Evie has arrived!

Holy cats, my last post was in October! Sorry, friends - I really fell off the blogosphere due to huge issues with this pregnancy. The good news? Evelyn (Evie) Kim Patrick joined us and she is absolutely amazing! Born December 1, 2015 at 6:29 a.m., she weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and measured 21 inches. She's our little Korean princess (as my sister likes to say!) and we are all pretty smitten by her. We named her after our beloved maternal grandmothers who have both sadly passed away.

Just born!

At home.

Boyd is a wonderful big brother - we've had some blips along the way but overall he is so helpful and sweet with Evie. I can say that having an older kiddo is slightly easier to manage than having two very little ones in the house!

The polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) combined with Evie's short femurs and a couple of below-average measurements on body parts gave the specialist some concern - specifically, her risk of Down Syndrome was higher. This stressed me out to no end for a couple months before I finally accepted that no amount of worrying would change the outcome. A few weeks before her birth, one of the nurse practitioners reassured me that after looking at the very detailed ultrasound photos I had on my phone, she was almost 100% sure that our baby would be fine. And, she was right - Evie is perfect!

Prior to delivery I begged my providers to let me deliver early through induction. I was induced with Boyd so I knew what to expect and honestly, I was 1,000% miserable toward the end of this pregnancy. The polyhydramnios left me feeling breathless and exhausted from only sleeping a few hours each night. My belly was almost completely numb from my skin being stretched so far in a short period of time. I caught an awful cold that I couldn't really take any medication for, and then after coughing so hard that I bruised a rib, my doc prescribed vicodin due to the excruciating pain! OMG, what a journey it has been. Luckily, 6 months after delivery, I feel really great and have about 1 pounds left to lose (after gaining close to 45 - some of that was extra amnio fluid). 

We were so lucky to have my in-laws make the trip from South Dakota to come and help out for a whole month! It was awesome to have them around to pick Boyd up from school and spend time with him, plus watch Evie while I slept. My mom was fabulous, as usual, and took Boyd to school quite a bit and helped out quite a bit.

More info to come!