Happy Birthday Abi!

4 years ago today we welcomed our first child into the world. A beautiful baby girl that we named Abigayle Lynn Cain. For the several months of her gestation we bounced back and forth on what to name her. We decided on several names for boys and girls. I did not want to know the gender until birth, and since Tim was not around much during the pregnancy he has no choice either. I still remember how many people told me how completely old fashioned it was to not know the sex. I figured at my age there really aren't too many surprises left, and this was meant to be one of them. So let's start at the beginning. Many do not believe that we had planned on having our daugher. We had both been going through some things in our own lives but we agreed on a few things. We agreed that we were madly in love with each other and had been for years. We also agreed that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and wanted to have a family. The only question was when did we want to do this. We quickly decided there had already been too much time to pass so right away! So immediately we tried, and immediately we succeeded. I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to tell anyone. There was so much to do, and so much to change. So many things to get used to. Where I wanted this I was not ready to tell the world about our life decision. Tim on the other hand rushed around to tell everyone. He was so excited about our starting a family. I am sure that by the end of the day there were not many people that did not know. We got mixed emotions from friends and family, but it never swayed his emotions. He was ecstatic to be starting our family! We started going to doctor's visits, and like I said earlier he was not around much. Due to work and training he was gone quite a bit. I was left to deal with it by myself. No big deal women had been doing this for years right? Well one day I did not feel right. After finishing breakfast I had no energy to clean the kitchen. I often had no energy but this was different. I resulted to laying on the couch and taking a rest for a while. Within miutes of laying down I was extremely dizzy and sick to my stomache. I rushed to the bathroom and just immediately started pourning sweat. I figured that I must have eaten something that did not agree with me, as this was nothing like my usual morning sickness. I digressed and tried to go about the rest of my day. Then my stomache started hurting something fierce. It was in my upper tummy area. I had felt the round ligament pain and this was no where near. At this point I was in too much pain to move all that much. It started to subside and I tried making my way to the phone to call Tim. In the midst I noticed that I was bleeding. I quickly called him and told him something was wrong. He took my to the emergency room. The people there brushed me off as being an over worried first time mother. I tried describing the pain but they told me I was wrong. There was nothing I could do and we went home. About a month later it started happening again. This time it was in the middle of the night and Tim was there. He saw me writhing in pain and he called an Ambulance. Again they said that I was being over worried and it was just round ligament pain. They let me know that sometimes if your stomache has to stretch a good bit they can be pretty intense. I was certain this was not my problem but I could not prove it. Eventually we got the news that Tim was PCSing and we were coming home to Alabama. I had mixed emotions. I wanted to be near family during this time but was worried about the stress of the move. I was about 7 months pregnant at this point and had been having a lot of pain. Never the less this is what we had to do and my wonderful husband pulled it off. He kicked things into high gear and did all the necessary work. I can never truly express how amazing this man is. The day after making it to Andalusia I woke up in terrible pain. It was the same as always so I was not alarmed at first. This time after all of the steps had happened the paid did not subside as normal. My grandmother came in and she realized something was vry different. She called Tim and they rushed me to the hospital. This time I was in labor. I was 2 centimeters dilated and the Dr said we were having a baby. This was my first time of meeting Dr. Bowen! After 3 days in the hospital, constant IV and a few shots in the rear they were able to stop labor. Dr. Bowen said that my baby could potentially survive but would stand a better chance the longer we could wait. I was so happy that they were able to stop the labor, but he still had no idea what was causing the pain. I was sent home on bed rest until birth. A feat that was not going to be easy since I had a house to settle into and a baby to finish preparing for. The next couple of months went by faster than I ever wanted. We finished getting everything necessary for our soon to be daughter. My wonderful sister and mom helped to prepare an amazing baby shower for me. Everyone was upset because they didn't know whether to buy blue or pink. I was still just happy to have at least one big surprise left! On October 3rd I went in for a check up. Dr. Bowen told me that my blood pressure was way to high and we needed to induce. I was already starting labor but not progressing fast enough. My blood pressure could cause a lot of problems for the baby or my during pregnancy. Tim could not be with me that day so I had to go home. The doc said that next week whether he was there or not we had to induce. I let Tim now and he went with me the following week. We checked in to the hospital at 10 that morning and got started on Pitocin. I was beginning to think she was never going to come out when at 8 that night she finally was here! I was so happy to finally meet her! She was 7 pounds 3 ounces and came out screaming! Ever since she has kept me on my toes. She had a hematoma growing on her spine that luckily never did anything. She falls down quite a bit, and I swear has an incredibly high pain tolerance. She is my shining light. Without this little girl I have no idea where I would be, and I do not want to know. She helps to pick me up when I am feeling sad, and she makes me want to fix the world. I want everything to be amazing for her. The best way to do that is to be the best mother that I can be to her. I love my little Lovebug and feel so blessed everyday to have her in my life!