On Wednesday, February 11, 2009 I went into the hospital for a magical weight loss surgery. It worked too! I traded a good amount of my fat for a handsome baby boy. Matthew Richard Dowdle was born at 10:28 AM in Lethbridge, Alberta. He weighed in at 10 lbs. 5 oz. He was 22 1/2 in. Because of his size he was difficult to get out, they had to use forceps to get my big boy out. Right after Matthew made his way into the world he immediately peed on my doctor. He did it all before he was even a minute old. 

Matthew and I were supposed to come home on Valentines Day. I bent over to pick up a bottle of shampoo that I dropped, which caused my incision to bleed. It made Ben and the kids very nervous. Ben got my nurse right away. I'm not sure if I've seen him move that fast before. It turned out that I must have had a blood bubble just under the surface. It was a good thing that it did burst through my incision because if it didn't then it would have got infected. I had to stay over for another night. I really wanted to go home, but it was nice to make sure it healed. 

Grandma Sabin came down to spend time with James and Emily. Everyone enjoyed having her here. I would have liked to have been able to spend more time. I appreciate everything she done for me and my family. Every night that Grandma was here, she would wake up to find a little body or two join her. Emily has been having a hard adjusting to not being a baby. She loves Matthew very much, but is some what reverting to "little girl". So I've made her a deal if she's a big girl then she can help me with Matthew. Like getting things for him or me. She liked the idea, she immediately got a diaper, cream, pad and wipes for Daddy to change his diaper. She was told only "big girls" can hold him, so tomorrow she needs to pee in the toilet and not down her legs. So hopefully this will work out. 

Right now they are both surrounding baby Matthew and showing him toys. Also kissing the top of his heads. They were even singing to him for a little bit. They even said that Matthew smells good. Emily keeps "shhh" to Matthew then says that she made him quiet. 

This is one of my favorite pictures. If you look closely then you can see a little smile on this handsome face.

Ben took every chance to hold his little giant. Like him I took every chance I could to take pictures. 

This is Matthew's favorite position to sleep in. The first night I didn't get much sleep because I kept trying to get him to go to sleep in his bed. Towards the morning I just let him sleep on my chest. For the rest of our stay at the hospital this is the way we slept. He would sleep for 3 - 4 hours at a time. Sometimes longer.

James and Emily loved holding their baby brother. 

We took a walk around the ward. James didn't understand why Mommy was walking sooo slow. Daddy helped him understand. They were going to walk another round around the ward because Mommy was hurting and was going back to rest. It was her first walk after the operation. James came back early to make sure Mommy was alright. Isn't that sweet?

The kids were told that they could hold Matthew after they got dressed for church. Emily ran upstairs ASAP and came back dressed. She almost pulled Matthew out of Grandma Sabin's hands.