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.