Abigail Ann

So Thursday was the big day. Bryce and I got to the hospital around 7:00 that morning and checked in. We had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to come take us back to our room though. Shortly after we got to the room and I was changed into the hospital gown, my doctor showed up and broke my water. The nurse was trying to find a good vein to do the I.V. while he was doing that. I did warn her that I have hard veins to find, which she agreed with after attempting two times to get in the I.V. She decided to call in someone else to try to get it in, which that nurse finally did on the second try. So yes, it took 4 tries for the I.V. And yes, my arms are still bruised.

At about 8:15, they finally got the pitosin and the penicillin started (I'm Strep B positive too, which is why they need the penicillin) and we sat back to wait. It didn't take too long before the contractions were really starting to hurt, especially the ones that were getting me nicely in my back. They started to hurt more when they had me lie on my right side for some reason, but it seemed to help things progress better to have me there. So I was very happy when around 11 (I think) I finally got the epidural. At that point, Bryce told me that he thought that if I had to choose between having him in the room or having the epidural, that I'd choose the epidural. I couldn't disagree. I love the epidural. And the bonus this time was that it only took one try to get it in, unlike the three tries each it took with Chris and with Daniel.

After the epidural was in and working nicely, the nurse checked my cervix again and I was at a 4 and "really stretchy." This was probably a little before noon.
Before the nurse left the room, she said to let her know as soon as I started feeling pressure. Shortly after she left, my doctor came back in to check on me and told me the same thing the nurse had. A little before 12:30, I decided I'd better call the nurse. She came in and checked me and I was at an 8, so she paged my doctor. He arrived, they got everything set up and had me start pushing. Two contractions later, at 12:39, Abigail was born.

Because of the antibody in my system, they had the NICU nurses on hand to immediately check her out. They would ask the doctor questions, like what the biliruben count was when they did the amnio (which he hadn't really looked at because he was more concerned with other things). My doctor told them that the Delta test had showed that on a scale of 1 to 3 with 3 meaning that the baby needed to come out immediately, she was a high 2. So it was a good thing we were getting her out.

Anyway, she looked really good and healthy. She was 6 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. She was actually only one ounce lighter than Chris was when he was born, and he was only born 10 days before his due date instead of the 4 weeks.

She's been a really good baby and doesn't cry much. She did have to go under the phototherapy lights in the hospital and came home with a biliblanket since she was DCT Positive, which when I looked it up, looks like it's the same thing as Coomb's Positive, which is what the boys all had. The funny thing is that her blood type is A- like mine, so apparently she has the anti-E antigen in her blood as well. And of course my one girl has negative blood, so she gets to have the Rhogam shot when she has kids, unless they've come up with something different by then. On the up side, it meant I didn't have to have the Rhogam shot in the hospital. :)

Here are some pictures:

This was the first picture Bryce took of her. Yes, that's me holding her.

This is the second picture ever taken of Abigail. Not a great shot.

Because she was born at 36 weeks, they had to do a carseat study to make sure that position wouldn't cut off the air at her esophagus. This is her during the study. You can see the wires from the biliblanket they had her on then and the monitors.

This one was taken in the hospital. They kept her undressed for the phototherapy, so that's why she doesn't have a shirt on.

The rest of these are pictures I've taken since we've been home. My favorite is the last one.