She’s Here!

I figured I'd write a new post briefly while Jack is playing and Abbigaile is sleeping. We're happy to announce that Abbigaile Ann was born on Wednesday, February 18 at 2:48 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 inches long.

For those of you we haven't actually had a chance to talk to yet, I'll give a brief rundown of the day's events. Justin and I reported to the hospital at 6:00 AM on Wednesday, finished the check-in process and were finally in our delivery room around 7:00 AM. I had all of my IVs in and they finally started me on the pitocin around 8. My doctor came in to check my progress at 10, but found that I hadn't progressed very far, only about 50 % effaced and 1 cm dilated, so he didn't break my water. I continued on the pitocin and Dr. B came back around 1:30 to find that I'd progressed to about 80% effaced and 4 ½ cm dilated and broke my water; they told us we'd probably be having Abbigaile sometime between 6 and 8 that evening. I told them "hopefully it won't be 8:00 and it'll be closer to 6" and everyone laughed. About an hour later I was ready to push and Dr. B got there just in time; I had to try not to push and I think that is one of the hardest urges to fight. Apparently once my water breaks, things really start to happen rather quickly so it's good my water didn't break at home or we may not have made it to the hospital. After just two pushes Abbigaile made her entrance into the world at 2:48 PM. She was pretty puffy and her face was bruised, but they told us that happens when the baby comes quickly. I'm happy to say that this time I delivered with no pain medication at all! I don't think I'll ever get to have an "all natural" childbirth (without pitocin) so this is as close as it gets.

Jack came to visit us in the hospital that evening, as did many other friends and family members, but really didn't want to even come near me. Justin held Abbigaile and told Jack, "this is Abbigaile." His reply was "no." I'm happy to say he's not saying "no" anymore although we're definitely still adjusting her at home. Justin, Abbigaile, and I came home on Thursday and have been resting a lot. Justin is as wonderful as he always is and is making an extra-special effort to spend some one-on-one time with Jack. They went to school yesterday and played outside and today they went to church to make copies and Jack got to run around when Justin checked-in at work.

Jack has been giving Abbigaile lots of kisses on her head, but we're still working on the whole "gentle" concept and it'll take some time. We asked him if he wanted to hold her today and he tried to take her out of the little bouncer seat on his own . . . he wanted to hold her, just not sitting down. Justin helped Jack hold her standing up in the end and he did a very nice job. I'll continue to update everyone as things change and become a bit more settled around here—I know I definitely will be taking more pictures! We love you all!

Oh yeah, I’m still itching, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was. I’ll let everyone know when it completely stops!