This is Evelynn, or Evy, as we call her (long "E" sound in case you were wondering, like Eeeee-veeee). She is my surprise miracle baby. Not too long before I found out I was pregnant with her, we found out my husband was going to Iraq. I had wanted to keep the option of having a fourth child open, but we figured it would be something we would consider after Nick got back from Iraq and we were hopefully moved to someplace where he would not deploy for a bit. It was sometime in July and my in-laws were visiting and I had been feeling nauseous off and on and just chalked it up to not eating properly and regularly. It wasn't until I was probably a week late that I realized I was late. Whoops! I called and confided to a friend, who, being the friend that she was came and brought me a pregnancy test. It came back as a very light positive, but I wasn't sure. This had happened to me once before, a faint positive, but then I miscarried, so I kept it to myself. Then when I took a test that was definitely positive, I tried to figure out how to tell Nick. I was so upset as it was "bad timing" and totally unexpected. I ended up breaking down and crying, and he took it better than I did, telling me it would all work out. I look back now and laugh at myself, because Evy has been the biggest blessing to my life and even though it wasn't "my timing" the timing turned out to be just right. This is why she is my surprise, a pleasant one of course. 
As for her being my miracle. When I was what I estimated about 8 weeks pregnant, I had some cramping. I went in and Dr. did a quick ultrasound, there were 2 sacs, but it was a crappy quick scanning machine and you couldn't see but just a "shadow" in the sacs. Dr. took blood levels, I came back a couple of days later for more blood levels and came back in to see if my levels were climbing like they should. Some horrible and terribly insensitive nurse first tells me my levels don't look good. Then she tries to get baby/ies on the scan and only finds empty sacs. She tells me I am no longer pregnant, and starts telling me about preparations for a D&C. I was devastated, I was crying and she didn't even offer me a tissue, just said, "Well, this happens one in whatever pregnancies, you have 3 healthy children at home, you should count yourself lucky, this was just your time to miscarry." I hated myself at that moment for ever feeling apprehension or dread or fear of being pregnant unexpectedly. Dr. came in and confirmed, not 2 babies, but no babies. (Nick and I had a fun time over that weekend prior thinking about twins and all the changes they would bring.) Dr. wanted me to go up then for a D&C but decided to send me to radiology for a better scan, "just to confirm" his findings.
Long story short, I sat there and waited, they took my ID card and wouldn't let me go find out what was taking the Dr. so long to put in the orders. The receptionist didn't want me crying in the halls of the hospital. I demanded my ID card back and went home to get Nick, I was not going to wait in a waiting area of big round bellied pregnant women while waiting to see my dead baby alone. We get back and finally get in, and I am not looking at the screen. I couldn't. I heard Nick's breath catch and he asked the tech. "is that what I think it is?" and she tells him just a couple of minutes more and we'd talk about it. Lo and behold, there is my sweet tiny baby, heart beating, hanging out in my uterus, alive as could be, dates were off and baby was at an earlier gestational age that we had thought. Tech was pissed at the Dr. and told me to go back right then with the pictures, and she was so glad they didn't send me upstairs first. Dr's only comment was "Oh, it's so nice to see a happy ending." What we experienced was vanishing twin syndrome. It was an emotional roller coaster, all in a few days time, to be told we are having one, then two, then none, then one again.
Evy has brought me such joy. Being pregnant with Nick in Iraq was no fun, but it helped pass the time. He was able to come home for her birth, which was wonderful. And having a newborn helped pass the time for the rest of the deployment. I cannot imagine how my life would be without her, and I always believed that everything happens for a reason, and as shocked as I was, I now know why she is here.
Evy is such a snuggle bunny. She loves to snuggle and she has always been that way. Any number of times a day she is coming up to me lifting her little arms for me to pick her up. I miss that new baby smell they have when they are tiny, but there is just something about that toddler graham cracker/cheerio smell and those chubby arms wrapped around me. Evy loves to rub on my arm, or pat me as if she is comforting me.
Evelynn is almost 2, in fact her birthday is in about a week and a half. I cannot believe she is almost 2! Where did the time go? I lament the fact that there will be no more infant days in my future, but I have to admit, this is such a fun fun age. It is like she is such a sponge right now, picking up on everything and having such a language explosion as well. It is so fun to watch her and see all the things she can do, and I can almost see her little brain working when she is trying to figure something out.
Evy wants to be like the big girls. She tries to do everything they do and wants to be wherever they are. She gets annoyed being in a cart because her sisters are walking. When they sit at the table to do school, she comes up to me and says, "I jaw!" (I draw!) and has to have a paper and a pencil to sit and do work like sisters are doing. Once the older girls were out back riding their bikes, wearing helmets of course, and I look over and Evy is at the sliding glass door sitting on her riding toy wearing a hat (for a helmet) eagerly watching the girls, wanting to be out there doing what they are.
Evy loves her sisters. If I am not available to hold her when she wants me to, she will go up to one of them with her arms up. They totally spoil her, and will drop everything to hold her or play with her or read to her. It's a great thing to see.
Her latest cuteness is singing. She is starting to try to sing along to songs on the radio, or songs on TV or DVD's we are watching. She loves the leapfrog fridge magnet with letters and is always pushing the alphabet song button and singing with it. She loves Elmo and there is one Elmo Potty Time DVD that we have that she wants to watch over and over. She will come to me and ask, "Elmo Potty, Peeeeez?" How can you say no to that?
Evy is just so darned cute, in everything that she does. I love just watching her and seeing the things that she does. She is reaching that toddler stage now where she can get very mad if she is not getting what she wants, and she can throw a pretty good fit. Usually if I tell her no to something, she will scream at me and then go run off and hide behind the chair or in the hall. I have to laugh, because it is just so cute. She also will throw something. For instance, she used to drink only water, but due to her steady diet of cheese and bananas (the only 2 things I can guarantee that she will eat at the moment) I had to start giving her some juice to counteract the constipating properties of those foods. Now she only wants juice. I will pour her some water, and she yells and says, "I wan joooooooooo!" and I give her the cup filled with water, which she will throw or knock over (thank God for no-spill sippies!). It really is humorous to watch her get angry, because she is just sooooooo stinking cute!
I love how she parrots everything. She knows to go into the bathroom and take down toilet paper and "wipe" herself and put it in toilet and flush. She knows before bedtime, we go into the kitchen for girls who needs medicine, and she will go in there and open her mouth and say "ahhhhhhhhhhhh" for me to put medicine in. She loves to help "meeeen up" (clean up) and just today was helping me empty the diswasher. She misses her Daddy so much and talks to him on her toy phone every day before nap and bedtime. Today at the store, she was talking to him on her "hand phone".
Toddlers are such fun and mysterious creatures. I am so glad to be her Mommy and so blessed to have her in my life. She bring a bit of brightness and happiness to my every day!
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