Welcome Annabella! Stay! Baby McFadden!

After a couple weeks of will they or won't they induce her- my sister-in-law's water broke Tuesday morning. They headed to the hospital, and we anxiously awaited word, so we could go up and meet baby Annabella (well, we hoped she'd be baby Annabella, they never knew for sure). Of course, we soon found out that only parents and grandparents were allowed to visit, so that bummed us out a bit. I had been feeling icky all day. Every time I stood up, my stomach was tightening up- Braxton-Hicks contractions- I didn't really think much of it until I got in the shower though- my stomach refused to soften back up. I thought it was a little weird, but I got ready for work, and headed that way. Work was miserable. It was my first day back after our Atlanta trip, and I knew i'd be a little worn out, but we were super-busy and since I of course have to stand all the time, I was having the same thing I had earlier- the constant Braxton-Hicks contractions. My stomach was so tight I was having trouble moving around. I finally got a break, so I decided to call my mother-in-law and ask her what she thought about it, and she suggested I call my Dr. Of course, I called the Dr. and instead of an answering service I could page the Dr. on call for an emergency. I didn't really feel like I was having an emergency, so I waited. I went back inside and asked a girl I worked with who had just had a baby not too long ago- she also suggested I call- no matter what- and then another girl from work was coming in- and she also suggested I call. I went ahead & had the Dr. paged- I was glad it was Tuesday b\c I knew my Dr. was on call on Tuesday's and I'd get to speak with her. She called me back pretty quickly, got me to somewhat calm down, and told me I should go to the emergency room to have things checked out. I couldn't reach Dave, but I knew he was at my in-laws doing homework, so I pulled myself together and drove there to pick him up. We got to the emergency room, and they put me in a wheelchair and got me checked in. Labor & Delivery were waiting on me- and they put me in a triage room. There it was the usual- put on this gown, pee in this cup, etc. My nurse, Liza, came in, and she was pregnant too! She got me hooked to the fetal monitor, and asked me a million questions. Then came the fun part- the pelvic exam. Luckily, it revealed that my cervix was closed. After all this fun, I was allowed to just chill out a bit. Dave & I watched the last 5 minutes of The Biggest Loser, and then we watched old episodes of The Office. Liza came back in after a while, and told me I was having some contractions, but my tests came back negative, and I was ok to go home. She said more than likely I was just dehydrated, which can cause the contractions, so she brought back 2 ginormous cups of ice water for me to chug. After I finished chugging my water, I was allowed to dress and check out with instructions to take it easy and to keep drinking plenty of water! Hopefully baby has learned his lesson about trying to arrive early. I told him, "only 1 grandchild per month." I worked a really long day on Wednesday- which I shouldn't have, but work seems to not really care, and then I had a shorter shift last night. I have today off, but I work the next 5 days, up until Thanksgiving, and then we start the holiday rush.

My sister in law was released from the hospital today, and her and her husband brought Annabella by so they could gather up their things before heading back to Indiana. I was the only one who was lucky enough to have time off to meet her. She is precious! I was able to hold her a while, and she just slept and made cute little noises and faces. Can't wait to see her again at Thanksgiving! Here is a preview photo of her, but I have many more pictures on my camera that will probably be uploaded onto fb.