Abigail Jo Robison

So many of you may be wondering why in the world (or how in the world) Abby is here 8 weeks early. I'm still wondering myself, but I am glad she is here and is healthy and doing well! Not to mention she's the cutest baby that has ever lived, not that I'm biased or anything... Anyway, here's the story...

Sunday morning
2 AM - I'm peacefully sleeping when I awake to a "pop" and guuush (gross I know). My heart started racing when I realized what had actually just happened. Sean was still up watching TV upstairs so I grabbed my phone and called him without getting up. The conversation went something like this, "Hello", "SEAN MY WATER JUST BROKE!!!", "Seriously?", "YES, COME DOWNSTAIRS!", "Something something", "I DON'T KNOW JUST COME DOWN RIGHT NOW!!". It took him almost an hour to get downstairs or at least it seemed that way. When he got to the room I ripped off the covers and he realized that my water had indeed broken. We both got appropriately dressed for a trip to the ER. Meanwhile I'm trying to breathe and slow down my heart rate knowing that freaking out wouldn't do the baby any good. Sean called his mom, she said go to the ER. Called the doctor, and got the one on-call for the night. He asks how far along, I say 32 weeks, he says "wow that's early" (as if I didn't know this already). He says go to the hospital, I'll meet you there.

2:30ish - We get to the ER, and don't have to wait long for someone from labor and delivery to come pick me up and take me to their triage room. I should mention at this point, I have no contractions and am just fine besides being scared. I change into a gown, and the nurse takes my vitals, history, finds the baby's heart rate etc. She says their going to check the fluid to make sure it is indeed my water that had broken. When she comes back and sees how much liquid (probably TMI) there is, she says "oh yeah, I probably don't even need to check it, but I will just in case". She comes back a minute later and says it was indeed my water and they'd be taking me to a regular L&D room. Meanwhile, I start having little contractions.

3:30-4ish - I get to the other room, and they start an IV, give me a steroid shot for her lungs, and tell me they're going to try to keep me pregnant for 48 more hours. My contractions started getting longer and more painful, and closer together, but the monitor wasn't picking them up very well. Finally they got so bad, I told Sean I wanted something for pain, and they decide to see if I was dilated. After 2 people checking through the contractions (which was very painful) they decide I'm 7-8 cm dilated. This is when we alllll realize the baby is coming soon. They ask me if I want an epidural, I say "YES PLEASE" and that was the smartest choice I'd made for the last month. Before I got the epidural, I wasn't getting any relief between the contractions. Afterwards, I could at least relax and breath, which is a lot harder through contractions than I had ever imagined. My anesthesiologist was amazing and even let me keep laying on my side which they usually don't do. My doctor was also awesome, even though I'd never met him before. He was very helpful, calm, and caring.

7ish - I start pushing through the contractions. The epidural and the magnesium they had given me earlier had made it harder for me to feel the contractions, so they gave me some pitocin to make they more regulated. I should mention that through all of this, Sean was the most awesome husband ever. He rubbed my back and would have done anything to help me:)

9:02 - Baby Abigail is born! They took her straight away to the warmer to get her warm and check her lungs, which were a big concern considering how early she was. She scored 8's on her apgars, which made me quite pleased. Abby got a c-pap put on, and then Sean went with the nurses to take her to the NICU, while I got pampered with apple juice.

Later that afternoon I got to go see her. She is beautiful! Easily the cutest baby I've ever seen:) Sean, Aaron, and Jan were able to give her a blessing that night, which definitely made me feel better, and helped Abby's lungs get strong quick!

The next day they changed her oxygen to a regular cannula, and the next day she was completely off of the oxygen. She is continuing to get stronger and closer to coming home! She's off of her IV's, her pulse oxygen monitor, and is at her max for her feedings. She's surprised the doctors at how well she's done and how far she's come considering how early she was.

Sean and I are smitten and love to hold her and take pictures of her. We're hoping that she'll get to come home in a couple weeks and are so excited to have her in our family! Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Brand new! Look at that hair!

On her C-pap machine. Day 1

Regular oxygen! Day 2

First bath! You can see how small she is.

Hanging out in her phototherapy lights

She loves it when Daddy holds her!