained any weight. I lost 3 lbs in the beginning and all I've gained back are those same 3 lbs so really I'm right back to where I started. Our midwife told us that she wasn't concerned yet though, since Memphis was growing well. She did mention though that right now I have placenta previa. She told me that right now she wasn't concerned about it but that we'd just have to keep an eye on it. This could determine later on if I'll have a natural delivery or need a c-secition. We were able to get several new pictures of Memphis :) We've already decided that Memphis definately has his Mommy's nose. The quality of the ones I've posted aren't great though. Our scanner isn't working so I had to take a picture of the ultrasound picture. Some of them might be a little blurry because of this.

He think he's waving Hi to us in this picture.

He looks like such a happy baby in this picture! I can just imagine him giggling :)

Half Baked! and nursery pics

Today, baby Memphis and I reached a huge milestone - 20 weeks of pregnancy! Wow!! 20/40 means we're halfway there. It's crazy to think how fast this pregnancy is going by and I know that as the weeks keep passing, it will feel like it's going faster and faster. Once I go back to school on Aug. 16th, time will seem to fly by! I can't believe we will be meeting him so soon. I can't wait to hold him in my arms. So in honor of our occasion, I've taken my bump picture with a pint of Half Baked ice cream YUM YUM! :)

We are now almost finished painting the nursery. Since deciding to do Memphis' room in a pirate theme, I have been brainstorming how to accomplish this in a fun, animated way. We decided that one of the walls would be devoted to a large painting of a pirate ship. You have seen my excitement when Jason agreed to this. Seriously, my obsession with skulls and pirates has made this nursery makeover sooo much fun. :) After that, we needed to decide how to paint the other three walls without making them feel too nautical. I wanted his nursery to be focused solely on pirates and not on other nautical aspects like lighthouses, anchors, whales, etc. We finally agreed to paint half of the wall tan and then paint the bottom half in stripes of blue. To tie everything together, we used roping between the halfs to act almost as a chair rail. We think that everything has come together so nicely and I must say that I think we did a fantastic job on the pirate ship. haha That's obviously my favorite thing so far. Now we just need to actually furnish the room lol. I can't wait until everything comes together and we can put the finishing touches on his room. I have found some of the cutest pirate baby things on etsy.com.

nursery theme

After finding out that IT'S A BOY we decided on doing the nursery in a pirate theme. :) I am soooo excited to do it. If you know me, you know how I love all things skulls and have a wierd fascination with pirates and eye patches. I've actually been able to find a really cute crib set with pirates. We are in the middle of painting the room right now so when we get the painting finished I'll post a picture.

Until then, I'll leave you with my lastest bump picture. This was taken at 18weeks while my famliy and I were at Shakertown. I don't feel like I'm really that big yet although I feel like it's definately noticeable now that I'm pregnant. Until about a week ago I was just looking like I had been eating too much. haha Now's the time to start shopping for more maternity clothes.

Introductions

Well, this is it - my first post. Since we have so much going on right now, I decided to share everything with you all-our friends and family. This way, no matter how far away you are, you will be updated on our little Bowlin family. :)
To catch everyone up to speed I'll just let you know that Jason is currently in school to get a degree in Addictions and I (Tiffany) am still teaching prek and trying to make up my mind as to what I'd like to get my master's degree in. Thumper and Desh are doing fabulous and living the lazy life. Usually the can be found sleeping under blankets on the couch or bed. The cat Molly is also wonderful. Apparently we must be very boring people because really all Molly does is sleep (when she's not being chased by Desh). We are slowly starting to get our apartment decorated and just how we want it. Although I feel like our bedroom is probably a lost cause. Jason and I always say that it feels like we've been together forever but really we've been married less than a year. During these months as a married couple, we haven't really done a lot of eventful things. We've watched a ton of movies, ate a lot (it seems like that's all we do haha) and just enjoyed each other.
***Now for the BIG news- We are expecting our first child, Memphis Bowlin, on Dec. 2nd. We are so excited! This is not only our first child but also the first grandchild for both families. Everyone is looking forward to spoiling him to no end and watching him grow for many years. I currently love being pregnany and seeing my little bump get bigger. I also like to play the pregnancy card (much to Jason's dismay) to get out of doing things. :) We've been to the doctor several times already and have been fortunate to have 3 ultrasounds. He's looking great and has a strong heartbeat. We go back to the doctor on July 19th for another ultrasound so we'll let you know how big he is then.

Thanks for checking out our blog :) I'm not really sure how well I'll do writing and updating these posts. I'll warn you that I tend to be a little distractable and all over the place so if they don't make sense sometimes I'm really sorry.