She's Here!

I was beginning to think the day would never come, but alas, our sweet baby girl is finally here!

Abigail Marie Donohoe was born on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 2:18 pm. She weighed 10 pounds even and was 20 inches long.

Her birth story:

Apparantly I am really bad at recognizing the signs of labor. With Nolan, my water broke but I wasn't feeling any contractions so I convinced myself it was something else and didn't go to the hospital until 2 days later (a big no-no). This time my water didn't break, but I didn't realize I was in labor at first.

On Thursday (8-25) I went to the doctor. I was 2 cm dialated but no other signs of labor. The doctor was worried about the size of the baby (the ultrasound earlier in the week had predicted a 10 lb, 12 oz baby - plus or minus a pound), and I was miserable. So we scheduled an induction (where they give you drugs to start labor) for Tuesday, August 30. I was excited to finally have an end in sight.

The next day was Friday. I got up and went to school like normal, although I wasn't feeling the greatest. It was only the 2nd day of school, so I decided I would try to make it through the day. I had decided on the way to school that I was going to tell them it was my last day no matter what. All I had to do was get through the day (which I thought would be easy). 1st period started, and I wasn't feeling hot. I was just moving really slow and not feeling up to much. It felt like I was just having a really bad period. Luckily I have a co-teacher during my 1st period, and she could tell I wasn't my normal self, so she did most of the work that period. I excused myself several times to go to the restroom because I kept having these sudden urges like I had to go right then or I would mess in my pants. I never did really go, but these "urges" (or cramps) continued. I made it through the period, and had the next block off. So I decided I would take it easy. I met with my long-term sub for a few minutes who just happened to be at school, but still wasn't feeling good. I decided I would go down to the nurse to lie down for the rest of the period to see if that would make me feel better. At some point when I was lying there my "cramps" started hurting a lot more. But dumb Katie didn't realize what was happening. At some point while I was laying there I realized that the pain would get worse and then it would ease off some. It suddenly dawned on me that this was happening regularly, and that these weren't just cramps or urges to go to the bathroom. They were contractions. So the nurse called Jack and he came and picked me up and off to the hospital we went!

It was about 10:30 in the morning when I finally realized I was in labor, and 11:30 when we finally got admitted to the hospital. I labored with a good deal of pain for about 2 hours. I was patiently waiting for an epidural (because I had no desire to do this naturally - I am a pain wimp apparently) but it took forever because I had to get IV fluids in me before they could give me the meds. At about 1:30 the doctor came in, and expressed great concern over the size of the baby. He was worried she was going to get stuck and we would be in serious trouble. There were some other contributing factors that I won't go into detail about, but the end result was that we decided to go ahead and do a c-seciton. So off we went to the OR, and at 2:18 Abigail was born! Overall the whole process took about 4 hours. It was definitely not an easy 4 hours, but I'm glad it didn't last any longer!

Her name:

We chose the name Abigail because we both really like it - we first thought of it when watching a mini series about John Adams (his wife's name was Abigail). If Nolan was a girl his name would have been Abigail, and it just stuck. Plus, the name means "Joy of the Father" which we both thought was awesome. And what a joy she is! Her middle name is Marie which is a family name. Marie was my Gran's middle name and Jack's Omi's middle name - two women that we both adore!

Her features:

As we slowly get to know Abigail we are noticing some special features that she has. Overall I think she looks a lot like Nolan. But she is also very unique.

Nolan got Jack's chin and body type, and my eyes. We both had blond hair so I guess he got that from both of us. Abby seems to have gotten my chin and body type and Jack's eyes. Her hair is brown which surprised us both - not sure yet if it will stay that color or lighten up!

We are looking forward to getting to know her more - both her physical appearance but also her personality. In any event, she is a joy to us all already!