New Addition – Simon Russell Tolman

Life at the Tolman house has never been better! On March 14, 2014 we welcomed Simon Russell Tolman into our family! It was a wonderful day. My labor experience was just what I wanted. Regular contractions started at 3:30am that day and we went to the hospital at about 8am. By that time I was already dilated 5cm, 90% effaced. Things were moving right along! I labored for several hours and had to be up and moving because the little baby kept wanting to turn face up (no thanks!). By late afternoon I was dilated to a 9 and they decided to break my water. After laboring for another hour or so I was dilated to a 7, which was kinda a bummer. The water had been putting most of the pressure on my cervix and his head was still not quite staying where it needed to be. The contractions at that point were very intense and I was starting to get exhausted. Our midwife suggested that we start a little pitocin to help speed things up and hopefully help his head engage fully. I was really nervous about that because I was planning on a natural delivery with no pain meds and was worried the contractions would be more intense. But we decided that would be the best option and went ahead with that. I was right, the contractions were much more intense. They lasted longer and there was no relief between them like there had been previously. Thankfully, that was all he needed to get going! I decided to start pushing and after two LONG hours of pushing at 10:20pm we had our little baby boy! He was perfect and I got to have the natural delivery I wanted. Nick did just about as much work as I did, helping me labor and attending to my every need. Our doula, Boni, was wonderful too. I’m so thankful we had her there to help me relax and focus and allowing Nick to focus on me and not having to worry about all the medical stuff. The whole day was perfect and although it was painful, it was one of the best days of my life and an experience I’ll treasure forever.

Simon has been doing very well! He is just perfect. He was 6lbs 1 ounce, 18 1/4 inches long. Healthy as can be! We stayed two nights in the hospital and went home on Sunday. After 3 1/2 weeks of life, he is 8lbs 10 ounces, 21 inches long which means he is growing like a champ! Still waking up quite a bit at night to eat but that’s what babies do! I am lucky enough to take the rest of the school year off and have the whole summer to enjoy this little boy before going back to work in the fall. Nick has been an amazing father, helping out with everything he can. He took a few days off but is back at work. He can’t wait to take his son out hiking and plans to start his bass guitar lessons later this month. He’s also been teaching Simon how to make contacts on his Ham Radio and Simon seems to be picking it up fairly quickly 🙂 He’s going to be one smart little boy!!

Here are a few newborn pictures that we had taken. Big thanks to Ramie Edwards, she did a wonderful job. Being a mother is the best thing that I’ve ever done and I’m so thankful for this perfect, healthy little boy that has been given to us. I cannot wait to do this again! and again… maybe again 🙂