new beginnings

This has been an amazing week of new beginnings in the Palmer house. It started on Tuesday with my 38 wk dr appt. My blood pressure had been going up steadily so my dr surprised me with news that I would be induced the next day. I had been hoping for good news but that was too good! I got the call Wed at 3:30am to be at the hosp at 5am. By 6 I was in bed and ready to go. I had tested positive for the group B strep so I needed to be on antibiotics at least 4 hours before Abigail's birth or they would have to do bloodwork on her to see if she has any infection from the bacteria. With my history of quick delivery (is it really a history if it happened with 1 child? IDK) my dr recommended that I not wait long to get the epidural if I really want one. I was nervous about having to make my labor last 4 hours. I needed to be pregnant until 10am. I got the epidural at 7 and was feeling pretty good. Around 9 I started feeling my contractions in one spot on my lower stomach. The pain got really intense like menstral cramps. Soon it was unbareable. I was ready to push but it wasn't 10 yet and, on top of that, my dr was at the office seeing patients and wanted to get a few more in before coming back to the hospital! He has obviously never had a baby! =) My nurse happened to be someone Brad and I went to high school with so it was a really relaxed atmosphere. At one point she told me to keep my legs shut! She put the resident dr on hold just in case. I told her I didn't care who delivered, someone needed to hurry up and get in there! My dr made it in just in time. I think I pushed about 6 times and out she came, at 10:13am. She was 8lb 2oz, 20" long. I kept saying "she's so small!" The nurses kept saying that she isn't really that small. I said she was small to me! We just barely made it, thank the Lord. She didn't have to have any additional bloodwork done but we did have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours so she could me monitored for signs of infection. There wasn't much "monitoring" going on, if you ask me. Anyway, we were prepared for a very long discharge process come Friday morning because that has been the way it worked every other time we've been waiting to get out of the hospital (that includes the time Hannah was hospitalized for dehydration when she had a bad stomach virus). Around 8 or 9 the pediatrician came in and told us Abigail had to pee before she could be sent home. It had been over 24 hours since her last wet diaper. She has no problem giving us dirty diapers. He said it was just from her nursing and not getting much since my milk hadn't really come in yet. So her next feeding lastedlike an hour! Right at 10, when she was 2 days old and we could be discharged, she filled her diaper with pee!! That was the best pee I've ever seen! I called the nurse in to show her and she called the pediatrician to tell him and within 2 hours we were out of there!! Some girls that I used to work with were going planning on coming to see us while they were on lunch but we left a few minutes before that so we stopped by and saw them on our way home. Last night was our first night at home. I was really nervous about how it was going to go. It actually went pretty well. We have some things we need to iron out but for the most part, it was what you should expect with a newborn! She was up every 2 or 3 hours to eat. At 7 am I put her down for the last time, expecting to hear from Ryan at any minute. He is normally up not long before or after 7. Then I woke up and it was 8:30!! So far the kids love her and are so willing to help me. Hannah wants to hold her constantly, Ryan loves to rub her head and give her kisses. Daddy is totally in love. If you know him, you know Brad is your typical man. Not emotional or lovey about much. But I can see his heart melt every time he looks at her. We're all so blessed to have him in our lives!