Out with the lights and in with a life: Part I

Wow, what a post this is.  Honestly it is a novel but I am not a writer so I will spare you!  But I will try and share the craziness that has occured in our lives in the past 2 weeks.  I'll break it into 2 else I may never get it completed.

Let me start with the vital and most imporant piece.   On Saturday June 30th we welcomed into our family Evelyn Pearl Gloria at 4:30 pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and is 20 in long.  Praise God, she and mom are both healthy and E is beautiful(go ahead accuse me of bias!!).  She looks very similar to her sister C when she was born. The pictures don't all show the hearty amount of black hair Miss E is sporting but it's there!

Some significant aspects of her arrival: 

1) June 30 is a shared birthday in the Gloria clan: Ed's brother Alex's birthday, Ed's paternal grandfather's birthday and a paternal Aunt's birthday; 4 generations of Gloria's sharing 1 birthday.  It is also my Aunt Ruth's birthday.  Pretty cool eh? 
2) Evelyn's middle name is shared with her Great Nanny, Nancy Pearl Moore pictured below. 

Evelyn Pearl(in utero) with Nancy Pearl in June '12

Our first family photo we are 5 now!!

C has been so excited to have a baby sister.  Every night she has been kissing and hugging her baby sister goodnight in my belly.  She and B I am told sang Evelyn happy birthday at top volume yesterday upon hearing the news. 

This is all joy, we didn't have to tell her to smile!



 As for big brother we have all been skeptical as to his reaction.  Thus far he likes the baby and likes to describe what the baby is doing: crying, sleeping, eating etc.....  All in all I think he will intend to be gentle with his sister but there is no properly harnessing the energy of a 2 1/2 yr old boy sometimes!! 

 The Birth Story Part I

My delivery history involved 2 cesearians for breech babies but with both of these events (seperate dramatic stories unto themselves) my body did go into labor making me a good(not excellent due to 2 C-sections vs only 1) candidate for VBAC(Vaginal Birth After Ceasearian).  I really did not want to deal with the healing time, risk of major abdominal surgery, and lack of mobility post birth that a C-section results in.  I also just wanted to experience birth....the typical way.  I was honestly a little scared of this just because it was the unknown....

Due to my history I was not able to have any interventions(aka pitocin) to speed up labor, make it consistent, etc.  I also had to report to the hospital to be put on monitors once labor had begun(vs labor as long as possible at home) to ensure my utereus was holding together.  All in all I thought I was in labor 3 times; luckily we only went to the hospital for 2 of those three incidents. I got very familiar with how to check in through the ER; even the transport guy recognized me this past time :)

So this past Friday 6/29 I had been experiencing contractions, intense yet irregular overall, for almost 24 hours and we had almost gone to the hospital the prior night yet the progress had slowed so I "slept on it".  After consulting the nurse Friday morning we reported to Triage to ensure baby was fine and to see if I was in labor.  After 4 hours of monitoring, 1 hr of hall walking and only 1 cm progression from Dr's visit the day prior we were released from Triage.  The waiting game continued.  The hardest part was not knowing if I would be having a baby in days or in hours....it is really difficult to plan life around such an unknown. 

Sooo Friday night my parents took the kids to the Salem Red Sox game and Ed and I stayed home and rented a movie.   Our lights started flickering around 10pm,  we thought we were pulling too much power because Friday had been a 100degree day so we started going around turning off AC units, fans, and computers when we noticed the wind whipping outside like never before.  Ed pulled up the radar right when the power went out but we saw enough to know it was time to head to the basement(we actually have a seperate canning cellar in our basement we can use as a storm shelter). My 83 year old paternal grandmother has been staying with us along with my parents since the false labor the prior week and she had already gone to bed upstairs for the night.   As Ed found the flashlights I went upstairs to get "mammaw" and with the aid of her cane, my 9 mo pregnant body and Ed lighting the way we found our way to the basement cellar to wait out the storm sitting on buckets and coolers.  Meanwhile my parents at the baseball game had been evacuated to the underground tunnel at Lewis-Gale Field to wait out the storm with 2 very frightened kiddos.

The storm passed very quickly but it was super intense; it is reported this storm packed record winds in excess of any hurricanes reported in VA. Needless to say we didn't get power back and almost 50% of the state is still without power 3 nights later including most of Roanoke and surrounding areas. We were all re-united safely but lacking AC or fans making for a hot difficult to sleep night especially for this pregnant mama.

I slept on the couch downstairs just becasue it was cooler than our 2nd floor bedroom; but I think the uncomfortable situation made my contractions regulate and strengthen.  Saturday morning after breakfast around 9:30 we headed back to the hospital and were admitted meaning we weren't leaving without a baby!