Evelyn at about 14 hours old. She looks just like her daddy.

With (Blue) Angels Overhead

Evelyn Pirie Zoe Noble was born on October 11, 2009 at 9:58pm. She weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces and was 18 inches long. She's a tiny little thing, but is perfectly healthy. She loves to eat, watch the world go by, and sleep and she hates having a dirty diaper or being changed. She's not too fussy and is just generally content to hang out and be cuddled. It's a tough life for her!

I had been having contractions for 3 or 4 weeks before I actually went into labor, so when I had a few more early Sunday morning, I didn't think too much about them. I had felt a little off all day Saturday, the 10th, and couldn't fall asleep that night, so I definitely felt the contractions when they started at about 3am. When I got up to use the restroom at about 3:50, my water had broken and we were a-go! Poor J had a nasty cold/flu thing brought on by his flu mist vaccine, so he had taken a Nyquil before going to bed. For future reference, don't take drugs that make you drowsy when your wife is due to give birth. He handled it well, but when I told him my water had broken his response was, "Ok. Do you want me to get up?" It was funny. I did. He did.

I called the hospital to let them know about my water breaking and they told me to come on in. Kaiser in SF fills up very quickly, so I was relieved that they has space for us! We took a quick shower and then headed on over. After checking to see that my water had actually broken, Iw as admitted to the hospital, strapped to a monitor, and then sent walking around the labor and delivery wing. J was incredibly helpful at getting me through the contractions as they got stronger and stronger. My mom helped out with some counter pressure, hand holding, and attempting to not look worried or distressed that her daughter was in pain. Good work, Mom! Thanks!

Labor was far more painful than I thought it would be. I was fine for the first 5 or so centimeters and then things just started to hurt more and I was just too tired to really deal with it. At one point I got back in bed and would fall into a sound sleep between every contraction, which were coming at 3 or 4 minutes apart. Finally I said the magic word and they ordered me an epidural. I made it through 14 hours of labor and was 7 cm dilated. w00t!

After sleeping for a while, I was ready to move things along. I really wanted Evelyn to be born on the 11th, as it is my grandmother's birthday as well. When the doctor had checked my cervix earlier, she had noted that there was a bag of water between the baby and my cervix and had commented that they could break that to move things along. At about 8:30 we asked the nurses to send the doctor on down to do this and she arrived a little while later. The sack broke as soon as she was checking me and I rapidly dilated from 8 to 9cm and kept on going. By a little after 9, I was feeling a strong urge to push, so they let me have at it. I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions before the nurse told me to stop pushing so they could get the doctor in there. After she arrived, it only took 2 or 3 more contractions before Evelyn was born.

Evelyn let out a mighty holler at being born but settled right down as soon as she was on my chest. She turned her big eyes up to me, stared a little, and then proceeded to stick out her little tongue and start chewing on her hands. She was ready to eat! We got about an hour to bond and start breastfeeding before family started to come in to visit. She took to feeding like a champ and, with a few minor hiccups along the way, breastfeeding hasn't been too bad.

As for the angels overhead, last weekend was Fleet Week, so the Blue Angels were in town and they flew overhead doing their impressive routines as I sat in the hospital and labored. It was fun to watch them and now we can say that Evelyn was born with angels above. Disgustingly cute, I know.

I hope that all of this makes some sort of sense, but as a sleep-deprived new mother, I am under no illusion that this is the best thing I have ever written.

Belly Pic!

This pic is from about a week ago, so I was at 31 weeks. I'm comfortably into my 32nd week of pregnancy and still feeling pretty good, which is nice. I did, however, look down yesterday and realize that my legs have apparently been taken over by an elephant. I no longer have distinguishable ankles! It's not pretty, but if this is the worst thing that has happened to my body so far, I'm definitely not going to complain.

The nursery is starting to come along, with a cradle and a changing table. We have a few onesies and a Beco carrier, a carseat and a swing. We've even hung some pictures up in the nursery, which is quite an exciting thing for us as we have yet to hang anything in our bedroom. Can't rush these things!

Yay quilts!

I'm starting to love my mailman. Well, the USPS in general, I suppose as my mailman is prone to delivering mail to the wrong addresses all over the neighborhood. Yesterday we received an awesome quilt from our friend Kim's mom (thanks Kim and Mrs. Wachter!) I can't wait to wrap the Murloc up in this. If only the baby could come in such an easy way....

Coolest Sister Ever

My awesome sister-in-law Nicole made this murloc for the murloc. How cool is that?? This is quite possibly the niftiest stuffed animal a child has ever gotten. Thanks Nicole!!

Long Time....

Here's a pic of my belly from about 2 weeks ago. J took some more last night and I'll try to get them up soon. I'm a bit pointier than I was in this pick, but there's not a huge change.

I'm sorry I haven't written in forever. After returning from France, J and I headed to Seattle for a friend's wedding and then spent a couple of days kicking it in Olympia with J's sister and her boyfriend. We had an awesome time and it was a nice, relaxing mini-vacation.

Since then, I've been fighting two impulses: nesting and laziness. Unfortunately, laziness keeps winning, but the nesting urge is beginning to kick in enough that it may well win the battle. Also, I'm becoming less mobile by the day, so I know that there are things that I need to get done before I get too huge to do them.

As of today, I'm 30 weeks along! It's hard to believe that there are only 10 weeks to go, or 6 to 8 if I'm lucky. :) I'm totally happy with an early arrival, just so we're all clear. So far, the pregnancy hasn't been bad at all, though my back is starting to hurt more and more and I could do with a fewer kicks to the ribs and punches to the bladder! I'm still sleeping well and have a reasonable amount of energy and I get to eat like a pig. What's not to like about this?

J has taken to singing and talking to the murloc and he likes to put his head on my belly and listen to her heartbeat. It was pretty cool the first time he put his head on me and then got a look of wonder on his face. The murloc, on the other hand, isn't a huge fan of it and likes to kick him in the jaw whenever possible. Did I mention that she's an active one? The doctors have me doing a kick count every day, where I time how long it takes to feel the murloc kick, punch, roll, etc ten times. She has yet to take more than about 8 minutes and she has been known to get to 10 in under a minute. As I write this, my stomach looks like it has been possessed by aliens as she twists and turns.

It's alive!!

The murloc has taken advantage of her new size, muscle tone, and the extra room to get her kicks in for the past week or so. She's been bouncing, turning and kicking like crazy, which has been both a little uncomfortable and a lot of fun. It turns out that she is not a fan of turbulance as she did her best to remover herself from my belly when we hit a good patch of it on the flight over. I thought she was just going to crawl her way out of my belly button!

In the evening of our first full day here, an asshole on a scooter cruised by me and stole my purse off my shoulder, dragging me partway down the street with it. I'm a bit battered and bruised and I'm down a passport, wallet, camera and a few other goodies, but all in all, I'm fine. I was a bit worried about the murloc, but as I had managed to turn and land on my hip and elbow, she didn't get much more than a serious jolt of adrenaline. If anything, she's been moving even more since then!

My mom and I are staying in a little village in Southern France and just enjoying the area. I hear the wine is good, but I haven't had more than a couple of sips since we got here. We are close to the Pyrenees and there is some excellent hiking and kayaking to be done here and I'm determined to return sometime so I can take full advantage of it. For the most part, we have been touring castles, eating yummy food, driving around the area, and just generally having a relaxing break. It's not the most exciting trip ever (theft aside) but it has been very relaxing and a lot of fun.

We are heading to Paris on Thursday, where I'm sure my mom will be investing in several new outfits for her favorite grandchild. It does pay to be first sometimes!