Rowan at the Pumpkin Patch

Rowan had his first visit to the pumpkin patch on Day Road. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and we saw lots of different kinds of pumpkins, he especially liked the Cinderella pumpkins because they were the brightest orange. There were lots of kids running around the fields collecting their pumpkins in their wagons and riding in the buggy that two brown and white spotted horses pulled taking them through the nearby vineyards. My parents met us there to enjoy Rowan's first pumpkin experience too.

Patrick and Rowan's favorite video to watch together, The Muppets

version of The Beatles' Octopus's Garden with Kermit and Robin.

A classic, love it!

Rowan and his bug friend

Here is Rowan enjoying the company of his musical bug friend! Rowan has become so expressive and focused on objects, it's so fun to see.

Rowan's Nursery

Battle Point Park with Rowan

On September 21, Patrick, Rowan, and I went to Battle Point Park to meet up with his mom Karen, his sister Annie, and niece Nicola. They were feeding the ducks and Rowan slept soundly, it was nice to get some fresh air.

The many faces of Rowan

Harvest Fair on Bainbridge

Last year Patrick and I went to the Harvest Fair on the island and we thought how nice it would be to at the fair next year with our baby and here we are. The Harvest Fair is such a great event for kids of all ages and really wonderful things to see. Lots of animals to pet from the 4H Club, sheep shearing, and pony rides. There is a pie contest, live folk bands, zucchini contest, cider pressing, a big slide that kids go down with burlap sacks called the Landslide. It will really be fun to see Rowan over the years scamper around with the other kids at the fair but we enjoyed just carrying him and taking it all in. The weather was a perfect fall day!

Rowan's Birth Announcement

Here is Rowan's birth announcement card. I think it turned out beautifully! I spent a long time with Rowan in the afternoon sun on our bed getting the right light to reach his face and I was lucky to have him be so awake at the perfect time.

Blackbird Bakery Block Party & Rowan's first smile!

We took Rowan out for an evening on Madrone Lane for Blackbird Bakery's 10 anniversary block party to have some ice cream with my parents at Mora, the local ice cream shop right in the middle of the block party. There was a live band and lots of people out. The street was decorated with little orange lights strung all over the trees and along the building, it was a great first evening outing.

After we got back to the car, before buckling Rowan in his car seat, he flashed us the most adorable smile that Patrick captured! 6 days old and already giving us a smile, it was amazing.

First Weeks with Rowan

Our first weeks with Rowan have really been a dream. Despite the lack of sleep and endless hours nursing, Rowan has really seemed to settle into our lives nicely or maybe we have settled into his. He generally has been a great sleeper at night and during the day with his little naps, and has been nursing beautifully. We have taken him out for lots of walks and little outings. He was born at my most favorite time of year, the start of fall. The air is crisp, the sun still warm, the sky still clear, and all the leaves are changing color. It's a time of year where it feels like life starts to slow down, a perfect time to nest with baby.

Rowan has had many visitors at the hospital and at home. Annie and Cole came to the hospital to meet Rowan, it was so fun to have them meet him. Cole seemed curious too which was very cute. She also came over a few days after and brought a nice little care kit of things she needed after Cole was born, so thoughtful. My parents came back to the hospital the day after he was born with cupcakes from Cupcake Royale which is just up the street in Ballard and they brought little gifts for Rowan. Allyssa and her parents came over just two days after we got home and made a delicious dinner at our place that we all enjoyed together. It was so nice to visit with them and of course the food was wonderful! Holly even left us before we got home from the hospital a wonderful corn chowder, what a nice thing to come home to! Katie came to visit and gave him the most adorable furry booties he can where this fall and winter, stylish gift appropriately given by Katie of course! Rowan also made an appearance at my work and at Knoll to meet everyone which was fun and to also have my Dad come along and meet them, he was a big help.

Rowan's personality is so sweet, he is such a content little baby. He only cries when his diaper needs changing or when he's hungry and he calms down almost immediately when those needs have been taken care of. He never cries when going to sleep and loves to be snuggled up to our chests under our neck, he curls himself up like a little frog, probably how he was when inside me. These first weeks with Rowan have been so nice, we feel so lucky.

Meet Rowan Jeffrey Toler! Our Birth Story

The special day finally arrived with our son's birth. Meet Rowan Jeffrey Toler! He was born just one day after his due date, September 7th, 2009, on Labor Day! He weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19.5 inches long. He came into this world full of life with a sweetness and calm disposition I can't describe only that I felt that also while carrying him for 9 wonderful months. He arrived healthy and with a beautiful, glowing pink complexion. We noticed right away that he had Patrick's mouth and my eyes. It was such an incredible feeling to see him for the first time after wondering for so long what this little one was going to look like and feel like in our arms.

Days leading up to his birth I was going for long nature walks, sometimes two a day. It really helped to move being that I felt so big and also to clear my head and just be in the present moment, preparing for labor. It was also a full moon that weekend of his due date so I was hoping that would help start labor. Sure enough, my water broke and we took the 10:30pm ferry over to Swedish Ballard. The ferry ride was so beautiful. We were parked at the front of the boat and had a view of Puget Sound in the moonlight. We walked around the ferry a couple times talking about how we couldn't believe it was happening. At that time and all through that night I was not feeling any of my contractions even though the nurse said I was having them. We had a pretty good nights sleep even though we were so exited and a little bit restless that I was finally at the hospital to have our baby. The next morning of September 6th, my midwife said my contractions were still slow to progress after so many hours after my water broke and doing lots of walking so she gave me Misoprostol to help induce labor, an oral medication and after four hours no noticeable progress. We opted to take a second dose of Misoprostol instead of Pitocin because I did not want to be hooked to an IV for the rest of my labor, once on Pitocin, you continue with it all the way through labor, so I wanted to give my body another chance to kick in with Miso. That it did! I labored the rest of the day and into the evening of the 6th, even though I was only at 4cm, the nurses and midwives were very encouraging that I could do this, we were hoping at that point to be further along. After many hours and trying the shower and jacuzzi to help with the pain, I got up to 8cm, at that point we needed to give my body a little boost and started with a very small drop of Pitocin which helped a lot to make the contractions progress. I reached the pushing stage and after 3 hours of pushing, we learned that baby was not descending still, he was at -2, he needed to at least be at 0 or +1 and he was occiput posterior which means the back of the head is facing the back of me (posterior) the bony part of the head is pressed against the bony part of the pelvis which often causes prolonged labor like mine. I wasn't feeling any tremendous back pain which can often occur with the baby in this position. Thankfully, baby wasn't in any distress throughout the whole labor, he was stable and strong which helped us focus even more on making it through labor without feeling rushed. After 3 hours of pushing, the nurses and our midwife gave us a couple options to consider. We could try to push for another hour but the chances were pretty slim considering he wasn't yet engaged in my pelvis and his head position still not changing after trying many different positions, the other option was to go ahead with a cesarean. I really felt I could go on another hour if I believed it was going to change his position but our concern was if I continued to push more it would make for a more difficult cesarean surgery being he would be stuck in my pelvis and it looked like we were headed in that direction at that point so I did not want to risk it.

Patrick was an incredible labor partner, he talked me through each contraction for those 24 hours straight while I had my eyes closed focusing inward and listening to him while breathing through the contractions. I kept imagining a wave and also telling myself to surrender to the pain, don't fight it. I felt my best position was to sit upright and be still and just focus. I also liked holding on to Patrick and we slow danced and also rocking back and forth leaning on a labor/medicine ball. When we learned that a cesarean was going to be the outcome after working so hard in this labor without any pain medication, we were so disappointed, I think Patrick took it harder than I did. I saw how far we came and the experience was so hard but we did it the way we hoped, to our birth plan, working beautifully together without pain medication and it really was a memorable experience. The surgery was quick and I didn't feel any pain, I was at peace and calm with it. I couldn't believe that our baby was going to come to us so quickly. The surgery staff made it a celebration and were very joyful. Patrick and my mom were in the room with me and got to take the first pictures of Rowan coming out into the world. That was the only part that I miss not experiencing but they brought him over for me to hold him within a minute. Patrick handed him to me all wrapped up and I gave Rowan a kiss and my love for him and bond was sealed with that kiss and first embrace!

Summer 2009

The summer of 2009 was a busy one as we were preparing for Baby Toler's arrival. On top of that, we had many other celebrations. Patrick graduated from the University of Washington with a masters in Information and Library Science on June 11th. It was a beautiful warm evening enjoyed with both of our families. The week after his graduation, Patrick and I had a wonderful family trip to Kauai with my parents celebrating mom's 60th birthday and my 30th. All but my Dad had never been to Kauai and we absolutely loved it. Kauai was incredibly lush and tropical, a type of vacation we had never experienced before, the weather was warm and sunny, and the swimming and taking in the views was a perfect last vacation before baby's arrival. Mom and I did yoga every morning sitting outside our condo on a bluff looking West at the ocean. Dad and Patrick snorkeled every day going to different beaches to see what new fishes they could see. They were lucky enough to swim with a sea turtle and we all saw a monk seal swimming right along the shoreline on our last day. I felt great on the trip, big and a little slow, but I was happy I could still do some hiking and of course lots of swimming.

We came back home on the 4th of July and watched the fire works display over Eagle Harbor right outside from our condo, the first show in 30 years on the island and it was beautiful.

A few weeks later, my Aunt Diane hosted my baby shower, truly the most special baby shower I could have ever hoped to have. It was out in the garden of the home she was renting for the summer on the island and the weather perfect. Lots of friends and family came and the food and cake were so delicious. It was really nice to have my Aunt Diane up here for the summer and also visiting with my Aunt Patty who came up a week in June.

It was a memorable summer!