Eva's Birth Story

Our dear Eva is a stubborn girl. I started having contractions at around 35 weeks, but they would always go away. I tried EVERYTHING I could to induce labor naturally (all the old wives tales), but nothing worked. I had my membranes stripped three times and it didn't do a darn thing. We desperately hoped she would come before Christmas, but as the holidays drew nearer we then desperately wished she would come after Christmas. We went in to see the doctor on the 26th and he checked me. I was still only dilated 1.5 centimeters.  She was NOT coming on her own. So, we decided to schedule an inducement for the next day.

We went in to the hospital at 6:00a.

Here is my last pregnant picture. I am 9 months 1 week and 1 day pregnant in this picture. 

They checked us in and took us to our room and got me hooked up to everything. They started the pitocin on the lowest dose at 7:30a. We then settled in and waited for contractions to start while watching Iron Chef America. The first 5 hours of contractions were not bad at all. I could feel them, but they didn't hurt in the least. The most uncomfortable thing in those first few hours was being hooked up to everything and so therefore not being able to move around freely. At 2:00p my doctor came in and broke my water. The contractions picked up from there…and I could feel them at that point. After about another half hour I asked for my epidural. I was nervous because the contractions were getting more intense and I was worried that the anesthesiologist would take a while getting to my room. Much to my relief he was in there 5 minutes later hooking me up. The relief was wonderful! I sat in total comfort for the next four hours. At 6:30p I was finally dilated to a four.  I was dilated to a seven at 7:30p and then was fully dilated to a ten at 8:20p.  At that point the nurse told me that the doctor might have me wait for an hour before actually pushing, but she would go check with him. I was not happy about that bit of news and earnestly hoped the doctor would have then sense to just let me start pushing. Thankfully pushing got underway immediately. It was hard work, but not too bad actually. I think I only pushed about 7 times. Little Eva was finally born at 9:01p. They put her right on my stomach and had me hold her while Morgan cut the umbilical cord (I was so proud of him!). I had heard, when I was researching natural birth vs. having an epidural, that some people felt like because of the epidural they didn't feel totally aware when their baby came. That was definitely not the case with me. Holding her on my stomach for the first time about made my heart burst. That was MY baby! After the umbilical cord was cut they wisked her over to a table to get her cleaned up and weighed.

She didn't let out any sort of loud cry which caused some alarm. After a few minutes they decided she needed to be taken to the NICU to make sure her lungs were opening all the way.

First daddy-daughter pic. Morgan was already SO smitten with his little girl.  

I sent Morgan with her and stayed behind to get stitched up. I tore pretty badly. Having a 10 pound baby leaves its mark. I had a 2nd degree tear going down and a 1st degree tear going up. It took them a good hour to stitch me up and then another half hour to finally get to go to the NICU to see my baby.

 First family photo.

I finally got settled into my recovery room at around 11:00p, and still didn't even get to hold my baby until 12:30a. I was so anxious to hold my little one (the after birth contractions and waiting to hold her were probably the hardest parts of labor for me). Consequently, when they finally brought her in, I held her skin to skin all night and hardly slept a wink…but it was worth it!

Now our little one is already 18 days old, starting to smile and really growing! Here are her newest facial expressions.

Late Christmas Card Pictures

Well, being new parents has definitely been an adventure so far. We love our sweet little girl. She has such big eyes and is happy when she is not hungry, getting a diaper change or having a bath. We are both tired from getting little sleep, but she is worth it.

We expected little Eva to get here before Christmas so we had Christmas cards ready to go all we needed was a picture of her. Since she was late, we found ourselves taking Christmas baby pictures of the little lady on New Years Eve.

So...happy (late) holidays!