Little Miss Eve in Hello Kitty PJs

This is what Eve wore to drop Lex off at preschool this morning.  Heads were turning!  (in a good way, of course!)  All of the grownups were gushing over how adorable she is and even some kids came over to chat with her.  At one point she put the phone to her ear and called Mema.  “Hi Mema.  We’re at Lex’s school.  He’s in preschool.  We are dropping him off.  Goodbye Mema.”  Later in the car she called Popcube.  “Hi Popcube.  We dropped Lex off at preschool.  Yes.  Goodbye Popcube.” :)

The whole ensamble and behavior made me think of college.  Wearing PJs and flip flops, coordinating cell phone.  Yeah, it’s going to come way to fast!!!

Eve, after she got dressed... in Lex's clothes (current and hand-me-down). The shoes are hers anyway.

What do you do with monsters?  Eve has taken an interest in monsters and talks about them a lot.  She’s not really scared, but will often ask if there are monsters in her room.  I say no, of course.  It’s a funny thing and not something we’ve had to deal with so far.  It started shortly after they watched Monsters, Inc.  When she started talking about monsters in her closet (or in the office, or any other dark area) decided to not let the fear get to far.  I found a book at the library about a monster boy having a birthday party.  It was about sharing, really, and the monsters acted just like people, not scary monsters.  Now she wavers between asking me about monsters in dark room and pretending to be a monster herself.  I’m trying hard to keep it silly and not scary because I really don’t want a kid who is afraid of monsters or the dark.  She has such an awesome imagination.

On another subject, I love how Eve draws.  She holds the crayons/markers/pens the right way and makes somewhat recognizable pictures and puts eyes on people and other fun things.  I bought the kids bathtub crayons recently and they have been loving them.  In the tub tonight Eve drew me (a big circle) and her (a little circle) inside my belly.  She gave us both eyes and I got a mouth and a “pagina” :)  She is facinated with babies in bellies lately and talks a lot about when she was a tiny baby in my belly.  It’s so cool to see her developing the ability to put those thoughts into pictures.

Eve built a coffee pot out of blocks because "baby needs some coffee."

Eve built a coffee pot this morning out of blocks.  Why?  Because “baby needs coffee.”  Baby being her doll, not her.  She built it several times because it fell over or she knocked it over.  At one point I heard her saying, “Look at me when I’m building you, coffee pot.”  :)

Later in the day she served Lex coffee in her little white fancy purse :)  She asked if he wanted some, he said “oh, no thank you,” but she pulled out the purse, filled it up (held it under the blue block sticking out and said she was pouring coffee into the cup), and handed it to Lex.  He’s a good sport and played along, pretend drinking from the purse.  I love the imagination on this girl!!

Look at the lower lip on that girl!

I’m just testing some features.  Trying to get pictures to insert as a small size and make them clickable to the full-size.  Patience please as I figure out this new software :)  It will come in bits and pieces.  Hopefully a few blogs posts along the way.  Now I have to go bake cookies for our “Welcome Back” picnic at Lex’s school tonight.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Friday, March 30th
On Friday (as I said below) we went in for a 41wk checkup and ultrasound. At that checkup the midwife did a membrane sweep and it seemed to help. That evening I started having mild, but regular contractions. They didn’t seem to be getting stronger or more frequent, so we went to bed.

Early Saturday, March 31st
Saturday morning I woke up at 3am and then again at 4am with stronger contractions. I wasn’t able to fall asleep again after the 4:00am waking. I started timing the contractions again and they were still coming very regular (every 10 minutes) and a bit more intensely. I was still able to walk, talk, think, etc, but I knew that today was the day. Just before 5:00am Alan woke up a bit and said “Are you ok?” I said “Yeah, but we will be going to the hospital this morning.” He jumped up and got in the shower :) My mom heard the shower running at 5:00am and also knew what was going on. We were all up and packing shortly thereafter. The contractions still weren’t very painful or much closer together, but I called the midwife and she said to come in. I was going to let Lex wake up on his own because he’s usually up by 6:30am, but he choose today to sleep in, so we ended up waking him up at 7:00am. We got him dressed and gave him a Zone bar for breakfast in the car.

8:00am
We got to the hospital around 8:00am and were promptly shown to a room. When Lex was born we went to the triage room first, but this time we zipped right by there. Probably because they knew how quickly he came and they knew that I was 4cm the day before. So we settled in. The midwife came in and checked me and said I was around 6cm and everything was looking great. Lex and my mom hung out in the room with us for a bit then went down to the waiting room to hang out with my grandparents and Alan’s parents. Contractions were getting stronger, but I was still walking, talking, and thinking.

10:00am
Alan and I went down to the waiting room to say hi to everyone and check in on Lex. He was having a blast in a cool room with new toys, lots of grownups playing with him, and my grandma feeding him graham crackers. I wasn’t feeling terribly social though, so went back to the room after a few minutes. Then the midwife came in and asked if I wanted her to break my water. She said that baby is all lined up and ready to go, but still trying to get through amniotic sack. I asked if it would hurt (I’m a wuss) and she said no, but it would kick labor into full gear and the contractions would come much faster. I said ok, let’s go. So at 10:10am she broke my water and boy was she right. I almost immediately started having stronger and faster contractions. She checked my dilation when she did it and “she’s at 8cm… now 9cm…” :) So I labored with Alan and the nurse on the birthing ball for awhile. They kept asking if I felt the urge to push and as soon as I did it was back on the bed. I couldn’t lie down so they put the head of the bed up as much as possible (the birthing beds are the coolest thing) and I was basically sitting up. This was maybe 10:30ish. I labored here for a few more minutes then started pushing. Labor hurts like hell and pushing is even worse!! I cannot imagine all day (or multi-day!!) L&D; like some people have. Anyway, after pushing a few times the nurses put a birthing bar across the bed (also called a squat bar, pretty cool thing) and I just pushed like hell through two more contractions. It was pretty amazing actually. Because I was more upright I was able to see the baby right away and could tell as soon as she was out.

10:55am
Evelyn Rose came out at 10:55am. She made a wailing face, but no sound came out. I said “cry baby, please cry.” The doctors assured me she was fine and took her to the pedi cart (right next to my bed) to check her for meconium. Since she was late there was meconium in the fluid and apparently it’s bad for babies to inhale. They did the same thing for Lex when he was born. Anyway, I was upright and able to watch as they suctioned her out and then I laid back on the bed and they gave her to me. They asked if I wanted her on my chest right away or after she was cleaned up. Believe it or not I said right away and they put slimy purple baby on my chest. So cool. Alan ran down to the waiting room to share the big news and get a camera (we left ours home!!)

Noonish
After some cleanup my mom brought Lex in to visit. He seemed mildly interested in her. She was crying, he said “there’s baby,” then “there’s a light.” :) Equally interested in both. Such a funny boy. We let him look at Eve a bit and touch her hand then mom took him home for a nap. I feel so lucky that the whole thing happened between morning and nap time so he was able to be around the whole time. I couldn’t have asked for better timing. After a bit more cleanup (I know, I can be vain) my grandparents and Alan’s parents came in. Everyone oohed and ahhed and we took lots of pictures.

Wrap up
So, this story is kind of short, but that’s the sign of a great L&D! The shorter the better :) Eve is doing really well. She took to breastfeeding right away. She was very sleepy after birth, but last night she woke up for good nursing sessions and has been nursing very well today. She has dark blue eyes and shows them off sometimes. She also has a beautiful triangle mouth which makes a great smile. She was a bit purple at birth and the nurses said her face was bruised. Today she is all pink and the bruising is mostly gone and this afternoon she passed her hearing screening and had her PKU test done.

My parents and B brought Lex over for another visit this afternoon. He was here this morning while my parents were at church. He has been amazing this weekend. He apparently has been eating and sleeping and behaving quite well for my parents. I’m so happy because he’s such a mommy’s boy lately I was really worried he’s be a mess when I was gone. I guess it’s like a little party at my house with the grandparents :) He’s always happy to see us again when he comes to the hospital though and sad to leave. I’m happy for the downtime here, but miss him so much too. Mom said that as happy as he’s been, he still won’t let anyone but me and Alan read books to him.

So that’s it for now. I’m going to find a few pics to add to this post and I’ll post more later. We go home tomorrow.

Spent a lovely day in the hospital today. We had
a 41wk ultrasound and non-stress test (NST) then had lunch with
my aunt Katie. Lex amazingly was happy (for the most part) the
whole time. My mom is a master babysitter!

No big news on the new baby. Still there, plenty
of fluids, passed the NST with flying colors :) Was much less
stressful then when I had to do it with Lex. This time I knew
what I was getting into at least. And baby was more
cooperative. Lex slept through it so we had to run the test
twice and they used a buzzer thing to get him moving for the
second test. This baby was bouncing around the whole time, very
active.

The ultrasound was interesting because they now
have a 3D ultrasound thing. It sort of looks like a face carved
out of stone or something. A little weird. She also said it’s
hard to get them really clear at 41 weeks because there is so
much other stuff floating around in the amniotic fluids. I
think baby looks a little squished in there. Time to come out
now!!

The midwife said I’m now 4cm
dilated and 80% effaced (for those who have any idea what that
means) and she was telling me who’s on duty at the Birthing
Pavilion this weekend :) I had to schedule another NST (need
one every 3 days until baby is born) for Monday, but we are all
hoping that won’t be necessary. We’ll see.