Wait No More - Welcome to the World Little Abigail

As you can tell by the title of this post, a significant event has occured in Heather's and my life (yes, I know this is Heather's blog, but she's currently incapacitated by poopy diapers and breastfeeding - that's a whole 'nother story...) and that event is the arrival of the oh so fashionably late Abigail Diana Heckler.

As of Heather's last post, Heather was still pregnant and we had just had a frustrating day at the hospital doing the typical late pregnancy tests. Despite some questionable results that day, Heather was sent home with orders to report to the hospital bright and early on Monday to do more tests to make sure Mommy and Baby are both ok.

So Heather and I settled in to what was almost assurably our last weekend without a baby and even planned a date night for Sunday evening. With pizza on the way, a DVD set to play, Heather decided (like she really had any say in the matter) to break her water and low and behold, our date night was cancelled.

So we arrived at the hospital around 7:30pm and setteld in for what we knew would be a long night. Heather's contractions started around 10:30 or 11 and were causing her significant discomfort. However, she needed to wait for her epidural and she still was not progressing fast enough. A couple short hours later and all that changed as Heather received her epidural around 1-ish and by 2 am, she was finally getting some well needed rest.

The nurse was expecting heather to begin active labor in the morning, which suited Heather as her doctor would not be available until 7 am. The doctor on duty, Dr. Bu, was extremely understanding of Heather's desire to have her own obstetrician deliver Abby, and was doing things in a manner that would facilitate that.

Well, anyone who knows Heather knows that sometimes she can be a bit uncooperative, and about 4 am, the nurse to her surprise said Heather was ready to begin pushing - 3 hours before her own doctor was to arrive!

So Heather began pushing harder and harder but to no avail. Abby would move down the birth canal when Heather pushed, but then retreat when she relaxed. This continued for two full hours. The nurse, much to her credit recognized Heather's exhaustion and called the doctor, who wanted Heather to rest. So she rested for thirty minutes and during each contraction, she just breathed through it, struggling to find energy. At about 6:30, Dr. Bu entered the room to assess the situation and Heather was given the go ahead to push as though she had never pushed before. With Heather pushing harder than she had ever pushed before and as well as a little help from our friend Vacuum, Abigail Diana Heckler entered the world at 6:41 am weighing in at 9 pounds, 4 ounces and a whopping 21 inches long. Yes, I did write "9 pounds, 4 ounces".

However, I did not get to cut the umbilical cord nor did heather or I get to immediately hold our beautiful newly born baby. The cord was wrapped around Abby's neck and they whisked her away immediately to conduct a battery of tests.

Nothing was wrong and I was given Abby to hold. What a beautiful little girl she is, with such a full head of dark brown hair and features that can only have come from her beautiful mother. The sad thing was that Heather couldn't hold her daughter for a while. Heather had suffered some serious tears that required immediate attention from the doctor. Patching her up took the better part of an hour.

What we didn't know was that the long night would also lead into a long and exhausting two days. Now, I know someone will say "Get used to it" or "welcome to the world of parenting", but the cause of the long and exhausting two days was not Abby, but complications related to the delivery. However, I'm tired and finally beginning to catch up on the lack of sleep, so look for that story tomorrow on my own blog http://heckleradventures.blogspot.com

Below are a few pictures of Abby and the family but first a few of highlights:

• date night pizza - came up around 1 am when Heather was given her epidural
• The epidural only took on one side of Heather. While some may say this sucks, the dr. pointed out that this probably helped Heather push as the contractions weren't fully masked by the epidural.
• No one ever guessed or even thought Heather was carrying a baby that big. Every dr. estimated that she would deliver a baby in the low 8 pound range - boy were they all wrong!
• Abigail Diana Heckler has joined our family - this by far is the biggest and the best highlight.

Photos