Harper Evans Scifres…August 30th, 2014

Everything about her birth was wonderful (well except for the painful contractions) but it was all worth it to be able to experience such a magical moment. It was just so different from my first experience with Ava. Things were hectic with Ava, people were stressed, we were scared, and the worst part….they took her from me within minutes of her birth. This time it was the opposite. People were relaxed, we were happy, and they let me cuddle her for hours after birth. They didn't even weigh her until she was a few hours old. I do appreciate both of my experiences for their own uniqueness. We got to experience all of this magical moments with Ava too, just not in the same way it happened with Harper. Enough about Ava, back to Harper!

Harper's birth stats:

Time: Harper was born at 10:51 am after 8 hours of labor. I started pushing at 10 am and she was here in a little under an hour.

Weight: 6 pounds 14 oz.
Height: 19 1/2 inches long

She came out screaming, alert, with a major cone head from birth (it is taking several weeks to go back down).
She also came out with a full and I do mean FULL head of dark hair. We all (doctor included) wondered where that hair came from???

She's here!! Like I said, major cone head! 

Just a few minutes old

Not happy she was taken away from mommy. 

Look at that hair!

Snuggles with daddy

Harper meets her Mimi. If it weren't for Mimi I don't think I would've made it to full term. We are so thankful for her and all she did for us! 

Ava meets her little sister. She was a little hesitant at first, but quickly warmed up. 

Harper meets her grandparents!! 

Grandma and Harper!!

Very curious about Harper….wanted to see her feet, hands….making sure she is human I guess. 

The next morning…….We were tired, more tired than I ever knew I could be, but so so happy this little one was here and healthy! 

Morning snuggles with daddy

Auntie JJ (Jamie) came to visit us and meet Harper!!

We are busting you out of here! She is 26 hours old and they are letting us leave???? 

Heading home!!

August 2014……a great month for us! (Long overdue post…I know it is almost October)

I am way overdue in updating the blog! As soon as I was taken off bed rest I hit the ground running. I knew my time was limited before baby came and I had a lot on my to-do list. Although some of the pictures and things in this post are old news, I want to make sure to capture the things I know I will want to remember one day. We started this blog to update friends and family about our upcoming arrival and continue to update about our life, but I have discovered that a blog is also like a baby book for our kids and a journal for me.  I have gone back to old posts to see when Ava met certain milestones and what she weighed at different stages. A friend of mine actually took all the posts from Ava's first year of life and turned them into a book for us. It is such a wonderful keepsake for Ava and the rest of of us.  I want to do the same for Harper, so I will try my best to keep up with the blog updating about Harper and the rest of us too!



August began celebrating our 5th year anniversary. With me on bed rest there wasn't much we could do to celebrate, but Steve still managed to make it a special day by surprising me with a new car (one we had been planning, shopping, and saving for since last year).


August 18th was a happy day! I was taken off bed rest. I was 36 weeks, almost full term and had gone a few weeks with no changes to my cervix so the doctor felt comfortable taking me off all medication and bed rest. I took it easy for the first few days trying to regain my strength and energy, but once I felt up to it I started checking things off my long to-do list.

At the top of my to-do list…..Take Ava Swimming!! 

Next up, go to the beach 

And take Mimi and Ava to the pier

One more trip to the aquarium 

Another item on the list, take Ava to art class. The little chairs weren't really cutting it for  me so Mimi did a lot of the art activities with Ava while I watched from a comfortable "grown-up" chair nearby. 

Then 37 weeks came, 38 weeks, and we were beginning to think this baby was going to be closer to her due date, maybe even past. The doctor and I discussed the plan of action if I go past due. Well later on that week things went from 0 to 60 pretty quickly. I was barley having any contractions (for someone who had been contracting since 30 weeks, this was shocking) and my cervix wasn't changing much, until Harper decided it was time. The night before I went into labor we went to Steve's football game at his new high school. It was HOT, long, and a lot of walking around. I guess that is all I needed to send my body into full blown labor because later that night (midnight) I woke up and knew that it was time.

36 weeks! No more bed rest…woohoo!! 

37 weeks….full term!! 

38 weeks….happy to still be prego, but starting to really feel the discomfort of the last few weeks of pregnancy 

Last outing as a family of 3…..at the Calabasas high school football game. Ava and the mascot

The last picture of just the three of us. 

Just as August began on a happy note it also ended on a happy note. On August 30th at 10:51 am Harper Evans made her arrival into the world.

Just when you think your heart can't get any bigger! This was truly an amazing experience and I feel so blessed I was able to experience it (twice). More about her birth and our experience in the next post. 

35 weeks and counting.....

We have made it through a month on bed rest and Mimi has survived a month living with us! I never imagined we would make it this far, but am thrilled that we have. It has definitely been an adjustment for everyone and we will all be glad when this is behind us and we are cuddling our little girl. My weekly doctor visits have showed that I am continuing to efface but not as rapidly as I was when this all started. We are hoping for another 1-2 weeks of growing for baby girl so we can hopefully avoid the nicu all together, however, if things don't pan out that way I am still happy to be where we are. Babies born at 35/36 weeks do very well and usually need minimal nicu time. Next Monday at 36 weeks I will go off of my medicine, progesterone shots, and bed rest. We could be having a baby next week or it could take a few weeks for my body to kick back into labor. Thank you for the prayers, they sure have been working!

Here is what we've been up to this past month.....

I had to sneak out one day to watch these two play at the pool. 

This was all her idea! She is so good at coming up with things we can do with me on the couch. 

Off to Sonoma to watch Aunt Sandy get married.  Mimi,  Ava, and Steve had a blast. 

Pictures with the bride and groom. Aunt Sandy looked beautiful!!!!  

She had so much fun playing with Sutton.  I can't wait to get all the cousins together next summer at the Evans Family Reunion! 

Too much cuteness in this picture!! 

So happy to have the family back together! 

Making chocolate covered bananas. She ate most of the chocolate right from the bowl....very much like her momma! 

Steve surprised me with a new car on our anniversary. We've been talking for over a year now about getting one this summer, but with everything going on and me being out of commission I figured this was put on the back burner.  I was shocked to find out that he in fact had still been car hunting for a while. Now we can fit 2 car seats with plenty of space for everyone. 

Poor baby wasn't feeling well this past weekend. Naps on the bathroom floor are acceptable when you're 2 1/2.   

Putting on makeup with momma. 

We got out all the baby stuff this weekend since at this point if baby girl were to come she may very well come right home with us with no nicu. Better safe than sorry! Ava loves all the baby stuff, but for her animals only. I wonder how she will feel once there is an actual baby in there??

Snuggles and movie time. She has been so sweet about all of this change. She finds ways to be with me and does not ask me to do anything I can't do. This past week I was getting up a bit more than usual and she kept telling me to get back to bed and lay on my side. Such a good caretaker!! 

Ava pregnant with her baby bop. She loves to put her animals in her belly and pretend to be on bed rest with me. 

"Let your faith be bigger than your fears"

"Let your faith be bigger than your fears," a phrase I have been repeating to myself over and over again since last weekend.

Sorry for the long post with no pictures, but I wanted to update everyone on what is going on.

               The night of the 4th I started to feel a lot of contractions, not strong, just consistent. Once I started timing them I realized they were 5-7 minutes apart and although they weren't painful I knew something wasn't right. I decided to hydrate and go to bed and see how I felt in the morning. Unfortunately, nothing changed in the morning so I decided to call the doctor. He didn't seem too concerned, but given my history told me to head to labor and delivery to be monitored. I was thinking they would hook me up, tell me they were just braxton hicks contractions and send me home. After 1/2 hour on the monitors it showed contractions 5 minutes apart and the nurse seemed concerned so the on call doctor came in to check it out. After finding out I was not dilated at all, which was the one piece of good news we got that day, he decided I must be dehydrated and had me monitored while I got some fluids in my IV. The contractions slowed down a little, but not by much so they decided to admit me over night and start me on Nifedipine, a medication used to help women in preterm labor. Luckily I was able to go home on Sunday on bed rest and medication. When I went to see my regular OB on Monday she discovered that I was in fact dilating and my cervix was funneling. Funneling is when your cervix dilates from the inside and your membranes (sack around the baby) are trying to sneak down. This is easily gone unnoticed since it can only be identified through an internal ultrasound of the cervix, which is normally not done after the first trimester.  The good news is that I still have 3 cm of closed cervix, but if I keep contracting that could change very quickly. The doctor decided to keep me on medication and bed rest. I still contract all day long, but the medication helps take away the intensity and frequency. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, daughter, and family who have made this bed rest thing possible for me to follow. It took Ava a few days to get used to mommy being out of commission, but she is finally starting to get used to things and just likes that I am nearby and can snuggle and read stories with her. I am thankful to be at home on bed rest and not in the hospital. Steve's parents came out immediately after I was admitted to the hospital to watch Ava so Steve could come be with me.  Steve's dad moved in with us from Tuesday to Thursday, which was a huge help to all of us! My amazing mother dropped everything to move in with us for the foreseeable future. We are so lucky to have such amazing support from our family. I know the only chance I have to keep this baby in as long as possible is to stay as calm and horizontal as I can. The doctor said we are doing all we can do and the rest is out of our control. I am trying to stay positive and give myself mini goals. Each day I am still pregnant is a blessing for our baby girl. My first goal is to make it to the gestational age Ava was when she was born, which will be July 25th.

Thank you for all the prayers and kind messages we have received! We are very grateful for all the wonderful people in our lives!

We moved.....FINALLY

 And it is a good thing we did because I won't be doing much moving in the next couple of months! I'll start off with the good before I get to the bad.

We officially moved into our new house on Friday, June 27th and have been loving our new area! The area is very family oriented and our new neighborhood is filled with young families, kids, and lots of dogs. Not only is the area exactly what we were looking for, it is also closer to our friends. The only downside is that we are a little farther from Grandma and Grandpa and Steve's work. He is doing well with his new commute and finding different ways to beat the traffic.


We have spent the last week and a half enjoying our new pool, park, and area. We had a fantastic day on the 4th attending the El Segundo 4th of July celebration. Later that day we headed toward the beach for a BBQ with Steve's friends. It was a wonderful day and made us both so happy that we made this move. Unfortunately, life sort of took a turn that night and will definitely not be the same for a while.

Before I get into all of that here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Move out day! Ava was such a trooper. Every time she would find a comfy place to sit they would move her. She willingly moved from seat to seat until all that was left was her bike. Her only question for the movers was, "Where is my couch going?" "Where is my bed going?" We would tell her it was going to the new house and she would shrug her shoulders and say OK. 

All done, time to head out! Tried to get a good picture of her in front of the old house, but she was so hungry and tired at this point that this was the best I could do. 

Moving is exhausting!

We spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's after we moved out of our house until our new house was ready for us. We went strawberry picking at the farm one day, however, we did everything but pick strawberries! 

She liked this for about 10 seconds and then it was all tears.  So much like her momma.

She wouldn't go near the pool, but with the hot tub turned down to 80 she thought it was her own big bath!

Having fun with Grandpa on the slide

With all the excitement going on around here I forgot to mention Ava's big accomplishment.  She graduated from physical therapy last week. She has made so much progress in just a short 5 months. On her last day of PT she finally climbed up the rock wall at the park without any help. 

Morning snuggles with Bruce. 

4th of July fun in downtown El Segundo. We love our new community! 

Playing with her buddy Asher

Good thing we got a family photo since this will most likely be our  last family picture as a family of 3. 

Ava loves her new room and toddler bed! We find her in it even when it is not bedtime