Introducing Abigail Rose Giles!

At 12:35 this morning our beautiful little girl, Abigail Rose (Abby) was born. She weighs 8 pounds 5 ounces and is 20 inches long.

After being three days overdue, my dr. allowed me to come in to the hospital yesterday so I could try a "cervical softener". The plan was not to induce labor, but to help move things along. I was then going to be scheduled for an induction on Wednesday morning (originally it was Tuesday, but since there was no progress, he wanted to wait one more day and let things "happen naturally".

So, we came in at 2:30 and around 9:30 were planning on leaving the hospital for the evening. When we looked at the monitor, Abby's heartrate was a bit sporatic (it went from the mid sixties, which is low, to the high 160's). The nurse and doctor decided to keep us here for monitoring a few more hours, so that was our plan. Then I started to have some contractions around 10:30, and they were starting to get regular (and painful). The plan was then for me to stay the night. Things then moved very quickly. At 11:50 they checked me and I was dilate between a 2 and a 3. Contractions were regular by this point, so they decided that I could stay, and I asked for an epidural (since I knew that the anisthesiologist needed to drive here, and I wanted to have it when I was dilated to a 4). At 12:15 I started to feel horrible and almost like I needed to push. 12:30 my dr. arrived and 12:35 she was born. There was no time for any drugs other than the tylenol I had an hour before, or to discuss anything. It was such an amazing process, and I am so beyond blessed to have everything work out okay and to have her so healthy. The doctor and nurses (and my husband/coach) kept directing me not to push, but there was no stopping her coming. The nurse read me what was written in the log for her birth, that there was a "grunt and the baby came flying out". The cord was around her neck once, but it didn't seem to phase her at all. She was nursing after about ten minutes of being born, and has been just perfect.

We were so fortunate to have my family staying at our house yesterday as they followed my copius list of directions and kept AJ on his routine. He did a beautiful job this morning meeting Abby, and even "bought" her a Dora doll and gave it to her (which is a true gift as he is obsessed with Dora lately). He enjoyed eating the icing off of her birthday cake (which the hospital provides), and we all sang happy birthday to her first. AJ had a bit of a difficult day yesterday when he realized Adam and I had left (we left during his nap), but did a wonderful job playing with my family, bath time, and reading books. My mom tried putting on a pair of his pajamas last night that he didn't like, and he informed her that they needed to go in the garbage can. When she tucked him in last night she said "do you want to talk"? AJ responded with "no talk" so she started to leave the room. He then changed his mind and said "more talk," so of course the two shared some more stories of his day and talked about trucks. I missed him yesterday so much, and continue to miss him tons, but I am grateful for this time to adjust to nursing again and to get some sleep and relax before we start our daily routine, whatever that will look like.

I better get back to my sweet little baby. I hope everyone has a wonderful day!