Welcome Evelyn Elizabeth!!!

We are so excited to announce the birth of our sweet baby girl! I was thinking about writing down Evelyn's birth story and thought this was as good a place as any.

I'll start at the beginning. About a year ago I received a prompting that I chose to ignore... But it didn't take long for the shouting to start. Well, not shouting as much as not allowing me to ignore it.
I was sure we were done having kids! 3 is plenty, right?!? So we decided to pray about it... Let me tell ya, when you get a prompting that something is right, the answer is gonna go right along with that prompting... No need to ask! I guess I was hoping for a, "you're totally right! 4 Kids would be way too much for you! What were we thinking?!?" But I knew that was not gonna happen. So I knew we should have another, but I "forgot" to get a dr apt 3 months in a row and I was really unhappy. Go figure! Finally Sam said that he knew it was hard for me, but that we knew what was right and we should just get it over with. 2 weeks later I was pregnant. I was sick and all that, but the thing that was the hardest for me was that I got mean! Sam laughs at me for this, but really! I was mean to my boys! It's like the extra hormones just do not set well with me! Any who, so when we found out we were having a girl I could not believe it! I made the technician check again and had the doctor take a look-see. Girl!! And then when everyone found out they all said, "Oh! You finally get your girl!" Which, frankly, annoyed me! My boys are awesome, why would I want anything but boys, how dare you think I wanted girls instead of my boys, blah, blah, blah! (see, I told you. Mean!) ((I didn't actually say any of this, but I was sure thinking it!))

I started contracting early, but she was fine. That made me tired, therefore, meaner! The last few weeks were so long! But every kept telling me she would have to come out at some point... I had my doubts!

On the 29th of February I started having contractions that I had to concentrate to get through... It was time. I really did not want to have a baby on Leap Day, but I didn't really care at this point! We got to the hospital around 7 pm and they checked me... 4 and 50%. This was a little better than I had thought, but I was still worried they would sent me home. We walked for an hour, hoping that would get active labor to kick in, but no such luck. The nurse said she was gonna go talk to the dr on call, but wanted to know my wishes. I think she took pity on me, as I was just about crying, and they admitted me. We got settled in a room and we watched the clock tick. 11 o'clock came, 11:30, 11:50, phew! No leap baby! Around 12:45am the dr came and broke my water. And we walked again. I almost made it the whole hour, but whimped out in those last 15 minutes. We got back to the room and she checked me, 6. I was feeling good, so I turned their kind offer of helping with the pain. This was about 2am. Then came the regret! Why did I deny the help those kind doctors offered me! I started having some really tough contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart, but lasted a bit and were quite intense! About 2:30 I said I needed to push, but the doctor was unavailable. He was in a birth right then. They asked me to not push until he got in the room!!!! I waited 2 contractions, but I was sure I couldn't wait another... Just then he walked through the door. I was pushing as he was sitting down. One push her head was out. One more, the rest of her! She finally had come!!! Her head was perfect! She was only in the birth canal for about an hour so no cone head! Perfectly round! Her cry threw me! I thought that babies were babies... I was wrong! Baby girls are sweeter! Even their cry is sweeter! Then I though, "I finally got my girl"!! She really was so beautiful, even with all the goop and such. She nursed right away and was just perfect!
Then came the relief that I hadn't caved to the pain management. Like I said before, my body does not work well with extra things: hormones, pain killers, etc. I was able to get up and use the bathroom whenever I wanted. And the adrenaline rush was quite amazing!

She is now 5 weeks and 5 days old! Time is already flying by! She has started to smile and coo! I love my sweet baby Evie!

Her brothers adore her! She gets kisses ALL THE TIME and they are very aware of her and her needs. We had Stake Conference the Sunday before she was born. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Scott spoke and one thing he said was right to brothers, something like, "protect your sisters. Tell her she looks pretty when she is dressed modestly. Help her make good choices..." Etc. Zeke heard it and has been trying his best to keep her safe and to be kind around her.

I did finally get my girl! She is just what our family needed! Heavenly Father knows us so well! He wants us to be happy! And the thing I have learned and am learning from this experience is that, sometimes we have to go through a time when we are not very happy, or even very mean, in order to get to the happy part. Yay for the happy bit!

For more photos of Evelyn go to www.andrealarsenphoto.com