Welcome, Abigail Nancy!

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of the Martin family, Abigail Nancy Martin. She was born 8 days early on Sunday, October 25th at 6:43a.m. after only about 5 hours of "true" labor. They say each child tends to arrive faster than the last and as our third child, this is certainly true! The actual delivery of Abigail was only about 7 minutes this time. Literally. She was there before we knew it and took both us and the doctors by surprise at her quick appearance!

Abigail - "Father's joy" - is a name that Andrew and I have both always loved and as such a classic, biblical name, it seemed perfect for our beautiful daughter. We will call her both by her full name and also Abby as a nickname. Her middle name - Nancy - is in honor of Andrew's mom who passed away in 2003 from cancer.

Abby was 7lbs. 6oz. at birth and 20 1/2 inches long. She has a beautiful complexion and dark hair, although ironically, not as much hair as either of the boys had at birth. Certainly enough that she will be able to wear barettes in a few months, though :)

And now, introducing Baby Abby. She definitely has her days and nights mixed up at this point but is just such a sweet, calm baby for the most part. We are delighted that she is here and thank God for her safe delivery and health!

Just after her birth, getting weighed in. Our kids defy the usual norm that each subsequent baby tends to get heavier; ours get lighter by about 1/2 pound each. She is our lightest by far, over a pound lighter than Ben and about a half pound lighter than Nate at birth.



Wow, that was tough work being born so quickly!


Her cute little tuft of hair on top of her head!

After a few hours of rest, Dad, Mom and Abby were taken by storm by the big brothers when Nana and Pop took them down to the hospital for their first visit with their sister. Both boys have been so good with her so far and are really loving and gentle. Of course they love to smother her with kisses and hold her all the time!

Biggest brother Benjamin meets Abigail for the first time...

And the newest big brother Nate meets his baby sister....He is quite the talker and has already mastered saying her full name! Here, he is saying "Hi, Abigail!" since he had been practicing with Nana before the visit...

Nana with her first grand-daughter.

Pop and Nana posing with Baby Abby.

Our perfect little gift from God...

Me and my little girl. I'm happy there will be some more estrogen in the house from now on!

Daddy's girl...

Maggie and Billy came to visit us in the hospital to meet Abigail. She loved being held by Maggie the whole time!

On Tuesday morning, here we are all ready to go home after two nights in the hospital. Of course she is dressed in pink and brown, my favorites!

Mommy and Daddy and our new little daughter!

Ready to go!

Once at home, the big brothers loved on their little sister (instead of taking their naps that day!). Ben wanted to hold her and Nate kept coming up in her face and saying "Hi, Abigail!" So precious....

Our new family of five! I can't believe that we have THREE children now!

Just a few more pictures from Abby's first full day at home. Here she is resting in her bouncy seat...

...and here she is during her first sponge bath. Apparently, this is the worst experience of her entire life so far :)

But after the bath wasn't so bad. Ah, all clean-smelling and changed into a new outfit!

...and she's back to resting again. We're working on her sleeping habits little-by-little. At first she would not even sit in a bouncy seat or swing but she seems to be getting used to them for a little while at a time. Laying in her crib is another story, though. She's not too into sleeping in her actual crib and would prefer to be held instead so this will be our challenge for the next few weeks as we transition Abby to life outside the womb :)

We love having visitors so please come and see us and meet our new little princess!