All about Eve

 Welcome to the world, Eve Coraline Daines. It's never going to be the same now that you've blessed us with your presence.

Eve CoraLEEN Daines,
6 lb 14 oz
(one ounce more than my guess)

Here's the part where I tell Eve's Birth Story. The capital letters emphasize how important and interesting this story will be, but If you're not interested in that stuff, skip down to the pictures. Word to the wise, there will be a lot of blood and gore in this story. Just kidding! But there might be some bad language, depending on whether I stick to the truth, or employ that useful literary tool of "truthiness..." Well, OK, no truthiness this time, just the facts.

Saturday, 9/10 was either five days past my due date, or my actual due date. (Why, with all of modern medical science, can there still be confusion about something as simple as a due date?) All that really matters for the purposes of this story, is that by Saturday night, I was feeling like it was high time to be havin' a baby. And by 11pm or so, I was pretty sure that the painful Braxton Hicks I'd been having for a week had finally turned into real contractions. The contractions started to get really strong really fast, so we dropped off the kids at my sister's house and headed to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital, the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. As soon as they determined I was dilated enough to be admitted (about a 6) I very clearly expressed my desire to have an epidural as soon as possible. That was a little before 1 am. Without delving into the complex situation that caused its delay, I finally had my epidural at 6 am, by which point I was dilated to a ten and they were setting everything up for the delivery. Those were, hands down, the worst five hours of my life. Even if I cobbled together all the worst moments of my life into one long, horrible day, it would be no match for the torture of those hours. Not only was the pain excruciating, but I was totally unprepared to labor unmedicated for that long and I had no coping mechanisms other than yelling, crying and--I'm not proud to admit it--whimpering. And probably some swearing, but just the Aussie swear words I've picked up from Will. All that was compounded by how angry I felt that I was being denied pain medication I had asked for HOURS AGO. I have never had any desire to experience "natural" childbirth, and now I feel like I have the experience to back my opinion that IT'S NOT WORTH IT. Let me qualify that statement: it's not worth it for me. Maybe I'm a huge wimp. But I was so out of my mind with pain for so long that I wasn't even really lucid. I know now that bringing children into the world with a modicum of dignity and self-possession is a priority for me.

Some time after--and maybe because?-- I tried to make the helpless orderly feel bad about the fact that I had not had my epidural yet, the anesthesiologist finally came in. The epidural caused the contractions to slow waaay down, so I was able to rest for a little while before what I had assumed would be a marathon pushing session, like it was with Antonia. Not so. I did one quick round of pushing, then was told to hold on and NOT push until the doctor arrived. I tried not to push, but unfortunately for her, the doctor didn't get there quite fast enough and walked in the door right as Eve slid into home base and the nurse caught her. It seemed like poetic justice for all the times I waited and waited and waited to see this doctor that when her moment came, she didn't even have her gloves on yet. That was 8:30 am, September 11th.  And glory be, we only stayed at the hospital for another 24 hours after that, which was a far cry from the 6-day stay we had when Charlie was born.

Sadly, we have no picture of Will and Eve and me at the hospital. When Antonia was born our awesome nurse made sure that we took a family picture shortly after delivery, but nobody jumped in to make that happen this time around. And frankly, I just forgot about pictures until the kids came to see Eve for the first time.

Charlie holds Eve for the first time. When I was pregnant he told me he only wanted sisters; so far, so good.

From the moment Antonia walked into the hospital room, her eyes were glued to Eve. She stared, wide-eyed, for a long time and I wished I could know what she was thinking.

Best thing about the maternity ward: the free snacks!

Apropros of nothing: why does hospital juice come in those little foil-lid containers?

Eve relaxing at home. Being born is quite an ordeal. Constantly being accosted by exuberant siblings
can also be quite draining, so no one could blame her.

Tummy time!

For most of Antonia's first five months, she required vigorous bouncing in the arms of someone with good strong calves who would trot around with her (okay, me) or someone who would sit on the pilates ball and make her head really jiggly (Will, or me.) That routine was exhausting; we vowed never to bounce another baby again. Eve has been fine sans bouncing, but she still requires parental assistance to go to sleep since she was about five or six weeks old. I now think back fondly on the days when she would go to sleep whensoever and howsoever she pleased...

dozing on the couch...

dozing on mom's bed...(under mom's watchful eye, obviously)

and yay! dozing in her own bed...

These days, it only takes a few minutes to put her to sleep, but her naps are so short (around 40-60 minutes, usually) that I grow weary of repeating the effort 7 times a day.  We're not really sure why her naps are so short; I would have thought we'd have this sleeping thing down by the third kid...

With Antonia before, and now with Eve, I'm always astonished at how babies are the same in so many ways, but also so completely different. Some little habits and mannerisms seem to be common to all babies, or all MY babies at least, and some are unique to each baby. Here are a few of Eve's little quirks:
      -She likes to stare at faces. From her first day it was remarkable to me how long she could gaze intently at my face, even just hours after she was born. And once she gets you locked in her gaze, she'll start to tell you things, and she'll jabber on and on. There's really nothing else like it.
      -When she gets really tired, she stares without expression at my face and blinks owlishly.
      -She loves to have her bum patted. Not her back, just her bum. If done properly, bum patting alone will put her to fall asleep.
      - From about four weeks old she has been on a quest to get and keep her thumb in her mouth. Or failing that, any other finger will suffice.
       -She was four weeks and one day old when she looked right at me and ever-so-slowly smiled a little more, and a little more, until she was grinning a big grin at me. That's the earliest any of our babies have smiled.
       -When she was born she had no eyelashes whatsoever, but now they are so long and perfectly curled that they poke into her eyebrows when her eyes are open all the way.  Eyelashes that just keep growing and growing? Who ever heard of such a thing?
      -She hardly ever gets the hiccups, bless her heart.
      -She will not bend to my will, literally. When I try to make her sit, she arches her back and straightens her legs with impossible strength, and I CANNOT make her sit.
     -She has a dimple on her right cheek (of her face) just like Charlie.
     -She is deliciously chubby, definitely the fattest baby we've had so far and I LOVE IT.

three weeks old

Notice the two pacifiers: Antonia keeps a close eye on Eve's paci situation
and makes sure there's always one around.
She herself is a collector of pacis (although she never actually used one)
and hoards six or seven of them in various purses and satchels, as well as in her bed

one month old

punkin at the punkin patch

"See, Mom? I'm only touching her head"

Unhappily dressed as a flower for Halloween

In short, we're pleased as punch to have Eve in our lives, no matter how much crazier things are around here since she joined our family. :)