Baby Abigail Jean has arrived!

On may 18th at 2:32 pm baby Abigail Jean Dunwald entered our world and stole our hearts! She is perfect in every way and we are so blessed to finally have a little girl. Our birth story is a long one so settle in as I begin our journey to becoming a family of six. I had technically been showing signs of "labor" since about the end of April when I was about 1 cm dilated and told not to travel out of town! I missed my grandmothers memorial service and stayed close to home thinking she may come anytime. Well she had other plans. Progress was slow to say the least and we waited and waited, walked and walked. On May 15th I had my weekly doctors appointment and was about 2cm, so the doctor asked if I would like my membranes stripped. We decided sure why not lets see if this gets things going. By the 17th I was 3 cm and having contractions, but nothing consistent. There were other signs as well that lead us to make a late night visit to the labor and delivery room only to be told to walk for an hour and then be sent home. The next morning at about 5:30a I woke up to wetness and thought my water had broke or was leaking. Every time I moved more would gush, so we once again headed to labor and delivery. We arrived at 7am and was checked to be told I was still 3cm, but my water was leaking so they kept me. At 8:30a we started pitocin in hopes to get things moving along. I knew that my regular doctor was scheduled to go out of town at 2pm, so I really was hoping Abigail would come before then, but we will get to that in a bit. I was getting checked about every hour and not progressing as fast as I thought I would. At 1:30p My regular doctor came in to check on me and see how I was doing. She checked me and I was 4-5 cm, 80% and baby was at -1 station. She also discovered I still had a "fore bag" of water so she broke that completely and that is when things really progressed. Unfortunately she headed out right after that. I remember at one point I was 5cm and while the nurse was checking me I went from 5cm to 7cm. I had to wait for the doctor on call to come in before I could push. The delivery was fairly easy and I got to try some different positions and finally was able to push. At 2:32 pm Abigail arrived. (If only my regular doctor would have come in earlier to check on me.) I had no tearing and she took to the breast right away. It was a great experience and we all love her dearly. All the boys are doing awesome and love being big brothers! We have been extremely blessed by our church family with meals being delivered to us for about a week. We have eaten well and truly appreciate them all! I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Jeanette for setting that up for us and also a huge THANK YOU to all the families that have or are going to make and deliver meals to us. As for the winner of our little guessing contest there was some what of a tie. My sister Emily guessed May 18th at 9am and for the weight 8lbs 0oz with the length as 21in. Her roommate, MaryJo, guessed May 18th at 12am and for the weight 7lbs 0oz with the length of 19in. So I have decided that they are both going to receive a wallet size photo of me when I was pregnant and bragging rights! There is a slide show of pictures from her birth and hospital stay as well as this link to see her hospital photos. http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=e317d539-2f24-4855-bf7b-790db9ca34e0 Feel free to leave a comment for us and I will continue to update as I can!