An Ode to Evan…

So I know I haven’t updated since the boys birthday in January and I apologize. I will update more on what they have been up to after this post. I feel I owe it to Evan to tell his birth story now since he will be turning 4 on the 17th! I can’t believe he is going to be 4. I had no idea how awesome of a kid he was going to turn into when he came into our world. I knew he was one of a kind but he continues to amaze me every day. He is quite possibly the cutest, funniest, quirkiest, most loving kid on the planet and he is ONE. AMAZING. big brother. So in honor of my big, brown eyed (my absolute favorite attribute) child…here is your story.

Much like his brothers, Evan was a very much wanted, highly anticipated Clomid baby. Not to get into too much detail (even though most everybody knows) Evan came into existence during RAGBRAI (the Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) 2007 (somewhere between Hampton or Spencer, IA…no one really knows haha). So technically, even though he has never ridden, Evan is an official member of our team “Team Petting Zoo"!

Anyway, I digress, I remember dreading taking a test due to all the previous failed attempts so on the morning that I took my pregnancy test I set it on the counter in the bathroom and walked away to try and talk myself into not getting too excited. I remember walking into the bathroom and seeing Adam holding the stick and him asking “So…what does this mean?” and then I took a look and promptly freaked out after seeing 2 distinct lines. I’m pretty sure we were both crying at this point…me elated that I was finally pregnant and Adam was, well, probably crying knowing that his life was officially over hahaha. Poor Adam! Anyway I called the doctor and told them that I had a positive test and they said “Great see you in 10 weeks!” and then I promptly freaked out, bought every book on the planet dealing with pregnancy and jumped on board the pregnancy train!

I don’t remember being too sick with Evan. In fact I remember eating everything in sight. Eating for two now you know! I also remember LOVING quarter pounders from McD’s and eating my weight in chips-ahoy cookies. I gained so much weight during my pregnancy that my doc looked at me and said “Hmm…10 lbs this month….lets try and not do THAT again!” Whoops! I’m pretty sure Adam lost weight being grossed out watching me eat. He reminds me frequently of the times he would come home and see me sitting on the couch with a glass of milk resting on my belly and a stack of 6-10 cookies stacked neatly next to it. I was hungry LAY OFF!!! Anyway I’m pretty sure I gained 54lbs with Evan and it took getting pregnant with his brothers to lose the last bit of that weight! (below is me at 40 weeks)

Anyway, I was dilated to 3 cm and ginormous for what felt like an eternity. Of course I went all the way up to 40 weeks with Evan. I went in for my 40 week check up and they told me I might have to wait the full two weeks before they even considered inducing me. I of course begged them to induce me that day because I had developed a horrific rash all over my stomach called PUPPPs and was extremely uncomfortable and itchy. They did finally send me over to Mary Greeley that morning and had me hooked up to Pitocin by 10:30 am. I’m not sure what Adam was thinking but I think he had it in his mind that once they started my pitocin drip, that meant we were going to have a baby by noon. Clearly Evan had other things in store for me.  I contracted every 5 minutes and kept getting checked all afternoon with no progress. Finally at 6 pm my midwife came in and told me that they were going to turn off all the monitors, stop the pitocin, let me eat and give me something to helpme sleep and then they would check me in the morning by ultrasound to see how big this baby was. I was STOKED to eat since I had been munching on ice chips all day and was looking forward to a nap!

Wouldn’t you know not 5 minutes after she walked out the door, I heard a loud POP! on my baby monitor and I looked right at Adam and then soaked the bed. I remember telling Adam “either my water just broke or I have lost all control over my bladder” then all I remember is all hell breaking loose. I’m not sure what I was smoking all day but I thought the 6 hours prior to my water breaking meant I was in full labor and thought “I could probably do this without drugs.” What I didn’t realize was the fun had yet to begin because I was in so much pain from that moment forward I don’t think I spoke or moved for 3 hours straight. I think I just buried my face in my bed and wished for a quick death. I remember the nurse telling Adam to rub my back and me swatting him away telling him not to touch me or move me because bending over the bed, with my face smashed in a pillow, and trying not to breathe felt a hell of a lot better than anyone “helping me ease the back pain”. Finally when I got brave enough I asked the nurse when I could have an epidural. Her reply? “Oh you can have one whenever…you could have had one 3 hours ago had you asked!”

HOLD THE PHONE! WHAT?!?!?!?!? She was lucky that I as an invalid by this point because I was seriously ticked that no one mentioned that to me 3 hours PRIOR!!! Either way I told her “how bout NOW? Can you get them here NOW??!!!” and she promptly brought in my knight in shining armor, my anesthesiologist. I’m not sure if this is a real memory or drug induced but I SWEAR he floated in on a cloud and bright lights shone around him like an angel from heaven! Now, mind you, the entire time I was pregnant I dreaded the epidural because I had always been told how huge the needle was. At this point that thought didn’t even cross my mind. For all I cared, he could have shot it into me using a blow dart as long as it took the pain away. The nurse had to hold me up because, if you know Adam, you know he is deathly afraid of needles and  promptly passes out at the sight of one. All I remember is looking up while my sweet, sweet drug giving angel explained what he was about to do and saw Adam turn green and ashy and slowly slide down the wall and army crawl out the door…what a wiener but I didn’t care cause the second that thing took effect I felt like a million bucks! 

The epidural did the trick on multiple levels. For one, I felt nothing (HALLELUJA!) and my body was finally relaxed to the point that I went from 3.5 cms to 9.5 in 1 hour. Granted it took me the rest of the night to get to 10 but I didn’t care cause I was feeling goooooooooooood. The only complication I had throughout the night was that I spiked a fever and could only lay on my right side because the baby’s heart rate would drop when I was on my left. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful night.

At about 8am on the 17th my midwife came in to round and said I had to start pushing soon. She informed me that since this was my first baby I would have to push for 3 hrs no matter what. That sounded excessive but what did I know I had never given birth before! Anyway I pushed for a solid hour with NO progress! She checked me again and said that my bladder was in the way and that I needed to be cathed. Little did we all know that the large bulge in my stomach was actually a large umbilical hernia that was exasperated from pushing. Of course she tried to cath me anyway and then the nurse with her piped up and said “I have never cathed anyone can I try?” Um…..WHAT?!?!?!?! I’m all for gaining hands on experience but for the love of GOD not on me! Anyway, long story short, 6 attempts by 4 different nurses  using the aide of what I can only describe as an electrical light straight out of my husbands garage they were able to succeed. At this point, one realizes that when in you are in labor, and about 75 people have seen you/inspected your lady bits its virtually impossible to get embarrassed.

Anyway after about 2 hours of pushing I rolled over to my side crying and Adam, bless his heart, said “you are doing awesome!” I of course started bawling more and said “There is no way in hell this kid is coming out!” Finally by hour 3, my midwife came in and said “I brought in one of the doctors on call to check you and get her opinion.” Dr. Bannit came in shortly after and checked me and informed me that Evan has essentially tried to turn so he was face down but got wedged sideways and that my only hope was to have a C-section. She did tell me however that the baby had a TON of hair! At this point I was ecstatic, albeit exhausted. At this point I had been in labor for 24 hours straight and I was FINALLY seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Adam of course took that opportunity to ask the doctor “do I have time to take a shower?” I .COULD.HAVE.KILLED.HIM! SERIOUSLY????? I have been in labor for 24 hrs straight and you want to take a shower?! My doctor just looked at him and calmly said “Um….No!” So at 10:30am off we went.

I had never had surgery before but I was excited to finally see my baby so I had a mixture of terror and excitement. I remember the midwife telling me that I would feel a lot of pressure and that it would feel like a small elephant was sitting on my chest. She wasn’t kidding and at first I thought they would never get him out! But, a short time later (17 minutes to be exact), a beautiful, BIG, baby boy was brought into the world. I remember hearing his cry and just being over the moon. Adam’s reaction was priceless and I will never forget how happy and excited he looked after hearing Evan’s first cry. Shortly after, the nurse gave me my first peek at my boy. He looked like a giant purple basketball with eyes! I remember Adam asking if I wanted him to stay with my or go with the baby and I sent him after the nurse and he returned shortly after with our little guy all bundled up telling me that he weighed in at a WHOPPING 9 lbs 14 oz…no wonder he didn’t come out on his own!

 

We had brought our list of names with us (one that a month prior I had a minor hormonal meltdown because our idiot dog had ate half the list) and set about the task of naming him. I of course LOVED Evan and Adam liked Devon (mind you, Adam had said we would NEVER name our kid Evan because he hated the movie Evan Almighty and it made him think of that and Evan Farmer, a host from one of my favorite TLC shows) so when he suggested we choose Evan I kept tight lipped and didn’t remind him of his past hatred of the name ;) I’m pretty sneaky like that.

 

Then Adam handed Evan back to the nurse and followed me into the recovery room to wait out my drugs wearing off. When I got back to my room, both my parents and Adam’s parents were there anxiously awaiting the arrival of their grandson. I hadn’t gotten to hold Evan yet so when they brought me back Adam grabbed him from the nursery and carried him over to me. I was so tired but excited and the second he put him in my arms Evan started wailing uncontrollably. I felt panicked because I had a fleeting fear that I had NO clue what I was doing and thought for a second that maybe my child hated me. So I took a deep breath and whispered “Hey…its OK don’t cry” and he immediately stopped crying, looked at me, and grabbed my finger. He had me hooked from that moment and all my fear and insecurities melted away.

 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our stay. We had a ton of visitors and we loved showing him off. He was also the biggest baby on the floor. So much so that his head was too large so he didn’t get the crocheted baby hats that the rest of the newborns got and they had to call over to the Peds floor to get clothes for him to wear because he was too big for the Birthways onesies they gave away. The nurses enjoyed styling his hair though so he got frequent baths :)

   

 

These past 4 years have gone by way too way fast but it has all been a blast. We are so proud of the little man and big brother Evan has become and look forward to all the fun and laughs he will most certainly bring us. Happy birthday Evan we love you and our lives haven’t been the same since you came into our life! Here are some pics from the last 4 years! Stay tuned for the big man’s 4th birthday party pics….its Batman themed of course!

EVAN – 1 month

  

3 months

 

6 months

   

9 months

 

1 YEAR

    

2 YEARS

 

3 YEARS

 

   

Check back for year 4 :)