Our sweet little Abby is finally here! I am going to attempt to chronicle the last part of my pregnancy and her birth story (mixed in with darling pictures to keep your interest. :) )
As far as pregnancies go, hers was pretty easy. I gained more weight than with any of my other pregnancies, but I think it's because I was eating gluten free and absorbing the stuff I put in my mouth. When I was 35 weeks, I got a call from my midwife's office that she was taking an undetermined leave of absence because she'd had a surgery and was not recovering well.
Dang it. Clearly I needed to find someone else, but didn't know where to go. Lucky for me, I went visiting teaching and my friend told me about her doctor that she absolutely loved. So I switched and saw my new doctor for the first time at 36 weeks. She was nice but I never really developed a great bond with her. Honestly, I had only been in her presence for a total of 45 minutes before she delivered Abby.
Then, things with Travis's work got a little crazy and he ended up needing to go to Brazil for a week when I was 38 weeks along. I wasn't worried I would have the baby while he was gone, but I was worried about how I would manage my four children when I was tired and cranky. It worked out fine, and I actually was able to do prepare-for-baby things like making freezer meals and sewing new burp cloths (where did the old ones go?).
After Trav got home from his trip, I was ready to have this baby! I was scheduled to be induced on Oct. 3, but just felt a little weird about it. Like I should let her choose when she wanted to come into the world not schedule it like a dentist appointment or something. It turned out I got a nasty cold and cancelled my induction because of that.
Well, Oct 3 came and went and I had no baby and felt recovered from my cold. I was starting to get very antsy! The night of the 4th I scoured the internet for ways to induce labor, but nothing was terribly successful. On Saturday Oct. 5 Anna and Kate both had soccer games, so that's how we spent our morning. I should say, that is how we spent our late morning. Our early morning was spent doing chores and having a dance party to T Swift's "22" which left me singing "It feels like the perfect night-to have a baby" all day long.
We took the kids to Warren's for lunch to celebrate a great soccer season. Seriously, $1.50 for a kids' meal? I love Warrens! It was one of those golden moments where everyone was happy, the sun was shining, and we were sipping Cherry Sprites. We came home and watched the afternoon session of General Conference and I recalled a friend saying that she did squats to induce her labor, so I squatted through a few of the talks, but still.... no contractions at all.
After conference Trav went out to mow the lawn, the kids were playing, and I was picking up toys they had left in the hall. I bent down to retrieve Eve's doll, and when I stood up, my water broke. And the thing about it, is that that is a very messy deal. I told Kate to tell her dad and I hopped in the shower. We called my mom and packed all our bags, ate a little dinner,
and I changed my pants 3 different times. Because apparently I was packing a LOT of fluid.
Once Trav and I got to the hospital, I got an IV, pitocin, and an epidural right away. Then we just played the waiting game as my body got ready to have the baby. I was at a 4 when I got there and progressed pretty quickly, but as always, the epidural made me feel super weird. I remember with Max I felt crazy itchy-- this time I just felt like my legs were "asleep" like when you sit on your foot and then it starts to tingle? That was both of my legs for a couple hours!
We still hadn't completely decided on a name for our little one. Our favorites were Lily, Grace, Olivia, and Abby. Going in to the hospital, Lily was our top choice, but we decided we would wait until we saw her to decide. Skipping ahead in the narrative here, but once she was born Travis was just so excited about her and kept saying over and over "She's so perfect" or "Look how beautiful". It was super sweet to see this Daddy fall in love with his fourth baby girl, and so I told him we needed to name her Abby-- which means Father's joy.
Anyway, finally I was at a 10, my doctor was there and the next thing I knew, I had a precious little baby! It was a very easy delivery and she was a very healthy baby.
Our little Abby Kaye Larsen was born Saturday, October 5 2013 at 9:46 pm. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces (our biggest by a long shot!) and was 20.5 inches long. She had lots of dark hair and long fingernails. And we are so very glad that she is here!
