WOW! I have been wanting to write Willow’s birth story but somehow the days are passing by SO fast and I haven’t even had a chance to sit down and write it out! SO since her 1 month is coming up NEXT WEEK ALREADY, I had to put down my little babe and actually write a blog 😉 Goodness, I never knew how much I would love this special time and have zero desire to do anything but snuggle this little bundle of Joy! 

It is seriously hard for me to believe she is almost 1 month on the 23rd, I will be blogging about her 1st month next week (Lord, Willing!!)  But for today, I want to formally introduce to you all Willow Grace Bowman who was born on September 23, 2017 at 3:50am. She came rushing into the world and changed our lives forever. We have never been more in love. here is our sweet girl: and below is our birth story along with more photos of our time in the hospital ! ENJOY!

Willow’s Birth Story

For the last 9 Month, I wondered how she would make her entrance. I still cant believe how fast my pregnancy felt. I tell everyone the 1st 20 weeks was harder for me then the last 20 weeks. I finally had kicked the morning sickness and all the nasty UTI’s and the kidney infection I had. The last 20 weeks were FLYING by and I was loving each moment and watching my belly grow. The last month of pregnancy the overcoming fear of oh my goodness, she has to come out came over me.  You hear lots and lots of stories and you wonder what your experience would be like. As many people are trying everything they can to go into labor, we were trying to finish up our home before she arrived and praying she would stay in a little longer 😉  I was loving being pregnant, I loved having a bump, feeling her kick, all of her hiccups, and wasn’t to uncomfortable yet. But I had NO idea how much I was going to love having her not in my belly and here every day. Oh goodness it has been amazing. 

It was Thursday, September 21st and I had my 39 week appointment. I was at 1cm and about 50% effaced. Not much was happening but at least something was. We spent most of this appointment talking bout what if she doesn’t come on her own and when will we start to plan for that. My dr. who is sweet as can be, said we can worry about that next week at your appointment. You never know what will happen between now and then. She said, “I am on call this weekend, if anything does” I kinda laughed and said yeah right, I am at a 1 and my sister has never gone into labor, I probably wont either. I had made a pedicure appointment that afternoon to just prepare for her arrival coming soon. The ladies were too funny and making bets I was going to go into labor that weekend and I laughed at them. I said, doubtful, I am not progressing much and I still feel really good. That night, my sister had come into town for a girls night and she wanted to see me before the babe came. I was feeling more pressure that night then I had been feeling but Willow was moving around like CRAZY kicking and dancing. Morgan and I were dying because she was moving so much. We stayed up late, laughing and talking about delivery and what to expect. Morgan is a labor and delivery nurse so she was giving me all the help 😉 We went to bed late and when I woke up Friday morning, I felt like a truck had hit me. I remember Trevor coming in to say bye to me before work, and I told him I didn’t feel good at all and was super nauseas. That whole morning I was feeling off but I just figured I didn’t sleep great and was just tired. My mom and sister, Shannon and her kids were all coming for a fun weekend as well so I didn’t want to be getting sick! That Morning, Morgan I ran some errands and I struggled through it. I was having lots of back pain and neck pain and was still nauseas. I had zero thoughts of going into labor. We got back to the house after lunch and I took an hour nap before the rest of the family got here. When I woke up I felt a little better. My nausea had subsided but my back pain was still there along with some lower pelvic pain. I figured if anything my body was 39+ weeks pregnant and the babe was barring down. When my mom, Shannon and the kids got to my house we packed up and headed to the pumpkin place. Oh I didn’t mention it was also 90+ degrees outside!!! So we were all dying of the heat. haha We played at the pumpkin place for a while, I sat mostly in the van because I still wasn’t feeling great. We went and got ice cream after. We relaxed for a little time at home before heading to the fields to visit Trev. When we were out there, the pains in my back and lower abdomen started to get worse and I just knew something was off, but was in denial that it was any type of contractions. When we got home around 5:30, i showered for the 3rd time that day (the only way I could relax and release some aches in my back) the pain started to get worse and from 6:00 on my mom and sister started timing my “pains” also known as contractions, even though I didn’t think they were, everyone had told me they would be high in my belly and all my pains were low and my back just ached. Well little did i know, I was going into labor and these pains that were contractions were 4 minutes apart. Then an hour later they were 3 minutes apart. Trevor was still in the fields, thankfully my sister and mom were home with me. I was either laying in bed or trying to walk them off outside, but they were not going anywhere, they started getting 2-3 minutes apart for a solid 2 hours. I called the hospital and they told me to come in and be checked out, I was still sure that I was NOT in labor and we were going to be sent home, as I was crying packing my things up. My mom and Shannon were SO excited because they new the baby was coming, along with Josie, Mya and Gia! Their dream of me going into labor while they were up was coming true!!!  Trevor got home at 8:45, showered and we were admitted at 9:05pm. The nurse had to reassure me I was in labor and I wasn’t going home, but that the little babe was coming!

So, its 9:05pm. My contractions were now 2 minutes apart and I was in some serious pain. However, I was only 1-2cm and 75% effaced. I was bummed because I for sure thought I had to be father along, but my sweet Nurse Brittney was not concerned and had a feeling thing would progress quickly because of my contractions. SO, They called up for an epidural and while we were waiting for that, I felt a gush of water and thought I either peed myself or my water had just broke. Sure enough my water broke and my contractions were picking up even more.  By 10:45pm I got my epidural and finally was getting some relief from the contractions.  Thank the Lord!! I was now at 3cm. When I came in I did have a low grade fever, so they were keeping an eye not that. My epidural didn’t take full, I could feel some of my contractions on the left side, but they were so much better then before the epidural. Suddenly the babes heart rate dropped twice and the nurses got concerned, so my dr. was called in and they placed an internal monitor on her to watch her closely, This was around 12am. Thankfully her heart rate didn’t drop anymore but I was thankful to be watched closely. When Dr. Clark had arrived, she checked me again at 12am and I was now at 5cm and fully effaced. Things were moving quickly and I was still in shock this was all happening! haha My fever stared slowly going up throughout labor. They turned me on my side to see if I would progress more and I was feeling my contractions pick up (only could feel them on my left side) and I began to feel more pressure. They checked me again at 1:30am and I was 9cm. Clark was shocked and said alright we will get things ready for you to start pushing soon! I remember being shocked, scared (esp because I could feel some pain on my left side) and so excited to meet our babe. They checked me again at 1:50am and I was a 10 and they got things ready and by 2am I started pushing. My contractions were coming every 1.5 minutes and I could feel them coming to know when to push. During this time, my fever had started to spike and my blood pressure was high along with my heart rate. My fever climb up over 102 while pushing and they started me on an antibiotic. They were not sure why I was spiking such a high fever.  Trevor was by my side the whole time. He was such an amazing coach and was encouraging me on each push. I was getting exhausted. I remember dosing off between contractions which were coming so fast. I pushed for 1.5 hours and because of the stress I was in with my fever the babes heart rate started to climb. It was around 3:15-3:30am and Dr. Clark was getting little concerned with the babes heart rate being over 200 for so long. They could see the distress we both were in. They suggested that if things didn’t move forward in the next few pushes they would use a vacuum suction to help move her out quickly. My Fever was still over 102 and the babes heart rate was sitting at 200. They decided to go ahead and move forward with the vacuum suction. I knew our baby girl needed to come out and her heart rate needed to come down. I was starting to panic and I wanted her out Now! I remember looking at Trevor and saying she needs to come out NOW!!! How do we get her out now! He calmed me down and reassured me that she was going to come, just to keep pushing. Thankfully everyone was so so calm and with a few good pushes and the vacuum suction, Our sweet girl made her grand entrance at 3:50am and there was an overwhelming amount of joy, relief and tears. I couldn’t believe our baby was HERE!!!!!!! It was such a surreal moment for us to see her and know that she was ours and she was FINALLY here!!! Trevor cut the cord and they put her on my chest. But unfortunately, She didn’t come out kicking and screaming like we had imagined. She was more or less “stunned” from the birth. They took after a minute to check her out and since I had a fever they wanted to make sure she was okay. My fever was still up over 102. I could see them working on Willow, she wasn’t crying and I remember panicking but also had a reassuring feeling everything was going to be okay. She was wide awake, just wasn’t crying much or moving her limps much. They kept her for a good 45 minutes, cleaned out her lungs, gave her positive pressure, and continually checking her vitals. She had spiked a fever of 101 after birth. SO this was also why they had her for a while to make sure she was okay. I remember Trevor praying with me that everything would be okay and I would calm down. I knew she was in good hands and there wasn’t anything I could do. I was just wanting her so so badly to be in my arms. It was the LONGEST 45 minutes, but I am thankful they were taking good care of her.  Once they finally placed her on my chest and I could see her my heart grew 10 times, tears were coming and the amount of joy was overwhelming. I couldn’t believe she was here and how fast it all happened. I was preparing myself for a 24+hour labor and 7 hours labor we had our baby girl in our arms. Once Trevor and I got to love on her and look at her, we settled on her name, Willow Grace Bowman. I had loved Willow, for years, Once I saw her, I couldn’t imagine her name not being Willow. Grace is my mom’s name, so that is were her middle name comes from.

She was perfect in every way all 7lbs 7oz and 18.5 inches long and her chubby cheeks and lips 🙂 I couldn’t stop staring at her. After about an hour of getting to hold her, they had to take her to run some more test to make sure everything was okay. They took blood (because we both had fevers, they wanted to culture it), did an X-ray to see her lungs, and they placed an IV in her foot because she was going to be getting antibiotics as well. We finally got to our room around 7:30am and Trevor and I both tried to get some sleep. I was still on a high so I didn’t sleep much. But 9:30am, our family started showing up and it quickly became the BEST DAY. I was on cloud 9 and we were so so so in love. We loved having our family coming and visiting. Everyone was so wonderful. Thank you for all the food, gifts and love!! We couldn’t be more thankful for all their help. 

All of Willow’s test came back good, but Because we both had fevers, we ended up being on antibiotics for 48 hours. Willow was on 2 antibiotics and I was on 3 different kinds. They were not sure why we had spiked fevers. When our cultures came back on Monday, morning everything was good. They basically said that I could have had a uterine infection, which can happen during delivery and that is what they treated me with. I also have a history of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and they said that could have played a factor as well. But THANKFULLY we were both okay! We got to stop our antibiotics on Monday Morning, but they wanted to watch us off the antibiotics for 24 hours to make sure nothing spiked again. We both were cleared and finally able to be discharged on Tuesday morning. Even though I didn’t expect to be in the hospital for 4 days, but I am SO thankful of the amazing care we had and for being healthy when we went home. Delivering at Wyandot Memorial Hospital was an amazing experience and the nursing staff and Dr’s taking care of me and Willow were all wonderful. Thank you thank you thank you! 

Once Tuesday came and we finally got our discharge papers it was the best feeling getting to take our baby girl home. Willow Grace you have forever changed us and we couldn’t be more excited and honored to be your Mom & Dad. We love you to the moon and back! 

And that’s our birth story.

xoxox

Willow Grace Bowman | Born at 3:50am | 7lbs 7oz | 18.5 inches 

Big thank you to Lindsey Scholz Photography for coming and documenting a Fresh 48 MORE TO COME!