Evan's Pregnancy/ Birth Story

 With Evan's birthday so close and him turning 16 it seemed like a great time to recount his birth story.  Since I've already shared both his brother's stories (Ian's here) (Alec's here) it was only fair that I share Evan's too.

He was a pretty good baby sleeping through all the noise of his brothers playing

All three boys and no two pregnancies or deliveries were even remotely the same! Thankfully I wasn't feeling sick while pregnant with Evan like I did with Alec. This time around I had to switch doctors/ offices for this last pregnancy so it really felt quite different.  Ian and Alec were delivered by a doctor who had been my primary care since I was in college but just before I got pregnant with Evan she stopped delivering babies altogether since she was in a private practice and malpractice insurance rates were just too high. 

I met a few new doctors, settled on one, and then 1/2 way through my pregnancy he had a minor stroke and had to retire so I was passed off to his college; she was a very nice and somewhat younger woman. But the whole office was quite different; whereas I only ever had one early ultrasound with my first two this doctor's office did ultrasounds at each appointment so for the first time we decided to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl-- and weren't all that surprised to find out Evan was a boy.  

Other than being so tired from chasing around a 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old all day much of my actual pregnancy is a blur.  I do remember that it took me forever to get the tiny wall mural done and have his room all put together.

Evan's room was all farm themed; Ian picked out the mobile and I went from there. 

Luckily I kept a journal up for most of my pregnancy and first year of Evan's life too so I can go back and look things up.  I had my last appointment on a Friday and the doctor was pleased that I was already 3 cm dilated and warned I could go into labor at any time.  I had some minor contractions off and on all weekend and woke Sunday morning with contractions steady enough that we found ourselves checking into the hospital in the morning.

They hooked me up to a monitor and noticed that my contractions were getting further apart and they were going to send me home but then each time I had a contraction Evan's heartrate dropped just a bit.  They weren't hugely concerned but didn't want to send me home in case.  They started me on an IV of antibiotics against strep B and the doctor went to break my water just before lunch (around 11). She said she'd check back after and my husband warned her not to go far; that I'd deliver within an hour of having my water broken. She assured him she was just going to eat lunch and we had plenty of time. 

Since the baby's heartrate had been dropping with contractions, I had spent the morning lying in all different positions and we found one where I was nearly flat on my back that stopped that from happening; only problem was I was having tons of back labor with these shooting pains radiating from my hips to my knees.  I asked for an epidural at noon after the nurse assured me I was only at 6 cm. 

Twenty minutes later when the anesthesiologist arrived I was already at 9 cm; they had me sit up I nearly passed out and felt like I was going to throw up.  I told them I recognized this feeling and was ready to deliver.  Telling them that I had seriously felt the baby drop and I felt like I was sitting on his head. They assured me I was fine and that they wouldn't do a full epidural but just give me a small shot of something just to take the edge off.  Meanwhile the doctor came bustling into the room and yelled out "good call dad, I didn't even get to finish my lunch!"  To which my husband replied "this isn't my first rodeo." LOL

First time meeting his brothers

I was delivering that baby before the anesthesiologist had even left the room because just 4 or 5 short contractions and pushes later he was out-- at 1:02 in the afternoon.  Just a short few hours with very little effort Evan was born into the same room that Ian has been born in and since the ward wasn't that crowded we got to stay there for a couple of days. Evan was my 

Evan weighed in right in the middle of this brothers at 7lb 9 ounces and was the shortest at 20 1/2 inches long. 

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