Birthday of Evelyn Grace Betts

We welcomed Evelyn Grace Betts on January 8, 2010 at 11:32am. She was 9 pounds even, and 20 1/4" long. Evelyn's head circumference was 14 3/4".

We went into the hospital at 1:30am and I was dilated to 4cm on arrival. Both my Mom and Reuben’s Mom and Dad arrived at about 3:00am. The Mom’s stayed in the room with us and Dad Betts waited in the lobby.

At about 7:00am I had dilated to 8cm and our Dr. broke the bag-of-waters. From then on we were in active labor. At around 9:15am I started the transition phase of labor.

At 11:32am, Evelyn made her arrival with an all natural birth. Daddy Reuben cut her cord and she was placed on my chest. She began nursing right away.

On the APGAR score at one minute Evelyn was a 9 and at five minutes she was a 10. (The scale is from 1-10 with 10 being the best score you can get).

When I get some more time I will post a blog about our experience, but we just wanted to share some of the basic details with you and share her first photos. We are blessed to have Evelyn Grace in our lives.

Love,
The Betts (family of three)

Patience

So here we are 5 days past the due date for little Evelyn to arrive and we are still waiting for her. I have been told on the first pregnancy that most people go late. So we wait some more. It has been tough trying to just “relax” and let things happen. We have tried every home remedy in the book to try to get things moving along. It seems now, I just need to let things be and she will come. Patience is my word. It seems as though it has always been my word. The Lord continues to remind me to have patience and that he has a plan. Evelyn will arrive in due time, that is inevitable.

The Lord has shown me many times in the past two weeks how wonderful he works in peoples’ lives. Both my girlfriends who were pregnant and due AFTER me with boys and they had their children before me (early). Both of them had their first children (both girls) early. We keep joking around that Evelyn likes her "boyfriends" to be older than her so she was waiting on them to be born. Smart girl!

Traci and Jason had their little boy at 28 weeks along. Kaiser Ray Kenitzer was born on December 29th at just after 3PM and weighed 3lbs 2oz. It was a very difficult pregnancy for Traci, and also his birth was a scary one, but they all are doing well. He is nothing short of a miracle and growing stronger every day. I continue to look at his photos with encouragement that the Lord is working miracles every day. The Lord has big plans for this little guy!!! Not only has Kaiser’s arrival made his parents stronger, but it seems to be making everyone around them grow stringer in their faith too. I know that the Lord is working, in all our lives. Kaiser is just one example of how miraculous the Lord is. He is such a blessing to us all.

Sarah and Bob had their son, Justin Michael Fox, on January 6th at 5:38pm. He weighed 7lbs 3oz. and 19.5 inches long. The doctors had guessed he would weigh about 4.7lbs due to him being early but Justin almost doubled that. Justin is a miracle on his own that he was so large and healthy for being early. The Lord had a plan, and Justin arrived healthy. What a blessing he is.

The Lord has a plan for us all. I need to remember to have patience and rely on His strength and His plan. Evelyn Grace will arrive when she is ready and when the Lord wants her to grace us with her presence. So we continue to wait. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to see our progress. Even though we are anxious to meet her, we are patient for her arrival.

“Have patience, have patience. Don’t be in such a hurry.” That was what Reuben’s mom always sang to him when he was younger. It is fitting for me now.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas. My mom came up and spent Christmas with us and Reuben’s family. I made pot roast for Christmas Eve dinner and we enjoyed the company of his parents, my mom, and his Grandma.

Christmas morning we went over and had breakfast and then opened presents. It was a lot of fun, laughter, and love. The rest of the day you could say was spent eating way too much. Eating lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert… etc. We had way too much food.

Reuben and I treated ourselves to a PS3 this year. Well it is more for him of course, but I will get some enjoyment out of it too.

Evelyn still has not made her appearance yet. We are hoping she will wait until Friday (1/1/10). I have been feeling some contractions, but nothing very strong. It wont be much longer and she will be in our arms.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Baby Bump Session 7

Monthly "Baby Bump" Session 7 - December 11, 2009
Photos taken by Sylvia Flores

We are getting so close to Evelyn making her appearance. I am so excited to hold her in my arms. What a miracle of life it is to have watched my tummy grow knowing it is her growing inside.

We finished the nursery and are ready for her. We have a theme of baby animals and mainly pink and green for colors. I also wanted yellow and as you can see, I snuck it in there too.

Here are some pictures of the nursery. (Willy wanted in the photos too). Only 17 more days till she is due!!! YAYAYAYYAYA!

So Thankful!!!

My husband has been wonderful this weekend. He got up on Friday and decided to finish the kitchen. We have been remodeling for some time now and finally have our kitchen finished. Well almost, but it looks finished to me. One really does not realize the importance of knobs on cabinets until one is 37 weeks pregnant, bending over to the floor just to get out something from the cabinet. It is so wonderful now just to pull the handle. I just love our little house now!

So it seems not only am I nesting… but Reuben is too :)

To thank Reuben for all his hard work and for being such a great husband to me, I made a fancy fondue dinner for us. It was SOOOOOO good! I definantly think we will be doing this again soon. Maybe as a date night.

We are ready for Evelyn to arrive. The room is all set up for her (not complete on decorations but ready for her arrival). We are hoping she arrives on 1/1/10. It would be a great New Years gift for us.

We hope everyone enjoys their Christmas this year.

Many blessings!!!

Love the Betts

Session 6 cont.

Monthly "Baby Bump" Session 6 - November 13, 2009
Photos taken by Sylvia Flores

Baby Bump Session SIX

Monthly "Baby Bump" Session 6 - November 13, 2009
Photos taken by Sylvia Flores

(The progression shot will be uploaded here soon. Sylvia is still finishing that one up.)

I keep saying each time how amazing Sylvia’s photography is. I love how beautiful the photos look. It is such a blessing to have her come out each month and photograph the growth of our little miracle.

We are currently 41 days until our due date. Reuben and I took our Childbirth class this weekend and learned a lot. It was great to meet other couples that are due right around the same time we are. We are still the closest to the 1st baby of the year. We hope that Evelyn will decide to make her appearance as the first baby born in Hood River for 2010 because there is special recognition in the newspaper and also a bunch of free goodies. How great would that be?

I am still feeling wonderful. The pregnancy has been very easy on me. The only thing I keep feeling is very tired. It takes me longer to do things now too but all that is to be expected. What a miracle it is to feel her move every day inside my belly. She is such an active girl. I keep saying it feels like a gymnastics class going on in my belly.

Another wonderful moment: Evelyn was not moving in my tummy and Reuben decided to sing right into my belly. As soon as he started to sing, Evelyn began moving around to where she was situated to hear him better (her head more positioned to where his mouth was touching my belly). It was so amazing to see how she was responding to his voice and his singing. I cannot wait to see Daddy’s little girl respond to his voice once she is born. What a beautiful connection they will have.

I love this Miracle of Life!