Evie's Birth Story

                Evie’s birth was a whole new experience for us.  I had had two previous c-sections so, this time around, we had no option but to have a c-section. This meant that we would have our first ever planned c-section and basically the only thing we wouldn’t know was whether Baby E would be a boy or girl.   This has it’s positives and it’s negatives, but overall the only thing that mattered was that we got to meet Evie in the end.

                At around 32 weeks we scheduled our c-section for 39 weeks 4 days on February 24^th, 2015 at 9am.  This meant that Evie ended up being my shortest pregnancy and I never had to labor at all.  It was fun to know exactly when the end was, but it also meant that I knew exactly how much time I had to finish everything I needed to.  So, though I was more prepared than ever probably, I also crammed a ton more in a short time than ever before.  I also had more time to think about the c-section and, since it was a different doctor than my last two, I inevitably thought about all the things that might be different and had to actually plan for my anesthesia and pain management, etc.

                Thankfully Evie held out and made it to her planned arrival date.  The morning of her birth, Alethea and Declan decided they wanted to see us off to the hospital and were up way too early, lol.  We said goodbye to them and headed off to the hospital while my parents stayed with the kiddos.  We had to arrive at the hospital by 645am so that I could be admitted and in the prep room by 7am.  It really wasn’t too hard to get up early since the kiddos were already awake and we were so excited already.

                Once we were admitted, I had to get in the lovely gown and then the IV fluids and such began shortly after to make sure I was well hydrated.  After answering a ton of questions and asking the few that we had, as well as waiting around for a bit, they finally took me to the operating room.  It was pretty strange to actually walk into the operating room this time.  Then, since I opted for the spinal so that I would regain feeling the quickest, they got me all set with that and started prepping me for surgery.  Thankfully the anesthesiologist was pretty awesome  this time and explained to me the crazy breathless feeling I had felt the past two times and so it actually went away quicker this time, yay!  Once I was all prepped Ben and Dr. Richardson came in and it was time for the “party” to begin.

Don't know how to rotate the photo, but this was the last prego shot

All prepped

                After things were all set, everything went pretty fast. I couldn’t see anything going on, but Ben was keeping an eye on things over the blue drape and letting me know how close we were to meeting our little one.  He also got the special privilege of announcing if we were having an Evie or an Everett.  Surgery started at approximately 9:15am and Ben announced Evie Brielle Hill’s arrival at 9:31am.  This was the first time with any of our kiddos that they showed me our little one before getting them wrapped up first.  It was only a quick peek, but it was definitely special.  Then they weighed Evie in the room with me at 7lbs 4.6oz and then Ben went with her to our “labor” room and they measured her length at 20inches.

                One of the coolest things that differed with this birth was that instead of getting her bath right away Evie got to snuggle with Ben until I got out of surgery and then immediately after I got into the room I nursed her and enjoyed some skin to skin snuggles.  We had no idea that this was how things would go, but we were so thankful for the special time with her before she had to be taken to be bathed.  She didn’t leave us until they transferred us a few hours later to the post-partum room and then they took her for a bath at that point.

skin to skin

                About the time we got settled in our room, Evie joined us again.  And she was much cleaner after that too, lol.  The first thing we noticed about Evie after spending some time with her was that the girl has a temper and a set of lungs.  Initially she was very quick to get ticked off and would go from quiet to screaming bloody murder in a matter of seconds.  Thankfully, overall she still slept a bunch so unless we did something to bug her or the nurses were in checking her vitals, she was pretty chill.

post diaper change

(one plus of a c-section is daddy has to do all the diapers initially)

                As far as my recovery, my pain levels really weren’t that bad and I really don’t like the way the stronger pain meds make me feel.  So I opted to stick to Tylenol and Motrin exclusively and honestly didn’t need anything more.  And thankfully we opted for the spinal in surgery too because it wore off quickly and I was able to walk around by evening and get the stupid catheter out too (I hate those things).  While I was definitely tired, the recovery seemed to go quickly and once I was up and around the biggest annoyance was the remnant of gas from surgery that caused shoulder pain.

                As soon as we were allowed to have visitors, my parents brought the kiddos to the hospital to meet Evie.  When they first got there nobody knew whether we had a boy or a girl because we wanted the kiddos to be the first to know.  When they got there, I had Alethea come over so that I could whisper our new baby’s name and then she told Mamaw, Papaw, Declan, and cousin Olivia.  She was so excited to have a baby sister and she stated how happy she was that Evie was a girl and not a boy because she really wanted a baby sister since she already had a brother.  Both kiddos were so sweet and wanted to be near Evie as much as possible.  I knew Alethea would be gentle and love having a baby, but it was great to see how gentle and loving Declan was toward Evie.  Later that evening my brother, his wife, and Granpeg came to visit Evie too and we had a picnic with all of us in the hospital room.  With seven adults and four kiddos in all it was quite the full hospital room, but it was a fun way to celebrate Evie’s arrival. J

First family photo of 5

She doesn't even care that Evie is crying since she got to hold her, lol

                If it were up to me, we would have left the next day, but we were not allowed to leave until the 48hr mark.  So we were in the hospital until just before lunch on Thursday.  By that point, we were both anxious to get home to sleep in our own beds and to see our other kiddos.  Alethea really wanted to drive with us to bring Evie home so my dad brought her and Declan to the hospital again so that we could drive home together.  Thankfully the hospital is only 5 minutes from our house so that was a pretty easy request to meet. J  It was great to be home and was super weird at the same time.  We have never had just us and the kiddos when we have come home with a baby.  Ben’s mom was unable to come and my parents are local now so they just told us to let them know if we needed them.  It turned out to be different, as expected, but very nice to have time just the 5 of us before Ben had to go back to work the following Monday (even if it did mean not as much resting on my part).

All of us home!

Alethea made Evie a card :-)

Declan kisses and Alethea snuggles