All about Evan...

What can I say??
Evan has been amazing every moment she has been with us.  As of today, she eats about every 4 hours and mostly sleeps in between....this gives Mama and Daddy lots of time to sleep and catch up on things they need to get done.  She only gets fussy when she's got a little bit of gas, but it's not bad at all!  Evan had her 1 week follow up with the pediatrician on October 20th.  She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. and seems to be perfectly healthy.
We took her newborn pictures on Thursday, October 20th at STUDIO You and we get to view them this coming Thursday.  I can't wait to see how they turned out!  The girls did an amazing job (as always) and Evan was content as can be during the whole shoot.

I promised more pictures, so here we go:

Leaving the hospital

First Doctor's visit (10.13.11)

BIG YAWN!

My loves!

This one was taken on 10.15.11, Evan is 4 days old and we caught a BIG grin!

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Taking a break from pictures....I know it's not obvious when someone posts a comment on our blog, so I had to post this one from Amanda.  Jeff and I read it after we had been home for a day with Evan, and of course, we both cried!  Thanks Amanda for such a sweet and awesome post to our blog (we love you!).  We will treasure it and all of those moments forever!  Check it out:

Little Miss Evangeline,

Just wanted to let you know how hard your mommy is working at this very minute. At 10:04pm Monday night your daddy called and shouted, "Laura is 6cm dilated 100% effaced and laid up in the bed. The contractions are coming close together and very hard." You can hear the excitement in his voice! In just a few hours your daddy will announce your birth to the world. Your grandparents, great grandparents, aunt, uncle, and mommies 2 best friends are on the way to Durham Regional where you'll be born. After 9 long months we will finally be able to meet you. We can't wait to see your sweet little face and hold you. Evan you are one very loved little girl and have such a wonderful family. These very moments will be replayed over and over throughout the years. I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing celebration. There are so many people praying right now for your birth. We wish you and mommy a safe and healthy delivery. We love you TONS! GOD is GREAT! 

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More pictures!  Lots more!

Bath time!

The Jennings crew

Evan and Granny Jenkins.  Granny's birthday is Oct. 10th.  She just turned 88 the day before Evan arrived!

This is for Uncle Rob!  :)

And Aunt Jacy!  :)

Ok--so we're pretty much caught up on pics!  I'll try to be better about posting them as we take them!  Thanks for checking in on us!!  <3

Short video of Evan

Here are a couple of short clips from Evan's first week....

A LOT more videos will be posted later!  We have tons!  And I will upload more pics soon too!  Hopefully tomorrow!  :)

Evan has arrived!!!!!!!

Ok, so it's been a few days at home now, and it's time to finally update the BLOG!

EVAN IS HERE!!!!


She was born on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 12:55am.  She weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz. and was 21 inches long.  Basically, she is just perfect.  :)

We had a doctor appointment on Monday morning (October 10th) where they did an ultrasound and a check-up on me to make sure everything still looked ok since we were past our due date.  Of course, everything looked fine!  The doc stripped my membranes again (and this time, it was no joke!), and she asked us if we had tried several things that can lead to bringing on labor.  She mentioned something about taking castor oil, and I had heard of people taking that, but wasn't sure if I should or not because it obviously can make your stomach upset.  BUT I was very ready to meet my daughter!  So on my way home that morning, I stopped by Walmart and bought some castor oil.

I found a little recipe online and mixed the castor oil with some orange juice and baking soda and down the hatch it went.  This was around 11:00am on Monday.  I called into work and told them I would be out that afternoon because apparently I would be making multiple trips to the bathroom, and HOPEFULLY starting labor sometime that day!  Luckily, we weren't overly busy that day and it was fine for me to skip out....plus, Allison and Lianna kind of understand about being pregnant and on the verge of having a baby.  :)  Well, the castor oil definitely did it's job and cleaned me out!  Sorry for the details, but hey, some people wanna know---so there ya go.  But it didn't upset my stomach at all....for this, I was VERY grateful.  I just went to the bathroom a few more times than normal, but I really felt ok.

Around 3:00pm I started having some mild cramps.  They were evenly spaced at around 4 minutes apart and lasted for about 40 seconds each.  Of course, I'm thinking, "Could this be it??", but then I kept telling myself that contractions don't start out that close together.  Plus my whole belly wasn't tightening up like it had done before....these were just menstrual-feeling cramps.  But I tried to keep track of everything.

When Jeff got home at 6:30pm, they really started getting intense.  Jackie recommended we call the hospital to ask them about it and see if we should go ahead and come in.  I hated the thought that we could drive all the way there and then be turned away because it wasn't time yet!  So we called the hospital around 7:00pm and the doctor said that we could definitely head that way if we wanted to be checked, or we could wait at home a little while longer to see if they progressed anymore.  (Remember, the contractions are still at 4 minutes apart, and they tell you to call the hospital when they're 5 minutes apart for an hour).  So we decide to wait at home a while longer and I took a warm bath to help with the pain.  By about 8:30pm, it was TIME TO GO.  The contractions were getting very intense and I knew it would take us 40 minutes to get to the hospital and then who knows how long to check in.

Jackie rode with us to the ER at Durham Regional.  We went in the get registered, and the lady told us it would be about 10-15 minutes because they had to get a room ready for us!!  I was sitting there, having contractions, while this lady was trying to ask me questions and talking on the phone....that was a moment when I almost started getting a little emotional....but I didn't and just tried to concentrate on breathing and just getting to my room!

When we FINALLY got into our room, the doc came to check on me and I was already 6 cm dilated and 100% effaced.  I was like "heck yeah"!  That morning I was at about 2 cm and 85% effaced.  I did quite a bit of work at home that afternoon and evening!  :)

By now, the contractions were very intense.  I asked when I could get my epidural since I was already 6 cm.  They had to run my blood tests and it would be about 30 minutes.  I ended up getting the epidural at around 11:00pm.  And good gracious, I LOVE an epidural!  Wooo---it was night and day with the contractions!  I was feeling great after that!

At a little before 12:30am (Tuesday morning), the doc came in to check again, and we were at 9 cm!  So close!  She said she would come back in a couple of hours to check again and we would probably push then.  But it wasn't just a few minutes after she walked out of the door that I started feeling pressure down there and asked the nurse about it.  She said "that's the baby's head pushing, let me get the doctor".  So instead of coming back in a couple of hours, it was only a few minutes and it was TIME TO PUSH!!

I only pushed for 25 minutes and Evan came into this world!  It was amazing and perfect....just like her!

Family and friends were at the hospital and we took tons of pictures.  Here are a few of her first moments:

She is already loved so much!  Here are MORE pictures of our perfect baby girl!  :)  

We have already taken a million pictures of her already (as you can probably guess).  I will post more later, but I wanted to FINALLY get this post online to announce our baby to the world!

Thank you to all of our AMAZING family and friends who have been there to help us and support us through this incredible experience in our life....we LOVE you so much and are VERY grateful for all of you.

Another post soon, promise!  <3

2 days passed

Today is Saturday, October 8th, and Evan is still hanging out in the womb.  It must be pretty comfortable in there.  I'm thinking she will want to be swaddled up all the time once she arrives, because there's no way it's AT ALL roomy in my belly and she must like to be wrapped up tight!

If she doesn't make her grand entrance by Monday morning, we have a doctor appointment scheduled.  They will do an ultrasound and a regular checkup to make sure everything is still good and healthy.  Then they will pick a day to induce us if she still hasn't arrived.  They won't let women go past 42 weeks of pregnancy because it can obviously start causing complications with the delivery and health of baby and mom.

They "stripped my membranes" at my Wednesday appointment.  This can help bring on labor sometimes.  Here is a link that describes what it means if you don't know: http://midwifeinfo.com/articles/what-is-stripping-membranes-and-why-is-it-done
I don't think it has helped us, but it definitely works for some women.  It did cause me to have some false labor contractions Wednesday night.  I woke up around midnight with contractions that were spaced about 10 minutes apart.  That lasted for a couple of hours and I started having some stomach aches as well.  I hated to wake Jeff up, but I did because I wasn't feeling good at all, and I honestly thought it could be the beginning of labor.  We ended up staying up until about 4am and the contractions tapered off and we went back to sleep.  It was a little disappointing because we're obviously ready to meet Evan, but we know she will come when it's right.

Today or tomorrow would be great days to go into labor since it's the weekend and Jeff is around.  But I really do think that Evan likes to surprise us, so we will see what she decides to do.  Hopefully the next update will be to announce her arrival!  :)

Oh Evan...

...everyone is so excited to meet you!!  I promise you'll have MUCH more room to stretch when you're on the "outside" (it's not so bad)!  Plus, Mama is getting tired of wearing the same 4 pieces of clothing over and over again....and since the weather has gotten a bit cooler, it's getting VERY difficult to put on shoes and socks with you camped out in my big belly.

We can't wait to see you and hold you and rock you to sleep!  We hope you decide to come meet us soon, but we know you'll come when you're ready.  We have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning and we'll find out if we're any closer to seeing you soon.  We're only 2 days away from your due date now, so anytime you want to come, we will be ready! 

Here is a picture of Daddy and Mama just 5 days before you're due:

We love you so much and can't wait to finally meet you!!!  :)