Abel's Birth Story

Abel is 2 weeks old today and I'm just now finding the time to sit down and write about the morning he was born.

For some reason my kids like to make their way into the world late night/early morning when Chris is already asleep.

I had my regular doctor's appointment Monday morning (the 15th). I was 38 weeks along at that point. Chris actually came with me that time because they were doing another ultrasound to check Abel's weight to see if they wanted to induce early if he was getting to be too big. I can't remember exactly but I think they said he was looking to be a little over 9 pounds. 9.3 maybe? Anyway, we saw a different doctor that day and she wasn't ok with setting an induction date until I hit the 39 week mark which was a week later. She asked if I wanted her to do the membrane sweep/strip to see if it'd help things move along. It's as painful as it sounds like it would be, but when they did that when I was pregnant with Martha, I gave birth 4 days later, so I was more than ok with doing it again this time.

She did it quickly but lord almighty it hurt even more than I remembered. Chris was in the room when she did it and he can attest...I almost came off the table. Aaaaaanyway. I left the doctor's office really bummed and feeling all crampy like you're supposed to feel after something like that. I thought I'd be setting up an induction date the next week for sure.

We went and picked Martha up from my parent's house and spent the rest of our day like it was any other day. Later that evening I was feeling some light contractions but they would go away when I stood up and walked around. I still felt like I should get prepared though...maybe I really knew deep down that something was happening. So while Martha and Chris were in bed asleep, I was getting last minute things together.

Contractions got stronger quickly and weren't going away anymore so I woke Chris up (twice because he fell back asleep after the first time - he says he doesn't remember me waking him up the first time) and called my Mom. She and my dad came over to the house. My dad stayed there while Martha slept and my Mom followed us to the hospital in my car. I swear, I couldn't get out of the house fast enough. Contractions are no joke, y'all.

We got to the hospital and into a room a lot faster than I expected, thank God. I got changed and all hooked up. They told me I was about 45 minute away from an epidural though because there were several people in line before me. Uh oh. They offered some other kind of IV pain meds to take the edge off. Praise Jesus! It held me over until the wonderful epidural man came and made all my dreams come true of not feeling a dang thing below the waist. We'd find out later that the epidural was a good one because I literally couldn't move my legs an inch on my own for much longer than normal. And forget about feeling any sort of pressure that would let me know when to push. Ha ha. The nurses had to tell me when I was having a contraction so I could push.

And here's the awesome thing...There was a clock right in front of me on the wall. I looked at it when I started pushing and it was 7:00 AM on the dot. Abel was born at 7:13 AM. 13 minutes of pushing and he was out. Hallelujah!

They put him up on my belly so I could see him and he looked just like I thought he would. They took him to do all the cleaning up and weighing and all that stuff. Chris and my mom got lots of pictures while all that gross "after having a baby" stuff was going on with me. I'll spare you.

Chris and I took our turns holding him a while, of course.

While my mom was holding him a little later on, one of the nurses noticed that Abel was breathing a little fast, so she called the baby nurse back in to check on him. He was having a little trouble, so they told me that they were sending him to the NICU to get checked out. I didn't let myself worry. They told me that some babies just have a little trouble transitioning. While he went up to the NICU I was taken into the room I'd spend the next 3 days in. Turns out it was the EXACT room I stayed in when I had Martha.

We finally got an update on Abel. He was still doing the rapid breathing thing and he also had low blood sugar, so they were going to keep him in the NICU for at least 24 hours to observe him and get his blood sugar normal. Chris went down there often to hold him and feed him. I made it there as much as I could but it seriously took FOREVER for my epidural to wear off. He got moved to the NICU Annex on Wednesday which was nice because it was right around the corner from my room instead of on a completely different floor. Much easier for me to get to.

Update after update from the NICU was frustrating because we would be told that maaaaaybe he could come out of the NICU in 24 hours, then it was maybe tomorrow morning, then it was maybe in the afternoon. It just kept getting pushed back. Finally it was time for me to be discharged on Thursday (a day later than I really should have been) and Abel was still in the NICU. Let me tell you...it's weird leaving the hospital without your baby. That night at home was strange. We kept ourselves busy with Martha and she was so excited to get to meet Abel, but we just had to keep telling her that he was still at the hospital and it might be a day or two before she could see him. (She could only see him through the window at the hospital because kids aren't allowed in the NICU and also because she did have a little bit of a cold.)

Side note - when you're told that you have to leave the hospital without your 3 day old baby, it's hard to keep it together. Neither Chris nor I cried at that moment, but I will admit to breaking down later on that night when I was at home and by myself for a few minutes.

Friday morning we took Martha to my mom's so we could go see Abel and on the way there got a call from the NICU nurse saying that he would be allowed to go home that day so we should bring all the necessary things to take him with us. Woo hoo!!!

I still get nervous when I see him breathing a little fast, but I know he's ok. He's a perfect, sweet boy and I'm so glad to be this little family of 4 now.

We're still not sure if we'll stop now or if we'll have one more. Our minds change about that on a daily basis. I guess only time will tell. If we decide that this is it for us, I'm 100% ok with that. I feel complete as a family as it stands. But, we'll see.

Things at home over the past 2 weeks have been good. He's still sleeping a ton during the day and not so much during the night, which I'm hoping will stop sooner rather than later, but other than that we've had no problems.

Martha is so sweet with him and wants to help out all the time. Sometimes too much. I had a break down moment when she was throwing a fit about something and accidentally hit him. No one was hurt. She barely touched him. But we had to get on to her for something like that happening so she'll learn to be careful around him. She was SO UPSET that she hit him that she started crying, which made me cry. She kept asking where she hit him and if he was ok. She has such a tender heart and it made my heart break that she was so broken up about it. I had to hand Abel over to Chris and cuddle her and cry with her for the next half hour to just get it all out of my system.

So, as you can see...my hormones are still leveling out. Ha ha. I'm getting the hang of having 2 kids. I really look forward to when Abel is a little older and can really recognize what's going on around him because he's going to love Martha so much. She can't wait to play with him. She reminds me of that every day.