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.