Evangeline Grace's Graceful Arrival

Baby's coming! (for some reason, I love this picture!)

Evangeline is now two weeks old. She's fitting in to the family quite nicely! :-) Though we had no doubts that this would be the case.

I typed out the detailed version of her birth story in a Word document and it turned out to be 3 single spaced pages. I'm glad to have done it, but it doesn't seem to fit well into a blog post. So, I'm going with an adapted bullets version, which seems to be my favorite these days.

Me and my hubby, the best doula :-)

Timeline:

Monday (10/24) -- regular OB appointment, non-stress test and biophysical profile: no practice breathing on the BPP, slightly elevated blood pressure, trace proteins in my urine, blood work done (normal result), 24-hour urine collection ordered

Tuesday (10/25) -- begin 24-hour urine collection

Wednesday (10/26) -- drop off my "sample" at the doctor's office right after hauling it to my eye appointment in a large cooler (yuck!)

Thursday (10/27) -- [afternoon] regular non-stress test with good results, slightly elevated blood pressure (130/70 or something), results for urine test are in, but the nurse can't tell them to me

[6:00 pm] received a call my from doctor with an explanation of test result and the suggestion that I come right then to the hospital to be induced

[7:30 pm] arrived at the hospital thinking baby would be born on the 27th :-)

[11:00 pm] nursing shift change, IV is finally hooked up with everything except Pitocin; insulin/sugar water lines are getting adjusted

Friday (10/28) -- [12:00 am] I'm dilated to 3 from my own contractions! Pitocin is started. We go to sleep (interrupted with blood pressure checks and blood sugar checks, but sleep none-the-less). Contractions were felt, but not painful.

[4:00 am] the nurse checks me and says I'm at a 5 and that it is a good time to break my water. I debated waiting until daylight, but in passing, the nurse mentioned the shift change at 7:00 am. I decided to stick with the same people who had been assisting me all night and had her go ahead and break my water. The first contraction post-water-breaking was painful.

[5:00 am] I requested fentanyl for pain, not know how much longer I may or may not be in labor.

[5:40 ish am] the doctor arrived on the scene as baby was coming!

[5:59 am] Evangeline Grace was born!

Evangeline Grace

Stats: 

~Evangeline weighed 6 lbs. 9.5 oz., was 18.5 inches long, had a head circumference of 13.5 inches. Born 5:59 am on Friday, October 28, 2011.

~I pushed through about 3 contractions then she was born!

~We were in the hospital beginning Thursday night through our discharge on Saturday at 11:30 am.

~I was pregnant for the longest with Evangeline, 39 weeks and 2 days! (Abraham was 39 weeks and 1 day, Abigail was 38 weeks and 5 days)

~Today, at Evangeline's 2 week check-up, she weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and has grown half an inch!

Proud Daddy and his Sweetie Pie

The name: We discovered Evangeline sometime around late August/early September. I don't specifically remember where. Evangeline (ee VAN jeh leen) means "bearer of good news." We paired that with her middle name, Grace, because that is the good news--God's grace through Jesus! Grace also follows the theme for the middle names of the girls in our little family (Joy, Faith, and now Grace). We pray that Evangeline would come to know God's great gift of grace to her through Jesus and bear it to all whom she encounters.

So that's the short version! ;-) Aren't you glad I didn't put the whole thing up!

And now we are five!!!

P.S. Fun fact for the road--my favorite quote from the labor and delivery tape: Lisa to doctor in the break before the contraction from whence cometh Evangeline: "Oh. And this is going to hurt so bad, isn't it, huh?"