ABIGAIL ELIZABETH HART
Born December 9th, 2010 at 11:52pm
8 lbs. 7 oz. , 20.5 in. long
Our first family picture!
While many of you have already heard my birth story, I wanted to record the major aspects of it here. Feel free to skip ahead if you don't want to read the novel :)
David and I had a scheduled induction at Little Company of Mary at Midnight on the morning of December 9th. It was difficult to start the process at midnight since we didn't sleep much that night. At 6:30am, they started the pitosin drip and got my contractions going a little stronger. My mom came in the morning and stayed in the labor room with me most of the day. My doctor came in at 11:30 to check me and I had only dialated to 2cm, but he broke my water anyway... this was a frustrating experience for me because I had wanted to hold off on breaking my water until I was farther along in the labor process and because the doctor didn't tell me he was going to break it or describe how it might feel, he just said he was going to check me and then broke my water in one swoop. It was painful and I was quite emotional afterward. After that, however, my labor picked up and my contractions got stronger. I had originally wanted to try to go without an epidural, but I knew that if I had pitocin, I would get one. However, I still wanted to go as far as I possibly could before I got the epidural. David was a great coach and helped me breath through my contractions as they got really strong. I never would have made it as far as I did without him! He mentioned that he was glad he had the opportunity to participate in this part of the labor as it made him feel that he had a role in the process. I agree that this was a special experience as a team and a joint accomplishment in a way. David and I were both pleased with how far I went and I was then happy to accept my epidural at 3:30pm at 5-6cm. After the epidural, I progressed quickly and at 6pm, I was at 9cm. David and I were super excited and anticipated having our baby within an hour or so. Shortly after that, however, the nurses noticed that Abigail's heart rate was dipping too often with my contractions, so they decided to turn off the pitocin to slow down my contractions. Apparently, that was not enough, so they gave me a shot of Tributalene (which they give to women who go into pre-term labor) to try to stop my contractions briefly. It was effective in giving Abigail a chance to rest, but unfortunately, it slowed down my labor quite significantly and it ended up taking four more hours to dialate to 10. This was an extremely frustrating experience for me because they could only check me every hour and my epidural was starting to wear off. I also started experiencing nausea and dizziness which made it a draining, slow time. I remember praying that I would be 10cm when the nurse checked me at 10:15 because I didn't know if I could make it emotionally another hour. Thankfully, when she checked me, she said I was really close and wanted to start pushing to see if that would work, which it did. After 15 minutes of pushing, the nurse said that I had made a lot of progress and called the on-call doctor, who she said lived only 5-7 minutes away. Herein started another round of frustration because they could not get in contact with the doctor. I had a peace about it, but David was extremely upset. After 40 minutes without hearing from the doctor and me trying not to push, the nurse went out to tell our families what was going on. They prayed and within minutes, the doctor finally called and said he was on the way. Praise God! I was then able to start pushing again with the nurse and David. The doctor arrived at 11:35 and in a few pushes, Abigail's head emerged. At this point, the doctor saw that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times! The nurse pushed some kind of panic button and about 8 specialists/ nurses raced into the room. He suctioned out her mouth, but she didn't really cry- only gasped briefly. He cut the umbilical cord off and all of the sudden I had extra nurses at my side, shoving my legs back and telling me that I had to push like I had never pushed before because we needed to get the baby out on that push. I pushed her out and they put her on my chest for a few seconds before whisking Abigail over to the warming tray where they gave her oxygen and other interventions. This was an extremely scary experience because we didn't really know what was wrong... we were kind of in a state of shock. We were thankful for my nurse before (she was a strong Christian), but I was extremely grateful for her in those moments, because she kept coming over to me and filling me in on what was going on with Abigail... telling me that she was responding well to the oxygen and would be okay, etc. The nurse told me that Abigail had an apgar score of a 3 at the first minute, but recovered well and received a score of 8 at minute 5. One by one the NICU nurses and other specialists left the room and my nurse asked the others if I could hold Abigail for awhile since I hadn't yet had the chance. It was wonderful to hold her for a few minutes since she had to spend the night in the newborn nursury to be monitored. The picture below and our first family picture came from this precious time together.
Overall, the labor and delivery was a rollercoaster of emotions, but we felt the Lord's presence through it all. We feel so incredibly blessed to have a healthy daughter after a scary delivery that could have turned out quite differently. I have been very emotional this week, thinking about God's abundant blessings and provisions throughout my pregnancy and delivery. Not that the Lord would love me any less if she didn't make it, but I feel so loved by Him and so assured that His hand was upon her little life from the very beginning... when He preserved her life during my large cyst episode when I was 8 weeks pregnant. I am also completely humbled and thankful for the many people who were praying for us throughout the labor and delivery, including those who stayed up into the wee hours of the night in prayer before they heard about her birth... God certainly hears the prayers of His people! We feel so loved and blessed by our amazing friends and family!!!! Taking Abigail home on my birthday was a wonderful gift :)
A few first pictures of Abigail at home:
Wide eyed and ready for her first stroll in the BOB stroller. We made it to one side of Rec Park and back... she screamed the whole way because she was hungry, but it was good to get out for at least a few minutes.
Her first little bow :)
A great Christmas gift!
Uncle Matthew
Four generations of women!
Jen and Travis delivered dinner and this beautiful quilt that Jen made. It's gorgeous and we know Abigail will love it!
Janice takes the prize for the best trooper... she was kind enough to bring us dinner, only to have Abigail throw up her dinner all over Janice... even in her mouth!!!! Sorry Janice! I guess that was a good dose of birth control!
Lindsay and Jeff
Sam
Jonathon and Felicia
Dave, Megan, and Levi Lockridge
