Baby Evan Has Arrived!

Well, it turns out that Baby Evan arrived early. I was scheduled to have the external version procedure for Tuesday, August 5 in the morning. When we arrived to the hospital, they hooked me up to a fetal and mommy monitor and apparently I was having contractions! I didn't feel a thing! The doctor examined me and I was already 3 centimeters dialated. We decided to try the external version anyway to see if he would turn at the last minute. Baby Evan was stubborn and wouldn't budge an inch. They continued to montior me to see if my contractions would slow down or stop - you guessed it - they didn't. Long story short - Baby Evan was delivered by C-section at 12:24 pm weighing 7 pounds exactly and measuring 18 inches long.

We decided to name him Evan after trying a couple other names. It was funny that it turned out to be the name with the most votes, but I swear we weren't going by the votes! He really is an Evan!

I will continue to post little stories of Evan's life on this blog. If you want to see more pictures, we will be posting them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeogilvieandaaogilviepics. So far we have learned the following:
1) Evan likes to tag everyone - except his parents! He apparently wee-wee'd on the doctor as soon as he was pulled out of the womb. He pee'd on one of the nurses who was changing him. He pee'd on my mom and sister, who were tag teaming a changing that I wish I had on video it was so hilarious! He has yet to tag mommy or daddy, maybe he is being nice.
2) So far the record time for dirtying a clean diper is about 10 seconds. As soon as Aaron had changed one, Evan immediately soiled the next one with a little cry that said, HA!
3) Aaron is a total natural at parenting (It makes just that much more in love with him!) He is better at soothing, swadling, and changing Evan than I am. At least I have the breasts, so I feel like I am accomplishing something!
4) Evan either does not like chocolate or milk. After eating a large piece of chocolate cake and having a large glass of milk, I fed Evan and then he was totally awake and fussy for several hours after that. Pretty amazing how what I eat affects him so much!
5) Overall, Evan is a total and complete angel. Other than a couple fussy incidents (that actually weren' that bad), he is a totally mellow buddah baby. We are so in love and so lucky! We are in baby bliss!

Baby is in Breech!

Things have been so hectic the last couple weeks that I have been negligent in posting. At my appointment last Wednesday, Dr. Riley informed me that the baby is in breech and I pretty much had two choices: schedule an external version or a c-section. I had one day to think about it. Naturally, irrational and hormonally overcharged pregnant women (Julie) hears the words "painful" and "possibly stressful to baby" regarding external version and immediately dismisses the procedure. Enter the perfectly rational actor ala Economics 101 (Aaron) who, in his adorable ways, makes this a perfect opportunity to create a decision tree (pictured left). He first starts with a wonderful depiction of the predicament - me and the position of the baby. As you can see, he assigned all these percentages based on the data we knew about success rates and risk rates, and voalla, he convinced me that I should schedule the external version. I rather took offense to the alternative option he placed (pray) because I have been doing quite a lot to get the baby to turn! Here's the list (hope it makes you laugh!):
- Placing ice packs on top of my belly hoping the baby won't like it and will turn away. All this accomplished was his head moved slightly out of the way.
- Lying inverted on an ironing board resting on a chair while playing The Beatles Abbey Road and flashing lights on my lower abdomen to encourage him to move toward the sound and light. Apparently he does not like The Beatles, which is going to be extremely disappointing.
- Going to a chiropractor to see if he could help me relax my pelvis so baby would find it easier to turn. Well, this was a fiasco due to the fact that I told my parents I was going to a chiropractor and, thinking he was going to try to push the baby around, they made about 20 phone calls to me while I was in the appointment to plead with me not to go. I guess parents never stop being parents. All he did was massage my lower back and adjust my neck - apparently it didn't relax me enough.
- Good thing we have a pool because I hear swimming relaxes the pelvis and can help the baby turn. So I have been swimming every day as well as doing somersaults, dolphin dives, and handstands to try to confuse the baby so he will turn. The handstands are particularly entertaining because I can't seem to do them like I used to as a kid. I had Aaron help me hold my feet up yesterday and I think all we accomplished was that I got a lot of water up my nose and Aaron had a good laugh.
- Aaron has been talking to the baby and rubbing my belly to get him to turn. The baby is defiant and won't listen to Dad - hope it's not an indication of what's to come.
- I have tried several Yoga positions to no avail.
- Today we are going to Berzerkeley to the Traditional Ways Healing Center to see if an accupuncturist and chinese herbalist can help me out. I hear they stick needles in my ears and wave some incense around. It should be pretty entertaining.
I think that is about it. So maybe I do have to resort to praying and hoping that he will turn before my external version appointment on Tuesday! Wish me luck!