Bowman West

Welcome to the World!

Charlie's first girlfriend was born on Wednesday! Carley Alyssa Nelson finally arrived and we're super excited! We visited her that night and she is SO cute and sweet! Ashley was on morphine, which interestingly slowed her down to normal speed. It was pretty funny. It was also amazing how Carley already has Cody wrapped around her tiny little finger. They're gonna be such great parents.

Wow! It still hasn't hit me yet that I'm going to have to do that too. Charlie's in my belly right now being rowdy and trying to escape through my belly button, but somehow he has to get outside of my belly in less than 7 weeks now. I was counting on Ashley to give me all the dirty details of the experience, but she had a scheduled c-section, which is different from my expected experience. Not that a c-section is easy by any means, but the details are a lot different.

We're going to talk to an anesthesiologist next week to get a better handle on whether to induce or not. Since I'm on blood thinners I have to be off of them for a certain amount of time before they will stick a thick needle into my spine and risk a bleed that paralyses me--go figure! The number that I've read is 24 hours. That means that if I go into spontaneous labor, they would want it to be 24 hours since my last dose of blood thinner before they'll do the epidural. Fat chance! I don't think Charlie would wait that patiently. Then I'd be faced with natural childbirth, which I have no desire nor intention to plan for! So, we're gonna get the final word on what the anesthesiologists think since my OB is generally against induction and c-section and likely won't make that choice without being pressured to.

What else? My doctor has agreed to call my gest. diabetes "diet controlled" for now. That's a very generous label. Last week, with being out of town and Christmas, was not a good week for the glucose levels, but they dropped as soon as I got home and got back into a regular schedule with less and blander food. We'll see what he thinks in two weeks when I go back. I'm trying to be good, I really am!

We're making slow progress on pulling our house together, especially Charlie's room. It's SO precious. I like to sit in there and just look around. My mom is working on his curtains so we'll just need to get all the decorations put up and things organized and it'll be ready. Of course, his cradle is still painted bright yellow and needs to be white so we should get to work on that.

I just can't help but wonder what little Charlie will be like. Everyone says he's gonna be laid back because we're laid back, but I wasn't always so laid back! I was a shy, uptight little kid. Andy's made me laid back! I hope he's just like Andy--a caring, funny, nerdy/brilliant, football-playing little cuddly kid. There are so many things I wonder about parenthood. From what I can tell, that never really stops. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I'm sure it will all work out, right?