Birth Day

Wallis Adele Henderson arrived on September 4, 2011 at 5:16 p.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz. Her hospital length was recorded at 18 inches, but she measured 19.5 at the doctor's office a few days later so we aren't sure exactly how long she is. But she is itty, bitty in either case.

On September 3, I was very, very tired but I swore that I was going to swim in Deep Eddy so my Dad, Wyatt and I went to the pool in the late afternoon. I still wasn't having contractions. We went to get pizza after swimming and I started having some mildly painful contractions. The contractions continued 6-8 minutes apart so I called the doula and Ross, who was at the football game. I told my parents to just be on stand by. I went to bed and the contractions stopped. The baby, however, also stopped moving. I woke up at 12:30 a.m. and started to panic at her lack of movement. By 5:00 a.m. I had done two kick counts and called the OB to tell them I was going to Labor and Delivery to get the baby checked. I hadn't slept more than an hour or two all night and I was ready to stop worrying. On the way to the hospital, the contractions resumed. They placed the monitors on and could see that Wallis was sleepy but fine. They could also see that I was contracting every 6-8 minutes again. An exam showed I was at four cms. The on-call OB wanted me to stay in the hospital, but I was not convinced that I was really in labor and I didn't want to stay at the hospital for days. I went home around 7:30 a.m. and continued with our plans to meet our friends the GVZs for breakfast at 9. Half-way through a huge plate of migas (okay, and Wyatt's pancakes, too) I gave it a 30% chance that she was going to born on Sunday. At the end of migas, I was frantically calling my parents, doula, and L&D and hoping she wasn't going to born at home.

I got to the hospital within 45 minutes in active labor. Lucky for me, the on-call doctor was off and my OB was on. Very lucky for me. I also got a wonderful nurse who had been with me when I had the cerclage placed. She was really great. I could barely stand the pain by that point. I was only at 6 cm so I got in bed and tried to labor without the epidural. That did not last long. I was begging for the epidural pretty quickly. After a few hours, I was ready to push. We "labored down" by waiting a while to push. I pushed for about an hour, but the baby's heart rate monitor wasn't picking up properly. The internal monitor showed that her heart rate was falling and not returning quickly. After a few more pushes like that I started to panic. I asked the doctor whether it was time to get a c-section and she said yes. Apparently, I have an unusual shaped pelvis and Wallis, like Wyatt, could not get her head in a good position under the bone. In the meantime Wallis's heart rate was not returning to normal even though I wasn't pushing. We rushed to the OR, got the spinal going, and delivered her immediately. She was tiny and beautiful. She cried and turned pink right away. I was so very relieved. Ross went with Wallis while I was getting repaired. But the repair was taking a long time. Even my state of medicated unawareness I knew there was a problem. I kept asking what was wrong and kept hearing about bleeding that couldn't be stopped. It wasn't a lot but it wouldn't stop. I was shaking and trembling for hours while the OB tried to figure out a solution. I heard another OB suggest removing the uterus and my doctor telling her that was not a good plan after everything else I had endured to get to this point. So thankful that my OB was there because she was very invested in my delivery and knew that this hadn't gone well, but everything should be done to make sure it didn't get worse. Two different specialists were called in all the while my OB was holding the vessel closed for more than four hours. Finally, one of the specialists arrived, put me under general anaesthesia and repaired the vessel with five titanium clamps. At about 10:30, I finally got to hold my baby girl. She was tiny and perfect and a champion eater.

So after everything it took to get here, here she is, our perfect tiny miracle baby. Many thanks to everyone who has sent good thoughts our way over the past six months. We are very grateful to all of you!





Grandmothers and big brother looking at the new girl.
I told Ross to take a picture of of the baby belly in a hurry because Wallis might be coming soon. This was right before we left for breakfast.
Seeing my sweetness for the first time.

Full Term

Baby Wallis has officially made it to full term, as defined by the doctors. She is at 37 complete weeks of gestation. Three more weeks to go until her due date. This week has been physically difficult. While I was still feeling pretty decent at 35 weeks, that's not really the case anymore. I am an achy, grouchy, insomniac now. It hurts to lie down for long periods, sit for long periods, and stand for short periods. Such is life carrying around 30+ extra pounds and a full-size baby on your front. But, the end is near. And at the end is a hopefully healthy full-term newborn. I no longer worry about her having to go the NICU. At my last appointment with the MFM when I was at 32 weeks, he told me that three babies were born at 24 weeks gestation at Seton hospital that week. I almost cried, my heart just broke for those families. That could have been us. But instead by many strokes of luck or the grace of god, we are just waiting on our fully cooked baby girl to arrive.

It is amazing how quickly I went from thinking daily that I hoped she would stay in even just one more week to now thinking every day that this could be the day with a slight relief at the thought. I really do hope she makes it until 39 weeks for her sake, but it is hard to think about continuing on two more weeks at this point.

The cerclage was removed today. It wasn't comfortable but it wasn't terrible. We also had an ultrasound and Wallis was very active. The sonographer could not get good measurements because the baby's head was so far down (a good thing) and she was so wiggly (also good). She guessed the baby was a little over 6.5 pounds but didn't think that was probably too accurate because her measurements weren't reliable. The MFM did an exam after removing the cerclage. Already 3 cm dilated, 75% effaced, and -1 station. So it could really be any day. Or it could be weeks. No way to guess. Either way, it is good news because we will be starting labor from a fairly advanced point. Hopefully it will be a quick labor. I was induced with Wyatt (meaning on pitocin during labor) but I started at 3 cm when they started the pitocin and was at 10 cm within four hours, so there is definitely hope that this one could go fast as well, though it will not involve pitocin, so who knows.

Anyway, baby is doing well, I am hanging in there and really hoping we are done with 112 degree days. And we are waiting. Just waiting for Wallis, our last chance miracle baby, who could arrive any day now. Oh, and I get to go swimming since the cerclage is out. Deep Eddy here we come.