Happy First Birthday Abigail!!

Wow!! What a year.... This little girl is just amazing!! She received a good bill of health at her one year check-up this morning. Neither one of us had smiles during her shots, but we made it through (and I wasn't even getting poked).

It seems like just yesterday in some ways that I had begun not feeling well again....

More Remembering....
Friday was a fairly uneventful day for me at the hospital. Things were looking good for me to keep Abigail inside baking a little longer. I had some visitors and mostly just relaxed. Saturday started out to be the same way, too. Around 4:30 I started feeling uncomfortable. The nurse treated me for gas first because of my symptoms and the large quantity of antibiotics and such I was on. After the shift change things kept getting worse. The previous nurse informed the next nurse.... Longer story shorter, the nurse probably spent the first half of her shift mostly with me. John was about to head home for the night, but the nurse told him she didn't think that was a good idea.

We think it was about midnight when I was moved to a Labor and Delivery room. The things the nurse was trying was not stopping labor, and they could only do so much before needing to let nature run its course.... I became pretty out of it from medication, but was in a good deal of labor pain. Apparently, I was more coherent during a contraction than not. Eventually, I was given an epidural -- oh happy day!!

It was time to just wait.... Just after 4:00A.M. - it was time. I remember at some point turning to John and expressing concern for not being able to protect her anymore inside of me. Besides that, I continued to remain blessed with peace in knowing everything was happening just as it should.

The room filled with many people. There was some pushing, and a beautiful little girl was born -- and gave us a little cry. It was the only sound I was able to hear from her for the first three weeks because of the ventilator...

Some days were long and hard, others were just wonderful. Some days I longed to have her home and hold her without anything attached.... Now, I have this beautiful little girl crawling all over me and anything else she can get into.

I just feel so blessed. Between people I know and seeing different situations in the NICU, I know that it is amazing that Abigail is doing so well. I am just so grateful to have her here.... Thank you to everyone for your help in this first year.