The Dowells: Introducing Tate Anders Dowell!

It's a boy! And he's here! Tate Anders Dowell was born at 2:23 on March 4, 2013. Weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21 in long- he's absolutely perfect! We are madly in love.

Here's the long overdue post about his arrival. :)

I went into labor Sunday night- the contractions I'd been having on and off for WEEKS (yes weeks, I'd been swearing I was going into labor and then Tate would move, causing my labor to stall)- finally turned into the real deal. The contractions were officially painful (no longer just "strong pressure")- but not consistent enough to go into the hospital just yet. I managed to get some sleep and woke up about 4:30 the next morning. They were getting more consistent- and went from 15 min apart to 10 min apart to 7 min apart within about 45 min (do the math- that is a FAST progression!) Steve got here just in time for them to be 3 minutes apart and us to make the 30 minute drive to Katy.

I stayed surprisingly calm throughout it all- no crying, screaming, or puking (unlike Dax's labor!). I got my epidural about 8 cm (because I was so scared to push out what could be a 10 lb baby with no drugs!)- Tate was in fact in a weird position at 8 cm, they had me get into a weirder position to correct it, and he popped out literally 6 minutes later!

Not to brag or anything (ok, I'm bragging), but the nurses said they wish they'd had a video camera to film everything and post to YouTube as the most graceful labor and delivery ever.

Thank you, thank you very much! ;)

This is me about to have a contraction right as Casey snapped the picture-

Let's try again-

IT'S A BOY!

Most beautiful head and face ever.

9lb 1.3oz

So alert

He grabbed Casey's finger and inspected it at 3 minutes old...

Back in mommy's arms- where he's stayed for the last 13 days!

Grams and Papa!

Some daddy snuggle time

He didn't sleep much that first night- he was so into learning all about this new place!

MiMi brought Ada and Dax the next day- Dax is topless in these pictures because he immediately barged in, picked up my cup of (cooled) coffee, and dumped it all over himself. Woops!