Evangeline Malcolm Nichols showed up at 1:29 am, and clocked in at a substantial 9 lbs 15 oz. (Already she's trying to keep up with her brothers: Eli was 10 lbs and Liam 9 lbs 5 oz). She joins her aunt Lissa, brother Eli, aunt Charmaine, late great Grandmom Malcolm, and Papa among our November birthdays!
(Warning: This next section will only be of interest/relevance to parents who have been a part of the "birth in a hospital" thing. The rest of you, skip on ahead, for your own sake....)
Giving birth in a U.K. hospital is considerably different than in a U.S. hospital. They generally have a more "hands off" approach. No hook-up to a monitor. No cm dilation check. Epidurals are available but seem rare. For pain, they offer an "air and gas" breathing mask (i.e. nitrous oxide) for the mum to use at her discretion. They just kinda let things go their course. When Ginger asked (or perhaps "yelled" is a better verb) if it was okay to start to push, their answer was "Whenever you're ready... oh, I see the head crowning... you can go ahead, dearie." After she was born, there maybe was an Apgar test, but we never heard for sure. Most of the meconium fountain that came out when she was born was cleaned up... most. Evangeline had a nominal wipe-down, was given to Ginger wrapped loosely in a couple of hospital towels. No diapers provided, you're on your own for those. The nurse and midwife then rolled out with a lovely "Call us if you need us!" The baby is never taken from you, you're just expected to parent and ask for help if you need it.... We were SO glad we had done this a couple times before, otherwise we would have been freaking out!
As far as the stay itself, we checked in at midnight, and Evangeline was born by 1:30 am. They moved Ginger from the labour ward to the maternity ward at 6:30am... and kicked me out! Spouses can't come back to visit until 9:30am. Absolutely NO other visitors until 6:30pm. The pediatrician stopped by in the morning (who was Nigerian and had a lovely accent!), and the nurses briefly popped by a couple times, but that was it. We then realized: "There's no reason to stay here longer." After a brief delay for some bloodwork results and paperwork, we checked out same day at 4:30pm... only 16.5 hours after showing up!
So we now have a British citizen to round out our "full house" of three boys and two girls. Eli and Liam were super excited to meet and welcome their baby sister. Soon after her arrival, Eli went and scooped up a bunch of things, sat down in front of her, and began to display one item at a time: "Lego... Lego.... Book.... book.... Daddy, look, I am teaching the baby new words!" After a couple of weeks, her charm hasn't worn off, but reality has set in; at one dinner Eli said: "Mommy, having a baby is a lot harder work than I was expecting." Liam has observed: "She's kinda loud sometimes." My reply was: "You're one to talk."
Several have asked about her name. You're welcome to pronounce it as you like, but we're going with eh-vange-a-leen (as opposed to LIN or LINE or LINOLEUM... ha!). We picked it because it means "bearer of good news," which is both what she was to us, as well as what we are striving to do with teenagers.
People have also asked what we're going to call her... call me crazy, but I'm calling her "Evangeline". Some of the nicknames being bandied about now by others are "Em" (her initials) or "Evie".
(For those musically inclined, I think you can call her Al, or call her Maybe.)
So far Evangeline is doing great! At our appointments, the midwife - who makes house calls, another new adjustment for us - has been pleased with both Ginger and baby's progress. Evangeline has even gained another full pound! She's also already visited Ely (pictured below), ridden the Tube, and "seen" the Tower of London! We're excited about the new adventures ahead for the Nichols family... we just need a super hero nickname for the newest Unbelievable!
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