Baby Oren is Here- Part 1

It's PINK! PINK! and more PINK!

We are excited to announce the arrival of

Evie

Evangeline Rae Oren

Born @ 3:53pm on March 28th

7 lbs. 19 1/4 inches

Wow! What an experience! I will say in addition to the first time I met my son, this was one of the most joyful and emotional days... stocked full of the expected and the unexpected. In the end, after 24 hours of labor, God blessed us with another little one, and to our great surprise... a baby girl! 

How It All Began

• Sunday morning in church I was joking with friends about this baby staying inside until at least 41 weeks. My due date was the next day (March 28th). During church, my stomach was feeling "funny" kind of pain, but not really. It wasn't any kind of pain I could time or count. I didn't think anything of it. 
• I was nauseous and threw up Saturday morning (surprise, surprise) and felt sick to my stomach eating a piece of pizza at lunch on Sunday. (Apparently nausea and vomiting can be a sign of labor starting soon).
• At 4pm, Jon and I laid down to take a nap. Within minutes, Jon was fast asleep and I heard a soft "pop!" I laid there, frozen for a second, wondering what was going on. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough my water broke (although I wasn't quite sure and didn't want to jump the gun). I went back to the bedroom and told Jon, "Hey! I think my water just broke!"
• All of your water doesn't come out right away in most people, and the second time I noticed it was a greenish color (which is an indication that the baby pooped in utero). 
• I called the doctor who said I needed to come in within an hour and a half so the baby can be monitored due to the green water, etc. I was hoping if I wasn't far along (like my consistent 1 cm) , that they would let us go home and come back a little later. Our original plan was to labor the majority of hours at home to be most comfortable, able to move around, etc. She said it all depended on whether the water really was green, which they would find out when we got there. 
• I took an incredibly fast shower, and we raced around our house like crazy, putting my bag together, and Mekonen's. I thought I would have much more time to do this. Oops!! :) 
• We dropped Mekonen off with some good friends and headed to the hospital! On the way there, contractions were starting to get somewhat painful. 

"Cheese!!" It's Baby Day!!! 

Of course...texting! Letting family and friends know Baby O. was on its way! 

Baby on the Way!

• We arrived at the hospital at 6:30pm and got all checked in. As soon as I walked into the room I was feeling quite nervous, anxious, excited, and everything else you can imagine. 
• It was confirmed that the baby did poop in utero so I would have to stay at the hospital instead of going back home. They checked me and I was only 1cm! Of course. haha. I knew it would be a long night! :) 
• I cannot say enough in praise of my husband. He was amazing...right there through the highs and lows of a very long night and day. I COULD NOT have gone through all of this without him. Wow. I love this guy. 

• After a tiring night, I was ten centimeters by 7am. When she finally announced ten, I got this huge surge of excitement! Surely, I'd be meeting Baby O. soon!!! (But I guess "soon" is a relative term). 
• I started pushing at 9:22am. After 3 exhausting hours of pushing, we weren't seeing much progress and my pain was getting considerably worse and I was scared. The pain shifted from contractions in my stomach to severe back pain and pain in my right hip. It was uncontrollable. Likes knives and electric wires shooting through my bones and down my legs. Holy moly I didn't think I would survive! 
• The mix of this incredible surge of pain and no progress after 3 hours of what the nurse called excellent pushing, they went to get my doctor to see what was going on. Turns out that three major factors were colliding all at the same time.
  1. I was simply too small.
  2. Baby was simply too big.
  3. Evie was not in the birth canal face down (most natural way), or face up (happens a lot, but very painful). She was in the more uncommon and painful position of sideways (transverse). She was already sideways IN the birth canal hence the excruciating pain when I started pushing (the actual pushing didn't hurt. It actually felt better to push, but between the pushing was horrific). 

• I continued to labor for another 1 1/2 hours or so and tried laying in different positions to get her to turn. But she wouldn't budge. 
• My doctor came back in and said there are only two options:
  1. A forceps delivery- which the doctor said would be dangerous for me and the baby given where she was positioned and could cause significant damage for both of us.
  2. A c-section. Most people don't "want" a c-section, and I was no different. But afte more discussion with the doctor it was determined that the c-section was the only option, and there was no way the baby would be coming out otherwise. 

• Somewhere around 2:30pm the decision was made and Baby O. would be arriving via the knife (c-section). They would be back in a half hour to get us so we could go meet our babe. Time to get "dressed up"!!! Doesn't Jonny look so cute in his scrubs! :) 

Me and my sexy marshmallow head! We couldn't wait to meet this babe! 

It's GO TIME!!!! They wheeled me in at 3:30pm. I think I went through every emotion possible in the previous 24 hours. I also hadn't slept since Saturday night (it's now Monday afternoon), and I was relieved that the end was in sight. Evie was born just 23 minutes later at 3:53pm. 

Eeeeeeeek!!!!! Pink???? Blue????

By my face this might have been one of two times: when someone said, "oh no. I dropped a needle" or when someone said "start counting." I yelled from behind my curtain..."This is getting creepy!" And my doctor said, "Don't worry.Just counting to make sure we left no instruments inside." Yikes!!

At 3:53pm we got a huge surprise!! A Baby Girl!!! (It was even more of a surprise at this point in the process than just the fact that we waited to find out the gender until birth). That story will be in "Part Two" coming next post!

My doctor is amazing by the way. She let Jon stand right next to her during the surgery and take video and pictures. So, so cool! Most doctors (from what I hear, and friends' experiences) make the dad sit on a stool behind the curtain next to the wife's head and won't let him stand up and watch nevermind video. Jon was up there asking questions about what was what, etc. It was so fun to watch the video of her arrival after. So cool. 

Remember how I pushed for three hours with her head sideways??? Here's the proof!! Just look at that conehead! Poor Evie Rae! What a trooper she is! :) One day she will hate me for posting this. 

6 lbs. 15.7 oz. which they declared an even 7 lbs. And yep, the doctor said a seven pound baby was too big for me. Seriously? Oh my!

Evie meeting Mommy for the first time. I think she is mad I squished her head into a point. I tried to make amends telling her I would put a cute bow on the top of it. 

 An almost complete first family picture! Jon looks adorable, my marshmallow head??? not so adorable, and where is Evie???

In recovery holding Evie which was difficult due to the crazy shakes I had from the medication. I was so scared I was going to drop her. I kept looking at her thinking, "I cannot believe we have a girl!!!" Perfect. Absolutely perfect!! 

We are overjoyed...