Introducing Makayla Kathleen Evans

Our little girl is finally here! Makayla Kathleen Evans made her debut on Friday, January 28, 2011. We are so excited to have her here with us! She is the best baby and is so sweet.

The labor story goes like this: Tyler and I went into the doctor on Thursday, January 27 for a regular checkup. My blood pressure was still high and my swelling was worse. Dr. Greenwood basically told us that at 39 weeks, the baby couldn't get any healthier, but I could get a lot worse. He asked us what we were doing the next day (Friday) and said he wanted to induce me. Both Tyler and I just looked at each other in shock. He went to call the hospital and gave us a few minutes to breathe. I was supposed to have a baby shower that night that our neighbors were throwing us, so I thought that would be the perfect way to get our mind off of things until the next day. Well, when the doctor came back he said that the hospital couldn't take me on Friday because they had another induction scheduled. Then he asked what we were doing that night. I was in complete shock! I just looked at Tyler and he looked like he was about to pass out. I honestly don't remember a lot of what happened after that because all I could think was that we were finally going to be parents! The doctor told us to go home and get our things and try to be at the hospital within the hour.

I don't even know what happened after that. We got home, I called my mom, Tyler called his mom, I paced around the house, I called my boss, Tyler straightened up the house, so I paced the house even more, I tried to pack... let's just say I was a mess!

We got to the hospital about 6 pm and they started me on pitocin. This is the very last picture of me pregnant...

 The doctor came back about 10 pm to break my water. The contractions started to get pretty intense. I thought I was a lot tougher than I was. I wanted to wait until my contractions were really bad before I got the epidural, but I only made it an hour and a half before I was bawling from the pain. At 11:30 I finally got the epidural. I was the most scared for the epidural, but it wasn't bad at all and a few minutes later I felt so much better. Tyler and I tried to sleep for a few hours, but it is impossible to get any sleep when the nurse kept coming in every 20 minutes to check on me. At 2 am I was at a 4 and by 5 am I was at a 9. The doctor came back at 6 am and I started to push. I pushed for about 2 hours. The doctor kept saying that he would see how things were progressing after each push, but he started to brace me for the fact that I might have to have a c section. All I knew was that I didn't want that, so I pushed as hard as I could. The doctor finally had to use forceps to get her out. From what Tyler told me, it was pretty scary because the doctor was pulling as hard as he could to get her out. Finally, at 8:05 she was born.

 Makayla weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

 It took quite a while for the doctor to get my bleeding under control, so Tyler got to hold her for a while. He is such a proud dad!

 Finally, I got to hold her. She was absolutely perfect! Even though the labor and delivery was really hard, as soon as I saw her, I knew she was completely worth it! I didn't even remember the pain as soon as they put her in my arms.

 Her first close up

 This is her first bath.

 She is just perfect!

 Makayla likes to stick out her tongue a lot.

 She already has her dad wrapped around her finger. At one point we were eating lunch and she barely started to fuss and Tyler said, "we need to hurry up and eat, I don't want her to cry." Already Tyler is the best dad. He is so good with her and so cute with her. She's already a Daddy's girl!

 This is her battle wound from the forceps.

 This is my mom and dad holding her for the first time. This is my mom and dad's 10th grand baby and Terry and Craig's 3rd. Terry and Craig were there as soon as she was born, but things were so hectic that we didn't get any pictures of them holding her yet.

 I absolutely love this picture of Makayla. She just looks like she is praying.

 This is Dr. Greenwood. He is the best doctor! He even brought her a blanket for her birthday present!

 I am trying to nurse, but I have to supplement a little bit. This is Makayla's first bottle.

 On Saturday we got the ok to go home. She just looks so little in her car seat.

 When we got home Tracy and Jeremy were there to visit. This is Carson holding Makayla. Carson is so cute with her. He was so excited to see her and kept giving her kisses. He kept asking Tracy when he would be able to teach her things like how to play games and how to walk.

 We were so excited to change her first diaper in her new room. I'm sure we'll get sick of changing diapers soon, but for now it is the funnest thing. Tyler does a great job changing her diaper!

 We got her all set up for her first night at home with her new jammies.

 Tyler and I just love to hold her every chance we get. I don't think that she's been in her cradle that much because we would rather hold her every second.

 On Sunday we had to take Makayla to be checked for jaundice. Her levels were a little high, so she has to be under the lights for a few days. We're just glad that we can do that at home. She has special glasses to protect her eyes. Tyler and Makayla like to sport their cool glasses together!

We love our little family and feel so lucky to have Makayla with us. Every day with her is a blessing and I keep thinking that I just don't want her to ever grow up! I'm sure I'll be one of those parent bloggers that posts a million pictures of every little thing that she does, so check back soon to see more of our little princess!

Baby K's Nursery

It's finally here! I'm officially 9 months pregnant and ready to pop!

I have to say that I really feel lucky. So far this pregnancy has not been bad. Just the last few weeks have been a little stressful. I have been seeing the Dr. about twice a week now because he is concerned I might have preeclampsia. My blood pressure is consistently high and if you could see the swelling in my body... it is not a pretty sight! I went in last Thursday for a non stress test and the baby appeared healthy. She was squirming around and the nurse said everything looked good. I have to go in again on Monday to have another non stress test just to see if everything is okay. If at any point my blood pressure gets too high, or the baby appears to be struggling, I will have to be induced. Luckily that hasn't happened yet. At this point, we're just playing the waiting game. Even though at times I feel miserable and I can't sleep, I don't want to be induced. This little girl can take all the time she wants in her cramped little home.

To help us with the waiting game, we've been busy getting her room ready. This used to be her room. It was our boring, old office...

When we found out we were having a girl there were a couple of things I knew I wanted to have in her room. The first was this play cupboard that my Grandpa Draper made for me when I was about 3. My grandpa was amazing! He could make anything out of anything! I used to love to play house with this cupboard and I just had visions that our little girl would love playing with it too. My grandpa passed away about 10 years ago, so this is my sentimental way of remembering him.

The other thing I knew I wanted for her room was my old bedroom set. I loved my old bedroom set! It is so cute and girlie. It's from the 80's, but in really good condition, so all we had to do was give it a fresh coat of paint.

 And when I say all "we" had to do was give it a fresh coat of paint, I meant Tyler. I mostly stayed in the house and would go out to the garage just to supervise to make sure he was doing everything right. Luckily, Tyler is the perfectionist in the family and I knew everything would be done perfectly. Tyler sanded all the furniture about 5 different times to make sure it was all smooth.

 Then he painted everything by hand about three times to make sure it looked perfect.

 We decided to buy a crib and changing table, so Tyler had to put together all of the stuff. I had to laugh at him because every time he was putting something together, he would look at a part and ask me where I thought it would go. My response was always, "do you want me to look at the instructions?" but Tyler informed me that real men don't need to look at instructions!

 So after months of getting ready, here is her finished room...

 This is her crib. We're going for a pink and brown ladybug theme. The crib soother in the back of the crib is a gift that she got from my aunt and cousins at the shower, but I think Tyler and I like it more! Sometimes we'll just sit in her room and turn on the soother!


We decided to get a changing table for her. If you look closely, the bear on the changing table has a diaper on. We were just practicing our diapering skills! So far, we're really good at it!

 We got a great deal at a Black Friday door buster sale on this glider and ottoman, but my favorite part is the cupboard and night stand. They turned out so cute!

 Here's her dresser that is already full of clothes. I know I've already said it, but I love the way her furniture turned out! We got the lamp as a gift at Baby K's shower. It goes perfect with her room!

 And last, we have her closet, which is already full of clothes as well. I think she has more clothes than me and Tyler combined.

I think we're as ready for our little girl as we are going to get. Now we just have to play the waiting game! Only 2 more weeks!!

Baby Shower

We had the baby shower last week for our little Baby K! It was so much fun to see family and friends that we usually don't get to see very often. And it was so humbling to see how much our little girl is already loved! Here's just a few pictures of our family and friends...

 We had really good food too! We had sandwiches, meatballs, fruit and veggie trays, chips, cake, and punch.

 Baby K got so many cute gifts! I can tell she is already going to be one spoiled little girl, and one of the cutest dressed babies ever! She got so many cute clothes!

 Baby K also got some really cute quilts from her great-grandparents. My grandma made this quilt years ago and I had hoped that I would have a girl someday so that I could have it!

 Tyler's grandma and aunt gave us this adorable quilt with pink giraffes all over it!

 Probably the one that got to us the most was this quilt. Tyler's grandma had quilts made for all of her grandchildren before she passed away a few years ago. It is pretty special to think that she was thinking of her great-grandchildren even back then.

Thanks to everyone who came to support us! We had so much fun seeing everyone. And especially thank you to Tammy, Karly, Tracy, Terry and my mom for throwing the best baby shower!!