Abby's birth

My induction date and time was set for May 2 at 5am. On May 1, Noah woke up puking. I was so mad - not only had my house been cleaned and sanitized about 3 times that week in preparation for the baby - but I didn't want to deal with a sick child and a newborn together. I wondered if Noah would even be able to see the baby when she was born. I kept Noah in his room and played movies for him from the laptop. Luckily, his sickness didn't last long.

I was so excited to have a baby and be done with pregnancy! We loaded the car and dropped Noah off with Grandma Vicki that night, then tried to get some sleep before waking up REALLY early to get to the hospital. At 3:30am, we got a call from the hospital saying they didn't have any beds available. I was SO upset! I didn't know if it would be postponed by hours or days. Russ stayed home from work that day, so it was nice to have lunch together even though the whole time we watched our phones and were bugged that the hospital wasn't calling us back! 

Finally at 9:15 that night, we received a call that there was a bed available if we could get there within an hour. We were dropping Noah off at Grandma Vicki's at the time. We hurried home so that I could shower and feel refreshed before starting the induction. I had a stomach ache and was feeling a little bit nervous about what was to come. This is the last picture I have of Abby inside of me - thank goodness! I look like (and felt like) I was going to pop!

Russ said a really sweet prayer with the 2 of us before leaving to the hospital and it helped to calm my nerves a little. We got to the hospital around 10:30 and after all the initial paperwork was done, I was checked and dilated to a 4. I was started on pitocin at midnight (May 3rd). Before that had even started, I remember telling the nurse that I was having a bad pain and she looked at the monitor and said "yep, you're having a contraction". I'm still confused about that and wondering if I would have started labor on my own! That whole night was so uncomfortable. I was feeling claustrophobic, itchy from the gel on my stomach, and like I was going to pee my pants every 15 minutes or so. Not to mention the contractions I felt up until the time I requested an epidural. I looked over at the couch beside me and thought "must be nice".

 Once I got the epidural, I felt so much more relaxed. My mom and sisters were all wanting to be there for the birth so Russ and I kept in contact with them through the night. Around 4:30am I remember being excited because the morning news was starting which meant there would be more interesting things to watch on tv! I couldn't sleep that night and was so bored. The next morning, I was worn out - I had been awake for so many hours - once my family was starting to get there, I couldn't stay awake!

Once things had progressed far enough for the nurse to tell me "it's time to start pushing", I got so scared. I was nervous about having enough strength to do it because I was so exhausted. I cried and wanted to postpone things until after I could take a nap but I knew that wasn't an option. Having Russ there holding my hand made me feel a little bit better.

I loved having my mom and sisters there to share the special day with us!

Russ is always making us laugh! Here he is ready to catch the baby.

This picture must have been taken during my pushing! I felt like I pushed for much longer than I had with Noah's birth. (By the way, my mom is holding Davis in this picture. He got to be there too!)

Finally... at 10:51am, our sweet baby girl was born.

She was the most perfect baby.

I couldn't say much about her through my crying but I instantly loved her so much. Her cry was the sweetest cry - kind of soft and quiet like she was trying to be a good girl :)

I like this picture for all the camera action!

Proud parents with our sweetest new baby :)

She was measured to weigh 8 lbs, 2 oz - and her length was 21.5"

My sisters caught her grabbing the nurse's tools on camera. She still (at 5 weeks when I'm writing this down) reaches up for something to hold and grabs whatever she can find - especially when she's getting her diaper changed - we hold our hands out and she always finds a finger to hold pretty quickly!

footprints

Russ got emotional on us after everything settled down. Our nurse Donna told my sisters they needed to get this on camera! haha. I have such a sweet husband.

This was our nurse Donna. She kept everyone in the room cracking up! Her and Russ made a good team helping me to push the baby out! (Don't mind my swollen face.)

Noah and Russ sadly had to miss going on the father & son's campout together which fell on the same day Abby was born, so some friends in the ward (the Cullimores) offered to take Noah with his friend and their son, David. Grandma Price picked him up from school and brought him to the hospital to see Abby right before it was time for him to leave town. So here he is meeting his baby sister for the first time when she was about an hour or less old! He was a little bit quiet and wasn't ready to hold her yet.

Grandma Price's first time to meet Abby

The 3 people I love more than anything!!

It looks like Abby is staring up at Russ with a smile on her face. I love it!

Grandma Vicki's first time to hold Abby

The first of many pictures taken with cousin Davis - these 2 are just 2.5 weeks apart.

After Abby and I both got cleaned up, we put a cute little headband on her and moved from the delivery room to a postpartum room. A few visitors came to see us. 

Grandma Riggs was a crack up in her pink glasses! She was so cute and went on and on about how perfect Abby was. She is so proud of how many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren she has! I can't remember what # Abby is.

The girls were able to come down later that day also to meet their new sister.

Kaitlyn

Sophie

Tayler

Sisters!

Grandma Price's first time holding Abby

We had 24 hours in the hospital from the time Abby was born, and that whole time the question of what her middle name would be was in the back of our minds. It hadn't been very long since we had decided on Abby for her first name - so we never got very far on a middle name to go with it. Russ was filling out the birth certificate paperwork that needed done before we were discharged. He pulled up google and did a search for "one syllable middle names for girls". He came across the name BLUE and liked how it sounded with Abby. I told him that the decision was up to him. I wanted him to be the one to choose the middle name since the first name was one that I had originally come up with. The other names we had discussed for her middle name were Sue and May/Mae. Both of those names meant something - Sue is my mom's middle name, and May is the month she was born (although I liked the spelling "Mae" better). The middle name he decided on was BLUE as seen below! It's funny that the name chosen didn't mean anything - he just liked it because it was different, and I love it because he chose it.

Daddy & his sweet girl after deciding on her name :)

Here is Abby with Dr. Huish who delivered her.

ABBY BLUE PRICE, our little miracle - ready to go home!

We LOVE having her in our family.