Happy Birth-Day Baby Lillian Joy Evans!!

Our Princess has arrived!!!

Here are the boys welcoming their little sister to the world. She has a little onsie on that even says "Little Sister." Laura has been watching them when they are not in school and she says she has been working on her title of "favorite auntie" by letting them stay up late, eat nothing but pizza and candy and snuggling them in our beds. They are a little spoiled...

Charlie loved pointing out all of baby Lilly's parts. He would say, "She has little hands like me, she has little feet like me, she has a tummy like me," and so on- it was very cute.
I am now the mom of 3! I can't believe it. They sure are cute big brothers.
Everyone is so excited that Lilly is finally here. On Sunday night Jackson prayed that Lilly would come out the next day and that she would be healthy and have no problems. He said that Jesus would do that because "Jesus is good" and he answers our prayers. He was thrilled when Laura picked him up and told him that Baby Lilly was being born.
Here is one of the first pictures we've got so far. She just loves to suck her hands and play with them up by her mouth.
This is her Thinker pose. "I'm thinkin.... I'm thinkin....."
Here is a very happy and exhausted Daddy holding his princess minutes after she was born.
Her first check. Her apgar scores were 8 at 1 min and 9 at 5 min. She weighed 6 lb 13 oz and was 19.5" long at birth.
First glimpse of our sweet baby.
On the birthing ball in the middle of the night. Adam was so sweet he rubbed my back while I bounced.
At the beginning, before the pain, documenting the past weeks events for posterity.

-Lilly's Birth Story- (It's long and detailed but not as scary or traumatic as the boys' birth stories)

We planned to have a vaginal birth like I did with Charlie, but my hospital Memorial Hospital in Martinsville isn't certified to do VBACs as they are called which stands for vaginal birth after cesarian. So we got special permission from our insurance to go to Roanoke and see another Dr. Chewning. I started seeing Dr Torres in Martinsville but transferred to Dr Chewning at about 29 weeks. Things were going well and I was just waiting to go into labor on my own because they don't like to induce VBACs (my previous Dr absolutely refused to induce due to risk of uterine rupture with heavy contractions.)

Last Wed. we went to our standard check up and Dr C checked my cervix and said that the head felt too squishy. We had an ultrasound and found out that baby Lilly was breech. The nurses and Dr. had the saddest voices as they told us how sorry they were for us and that now we would have to have a c-section. I had heard of baby's turning before so I asked for a few days to see if we could pray the baby into turning. He agreed but scheduled the c-section for the next monday or wed. Financially, to have a c-section at matinsville was going to cost $100. To have a VBAC in Roanoke was going to be about $3000 but to have a c-section in Roanoke had the potential of costing $5000 or more if insrance refused to cover it seeing that we could have done a c-section at the smaller hospital. We made arrangements to see my original Dr. Torres if we needed to go the c-section route. Then we began prying like crazy that I wouldn't have to have a c-section and that baby Lilly would turn.

We tried every trick we could find online (even the crazy ones). I layed in special positions with my hips higher than my head. Adam shone a light down my belly and told Lilly to turn towards the light. We played tab choir music on my pubic bone hoping she would turn to hear it. I swam and did flip turns and headstands in the pool. Adam rubbed my belly in a special way that apparently only Drs are supposed to do but we didn't really know that. He said he could feel like Heavenly Father had given him x-ray vision and he could tell by touch exactly where her head and her feet are. On thursday night I felt some nice big kicks and then when Adam felt my stomach the head was not in the same spot anymore. We went back to Roanoke on friday and she had flipped!! The nurses were so exited for us and told us how rare it was that a baby would flip in their last week because they usually don't have room for such gymnastics. Although my Doc had told me he would induce me if she turned, the hospital was too busy and we were told to wait until monday. I was very worried that she might turn again and again tried to induce myself. This time I tried red rasberry leaf tea that is supposed to start labor but it didn't work...

On monday we went to the Drs at 8:00 AM and were there 2 hours before being seen. Dr. C said I could go be induced in the next couple days but when he called the hospital they said that monday would be best so we had an apt for 1:00. We went to the mall bought some shoes and had a nice last supper. At 3:00 I was put on pitocin to induce labor. I was dilated to a 3. after 3 hours I was a 3.5 but Lilly's head was still high and it was turned sideways. After another 3 hours her head had dropped some and the Dr on call said she could break my water if I wanted. The nurse had scared me though by saying that if I didn't want an epidural or if epidurals didnt work on me, I should hold off as long as possible because the pain really picks up after having your water broken. I asked her to come back in an hour but then the nurse said she couldn't come back until 3AM. About 12 the contractions were too painful to lay down anymore and by 2:30 AM I was ready to try an epidural even if it didn't work because I had no idea how many more hours I had ahead of me. I got the epidural (ouch) and it didn't take like it normally does. I could still feel pain but it kind of took the edge off. At 4:00 I let the Doctor break my water because I was still only at a 4.5 almost 5 and the head was still high (-3 station). I relaxed alot and was able to fall asleep. I slept for an hour and then woke up nauseaus and in pain. I threw up my popsicle. Then the nurse was going to put a catheter in but she said, "Oh, my there is a head there!"

She called the Dr. told me not to cough or move and the Dr ran into the room suited up and caught the head as it slid out with one of the contractions. There was a cord wrapped around her that had to be cut and then a small push and the rest of her flopped out. It was so easy!! It was amazing! Adam got to trim the cord and I was just so impressed how calm the Dr and nurses are when the baby comes out all purple and they suction her out until she coughs and cries.

She is just beautiful. She looks like a c-section baby with a perfect little head and dainty nose. She looks a lot like Charlie to me except her face is rounder. I'm still in the hospital but so far she has been a very good baby. She sleeps a lot and LOVES nursing and sucking on her hands. She is a pirana like the boys were and already has nursing blisters on her lips. We are so excited and thankful to have her in our family. I am so grateful for Drs. and that they have the skills to do something like break your water so that I could not have a much shorter labor. (Only 15 hours but I don't count the beginning part). I didn't need any stitches and only had 2 superficial tears- I already feel great! (except my left leg was pretty asleep from the epidural that apparently worked better than either the anesthesiologist or I had expected) Within an hour we had taken some pictures and texted our parents and then posted them on facebook. We started getting congratulatory messages from all over the country it was very fun especially since we are far away both from home and from the people in our branch. We received a visit from the Hodnetts in the AM and then from Laura and the boys after school. We have to stay here 48 hours for observation from the strep B complication which they say Lilly is doing great and is just standard procedure. Otherwise I think we could have come home today. What a great experience and a great new addition to our family.