one week photos of Evan

Our little guy is already one week old today! I cannot BELIEVE how quickly the time is going by. Knowing that Evan is our last, I have this desperate need for him to slow down and stay as little as possible for as long as possible! Today I attempted to do a photo shoot, which I'm finding is pretty much impossible around here! Either there isn't enough natural light, he isn't sleepy, or when he IS sleepy, one of his siblings will run in and wake him up trying to help me take the pictures or loving on him! I really underestimated how tough it would be to do newborn pictures on my OWN baby! Hopefully Ellie and Jordyn will allow me to try again in the morning. I have some poses in mind that I really want to try out on him before he gets too big to be nice an squishy and bendable! Here's the few I DID get today that are okay though...

One Day Old

First bath with Daddy

Welcome Evan Gabriel Boungnasiri

Today at 1:58am we welcomed our sweet baby boy, Evan, into the world! He was born here at home, into the hands of his mommy and welcomed with kisses from Daddy, Hayden, Ellie, Jordyn and Gramma!

Evan's birth was beautiful and I'm so happy that we were able to have another great home birth where we could all be a part of welcoming him into our family! My contractions began about 11:30pm, and we called the midwives and my mom to come on over right away since they were very intense like the ones when Jordyn was born. After Jordyn's birth (about an hour of Labor) I had said that I would have preferred a couple more hours of labor this time. WELL, I got what I wished for I guess! My total labor was 2 1/2 hours long. Although it was quick and everything worked out perfectly, Evan's birth took more of a toll on my body than Jordyn's did. His water bag never broke and it took SO much out of me pushing it out! In some ways it felt like I had to give birth to two babies because I had to push that out until we eventually broke it, and then HIM!My mom woke the kids up before he was born, and they were so excited to be a part of everything. They all rubbed his head and kissed him while we were still in the tub, and then when Evan and I got out, we all cuddled up in the bed together for awhile until they had to go back to bed and get some sleep for school the next day.

We got the tub and everything all set up the night before....

We set the video camera up on a tripod on top of the bathroom counter to make sure it could not get tipped over, and nobody would stand right in front of it this time! Before my mom and the midwives arrived, we kept track of the contractions online on contraction master.... Here we are hanging out between contractions, about a 1/2 hour before Evan was born. I love t his picture because we both look so excited and happy about the impending arrival of our little guy!

First Kisses!

This is my absolute FAVORITE part of having a home birth! The whole family cuddling up in our bed and getting to know our newest member of the family!

We also feel very lucky because Evan had somehow made a double knot in his cord! The midwives said they had never seen anything like it before, the way he had it all knotted up more than once. It was quite interesting to see. If this picture is too graphic for you (cord and placenta) sorry but don't look.....

39 weeks...and no baby yet!

Well, this is officially the LONGEST I've ever been pregnant for. I never thought I would make it past yesterday, just based on when my other three arrived, but apparently I have set myself up for a little disappointment! Who knows WHEN this little one plans on making his/her appearance. I'm getting anxious to meet this baby, and while I am not really minding the fact that I'm still pregnant, what is driving me crazy is the whole not knowing WHEN it will all happen. Geez, I'm such a control freak! It's hard though, making plans for our week and not really knowing which plans we'll be able to keep or not. Hopefully the full moon tonight will have some effect on us and set labor into motion. Every night we put the kids to bed telling them that this might be "the" night and preparing them for what will happen when mommy goes into labor. I'm hoping for another super quick delivery like Jordyn's (well, maybe two hours instead of just one hour would be nicer) so that the kids will be able to sleep through everything until the moment when the baby is coming out. That worked out so perfectly last time. I'm so happy to be having this baby at home, like my girls were. I can't wait for that time after he/she is born and the whole family is snuggled up in the bed admiring our newest family member. I'm so hormonal right now, that I'm almost in tears just thinking about it!

A couple of weeks ago, one of my midwives who loves photography, and two other photographers got together to do our first maternity shoot on a mom who was pregnant with twins. Tomorrow morning we're all going to meet up over at the midwives home and go over the pictures that we got, and then deliver them to the twins mom and dad. I'm going over to their house a little earlier though, for my prenatal appt. This one BETTER be the last one I have to go to before baby arrives! Hopefully, my body will have made some progress showing that this baby is going to arrive soon. :)

Oh, and I'm REALLY not looking my best in this picture! None of my shirts are long enough to cover my belly anymore, and we were just getting ready to go on our nightly walk. The girls were already in their PJ's.

Just Because

I love this little girl so much!