The Best Christmas Present Ever!

The picture speaks for itself. It is the gift that keeps on giving!

Siblings and kids

Here's a pretty good picture of Evelyn and me with my sister Sarah (the sister formally known as Linnea) and her son, Jonah.

Grandpa comes to visit

My dad showed up at our door Sunday morning to surprise us, claiming that the pictures on the blog weren't doing Evelyn justice and that he had to see her for himself.

Dr. Evelyn & Mrs. Hyde

A happy baby:

But five minutes later...

Evelyn's first two days

Evelyn getting ready for her first bath.


Grandma Pearson washing her hair (which she did not like at all!).


Post bath. Doesn't she have beautiful blonde hair?

Taking a nap after her first visit to the doctor. She got her vitamin K shot and is doing great. She's nursing well and slept four hours straight both of her first two nights, which helped Vashti get some rest. She (Vashti) is doing great, too.

Psalm 127

1Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
2It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

3Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
5Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Real labor

By 1700 we'd pretty much come to the realization that if Vashti didn't dialate the final centimeter or two soon we'd have to go the the hospital, which would have been fine since by that time we both just really wanted to see our baby! But the midwife wanted to check her one last time, and when she did she 1) realized that the baby had turned back into the correct position, 2) saw that Vashti was still at 9 centimeters (one of the longest "plateaus" she'd ever seen - probably because most of that time the baby was posterior), and 3) accidentally broke Vashti's water. All of this was a huge blessing and answer to prayer; the water breaking was obviously most unexpected, but it gave us a clear plan: if Vashti started having more intense contractions and was fully dialated within two hours, then we would stay at home; if not, we would go to the hospital. Less than thirty minutes later it was clear that the baby was coming soon!

A few more hours of real labor (way more real than earlier!) and Evelyn Marsha Meyer was here, at 2048 on Wednesday, 19 November 2008. I wasn't the best fielder when I played baseball, but... thankfully I didn't make an error on this catch. I was also thankful that Evelyn let out a cry soon after being delivered - the one thing I really didn't want was to have to wait very long to know that she was breathing okay.

The two women in my life :-) Both did incredible jobs. Evelyn Marsha was 8 lb., 3 oz., and 19 or 20 inches long, depending on who's measuring. Vashti had a great-grandmother named Eva, from whom we derived "Evelyn," and Marsha was my mother's name.

Our family.

Don't they look great?

Our two wonderful midwives - Marlene and Brenda. Both have been doing this for thirty years, and we were so thankful for their expertise, wisdom and care.

Pseudo-labor

On Tuesday morning (18 November), I woke up at about 0300 to Vashti moaning. She'd been having Braxton-Hicks contractions fairly regularly for the previous few days, but this was obviously more intense. We called the midwives at about 0500 and when they checked her a little later that morning she was at 6 centimeters and progressing nicely. The picture above was taken at about 1100 Tuesday morning.

During the course of the day on Tuesday Vashti continued to have contractions at least every 15 minutes, sometimes as frequently as every 4 or 5, but they weren't super intense, and we were even able to go take a short walk.

When the midwives checked her at 1800 on Tuesday she was at 8 or 9 centimeters, so she decided to give the pool a try. The picture above was taken at about midnight.

1300 Wednesday afternoon... throughout the night she kept having contractions at least every 15 minutes, which precluded anything other than catnaps. When the midwives checked her at about 1000 Wednesday morning she hadn't progressed past 8 or 9 centimeters, and it looked like the possible reason for this was that the baby had turned posterior (still head down, but face up instead of face down - not impossible to deliver, but more difficult, and slower).

So we started praying a lot. We wanted to have the baby at home just because it seemed like a more natural environment, and while we weren't completely opposed to going to the hospital we realized that eventually it might come to that just because Vashti was going to run out of energy. I should point out that the midwives checked the baby's heart rate and Vashti's blood pressure regularly, so we weren't ever worried about their health, and we would have gone to the hospital immediately if there was a problem. It was definitely a trying time for us (and way more emotionally draining than I expected).

More pregnancy pictures

Before posting Evelyn pictures I figure I should catch up on pregnancy pictures.


In September we lost power for about a week. This is Vashti cooking us oatmeal for breakfast on the gas burner of our grill. Thankfully, the weather was pretty much perfect that week, and we got by just fine.


Vashti and her dad on 31 August. She would quickly catch up and eventually surpass him in girth...


This is the official due date picture (Friday, 14 November).


Us together on the due date.

1st Anniversary

I figured we had better put another belly shot up before the baby comes and the belly goes (and before our friends start rioting. Sorry to take so long, everyone!). This is Paul and me about to dive into our one year old wedding cake -- delicious!

Meyer family picture

Vacation pics 5: more South Dakota and Michigan

You can't drive through South Dakota and not stop at the world's only corn palace!


After going through Minnesota and Wisconsin we drove north through Michigan's upper peninsula so we could spend a day at Mackinac Island. My aunt Jane's family goes there for vacation just about every year and I always used to make fun of her for being unoriginal, but... it really is a beautiful place! This is the porch of the Grand Hotel on the island.


Cars aren't allowed on the island, so we rented a tandem and rode around looking at the Victorian houses and gardens.


Leaving Mackinac. We continued on the next day down through Michigan, stopped and spent about an hour and $100 at the Eerdmanns book publisher bookstore in Grand Rapids, and then arrived at the beach in southwestern Michigan where we spent a few days with my family. We're in Wheaton visiting my dad and sister and her husband and son this week, and will move on to Dayton next week.

Vacation pics 4: more Wyoming and South Dakota

One of several bison-induced traffic jams we endured.

Devil's Tower National Monument in eastern Wyoming.


Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota. Quite a bit of progress was made on this since I last visited on family vacation about twenty years ago. We also saw Mt. Rushmore, but it was packed (we arrived the same time as about 50,000 Harley-riders who were there for the annual Sturgis bike rally), so we just did a drive-by.


Wall Drug. They make a mean buffalo burger, and you can't beat their price on ice water. And I got a free donut for being a veteran :-)


We also did a drive-by at Badlands National Park. And isn't my wife cute?!?

Vacation pics 3: more Wyoming

We had lunch one day by a nice little creek near Grand Teton.


One of the coolest parts of the trip - we went on a hike at Grand Teton that circled three little ponds and saw this huge moose (not so huge unless you click on the picture and see a bigger view! (and it looked bigger in person!)).


Old Faithful.


One of the many crystal-clear hot springs at Yellowstone.

A Yellowstone geyser.

Vacation pics 2: more Utah, Idaho & Wyoming

After spending an afternoon touring (and be proselytized to) at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, we drove out to Promontory Point, just north of the Salt Lake, where the last spike in the federally-funded transcontinental railroad was laid. Then we followed a dirt trail a few miles to the edge of the lake and this "spiral jetty," which we later learned is a work of art.


Bear Lake in Idaho.


A nice cold stream in western Wyoming.


An old settlers' homestead at Grand Teton National Park.


Grand Teton.

Vacation pics 1: Maryland through Utah

Vashti and I left Maryland at the end of June and will have driven over 7,000 miles and collected about 25 refrigerator magnets by the time we arrive in Ohio next week. After a week with her family in Birmingham and then three in Albuquerque for a class, we took off on our first "family vacation." Here are some pics.


Petrified Forest National Park - this is a petrified tree that spans a ravine. (Tip: if you take a trip like this, we highly advise buying a National Park pass for $80... each park charges up to $25 apiece for entrance these days, so our pass saved us about $100.)


Grand Canyon National Park.


Camping outside of Grand Canyon National Park. I didn't force this on my 6-month-pregnant wife - she wanted to camp! We camped about half the time and found hotels the rest.


Zion National Park.


Bryce Canyon National Park.