FOXBORO -- It wasn't exactly the Thanksgiving dinner Heath Evans planned: a sausage, egg and cheese croissant, donut and bottled water under the fluorescent lights of a Honey Dew Donuts with his young daughter and in-laws.

But after spending the day at nearby Newton-Wellesley Hospital with his wife and their newborn who was struggling to breathe properly, the donut shop off Route 128 was the family's only choice.

The week was a trying one for Evans, the Patriots' affable fullback. Just hours after Heath returned home from the team's 35-0 rout in Green Bay, he was massaging wife BethAnn's legs when her water broke -- three weeks before her due date.

Naomi Reece Evans came into the world at 7:11 a.m. on Nov. 20, weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce. Though both Naomi and big sister Ava Grace, born in April 2004, were delivered by C-section, within 15 minutes Ava was resting in her mother's arms, getting kisses from her proud father.

It wasn't so easy with Naomi.

"They pull her out and we can tell

everything's not going well," Heath Evans recalled. "She was breathing, but it was shallow, and they had her in the specialty care nursery right away; we never really got to hold her."

Evans initially elected to stay with BethAnn, rationalizing that she had just gone through major surgery and secure that Naomi was in good hands. When he did go into the special care nursery, he was surprised to see the baby's small arm in a splint.

"I see that and I'm ready to kill someone because I thought they broke her arm," Evans said. Turns out, the splint was to keep Naomi's arm still for the IV that had been inserted.

Full of questions, Evans initially got few concrete answers. The sixth-year NFL veteran was told Naomi's breathing needed to mature, and that could take three hours or "a little while."

But by the next day, doctors assured the Evanses that their baby would be fine. The problem was not with Naomi's lungs; it was more of a neurological issue, and it was taking a little time for the infant -- considered pre-term -- to get the hang of the breathing rhythm.

Still, it was an emotionally and physically draining time for a man predisposed to always having a positive lookout.

A third-round draft pick of the Seahawks in 2001 after a standout career at Auburn, Evans signed with his childhood team, Miami, before last season, only to be cut in October. A week later, he was picked up by the Patriots and has become instrumental in clearing paths for Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney. Against the Dolphins in October, he scored his first career touchdown.

Evans spent the night at the hospital with BethAnn five times that week, his 6-foot, 250-pound frame squeezed onto a cot. Wednesday, he slept at the family's home in Wrentham, cuddling with Ava. Though the 2-year old was being minded by her maternal grandparents, after a couple of days she was starting to miss mom and dad.

When not at the hospital, Evans was at Gillette Stadium, practicing and preparing for the game against the Chicago Bears. Between his full days at the office and tending to BethAnn, Evans was getting only three or four hours of sleep a night.

"BethAnn was definitely the strong one and kept me grounded in my faith that the Lord was going to take care of everything," Evans said of his wife of five years. "You can't imagine that anything will ever happen to (your children)."

It was not at all the worry Heath originally had, according to BethAnn.

"He was majorly concerned about missing the birth," she said. "My due date was Dec. 9, and he would have been traveling to Miami that day. When he left for Green Bay, I wasn't thinking anything would happen, but I was 2 centimeters dilated when he left, so you never know."

Talking to Evans, it is immediately clear how much he adores his wife -- which is how it's been since the day he met her. The pair first met in March 2001, when Evans walked into Radio World, the car electronics store owned by BethAnn's father in Auburn, Ala., and saw her behind the counter.

He asked her father, Jackie Lewis, for permission to take her out, and the next night, their first date was at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting on the Auburn campus (Evans was chapter president). Evans told her that night he was going to marry her. Four months later, they were.

"I thought he was full of it; he was such a big man on campus," BethAnn recalled. "When he first said that, I was flattered, but I didn't believe it."

Clearly, it didn't take him long to change her mind.

So it's easy to understand that after more than six days in the hospital, Evans wanted his girls home -- all of them. Though the couple couldn't say enough about their doctors and nurses at Newton-Wellesley ("We'd never go anywhere else," he said), Evans convinced the doctors to let Naomi go home the morning of the Bears game, and by halftime that day, that's where she was.

A week later, Naomi is doing fine.

"She's been a little angel," said BethAnn. "We haven't noticed any abnormal activity. We pray for her every night. I'm thrilled that I can hold her whenever I want and I can nurse her and he's part of the family at home."

smanza@projo.com / (401) 277-7340