Welcome to the World Evelyn Kate!!!

Evelyn Kate was born August 20th at 3:44 a.m.  She was 18.5 inches long and 6.67 oz.  She was due on August 27th!  Our first baby to come early!

Here she is all brand new!

Here she is on Friday, 8/23/13, just 3 days old.

Evelyn's birth story

I don't hold back so if you don't like too much information, you probably won't want to read this.  And I'm detail oriented so if you aren't interested in each step of labor, you'll probably want to pass ; )

Evelyn's birth was pretty much a dream come true for me.  I was induced with all three boys.  Here's Max's birth story.  Here's Ryan's birth story.  Here's Jason's birth story.  I was hoping that I would not have to be induced again and I decided that I would decide about whether or not to have an epidural during labor.  As much as I was hoping to not be induced, this baby girl was measuring really small and so the likelihood was that I would have low amniotic fluid again and be induced. 

On August 19th, I woke up having some contractions.  This was different for me because my body doesn't do more than the slightest Braxton Hicks prior to being induced.  They weren't any big deal but I was happily surprised.  That afternoon, I discovered that I had started losing my mucous plug which meant that my body was doing more on it's own this time.  It didn't mean much else though because I am used to hearing how other people have contractions for weeks or lose their mucous plug and still don't go into labor for weeks, so I wasn't thinking too much of it.  

 We were lucky to have Grandma Kate fly in that night because her job had sent her to our area to work for two weeks and then she would be off for three weeks to be with us.  That's a total of 5 weeks of either part-time or full-time grandma help.  We were feeling really blessed.  After the kids got to love on Grandma her first night in---she put them to bed and we were talking.  We talked about lots of things but the subject of labor came up of course.  I was telling her how much I wanted to go into labor on my own.  I know it sounds weird, but I really wanted to experience my water breaking on it's own as well.  As we were talking, I felt some contractions but they didn't make me pause or anything.  I told Kate about them afterwards and she asked if they were Braxton Hicks.  I knew they weren't though because they were a moving pain---definite contractions.  Tony came home and we went to bed later but I couldn't sleep because of the contractions.  After a bit Tony heard me breathing through them and started watching the clock.  10 minutes, 6 minutes, 3 minutes, 8 minutes.  They were random.  After a little while I decided that I probably should pack a bag just to be ready.  Then I walked around a bit and when I came back Tony had the light on and was packing because he heard me struggling through a contraction.  Tony told Kate and then we were off to the hospital, letting them know we were coming.  I had to stop several times as we walked down to the birth center to breathe through a contraction.  I was triaged and she asked what I had been dilated to the last time I'd been checked.  Well, I hadn't been checked yet, but when she checked me, I was a 7.  Alrighty then.  She was asking about previous births and when she found out I'd delivered a baby 14 months ago she said that when a body has delivered that close in time, sometimes it just kicks into high gear and labor goes really fast.  They struggled to find my veins because of the lovely swelling that my body does--normally I'm not a hard stick (oh joy).  They finally decided to stop trying (thank you) and wheel me into the delivery room.  Tony was a great labor coach because he was calm and praising me the whole time.  A new nurse was able to find my vein on the first try.  I realized I didn't have my Sense and Sensibility soundtrack that I'd listened to each labor to help me relax.  Well, it was too late now.  I sang "I am a Child of God" to myself, in my head.  I was trying my best to relax through the contractions (they were at a 9 on the pain scale) but the lower half of my body was involuntarily shaking.  Hello transition.  We told them that I normally vomit during transition so they were prepared but it never happened.  They told me I could have an epidural but it would slow labor down or I could be done naturally in about 10 minutes.  That was an easy choice.  They were breaking down the end of the bed when my water broke and then the doctor was ready.  3 pushes later my sweet girl was placed on my chest all covered in vernix.  Oh my goodness, that euphoria that comes after knowing that you are done with the pain (mostly) and you're holding that sweet baby you've been longing to meet.  I may not look as excited as I feel in the first pick but I was also delivering the placenta so the shots of me and newborn Evelyn aren't the best.  I had some fun facial expressions ; )  I held Evelyn for such a long time, Tony cut the cord and we just relaxed together (well, relaxed except for the whole placenta delivery).  We found out that Ev was 18.5 inches long and 6 lbs. 6.7oz.  Our tiny, sweet, beautiful baby.  She's over 3 pounds smaller than my first baby.  How did that happen? 

 She has an umbilical hernia which is already much better.

Evelyn's first bath

 Dr. Scanlon came by to meet Evelyn but she wasn't there the morning we came in.  Evelyn was delivered by Dr. Jolley who is in the same office.  We came into the hospital about 3am or shortly thereafter and Evelyn was born at 3:44am.  Fast!

 Ryan meeting his new sister.

 Max and Baby Ev

 The little/big brother.

Not excited to leave the hospital and have to share mommy.  Totally tiny in her newborn clothes.

Dr. Emily Balser is our family doctor (same office as Dr. Scanlon--we love it there).  I forgot to take a pic the two mornings she saw her in the hospital so this is at her check-up on Friday.

Proud papa!

Dearest Evelyn,

I hope you will always know how much we love you.  We have been so excited to meet you and now to snuggle with you and enjoy your sweetness.  You have us all wrapped around your teeny tiny finger.  We thought long and hard about what to name you.  There were two French names that I loved on my mission:  Marie-Eve and Elise.  Marie-Eve was my absolute favorite but it sounds so different in English.  I wanted to name you something with "Ev" which is how you pronounce Eve in French so I thought of Evelyn.  Daddy liked Evelyn better than Elise too.  Then we really wanted to name you after your grandmas.  They both have characteristics that we hope you will emulate.  Grandma Pearl is a very loving, kind, gentle mother and a strong, loyal, faithful woman.  Grandma Kate is gentle, kind and service-minded, and only looks for the best in people.  We could have given you a long name to include both grandma's names but we had a hard time making it sound good, so we chose to name you Evelyn Kate.  We really feel like that is a strong, beautiful name for you, but you have a heritage of lots of wonderful women in our family that we could have chosen to name you after, especially both of your grandmas.