Last year at this time, Liz and I were preparing for the
addition to our family and were just under a week away from her due date. It
was a Thursday and Liz and I had lunch together followed by a trip to the store
to get Liz’s new glasses. It felt like a regular day to us. Later that evening
(8/1) and Liz and I were working on a puzzle in the dining room. Liz began to
have some discomfort and moved to the great room. The pains that she began to
have were not going away and before we knew it, we were preparing for a trip to
the hospital to see if we would be meeting our baby girl. It was late in the
evening and after a regular work day, so we were in “bedtime” mode. I hopped in
the shower (knowing that I might be in the hospital for an extended visit) and we
packed up our things and made our surreal trip to the hospital. It was
happening…it was really happening!
When we got to the hospital, we checked in and Liz’s
pains were begging to intensify. We went through several medical exams and waited
it out. After almost being sent home, Liz was finally admitted to the hospital
and taken to her room. Liz had been given a medicine that made her
drowsy and she was completely exhausted already. She was so tired that when she got her epidural
at 3AM , she was practically asleep. Fast forward to early morning, everything
had been going perfectly until the first push. At that point, the baby’s heart
rate dropped and the room was saturated with doctors within what felt like a few
seconds. Everything started to move fast, talks of emergency C-sections were
thrown our way along with scrubs in my direction. Everything normalized again,
but our doctor strongly recommended a C-section, so that's what we went with. We
left the room and went down the hall to where Evelyn would be born. At this
point in the process we were both very nervous because of the speed at which
things happened. Liz was put in the OR room and I was left in the hall and told
I could come in when they were ready for me. Liz was worried about me not being
the room and I just remember sitting in a chair in the hall, alone, scared and
all the while knowing that my whole life was in the room just behind me. I can
say with certainty that this was the longest 15 minutes of my life. I took a
picture of the view from my chair in the hallway. I wanted to capture that
moment because there were so many emotions and my life was about to change
forever. The picture was taken just before I entered the room. This was about 5 minutes before Evelyn was born.
I was finally called into the room where everything went well (with
exception to the falling curtain lol) and we met little Evelyn for the first
time. Her cries were music to our ears. So many emotions, so surreal, so
tired….so happy.
There was a surprise though! Evelyn actually turned out to
be a pretty cute baby. Both Liz and I were not what you would call poster
children for Gerber, so we were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful she was. Here I am...Liz's picture is conveniently missing...
So here we are…Time passed quickly and our little baby is now going to be one year old. As most parents would say, it seems like just yesterday that we
were taking her home from hospital and settling into our new life.
It was certainly a year of adjustments, but a year of many firsts and many smiles with one cute little girl in the center of it all. To us, she is perfect and she truly has been such a good baby. It's been so much fun watching her grow, learn new things and become a little person.
She has already given us so many special moments and we know that we have a
lifetime of those moments to come. Life has taken on a new meaning and we thank God each day for our little monkey :)
