Abigail Lily

Our baby girl is here. She was born August 13th, 3:08pm. She weighed 7lbs 4oz, and is 20in long. She is perfect. Scroll down to read about the labor and delivery.

Wow, I'm a mess, remember I had no drugs.....

She has so much hair, we couldn't believe it!
Abby has her Daddy's feet. Notice his finger is the same length as her foot. Poor kid.

*The labor and delivery, read if you want*

I started having contractions wednesday night, but every time they started getting more painful they would stop. So I went to bed that night and slept for 2 hours and woke up with more contractions around 2am. But I still wasn't convinced I was really going into labor, so Nate woke up and got ready for work. He left for work and about 5 min before he got there I called him and had him turn around. We checked into the hospital around 5:45am and I was 4.5-5cm and 80%. Things progressed pretty slow until my doctor came and checked on me around 1 or 1:30. I was 6cm and 100%, her head was really low and I was in stage 2 labor, so the doc broke my water. (I had decided early on in this pregnancy that I really wanted to try to do everything as natural as possible, meaning no epidural. I never completely ruled it out, I just wanted to see how much I could handle. ) Things started to pick up pretty quick after that. The contractions were soooo painful, but sill bearable. Nate helped a lot by finding pressure points to counteract the pain ( I have bruises in various parts of my body from telling nate to push these pressure points harder, and I think his hands are finally functioning now :) ). As soon as I thought I was going to die from pain, I knew the option for the epidural was out, I went from a 6 to 10 in less than an hour and a half. That was most definatly the worst part of it all. The best news all day was when to doc finally told me to push. I pushed for about 30 min, and the doc gave me an episiotomy. As soon as she did that it took 2 pushes and her head was out. A couple more and she was out. It's incredible how quickly that pain leaves when the reason for it is laying in your arms. They immediatly put Abby in my arms and I held her for at least 30 min, before they had to take her away from me. The doctor and nurses were really impressed with how well I did. And they were shocked at how big Abby was. I still can't figure out how she actually fit inside of me. It was incredible watching Nate throughout the whole process. Most the time I had a towel over my face and I was concentrating on anything but the pain, but he had such a look of awe and wonder on his face. He got a little weepy when he saw his daughter for the first time, and has been in love with her since that moment. He changed about 4 diapers before I even touched one, he is so hands on and helps with everything he can. Abby is such a good baby! She has had no problem nursing (with the exception of falling asleep often). We are learning together, and I am jumpy and kinda over protective, but I'm sure we'll get the hang of things quick. I have to say that was the most incredible experience of my life. I have never been more proud of myself, not only for not having drugs, but to take part in bringing life into this world. Amazing!