Abigail Elizabeth is here!

Abigail Elizabeth arrived Sunday, July 13 at 9:17 pm. She weighed 7lb 11oz and was 20 inches long.

We arrived at the hospital at 10am Sunday. It was strange to just check in and be shown to the room. After I changed into my gown, there was a lot of paperwork to fill out. Then they started my IV. Of course, they didn't get it in the first time and they spent 5-10 minutes digging around in my arm before they switched to my hand. It was pretty painful.

At my appointment on Thursday, I had been 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. When I was first checked at the hospital, I was dilated 2cm and 80% effaced. That meant that I could skip the Cytotec and go straight to the Pitocin. By 11:15, the pitocin had arrived from the pharmacy and was hooked up to me.

The nurse said that once the pitocin was started, it would take about an hour before I started getting regular contractions. 12:15 came and went with no pain, then 1:15 and 2:15 and still nothing. The monitor showed I was having contractions, but I didn't feel anything other than a little bit of back pain.

The doctor came in around 4 or 5 to brake my water, attach a monitor to the baby's head and put in an internal contraction monitor. She was amazed that I wasn't feeling any pain. That all changed after my water broke. At that time I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced, so I went ahead and asked for the epidural because the nurse said it be 45 minutes before the anesthesiologist got there, then another half an hour before the epidural took effect. However, it only took about 10 minutes for him to get there. I don't remember the pain being that bad.

Around 7:30, I was having a lot of pain to where I could feel in internal monitors moving and felt the urge to push. The nurse came in and checked me and I was 9cm and 100% effaced. At that point, they started to bring in all the supplies to prepare for the delivery, including the warmer.

At 8:30, I started to push and it felt like I didn't even have an epidural - it hurt more than anything I have ever done. I was surprised when the nurse said that she could see lots of hair. I figured that because I didn't have any heartburn during pregnancy that she would be bald. I was also surprised that the doctor would only be in the room for the last 5 minutes of pushing.

Abby was born at 9:17 pm. She had her hand up by her shoulder, which made that part of delivery a little more difficult. She has a full head of dark hair and blue eyes. Leonard was able to cut the cord. It kept popping out from the scissors because they were small and the cord was fat. She weighed 7lb 11oz and was 20 inches long.

Abby had to have heal sticks every hour for the first 24 hours to check her blood sugar, so we let her stay in the nursery that night. All her sticks were good and she passed her hearing test with flying colors. Luckily they brought in food about half an hour after I had her because I was absolutely starving!