NOAH HAS ARRIVED!!!

Noah is here! On Thursday morning, at about 1:00, Wendy woke up with some pretty good contractions. We were a bit sceptical since our false alarm about 2 weeks ago (see previous posts), so we waited for about 3 contractions, each about 5 minutes apart. It seemed like this was the real deal, so we took off for the hospital. By the time we got there, got admitted, etc. It must have been about 2:00 am. The doctor got there a bit later and said there was no time for an epidural . . . the baby is coming right now. I will skip the details, except to say that it is diefferent without an epidural, and I have the bite marks on my hand to prove it. Noah was born after about 40 minutes of pushing at 3:38 am on Thursday March 26. This picture was taken within 5 minutes of Noah being born.

Noah weighed in at a healthy 8lbs 6oz, thats 1 lb 10 oz heavier than Caleb, and 2 lb 3 oz heavier than Ryan. It must be the Evans cranium giving him all the weight, because he doesn't look that heavy. Wendy said, "If I had to choose to not have an epidural, I definitely would not have chosen to do it with this one." We were happy to get past all the delivery and get to enjoy our new baby.

Noah's length was 19 inches. Since he was in the breech position for a while, his legs like to be rotated up. This picture isn't so bad, but sometimes he looks like when you take a barbi doll and turn its legs up to its chest.

You thought that it was just on tv that women look this good right after giving birth! This is about 20 minutes or so after Noah was born.

So far Noah is very quiet. He wimpers every once in a while and cried right after being born, but that is just about it. He opens his eyes some, but pretty much sleeps all the time.

People around here are pretty hard-core about their Oregon State Beavers. To help ensure that babies grow up Beavers fans, the hospital puts an orange Beaver beanie on them right after they are born. Noah is the first native born Oregonian in the family.

Gramma has been staying with us for a few weeks, helping out and waiting for Noah's arrival. Late Thursday morning, she brought the boys over to meet their new little brother.

Ryan was very interested in the details of what he is capable of, what he eats, what his poop is like, etc.

Caleb loves babies and was very excited to hold Noah. He did a good job of being gentle with Noah and even gave him some kisses before Gramma took them back home.

Noah finally spent some time with his eyes open. He is trying to look tough for his older brothers with his beanie and gloves on.

We are all excited to be a family of five.