Happy Birthday, Abbie!

My baby is four.  Three still seemed little to me, but four is serious.  Four is hardcore.  My little Abbie.  Well, not so little.  At her pre-op appointment earlier this week, Abbie weighed 42 lbs and was 40.5 inches tall.  She's in the 80th percentile for height and the 90th for weight.  When I told her that she is going to be taller than I am when she grows up, she got upset because she said she wants to be taller than Daddy.  I told her that she may very well achieve that goal as well.

Abbie is an amazing child.  Precocious is a good word.  Her vocabulary is unreal.  I've heard her saying, "Incidentally, Nate..."  In the car yesterday, my dad was telling her what he wanted to order from Noodles and she told him, "Um, that's not available."  When folding laundry a few weeks ago, she saw a skirt and said, "Blimey, I haven't worn that in forever."  I love it.

Abbie is big into princesses, saying that she'd like to be one when she grows up.  But she also can build a mean spaceship out of legos, battle the best with Harry Potter spells and cook up some serious delicacies.  Abbie loves to cook--She helps with dinner, loves to bake and still thrives at her Bitty Bakers class.  She is also enamored with art projects.  Painting seems to be her favorite, but she enjoys drawing, coloring, stencils and other crafts.

Nate was our first miracle, but Abbie was definitely our second.  Abbie was born after I spent 16 weeks on bedrest, about 12 of which were spent bleeding.  When I found out I was pregnant with Abbie, I was terrified.  I had just had two miscarriages and we weren't sure if we could handle another one.  I must have gone to my OB 10 times during my first/early second trimester for bleeding, every visit trying to convince myself that A) everything was fine or B) I could survive another miscarriage.  Then at 31 weeks, I went into preterm labor.  I spent about a week in the hospital, dilated to 4cm, and then went home to wait.  I contracted non-stop for the next 6 weeks.  Then on September 4th, she finally came.  Abbie was born at 37 weeks, after about 15 hours of labor.  She weighed 8 lbs 4oz.  Thanks goodness she came early!  The nurses kept telling me I must have had my dates wrong because there was no way she could be that big.  I knew, though.  I knew.  And that's Abbie to this day--Big, strong and doing things her own way.  And boy do I love her for it.