Welcome to the world, Evelyn!

She's here!!  We joyfully welcomed Evelyn Rose to the world at 12:26am on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011.  She was 7 lbs. 10 oz., and she was 20 inches long.  I am really proud to have brought such a healthy, beautiful girl into the world without the use of any pain medication.  I never thought I would have had the strength to do it, and I thank you all for your prayers and kind thoughts during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery.  The outpouring of support was one of the most special parts of the pregnancy for me.  Here are a few of our favorite pictures of our first few days with Evelyn:

I have continued to be in awe at how good I feel and how well the recovery has gone.  Evelyn is so sweet, and she really only cries when she needs to eat or have a fresh diaper.  We keep staring at her, taking pictures and trying to soak in every moment we have with her.  We are the very proud parents, so we hope you'll continue to visit the blog so we can brag about our sweet little princess and share pictures as she grows!  Here is a video that Matt made to chronicle our pregnancy journey (it made me cry to look back over it all!):

For those of you that are interested, here's the story of my labor: I had my first contractions late Sunday night (Mother's Day), but I was able to sleep that night, waking every hour or two with a contraction.  Monday morning, I was having contractions about every 20 minutes, so Matt and I both stayed home to wait it out and see what was going to happen.  I wasn't convinced I was in labor since I felt completely fine in between contractions.  I rested and drank a lot of water, and by early afternoon, things had started to pick up.  Matt and I went out for a walk, and I was finding it harder to walk or talk through the contractions.  They were coming every 8-10 minutes, but they were strong.  I knew things were getting intense when I threw up my lunch around 5pm!  The next couple hours got very intense, and I felt like I couldn't move off of the couch.  Matt and my mom talked to the midwives and forced me to get in the car and go to the hospital a little before 8pm.  I insisted on walking from the parking garage up to labor and delivery, knowing that it would help to use gravity to bring the baby further down.  It was the most difficult walk I've ever made, and I had to stop and lean on various walls, signs, etc for each contraction, which were now coming every 3-4 minutes.  I got into a room and my midwife checked me, and we found out I was 8-9 cm dilated already, which was amazing news.  I was almost there!  My water broke as I was being checked, so they offered to run the tub for me, and I spent the next hour or two laboring in there.  It provided some comfort, although I was still in a lot of pain.  They had me get out of the tub around 10:30, checked me again, and I was fully dilated.  Time to push!  The pushing was the worst part for me, because each push was making the pain and pressure worse.  There was no choice but to keep going, so I did.  After almost 2 hours of pushing, Evelyn was here!  The cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times, so after some quick action by the midwife, we heard her cry and she was put right on my chest.  No words can describe this feeling, but I was most amazed at how quickly all the pain seemed worth it.  It truly is a miracle how our bodies know exactly what to do, and I don't know how anyone could not believe in God after an experience like this.