The Easter Bunny Came Early....

Our special delivery from the Easter Bunny!!

Abby & her daddy

Momma & her favorite girl

So here's the skinny on Abby's arrival...

On Wednesday night, I cooked one of our favorite casseroles, Hot Chicken. I took my nightly bath and we went to bed. I woke up several times that night with cramps, and just figured they would go away like they had before. I woke up about 1am and really was uncomfortable. So I started to question if I was in labor. Well I tried to time them...didn't work, and tried to go back to sleep. We then decided that I should call the doctor and see. So I ended up waking Dr. Lawhon up at 1:30. I told him what I was experiencing - back pain, cramping, etc... and he told us to head to Baptist East.

Side Note: for all of those who asked how my hair looks so good. Well, I did happen to shower and wash my hair before I called the doctor. There was no way I was gonna not have my hair clean when I would "maybe" meet my little girl :-)

So we arrived at Baptist East, and was admitted at 1:56am. They monitored my contractions for about an hour and a 1/2 and at 3:30, we were told we were staying and being induced. So, we called our parents and told them Abby would arrive that day. I got my IV, epidural, & pictocin around 5:30am, and our labor journey began. Since I was already dilated to 4cm we were thinking that Miss Abigail would be here sooner than later...but of course she made us wait. I progressed quickly to 5cm and that is were the fun began. My contractions were coming to fast...I was having them 1 minute apart with only 20 seconds rest for Abby. So they stopped my pictocin and let me have them on my own, and later restarted them and they took a better pace. As the clock slowly ticked by, I was moved to my left side because Abby wasn't handling my positioning well, and her heartrate was unstable. Once they moved me she was good :-)

As the feeling of being a "head on a stick" and not feeling a darn thing (and happy not to be), I started to have a strange pain on one side of my back. At this point I had progressed to about 7cm. I began to realize that my epidural had a hot spot and that I could feel pain on my left side of my back. Needless to say, the breathing I learned in childbirth classes were heaven sent. I really learned alot about myself in those painful moments of feeling every contraction (on that side) from that point on. Finally, I was about 9 1/2 cm. So my wonderful LDR nurse Lilli, Ev & I cleared out the room. And we started pushing to get Abby down further.

Any woman who has had a baby will tell you...your legs feel like they belong to a sumo wrestler. So we began to push, and then the doctor came in with 3 other nurses and we got ready for the delivery. First, they tried the vaccuum, and then we had to go with the forceps...which really made me nervous. I was a forcep baby and when I was born they thought I had a fractured my skull...this did cross my mind...but at the point I knew my doctor would do what was best for Abby. A little pushing later...with my eyes closed to do my best on the job at hand...heard Lilli say look Lauren...and there was my beautiful daughter in Dr. Lawhons hands.

At that point we learned why she has been a little distressed - she had the cord wrapped around her neck and was trying to bungee from it :-) The nurses took her and she let out that great cry and was all pretty and pink.

Anyways, to make a long story short, we feel so blessed to have a healthy beautiful baby girl! We are trying to get the hang of our late night feedings, and our crying sessions :-) I am in love all over...and over...and over!!

Tootles for now!