Having a baby is an incredible experience. I am so grateful for the blessing to have been able to carry three children full term and have amazing delivery experiences. Here is Eve's story.
On Sunday, September 14 around 4:30pm I had a suspicion that my water was leaking. I couldn't tell for sure because it wasn't a big gush and it wasn't constant, but I felt like I couldn't make that up in my mind. I told Brian and let him know he may need to plan on missing school the next day and that we needed to make sure we were ready to go if more signs of labor started. I packed my bag, the boys' bag, curled my hair, did some laundry, and we hung the remainder of the decor in the nursery, but nothing happened. I slept great. I can't say the same for Brian as he woke up around 4 am to head to campus and finish things up that he needed in case he had to go to class that afternoon. I had a doctor appointment at 9:45am and took my bag just in case she sent me straight to the hospital. I didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't want to get too excited or worked up if it wasn't the day. When I got back to the examination room and the doctor came in, the first thing she said is, "You look smaller today." I told her I thought my water was leaking, but that I wasn't sure. She went ahead with my check up and my belly measured 3cm smaller than the week before. I was dilated to 2cm and she could tell my fore bag of water was still in tact. She decided to do an ultrasound to measure my fluids and sure enough, they were very low. She said there should usually be between 5ml-25ml at this point in pregnancy and I only had 3.3ml. She told me I must have a high leak and that because my baby was so low, her head was preventing a steady leak. She told me to go home, get my bags and head to the hospital. We chatted and I had to double check with her and asked, "So I'm having my baby today?" She replied with a solid yes and I headed out the door and called Brian as soon as I could. He was excited to hear the news and left campus as quick as he could to meet me at home so we could head to the hospital together.
I had to make a few phone calls to friends that would be taking care of my kids and also stopped at Thad's school to put some lunch money in his account and to let him know I would be having the baby that day. When he got to the office and I told him I would be having the baby, he cheered and gave me a big hug. I started crying, of course, and it kind of threw him off guard and he wasn't sure what to think. I just told him they were tears of joy and that I was so excited for him to be a big brother again and for our family to have another member. He got a little teary eyed so I told him to cry a little so that he wouldn't have to go back to class with tears. He gave me a hug and then I explained that Heather would pick him up and that he and Wes would spend the night at the Duke's. This distracted him and he perked right back up! Before I left I asked the office lady to take a picture of us one last time before Sis arrived.
Not the clearest picture, but you can see Thad fully recovered from his momentary cry and my eyes are still a little wet. But it was all pure joy and excitement. How I love this oldest brother!
I headed home; finished picking up the house and calling my mom, sisters and friends to let them know it was the day; and waited for Brian to get home. We packed the boys' stuff up and talked about how we couldn't believe the time was here. He asked me if I was nervous and I told him I wasn't anxious or nervous, but the unknown always makes me a little uneasy. I asked him to give me a blessing and it was exactly what I needed. He blessed me to have a spiritual experience and that is what stuck out to me the most. I pictured labor going much differently--I thought it would happen more like Wes' with contractions and I had hoped to deliver unmedicated. But once I knew I would be on pitocin, I knew I couldn't/didn't want to do it without the epidural, and the words in the blessing reminded me that having a baby is special no matter what. If I wanted it to be spiritual and special, it would be. What an amazing blessing it is to have the priesthood and a worthy priesthood holder in our home.
Wes was at Heather's house during the doctor appointment and she volunteered to keep him until Kristen could come get both of them after Thad got out of school. So we dropped off their sleepover stuff with her and gave Wes lots of big hugs and told him he would be a big brother soon.
He was confused and upset a little bit that he wasn't coming with us and kept telling Heather and her kids goodbye. It was so cute and I wished he could come, but I think he recovered pretty quickly after we left.
I told Brian that I HAD to eat before we went to the hospital because that was the worst thing when I was in labor with Thad--I was SO HUNGRY! So we stopped for a burger and fries at Wendy's and got to the hospital around 12:30 p.m. It took forever to get admitted with all the of the questions and paperwork, but I was finally put on a pitocin drip between 1:30-2:00 p.m. There was a lot of waiting and wondering after that. Not much was happening so around 4:00 p.m. Dr. Orth had the nurse break my fore-bag of water to see if it would get things moving. That procedure brought me to tears because my body was just not progressing and my cervix just wasn't cooperating with what needed to be done. She even told me that she thought I was only dilated to 1.5 cm...after two hours on pitocin! My contractions finally started to get a little bit stronger and I figured since I was going to get the epidural that I might as well get it before I felt too much pain. I received that at about 5:30 p.m. and was happy when it was done. It is not the most painful thing, but it does make me nervous knowing about the possible side effects and not knowing if it will work for sure.
After that, there was still lots of waiting...around 8:00 p.m. I was only dilated to 4 cm and around 11:30 p.m. I was about 5-6 cm. We were getting bummed that it was taking so long, but tried to get some rest and be as patient as we could because we knew it would be soon. My nurse, Danielle, was so great and helped me move positions a lot. I had a "hot spot" on my left lower back and laying on my left side helped to even out the
effectiveness of the medication. Danielle came in around 1:00 a.m., checked me and
I was at 8 cm. That was good, but it wasn't the 10 cm I was hoping for! I had her
move me from my back to my side again, and that is when the fun began! After that
my next three contractions were incredibly painful. I was nervous that my
epidural was wearing off, but didn't want to call her back in and on the third
one Brian convinced me that I should. I'm not exactly sure how she could tell,
but the second she walked in the door she knew I was ready to push! She called
in the other nurse and Dr. Rodriguez, the on-call doctor, and stayed very close
to me to make sure I didn't start pushing without the doctor being ready.
Luckily my epidural was working quite well and I could maybe feel a little
pressure, but no pain or urge to push during my contractions. Brian grabbed the
camera, the doctor finished suiting up, and they had me push on the very next
contraction, and then she came out with the second push and all that waiting
was finally over.
Our baby girl had
entered the world.
Its a little
blurry, but here she is being officially weighed-
6 lbs 12 oz
She was a light
weight!
I wish I had a
camera so that you could see Brian's proud, joyous face when he saw this
precious girl for the first time.
The first thing
he said is, "She looks like Wes!" I couldn't have agreed more.
With each baby my
emotions of joy, gratitude, love and relief have been overwhelming. It is such
a miracle to bring a child into this world, to add another one of Heavenly
Father's children to our family unit. My love for Brian gets stronger, and it
is so amazing to feel the love for an individual that I hardly know.
But knowing that
she is a piece of me and a piece of the man I am so deeply in love with is all
I need to know, and because of that I will love her unconditionally for the
rest of our lives.
I couldn't take
my eyes off her. She is perfect in every way.
Yes, we were
exhausted, but also as happy as we could possibly be. We know we only get to be a part
of this wonderful miracle a handful of times, and we were so grateful she
arrived healthy and without incident.
Shortly after she was born we
were moved to post-partum and Brian got to head to the nursery for her first
bath and got some sweet shots of our little beauty-
Brian said she
loved this so much and was calm the entire time.
This is such a
peaceful face!
And then she got mad...
...and then settled right back down...
It was a long
night with no sleep because we were excited and the nurses checked in on either
me or the baby way too often. I forgive them. It's their job, I guess.
And after all of
that waiting we still couldn't decide on a name. Mae? Faye? Or Lyla? These were
the main names we had discussed since we had found out she was a girl but
couldn't give any of them the affirmative--all beautiful names, but none of
them felt right. We really wanted to find a name similar to our boys' names--a formal
name as an option, but with a short name to use most of the time.
Right after I
received my epidural, we were browsing through names online and Brian read the name Evelyn. I told him I really liked that name and we could call her Eve. His eyes
brightened up and he said, "I never thought of shortening it like
that." We decided to keep it on our short list and eventually were
debating between Mae and Evelyn. I didn't love that we hadn't decided when she
came out because I wanted to whisper her name in her ear and tell her how much
I loved her. Don't worry, I still told her how much I loved her and by the
afternoon we decided we HAD to make a decision, and...the rest is history! Our
family was a little shocked because that hadn't even been part of the
discussion when we talked about names, but everyone loved it and thought it fit
her and our family perfect.
I sure think so
too.
Evelyn Ann Monsen
September 16,
2014
1:44 a.m.
6 lbs 12 oz, 18
inches
Round Rock, Texas
