Eliza Mirae Evans

Eliza Mirae Evans joined our family on Wed, September 8, 2010 at 1:23p.m. weighing in at 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 inches long and a whole lot of beautiful! Way back when I first found out I was pregnant I counted out the days to figure out my due date and when I saw it I thought "Oh great! September 11th". I went to the doctor a few weeks later and as he was figuring out my due date, he kind of paused and said "Oh. Sept 11th. Well, better a due date than a birth date". I agreed and asked him way back then if he induced and he said he did, as long as it was within a week of my due date and the cervix was favorable. Well, fast forward 9 months. My little sister found out on August 17th that she was moving to Nebraska ASAP for her husband to go to pharmacy school out there (her hubby left THAT day) and so we really wanted to get this baby out of me before she moved so she could see it since I had lived in Chicago with my previous 2 births. Well, despite my long walks, dancing, etc this little one decided that they were more than content to just stay inside of me. Chalise ended up moving on Sunday, Sept 5th and I was induced on Wed Sept 8th, so she missed it by 3 days. Bummer! We hadn't found out the gender with this pregnancy, and I would really go back and forth on what I thought it was, but the day I was induced I was pretty certain it was a boy. My doctor had told me to call that morning at 5:45 to see if the hospital had a bed for me, so I got up at 5:00, showered and got ready and called, and there was no bed and I was third on the waiting list. They told me to call back in a few hours, which I did and there was still no room and I was second on the waiting list, so I went and picked up my boys from my sisters since they had slept there the night before. We had been home for about an hour when my cell phone rings and it's the hospital saying that they had a room for me and I could come right in. I kind of had a little freak out moment since in my mind I had pretty much figured I wouldn't be having a baby that day. We went and dropped the boys back off at my sister Michelle's house (who was wonderful and watched my boys all that day and the next)and headed to the hospital. We got there about 10:30 and checked in, did paperwork, etc. It was a little after 11:00 by the time they got me hooked up to the pitocin, and the first time I really felt a contraction it was 11:26. My doctor came in and broke my water at 11:44. At that point I was dilated to a 4. About 12:15 the contractions were really starting to get more painful and so I asked for the epidural. They had said the anesthesiologist was close, but it took him a half hour to get there, which is a LONG time when you're in that much pain. I finally got the epidural about 12:45, but he said it would take about 15 minutes to kick in. Well, 15 minutes later it was still REALLY hurting. It had started to numb my left side but I was still really feeling everything on my right side. My nurse checked me a couple minutes later and I was at a 10, so they got the doctor and it was time to push. I only had to push for one contraction, about 10 seconds and she was out. The doctor had said that he would make it so I would be the first one to see the gender, so he pulled her out and flipped her so that I could see. The umbilical chord was between her legs and I kept looking for boy parts, but they just weren't there. It finally hit me that we had a GIRL! I think that really threw both Matt and I since we were expecting a boy, and it took a few hours for it to sink in that there would be dolls and pink around our house. But we really love having a girl and wouldn't trade her for anything. Below are some pictures of that day, and a few since then.

One final belly shot before getting induced.

All that pain was finally worth it when she was in my arms!

Weighing in at 6 lb 12oz - my smallest baby by over a lb

A shot of Matt & I before the horrible contractions kicked in.

My boys and I reading some books when they came to visit.

Our first family photo with all 5

Cooper, not seeming all that interested in his new little sister.

TJ adores Eliza, and has since he first saw her. He always wants to hold her.

I took this picture of her on Tuesday, when she was almost a week old. When she's awake she is so alert, and has such beautiful eyes.

This one was taken on Saturday, when she was 3 days old. What a cutie, huh?

The rest of her umbilical chord finally fell off, so we were able to give her a bath on her one week mark. She hated every second of it. :-)

Overall she is doing great. I had to take her to get her bilirubin levels checked a couple times and on Sunday she was up to 6 lb 15 oz and Tuesday she was at 7 lb 4 oz. The doctor said they normally don't get back to their birth weight till 2 weeks, so this was VERY rare that she was already a half a lb over less than a week later. What can I say, I produce straight cream. :-) We sure love our little Eliza.