Flashback Friday: Can I Still Call Her Baby?

Today my baby turns three. THREE! I can hardly believe it. In celebration of both Flashback Friday AND Evelyn's Birthday today I thought I would share the story of her birth. I feel very good about our family and that we are all here. I don't feel as sad about the fact that I won't be doing this again as I thought I would've when I started having babies. But, I gotta tell ya, I LOVE BEING PREGNANT. I know a lot of women despise the actual process, but not me. I loved it, and I do miss it. But not enough to do it again. You are looking at one complete family Baby, nobody missing here, and we like it that way. But oh that belly was fun! These photos were taken 3-5 weeks prior to Evelyn's arrival.

Just like my other three babies, Evelyn was not about to wait til her due date. She arrived ten days early, which was perfect if you ask me. Even though she was early, I knew for almost a week that she was gearing up to make her grand entrance. I literally felt like a ticking bomb. I am one of those women who are hyper-aware of their bodies, and with each day I was aware of every change I was undergoing. Well, on the evening of the 24th I must have been even more aware subconsciously that things were being set in motion. I had a major urge to WALK, and A LOT. I remember walking around the neighborhood with our family about 8 pm. Walk, walk, walk. Around this time I felt some heaviness settle into my lower back. That's when I truly knew it wouldn't be much longer. I became a woman obsessed. We got home, got the kids settled for bed and my sister Heidi showed up with her kiddos from Bear Lake. We have a running joke that my kids wait for Heidi to arrive in town before they will be born. Evelyn was no exception. Heidi came, we got her kids in bed and guess what? We walked. We walked around the neighborhood til just after 1 am.


When we got home Nate was still up. Heidi and I sat on the couch and continued talking. Within twenty minutes of sitting down I began watching the clock. At first it was twenty minutes apart, then fifteen, then ten, you get the idea. For the most part they were like Braxton-Hicks, with the occasional extra intensity. The three of us stayed up talking til almost 4 am, crazy, I know. I was wiped out but way too wired to sleep. Even once we laid down I watched the clock. Finally around 5:30 am I gave up and decided to soak in a warm bath. I was feeling achy, the contractions were still 5-7 minutes apart for the most part, and not painful. I decided that I would wake Nate up about 6 am to let him have a chance to get cleaned up before heading to Ogden Regional.


Once we arrived I was a little worried that I would encounter one of "those" nurses. You know the ones, they look at you like you couldn't possibly know you were in labor unless the baby was already halfway out and send you packing even when you know it is time. Mostly I was worried about this because I was NOT in pain. So, I walked right up to the desk and announced that this was my FOURTH pregnancy and that my contractions were five minutes apart for over an hour. I totally played the confidence card, and it worked. Thank goodness it did. Even though I hadn't really felt like I was "laboring" through the night, apparently I was. By the time I was checked in and settled the nurse checked me and declared me to be a FIVE! I thought ,well, sheesh, I am almost there then, usually I hit a five and within two hours baby and I are all cleaned up and cozy in our bed. That is when they decided to call my Doc. I knew that he had gone out of town a few days prior and was due back the previous night. So when they walked in and told me that he was still out of town I kindly told them that they were misinformed and to please try again. They did get a hold of him, but he was at the SLC airport! What!?! I love my doctor but this would not be the first time that me and the baby had to WAIT for him to arrive. A nurse all but had to hold Ally back to keep her from falling out while waiting for this man. I told the nurse then that she wasn't to touch me, no pitocin, no water breaking, NOTHING, or else she would be catching her instead of the doc. She then told me that that was what he had told her as well. I was glad we were on the same page. Doc arrived about an hour later (8 am), I was still doing just fine with my barely noticeable contractions. He breezed in, made a few jokes, checked me (still a five), broke my water, and put me on pitocin. As he was about to breeze out of the room again I reminded him to stay close because we were about to rock n' roll. He agreed. As we neared the 9 o'clock hour my contractions were beginning to become quite intense. I was starting to think about caving and getting an epidural. I thought if I was checked and told of the progress I had made that would motivate me to stay the course. The nurse finally came in at 9:07 am to check me, I was at 7 cm. At that point I was going to clear the room of my visitors so that I could really focus on labor because I could tell I was nearing transition. At the time I had my 12 year old niece Megan, my Mom, Nate's mom, my Dad and his wife Fran and of course Nate in the room. They were all being very quiet and respectful, I just knew I would need to focus. I was going through a contraction or two (or three or four) before I was even able to say anything, when suddenly I felt her coming! So, instead of turning my head to the right to tell everyone to kindly leave I turned to the left and frantically said, "She's coming! She's coming!" Luckily for me when they told me I was a 7 they had started prepping the baby warmer, etc. and had paged the Doc. Upon my declaration the room flew into a flurry of activity. More nurses flew in, one was yelling down the hall to the Doc to RUN! Even if my poor family had wanted to get out, they had lost their chance. The door was blocked. Before Doc even hit the door my natural instincts had already kicked in and I was pushing. He barely entered the room, I pushed two more times and she was here. They hadn't even had time to prep the bed for delivery. It was crazy. She was born at 9:18 am. Evelyn's birth story doesn't end there, but for today it does. Aren't you relieved? The rest of the story is for another time.
She weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds 7 ounces, and was 19 inches long. She was our largest baby. This is one of my favorite photos of Evelyn's birth. She is just minutes old here, those are my Dad's hands on her comforting her.

The first photo of all four kids together. Aren't they cute?

Evelyn's Favorites At Three:

Favorite Color: pink

Favorite Food: plain hot dog/hamburger buns (what's funny is that when she get's a bun with a hot dog in it, she eats the dog, but not the bun!)
Favorite TV Show: doesn't watch broadcast tv

Favorite Song: your guess is as good as mine

Favorite Thing To Do: play barbies, color, NOT go potty in the potty, swing and jump

Favorite Movie: anything with a Cincess or Manny (Ice Age Trilogy)

Favorite Book: ironically, it's a princess potty book

Happy Birthday Baby! I hope this year brings you lots of wonderful blessings, like potty-training. Among other things!