ABIGAIL HAS ARRIVED!

That's right, Abigail Rose was born yesterday at 3:32 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 18.5 inches long. That's right, she's short and chubby, just like her dad. Actually, she's the cutest little thing I've ever seen. And so far she has a great personality; not too fussy, but very communicative in telling us what she needs (basically food, diaper change or to be held). We'll see how long that lasts!

The story of Abby's birth is one with several ups and downs. As Melissa told you in her last post, Abigail, after having turned and engaged around week 33 or 34, last week somehow managed to flip herself out of position and into a breech position. Yesterday morning the OB and a resident performed an external cephalic version, which basically involves the doctors using their hands and fingers to put tremendous pressure on Melissa's belly and then drag their hands around either clockwise or counterclockwise to try and rotate the baby back into a vertex position. It was very painful for Melissa as they couldn't use any pain medications (they needed to know when they were pushing too hard.) Melissa took it like a champ - she only said "ouch" quietly once and was silent and still the rest of the time. I was amazed, because as I'm sure you all know, I would have been howling like a baby had I undergone that.

So, after four attempts, and despite only a 40% chance of success, they actually managed to get the baby turned! The doctor immediately induced labor. A couple hours later, Melissa had dilated to 4 cm. and they put in an epidural. Things were going very smoothly at that point, when Abby decided to throw another wrench into the process. Sometime right before noon, the nurse checked Melissa’s cervix and thought she felt little fingers in the cervix. The resident came in and sure enough, Abby had somehow managed to get her hand up above her head. At that point, our OB ordered the resident to try and push the hand back inside. He and another resident were unable to do it after a couple tries. So, there was no choice but to go for a c-section. By the time they had Melissa prepped and ready to go, Abby had managed to get her whole lower arm through the cervix.

Thus, despite the successful external version and the smooth progress of the labor (made it all the way to 6 cm dilated!), we still ended up with a c-section. But that’s all right because Melissa is recovering wonderfully so far. She’s going to have a little breakfast this morning and she’ll probably try standing soon. Her incision is healing well with no signs of infection.

As for Abby, she’s doing great too. She had an Apgar score of 9 and 9, which is great. Her hand and arm were a little swollen, but don’t appear to be too bruised for having been pinched between her head and Melissa’s cervix. Our pediatrian stopped by yesterday evening and said he wants to order a sonogram of Abby’s hips because he’s concerned about hip dislocation since she was breech for a while, is female and was born c-section. But she’s moving all her limbs really well, so I’m not terribly worried about it. Otherwise, she’s doing just great! She’s such a cute, chubby little thing! Last night she slept for about an hour at a time between feedings, diaper changing and snuggle time. . . . Did I just say “snuggle time?” . . . Anyway, everything is going well. I’m at home taking care of the pugs right now, but I had better head back to the hospital soon. Everyone take care, and we’ll try to post some pictures soon!

Jeff