This is Brooke, probably Nic’s best friend in all of New York. Brooke answered our 2:00am text message this morning, and she and Jason brought our little monster into their home around 3:00am and have taken care of everything since. They have a girl, just a few months younger than Ben, and the two of them are hilarious together — but definitely a handful!
They brought Ben by to visit us this evening so he could meet his little sister. Nic started crying when she saw him, which made him cry, but once he got over that he was pretty much indifferent to Abigail. She’ll whip him into shape soon enough.

And this is my family. This has been a quiet welcoming for Abigail. The video won’t be nearly as fancy as we no longer have the hook-ups and support we had when Ben was born. But that did free me up to experience everything a lot more. I’m exhausted — having not slept for more than 5 minutes since 2:00 this morning, and being fueled by adrenaline much of that time — but I am happy. In fact, I might just be the luckiest guy in the world…
New (higher quality) pictures coming in Flickr whenever it decides to refresh itself. Thank you again to everyone who sent some love via the comments. Its pretty cool that we have such a global community of friends who do support us. This was a big day for our family, and we’re so glad you could all be a part of it.

The best piece of advice we got when we got pregnant the first time is that every pregnancy is different. You can read all the books, listen to all the sage wisdom of other mom’s, and memorize all the old wives tales. But the truth is, each experience is unique.
This pregnancy certainly was totally different than that of Benjamin’s. From his perfectly timed conception, to his on-request delivery date, to the orderly, “Type A” labor, he was simple to plan for. Abi, on the other hand, resisted all attempts to plan for her, and all efforts to make her delivery an orderly one.
The whole waking us up at 2:00am was a good sign that it would be an interesting morning. She skipped the whole regularly progressing labor thing, in favor of hanging out in the womb for a bit longer, and then when she was ready to come… there was no time for an epidural — no time even for a trip to the bathroom. We went from occasional contractions to I NEED TO PUSH! NOW!
Nic, of course, was a trooper. My bride is the definition of grace, under almost any kind of pressure. That doesn’t mean she didn’t scream like the lady we heard down the hall. But the whole thing lasted about half an hour (she says it felt like 5 minutes) and the pay off, of course, was wonderful.

Aside from Abi’s apparent tendancy to run things her way, or no way at all, the hospital visit has also been a lot less… comfortable. There was a shift change shortly after we were allowed to see Abi for the first time, and they apparently forgot about us for 2 hours. I pressed the call button a number of times, but it took Nicole trying to get herself to the bathroom (with my help) and blood pooling out onto the floor before we got anyone’s attention.
Things have been a bit better since then, so I’m home to gather up a few things, feed the cat, and grab a shower. Nicole would be happy to see visitors after dinner this evening. Visiting hours are until 9:00pm and we’re in room E635 at the same hospital as last time until at least tomorrow.
A huge thank you to everyone who was praying and cheering for Nic and our new little girl.

Born March 25, 5:55am. 8lbs 13 oz, 20″ long.
Breathing (and crying) normally now. Finally got to meet her mother at 6:45am.

If you can’t wait for the Flickr feed to refresh, click on its title to go directly to Flickr and see the pics.

Oh ya, we missed our window! Natural birth, less than a half hour of pushing. It came on really fast — before the attending made it in the room.
We haven’t really seen our daughter yet. They’re stitching Nic up and having a hard time clearing Abi’s airway right now and her color “isn’t right.”
They’re telling us nothing. Just what I overhear. Hopefully we get to meet her soon.

9+ 1 and pressure. A lot of pain. Needs to push. Here we go…

So after those last couple really painful contractions Nic decided she was ready for an epidural.
The nurse came in and told us that we’d have to wait… The lady next door had just asked before us.
Moments later we heard a shattering wail/scream… Then the nurse came in and informed us that the anasthesiologist had just become free. Punctuated by another wail, she explained that our neighbour had missed her window…

Nic’s hooked up to a round of anitbiotics which is a little less than halfway done. When its finished theyll break her water and kick things off…
In other news, the cafeteria doesn’t open until 6:15am, which sucks cause my blood sugar is low and I really don’t want to be the husband that passes out during the delivery. I got lost in the bowels of the hospital trying to find a working vending machine…
Contractions are really painful and quite frequent now. A half hour ago we heard the ‘hello’ scream of a new baby next door. Hard to believe our number 2 is going to be doing that pretty soon…

5-6cm dialated (after a quick check from a mid-wife), 100% effaced, 0 station.
Its real and we’re going to meet Abi/Abe today!
If you have any happy thoughts you want to send to Nicole, please use the comments. I save them up for when she needs some extra love and then read a bunch to her, so don’t be shy!
The Flickr feed will be updating periodically on the right.