Simple Blessings: Welcome Abigail Elizabeth!

Abigail Elizabeth was born on October 2nd, 2010, at 11:53 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz, and was 21" long.

This labour experience was very different from my last two as we were in a different province (thus different hospital) and we are now an hour from the hospital where she was delivered. I had made it to over 39 weeks pregnant (longer than either of my other two pregnancies), was very uncomfortable, and was definitely ready to have a baby. We hadn't found out if we were having a boy or a girl (although I was convinced we were having a boy) so that added an element of excitement to going into labour.

Peter had gone to work for 8 p.m. on Saturday night, with a strict admonishment from me to keep his phone on him ;) I had been reminding him of this for over two weeks, though, so I don't think he was too worried. I started contracting right after he went to work so I laid down, thinking that would stop any false labour. Instead, about 5 minutes after I laid down, I felt my water break (for anyone who's curious, to me it feels like someone plucked a guitar string in my stomach). My water had broken on its own with Nathan so I was pretty sure that's what happened even though I didn't have the waterfall I had with him. This was around 8:45 and the contractions immediately went to lasting for about a minute every three. I called Peter and the people who were set up to watch Hannah and Nathan, and started to pack my bag and the bag for the other kids. Yes, I hadn't really packed yet. Silly me.

Peter got home around 9 and we were on the road by 9:15 p.m. He did the hour's drive in about 40 minutes and we walked into the hospital just before 10. I was still having contractions about every 3 minutes. We got to the delivery room and I got hooked up to the monitor. The nurse said she could see that I was having lots of contractions but that the test on whether my water had broken was inconclusive.

I told the nurse I wasn't interested in an epidural during her questions. She checked me and I was at 5 cm ... still halfway to go. I was really tired (maybe because I looked after 2 kids all day and then decided to go into labour??) so I quickly told the nurse I had changed my mind. She checked me again (about 20 minutes had passed) and I was already at about 7 cm. Since I was progressing so quickly she told me I wasn't able to get any drugs ... yikes! This hospital didn't have my favourite fentanyl ... I knew this going in but didn't realize my drug choices at this hospital would end up having me do a drug-free labour and delivery.

By about 11:45 p.m. I was ready to push. By this point I was exhausted and didn't have a great amount of energy to push, so I was very glad that it only took 3 pushes for her to be born. She was born at 11:53 p.m. - definitely my shortest labour by far! They placed her on my chest but I still didn't know that she was a 'she'! I asked Peter if she was a boy or girl and when he said girl I thought he might have been teasing me - I was that sure she was a boy! lol. Of course I was / am overjoyed to have another little girl to love.

Abigail is 2 weeks old today and she is definitely the easiest baby of the three I've had. She can put herself to sleep (not always, but some of the time), is usually only up once at night, and is generally very calm when she's awake. The public health nurse expressed surprise at being able to do all her checks on a quiet baby. She really is amazingly calm. It will be interesting to see how her personality develops.

Nathan and Hannah have adapted well to another baby in the house. Hannah is just about ready to walk and has been a bit out of sorts, but that's to be expected. She's just now starting to get back to her old self. Nathan has been great with Abigail - he loves to give her kisses and hugs and wants to read to her. So sweet!