Evangeline Rose Parkin

6 days over due and a healthy 8lb 2oz baby Eva entered our world last Friday. She was born at 9.50am after a speedy labour and delivery. If you are at all squeamish or don't like to know details don't read the next two paragraphs! I went in Thursday night after my waters broke and was sent promptly home with some nice pain killers to wait for more pain or some other sign she was on her way out. About 6 hours later I realised the painkillers had worn off and I was more than ready to have someone else decide how well I was progressing, so we returned to the hospital at about 8am.

Gabe was being watched by Aunty Claire who was all set for a long haul. The midwife who admitted us told us we had a fair way to go yet so she hooked me up to the lovely baby monitor on the not so comfortable triage room bed. half an hour later I was ready to push and noone seemed to believe me. One midwife reluctantly agreed to take us to a delivery room so that I could have some gas and air for the pain. She left us alone again in a state of disbelief, she didn't check to see if I was right, she just assumed I didn't know what I was talking about. Two contractions later Ryan was pressing the buzzer and the head midwife arrived to see Eva crowning! She was shocked to say the least...if she'd have taken her time Ryan would have delivered Eva himself. We did get an apology afterwards, so we won't be writing any letters of complaint.

Anyway for those of you who skipped the above paragraphs the highlight of the day was returning home the same day with our little angel in tow. She has maintained her birth weight and is already spending more time awake staring around at any face she can see. We've had a slow week at home adjusting to our larger family. Ryan is back to work next week as my parents are visiting and we'll be moving into our new house in a couple of weeks so he'll be taking another week off then. Life has been quite intense lately and little Eva has been a real angel so we feel quite blessed to have her lighting up our stressful time.

Gabe is slowly learning that his boundaries have changed since she joined us and is doting over her every chance he gets. He keeps asking to hold her and hold her hand, stroke her hair and kiss her. She couldn't ask for a more affectionate big brother thats for sure!