We knew Abigail would be coming early, but it still ended up being a shock when the doctor told us it was time. A happy shock, but a shock.
So, Tuesday came. My appointment wasn't until the afternoon so I spent the day keeping myself busy. I really hate afternoon appointments because it feels like you spend all day waiting. I cleaned house, folded and put laundry away, changed the sheets on the girls bunk beds. And that last task may have been what pushed me over the edge into labor. Making bunk beds is not an easy task and I was contracting the whole time. Still, nothing terrible. It only slowed me down a bit. Finally, the time came and I headed in. The dr checked (and stripped the membrane) and asked, "Have you been contracting today?" I said I had a bit. He said, "How would you like to head upstairs right now? You're about 4.5-5 cm." After a bit of discussion we decided to let me head home. I hadn't brought my bags or anything, not to mention getting the kids settled, gramma over here to watch them, and so on. Dr. Horsley was a little nervous about me heading home but agreed. Since I was strep b positive they needed to get at least 4 hours of antibiotics in me before she came. But, I headed home without any issue. On the way I called Andrew to let him know. His reaction was seemingly calm as he matter-of-factly said, "Okay, I'll just leave work now then. See ya in a bit." It wasn't until the ride to the hospital that he confessed that he may have been speeding the whole way home from work.
Gramma was able to get here, we got the girls as settled as their hyper little selves would get, and we left. In total, it was only a couple hours later. I got to the hospital and hadn't really progressed at all. So, that waiting began. We watched some old Christmas movies and just hung out for a few hours. And I didn't progress. After the antibiotics had been going for three hours they went ahead and broke my water. Things started getting more painful so I was hopeful that I was finally progressing. They checked. Nothing. By this point I was getting super tired so when they offered some pitocin to help tip the scales I agreed. It didn't take long before things started getting even more painful so I had them check again. Nothing. After having had two other babies, I knew what the problem was. My body just cannot relax enough to dilate when I'm hurting like that. I was hoping that this time I could do that whole mind over matter stuff, focusing on something, listening to relaxing music etc. and it would make a difference. It didn't and I was so exhausted. So I didn't wait long and got the epidural. By the time the epidural was placed it was midnight. Once it had kicked in and I was as comfy as I was gunna get I laid down to sleep. Sure enough, an hour later I woke up feeling like my pelvis was busting apart. I paged the nurse which woke Andrew up. He asked (for the umpteenth time that night) if I was ok and I just had to giggle. He is pretty darn adorable in the L&D room. The nurse came, I told her it was time, and she checked. TA DA! She said, "Let's have a baby!" From a 5 to 10 in one hour! The dr was paged and the room got set up. I was pretty miserable at that point. Yes, the epidrual was working, but when a human is bursting from your nether regions it can't deaden everything. Andrew was still sitting back relaxing at that point and I told him to come over. He just kinda sat back (didn't want to get in their way as they set up) but I got a little stern with him and told him I needed him. NOW! At that point he finally realized that I was indeed pretty uncomfortable. Still, they were very quick in setting up and Dr. Horsley arrived. The nurse reminded me of all the pushing tips and we began. And then it was over. One contraction. Three and a half pushes. And Abigail was out at 1:45 am. While I held her on my tummy and she got wiped up a bit my music was playing and one of my favorite songs was on. It was pretty perfect. Dr. Horsley even commented on the song, wanting to know who it was. He cleaned me up and delivered the delightful news that I hadn't torn! She was weighed coming in as my smallest at 7 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long. Not surprising since she was two weeks early.
The last couple days have been a bit of a sleepy blur. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep the night she was born. We tried catching up a bit the second night. We had her stay in the nursery so we could. Also, she had been retracting so I wanted them to watch her closely. Turns out the retracting was because she had swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid. Once she threw that up, she was feeling much better.
Thus far, Abigail is my most mellow. She is a big grunter, and a big sleeper. She is not a big cryer or eater. I have to wake her to eat most of the time and even then she falls asleep seconds in and stops. She is a absolutely horrible nurser. She won't even latch anymore. We think the problem is that she is tongue tied. We talked to the dr at the hospital about it but he wanted to wait and see how she did before we clipped. Unfortunately, I think we are definitely going to have to have her tongue clipped if I want to keep nursing. She will take a bottle, no problem, so for now I'm pumping and giving her my milk that way. But I cannot pump like I did with Liv, so prayers that this tongue clipping will solve the problem would be appreciated.
As for the big sisters, they are over the moon. They are loving having Abigail home, although they are not loving mommy making them wash hands every five minutes. Olivia currently has a cold and is pretty grumpy about that since I won't let her touch Abby. Hopefully she can kick it soon and will be able to love on her baby some more.
We are all in love with this babe. It still feels unreal that she is here. I keep catching myself waiting to feel her kick inside me. It's a little lonely not having her inside anymore. But, relux is gone, most of my aches are gone (minus the ones caused labor) and I can sleep comfortably again. So really, the good outweighs my missing her being attached to me. Because I would much rather kiss her little cheeks, and hold her with her little froggy legs curled up against me.
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