Working Woman to Full-Time Mom: Life Changes

Last fall, Shawn and I found out I was pregnant. We had been together for 7 years and had to go to Oregon Reproductive Medicine clinic to get pregnant. The doctors had given us the impression that it would take a few tries and some shots that we had opted out of because of the cost. So, they just gave me a series of pills that I would take at the beginning of my cycle. I had only done this one month, and it happened. That quick. Aside from some pretty bad morning sickness for almost all of the first 2 trimesters, I was feeling okay, but I had lost some weight. I was so very happy about being pregnant, but felt very surreal about the whole situation.

It definitely got real for me around 32 weeks. I had gone in for another ultrasound because at the 22 week ultrasound they hadn't got all of the measurements that they wanted. That night my doctor called me, she told me I needed to pack a bag and get to the hospital, and I would be staying over night. I was so very, very scared. I got to the hospital and was admitted to Labor and Delivery. I got hooked up to fetal monitoring equipment. The concern they had was that my baby girl, yet to be named, was very small for her gestational age. Her monitoring had gone well over night, and I had been scheduled for 2 visits for more monitoring during the day the next week. I continued having monitoring twice a week over the next couple weeks, and as we got closer to term (37 weeks), I started going in for monitoring 3 times a week. Then, at 37 weeks, I was admitted to the hospital to be induced, on a Wednesday morning.
We tried to get things started slowly hoping they would pick up on their own and I wouldn't need pitocin. It was around 5pm the next day, when Mom and Shawn went to get some food, and the nurse helped me get in the bath. It was then when I was alone and starting to read my book that the contractions started really strong and very close together. Shawn and Mom came back in, they called the nurse and they all helped me get my gown back on and back into bed.
I had wanted, initially, to have a natural at-home waterbirth, but with the way everything went, having to be induced at the hospital, and how quickly the contractions came on, I ended up opting for the epidural. The epidural worked for a while, then I started feeling the contractions again, the medicine was wearing off the next day. They gave me something else in my epidural a couple times a few hours apart, but then couldn't give me any more and I was in active labor. The contractions were so intense, and when they checked me and I was finally able to push, I couldn't bare the thought of it. I thought it would hurt more, but I was relieved to find out, it helped the pain subside when I was pushing! The doctors were changing shifts now, at the worst possible time for me. A nurse stayed with me and I was pushing when the new doctor came in. I was pushing really hard this time and the baby's head came out! I couldn't believe it, they told me to stop pushing. Not because anything was wrong, but because the doctor needed to get ready to catch the baby! It took just another couple pushes, and out my tiny little girl came.
All 4 lbs. and 6 oz. of my little girl arrived at 9:47pm on May 10th, 2013. Evelyn Juliet George.

Being held by Daddy, only 3 days old.

We had decided on a name the day before she was born. Evelyn after my great grandmother on my father's side, and Juliet after Shawn's mom's middle name.
I had 6 weeks of maternity leave from work, which happened to end a week and a day before my job would end. The warehouse I was working at was being closed down. I ended up taking extra bonding time off from work until it closed, and now I am a stay at home mama.
Everything has been wonderful since she was born, aside from the serious lack of sleep. Waking up with a newborn to feed every couple of hours is tough. She could not nurse since she was so small; I had to bottle feed her breastmilk that I had pumped, and then I would have to pump for 20 minutes or so. Every couple of days I would end up needing Shawn to watch her for a few hours so I could catch up on my sleep. I've never had so many days, where I would break down crying because I was so tired. It took a while to adjust, and to know when to stop and ask for help. Evelyn had developed a herniated belly button around a month or so, but it is getting a lot better, hardly sticking out at all anymore.

The queen of silly faces!

Here it is, 4 months later, and she is a little over 10 lbs. She's still in newborn clothes, fits into some 0-3 months sizes, some are still too big, and she's starting to make all sorts of sounds, learning to talk.