No joke

I think April Fools Day came early for me.

Last Wednesday morning I had to leave the Hospital to go home, pick up our dog (Tekoa the 100lb princess), and take her to Downtown Hownds for taxidermy... I mean a good cleaning. Well, that Monday the dog had gotten sick... really sick, and the smell of vomit still followed her closely. Being the good husband that I am I put her in my Jeep instead of Kendra's MDX. As soon as the dog jumped in the back she seemed focused on something in the front of the Jeep. I looked up at the dashboard and saw a little bird. Yes, there was a bird in my car. Now this is not a nice little bird. This is the little bird that sits on the side mirrors and fights with itself and poops down the side of any car parked near the front of our house. And now it was in my Jeep. I had left the front window cracked over the weekend and that dumb bird got in and couldn't figure out how to get out. I have no idea how long the bird was in there, but it was long enough for it to leave it's signature all over the dashboard, headrests, and steering wheel.

Since I was already running late I didn't have time to go find the boys Red Ryder BB gun or let the dog and bird play tag, so I opened the door and let the bird out. After wiping down a few important areas I got in and drove my vomit smelling dog downtown in the Jeep filled with bird poo.

I'm thinking this was God's way of preparing me for the messes to come. (yes, I've already changed a few of Catherines diapers.)

While you were sleeping

I took this photo a few days ago while Catherine was sleeping. As I sat there and watched her move and make faces in her sleep I could only assume she was dreaming. Then I thought about that for a minute. She has never seen a lion, tiger or bear. Never really seen a flower, bird, or bunny (that's what little girls dream about right?). She doesn't even know how good chocolate can taste or how bad a skunk can smell. So, What do babies dream about? Any ideas? I guess we'll never really know. I can only hope that her dreams, whatever they are, are beautiful.

What you're really looking for.

Sorry it's taken me so long to post more of these.
I know these are what you're really looking for.

Race Day

Since we couldn't work out in the yard, and Patrick didn't have school on Friday, I took him to Grand Prix Greensboro. I bought him a membership when he turned 8 (7 months ago) and he's getting pretty good.

I made the shirt for his (and Alexander's) Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car races. Let's just say that this year was a learning year for the derby cars.

Home Sweet Home

No this photo is not at our house. It was taken before we left the hospital.

Sorry about the delay in posts. In the last post said that we were going to be staying another night at the hospital, however shortly after I made that post they decided that mom and baby were good to go. It was so nice to be back home again, to be with the boys, to get a shower and sleep on something other than a hospital futon.

Making progress

Catherine is feeding much better today. And when I say today that really means since 2am this morning. Kendra is also doing good, trying to sleep when she can.

It looks like they want to keep Catherine here another night. Everything is okay, she is a little jondis which is preventing them from doing some of the last tests or shots before leaving the hospital. And I thought Catherine was helping me compensate for the bad lighting in here, you know like a Photoshop warming filter. With Catherine staying, Kendra will be staying, so I will be staying.

I also want to thank all of our family who has helped us this week. Staying with the boys, taking the boys to school, picking them up, staying here so I could get some sleep. You have no idea how much it means to us.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

This photo is from... Tuesday morning. Yes, Patrick is in a blue blazer & tie. He wanted to be so handsome. (They ended up not going to school that day, so he took it off and wore it on Wedneday.) Oh, and the Curious George, that's also Patrick's. He wanted it to be here for Catherine (he made me bring it on Monday.) I heard that Alexander made his and his brothers beds this morning in preparation for us coming home. He never does that. We miss the boys so much. We can't wait until we can have our whole family together again.

More pictures to come. I promise.

Sleep has left. We're still here.

I think today is Wednesday. After a busy day yesterday we've finally settled into another busy day today. Sometime around Catherine's arrival we misplaced sleep. We're still looking for it, but it's not looking good. That being said, as much as we would like to see you, we feel like our time should be spent looking for our long lost friend sleep.

Kendra and Catherine are doing great. They're both still learning the whole breast feeding routine and progress is being made. We were so excited to hear that Catherine passed her hearing test earlier this morning. I'm going to keep in a special place so we'll be able to remind her of that in 15 years.

I'm still trying to go through some of the pictures. You know I've only taken a few. And of course nobody really wants to read this stuff, you just want to see the photos. (words r dum) Well, here is one of my favorites. Enjoy.

Goes great with Milk

Mom's asleep. Baby's hungry. Dad to the rescue.

14 hours later

All is well. Kendra & Catherine are finally getting some sleep.
Here are just a few pictures to hold you off until I can go through some more.
The group shot is the gang that took over the waiting room from 8pm to 3am.
The photos of Catherine were are all taken within her first hour.
Enjoy.

It's a girl!

It is a girl. Catherine Carroll Bowers. 7lbs 4oz, 19" long. Brown/Black hair with Blue eyes.

What an amazing experience. When they say "the miracle of birth" they're not kidding.

Kendra did great, she really did. She started "pushing" around 11:15 and Catherine was born at 1:13 am. Two hours of doing that, wow, it didn't really seem that long, but then again I wasn't really doing any of the work.

I'm really tired. It was 24 hours ago that we got up to come over here. Sleep is sounding really nice. Kendra has been sleeping now for about an hour, Catherine is in the nursery hanging out under a heat lamp. She's doing very well. At some point they'll move her into our new room down the hall.

I will try to post pictures first thing... when I wake up.
If you're thinking of stopping by, e-mail or call me a first. I just don't know how any of us will be feeling. Thank you all.

It runs in the family.

Okay, so much for my hourly updates. Sorry I'm a bit late. Someone else is too.

Here we are, it's about 11:00pm now and ...

Sorry - it's now 11:40 pm, most of our family has taken over the waiting room. I was in there with them when the doctor came in and said "it's time". Charles, Lisa & Ashley just got in from Chapel Hill. Okay -= i gotta go. stay tuned. baby bowers will be here soon.

Still Waiting.

The little monitor beside her is finally showing little peaks on the charts. They're contractions so they say. Kendra is dressed (jeans & all) and is feeling fine. I can't imagine not having anything to eat except jello and 5 hours of sleep since yesterday. Alicia brought Dad and I Chic-Fil-A at lunch and now I'm on a steady diet of Sour Patch gummy candy, so I'm doing great.

The Pitocin has been increased. Again.

Here are a few picts.

Waiting

2:30pm
Waiting. I knew there would be waiting... maybe just not this much. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of ER. Maybe I'm just anxious. Maybe I'm not used to sitting around and doing nothing. With this spare time, and a lack of access to Facebook, my sister-in-law talked me into setting up a blog to keep everyone informed. Here we go.

We're at the Women's Hospital of Greensboro. We've been here since 5:45am and Kendra is doing really good. They broke her water around 9:45am this morning, however I think the baby really likes the home it's had for the past 9 months.

4:15pm
Okay - still trying to get this blog going. Kendra kicked us out to go run some errands since nothing was happening. We stopped by Bluezoom and freaked everyone out. Now Dad and I are back in the room with Kendra's dad Tom. Mom is on her way too.

The Pitocin drip has started and they'll be back in 20min to turn it up some more. It looks like it's going to be a long night.