Friday, July 29, 2011

Taking charge

Sleep is so hard to come by so today when Abigail was sound asleep I knew it was my chance to lay down and catch some z's. Unfortunately, there have been workers in our place for the past 2 days doing some repairing on the roof through Abigail's room. Today they were suppose to come by in the morning and finish up by just painting the ceiling in our dining room. Welp, they did not show up this morning so I decided to take charge and put a note on the door. Please do not disturb. Its time they come when its convenient for me. Who knows if they even attempted to come by, all I know is I got to sleep for an hour and a half with my sleepy newborn and my sleepy puppy without any disturbance.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

My beautiful life

This is Brandon's favorite time of day and mine too! Brandon can't wait to hold sweet Abigail as soon as he gets home from work and I love being able to sit and eat dinner with 2 hands. Such a beautiful, simple life we lead. We are happy.


Saturday, July 23, 2011

cousins, nephews, niece, aunts... Sisters

We were all in the same room yesterday! Kids everywhere, sisters swapping stories, cameras flashing, and lots of love for everyone. So blessed!





Thursday, July 21, 2011

Abigail's story

July 7th, 2011... that was the day I had circled in pink on my calendar for 9 long months, Abigail's due date. Well that day came and went very quickly with no sign of progression. Boy, were we frustrated. We went ahead and scheduled and induction date for the 12th. In the mean time we tried just about everything to induce labor and she just wouldn't budge, until the evening of the 11th, at 11:15pm, right after we laid in bed, POP, my water broke! Brandon immediately hopped up and started getting dressed, putting his shoes on, getting the bags ready to bring down to the car, and I sat in the bathroom, very calm, contemplating everything that was about to change. Brandon, still slightly hysterical, beckoned me to get out of the bathroom and get dressed so he could rush me to the hospital. I very calmly said, "let's wait a few minutes while I call my doctor." Doctor said since I haven't started having contractions yet that I can wait at home for a while until I start feeling strong ones and then I can go to the hospital, or I can go now. Up to me! About 10 minutes later, hello contractions! They were coming on strong and fast. But we were able to wait long enough at home to get admitted after midnight so that Monday did not count as a day. Good timing Abigail!

Contractions are no joke, truly intense pain for a few hours, until about 3am when I got my epidural. All I remember thinking is Dr. Tran, the anesthesiologist, was my hero. Bye bye pain, time for bed. Brandon and I dozed off to sleep most of the morning. So peaceful.

Hours and hours later, the epidural slowed things down, cue the pitocin, it definitely got things moving a lot faster. So fast, that at times Abigail was having a hard time coping with it, cue the oxygen. I was amazed at how smoothly things ran, they had a solution for everything.

There I was 9 and 1/2 centimeters dilated, I asked Brandon to grab Katrina and my mom from the waiting room so we could chat and spend some time together. They gave me tips, took some pictures, and we had a few good laughs. At this time I was thinking, this is great, everything has run so smoothly, I'm excited to get this show on the road.

Finally, it was time for me to push, and I saw the time pass, and pass, and pass, and pass and still no Abigail. Low and behold, she had one more attempt to stay inside my tummy, which she seemed to love, because she was turned the wrong way. It was clear that she was not coming, no matter how hard I tried. 3 looooong pushing hours later, I was exhausted and it was time for my doctor to step in and assist me with the help of forceps. There really is no way to describe the amount energy it took to push for that long, I was simply delirious and slightly hysterical.

One last contraction, one last push, and at 6:07 pm on July 12, 2011, Abigail arrived! All 8 lbs, 2 oz of her, with a beautiful full head of hair, big eyes, a button nose, and pouty lips. She is perfect!

No one tells you how bad the recovery is going to be, this has been the most painful but rewarding week of my life. We are so blessed to have a beautiful baby to enjoy, dozens of pictures to take, lots of love from daddy, and help and well wishes from family and friends. And its good to know that everything will go back to normal in 6 weeks.




Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Abigail Lin Lykins

Abigail
Born 7/12/11 at 6:07pm
8 lbs 2 oz
She is just perfect and has stolen our hearts! We love her so much!
Here she is, 1 week old!
While sweet baby sleeps I have just enough time to get on the computer for the first time in a week and put a few pictures up. There are many more to come! Now back to mommy world.



Jeter loves sitting with Abigail. He follows her wherever she goes :)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Love my fam

They are the BEST!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Trying all the classics

With my due date just 4 days away and little to no progression in the labor department, Brandon and I have resorted to trying all the "classics" to induce labor. Maybe this little girl is waiting for the 4th of July so she can get some fireworks. It has been quite amusing to try all the old wives tales. Yesterday we wanted to shake things up a bit from our normal long walks so we went on a hike and made it up a huge hill to a beautiful looking spot. Poor Jeter was exhausted and so were we but it was definitely a fun adventure. Later that day I ate the spiciest burger ever, with jalapenos, habanero sauce and pepper jack cheese. Today maybe I will try raspberry leaf tea. Any other suggestions?


Friday, July 1, 2011

Pool party

So far on the maternity leave agenda, pool party with my sis and nephews! We definitely had some fun in the sun. I never gave my sister enough credit though, she is an amazing hard working mother watching over her 2 beautiful boys everyday. How she makes it through the day is a wonder, I got tired just watching her! She has such a wonderful little family unit and I just love them all!


"A" is for Abigail!