Abigael is 1 today!

That's right, my beautiful baby girl turns one today and it has been an interesting year with her. Most of the birthday celebrations are happening this weekend, so I thought that I would take this time to write down Abigael's birth story.

Abigael was due on Tues 26th May 2009 and Luke and I joked that she needed to be born that day because the Monday before this the season finale of 24 was on and we did not want to miss it and if she came on the 27th, then she needed to come in the morning so that Luke could be home in time for the Champion's League Final. Of course we were only joking and only wanted her to be born healthy and happy. Though she came on the 27th, she chose the perfect time. I started having tummy contractions on the Tuesday night which was a new feeling for me. When I had Daniel all the contractions where located in my back and legs. We went to bed and I told Luke that it might be a short night and that he should get as much sleep as possible.

As you can imagine, I did not get any sleep that night and instead just moved from the either the bed or the couch, the contractions were steady however not too bad at this point. At 5:30am I called my Mum, who was going to watch Daniel, and told her to get ready to come over because it was nearly time to head to the hospital. I called the hospital and informed them that I was heading in, but they wanted me to wait a while as my contractions were still more then 5 minutes apart. But since I had Daniel very quickly, I felt it was better to head to the hospital straight away. We left the house at 6am and drove the 10 minutes to the hospital.

I arrived at the midwife lead unit (no doctors are allowed in this section of the hospital) and was put into a bed. I explained that I wanted to have the drugs but after examining me, they said it was too early to have the drugs. The midwives left the room and Abigael choose this moment to lead me into full-blown labour. Luke called the midwives back into the room in a panic (they explained later that at that point in time, I was screaming so load they could hear me down the hall) and they found out that Abigael was on her way (this meant that it was now too late the have the drugs and had to use the gas and air instead).

After some pushing Abigael arrived in the world at 7:50am, less then two hours after we left the house. She was beautiful and as I did not have to go to theater (surgery) like I did after having Daniel, we got to relax in our room and get to know our new little girl. The midwives were amazing and allowed us to stay in the labour room which meant that I could have visitors at anytime.

Daniel and my Mom arrived to see Abigael which worked well as Daniel just sat in bed with me and kissed on his new sister. The only time he got a little jealous was when Abigael was getting cuddled by 'his' Granny.

Everything was on track for us heading home after the '6 hour after birth' period when a doctor arrived to say that Abigael might have an infection and therefore would have to stay in the hospital. I was very upset as this is what happened with Daniel and we were in the hospital with him for 4 days before he could come home. Seeing that I was so upset the doctor decided to do some more tests and then came back to let me know that Abigael could go home that day.

My Dad arrived just as we were packing up to leave the hospital, so he was able to help us get home and settle in. And guess what - we were home in time for Luke to watch the football.