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.