She's Finally Arrived!

Well, the big day arrived this week. Callie Alexis Bowes arrived at 5:56am on Wednesday, October 3rd, and her parents could not be happier. She was a robust 6 lbs. 15 oz. and measures 20 3/4 inches. Right now we are still in the hospital but get to go home in about 24 hours. We have a few pictures to share and some stories to tell.


Here is Callie, our little burrito of good times. She does love being swaddled. And she also apparently enjoys keeping her eyes open. In the first 24 hours of life she may have slept 4 hours all told. I seem to remember someone saying that newborns would sleep quite a bit on the first day. Interesting.



And here is our first family picture. Sarah looks fantastic, which is especially impressive since this picture comes after 25 hours of labor. That's right, Callie, your mom dealt with 23 hours of contractions and 2 hours of pushing. And after all of that work, this family moment was a brief time together before the doctors had to take Callie away for observation. Callie's umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck at birth, which made her head a dark shade of purple and her doctors and parents a bit nervous. And she did not get to our room in the hospital until about five hours after the birth. Not so much fun for Mom and Dad, but it was all for a good reason.


Mom has had some quality time with Callie throughout the first 24 hours of her life. Sarah is an absolutely amazing mom, and she has been tending to Callie's needs with tremendous amounts of patience and love. And it should also be said, Sarah is tough. This comes as no surprise to most who know her, but I figured I would point it out again. I could not have done what she did over the past 72 hours, much less the past nine months. Wow.


Finally, here I am with Callie. I have the easy job. Indeed, I got more sleep last night than Sarah and Callie combined. Granted it was 3 hours and then 2 hours later on, but that is a good night's work in our new world. I just sit back and watch in awe as both Callie and Sarah do their thing. And I just want to add a quick shout out to the folks at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington. If our families on both coasts are worried about us, no need. We are being taken care of extremely well by the nurses and doctors here. If you happen to be in labor in Lexington, you could not choose a better place than Central Baptist.

So there are the first of many pictures. We have been snapping away, trying to capture Callie when her eyes are open and when she does not look moody. Obviously we think she is the cutest thing ever. More to come.