I would like to introduce the newest member of our family, Evelyn Rose Penner. She was born Thursday 12/08/11 at 7:06pm. She was much smaller than her sister at birth, weighing only 6lbs 13oz and was 19 inches long (Lily was 8lbs 3oz and 20.5 inches long). We were only in the hospital for a little over 24 hours after she was born so we have been home for a couple days. While Lily has been absolutely fascinated with her little sister there has definitely been some behavior problems and moments where the fascination has worn off.
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| Evelyn Rose Penner |
Here is Evelyn's birth story. For the past couple weeks I had been 1-2 cm dilated (which is similar to what I was with Lily for a few weeks before she was born). Thursday morning I woke up around 4am with some contractions that were about 15 minutes apart. This was not uncommon for me as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I had contractions every 7 minutes for 4 hours before the abruptly stopped, and then again the following Thursday I had them every 13-15 minutes for about 6 hours and then they stopped. I went to work as normal and they continued to average about 10 minutes apart. I left work at 3pm like I always do and went to pick up Lily from the babysitter's house. When I got there a little before 4pm the contractions were about 8 or 9 minutes apart and still not very strong. I was able to walk and talk normally through them. When Lily and I got home round 4:15 they were still about the same timing apart but getting a little bit stronger. Around 4:30 they were 7 minutes apart and I sent Sean a text at work telling him that he didn't need to rush home, but that he should probably let work know that he may not be in the next day. He called at 5 to say he was on his way and was home around 5:15. By the time he got home they were about 6 minutes apart and very strong. We gathered everything that we needed, loaded Lily in the car, and were out of the house by 5:45ish. My doctor had said to wait to call till my contractions were 5 minutes apart. I didn't even want to leave the house when we did because I felt they weren't close enough together and we wouldn't be admitted to the hospital. Sean convinced me to at least leave our house and go hang out at my parents' house since it is closer to the hospital. On the way to my parents house the contractions kept getting faster and stronger so I called the doctor and she said to go on into the hospital. When we got to my parents house around 6:15 my contractions were about every 4 minutes apart. We basically tossed Lily and her things at my parents and were right back on the road to the hospital. When we got to the hospital at 6:45pm my contractions were about every 1.5 minutes. We got a wheelchair from the valet and made our way up to labor and delivery. When I got there they took my name and Sean wheeled me back to one of the triage rooms. The nurses stepped out while I changed into a gown. While I was changed I kept getting the urge to push. Sean was wonderful and helped me finish getting changed and call the nurses in. They checked me and said I was 9cm (although in my chart later we saw that they said 9.75cm) and they immediately wheeled me to a labor and delivery room. It was right around 7pm so there was a shift change of nurses so there were a bunch of people in my room. The doctor on call (which happened to be the same one that delivered Lily) from my doctor's practice wasn't there yet, but a resident was. As soon as they got me in the room and on the table they had me start pushing. After a few pushes Evelyn was born at 7:06pm. About 5 minutes later the doctor on call came into the room.
This birth was much different than the 16 hours of active labor I had with Lily. The nurses and doctors were saying that if I have more kids that I should probably come in when my contractions are about 7-8 minutes apart or else risk not making it to the hospital. If I would have done that this time I would have been in the hospital the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then probably sent away.
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| Lily and Evelyn holding hands |
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| Sean, Lily, and Evelyn |
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I will try to get more pictures in the next few days. Things were a whirlwind in the hospital so most of the pictures are on Sean's phone as we didn't have a chance to get the camera out of the car.
