She's Here!

Well, it's been an eventful few weeks! It all started when I went in for my routine 36 week prenatal appointment on January 9th. We were shocked to find out that I was already 3cm dilated, and to hear my doctor's prediction that I would be giving birth within the week. I hadn't had any contractions, so the news came as a complete surprise. And, since I had been induced with Calder at 41 weeks gestation, I didn't really believe that I would be having this baby early, let alone this early! Nevertheless, Dave and I spent the rest of the weekend in panic mode, as we tried to finish up some of the things on our 'to do before baby' list. I had a few contractions on Saturday, but nothing regular. On Sunday, I didn't have a single contraction all day, and I started questioning whether or not the baby really would come early. I went to work on Monday still pretty skeptical, but I tried to wrap things up as much as possible...just in case.

It was a good thing I did...because when I got up on Tuesday morning to get ready for work, my water broke! We called Vandana, who came right over and picked up Calder, and then we headed off to the hospital. I had mixed feelings about going into labor at that point - I was only 36 weeks and 6 days pregnant, and a baby is not considered full term until 37 weeks. However, I had been hoping for a VBAC, and an early baby meant a smaller baby, which would likely increase my chances of delivering. Things seemed to move really slowly once we were at the hospital. By 12:00 I was 5cm dilated, but still wasn't having contractions. They gave me a small amount of pitocin which kicked in the contractions, and I was dilated to 10cm shortly after 2:00. Unfortunately, after an hour and 15 minutes of pushing and failed forceps and vacuum attempts, my doctor reluctantly told me we needed to do a c-section. I was pretty upset, because I really didn't want another c-section, but at that point I just wanted a healthy baby in my arms. We later learned that our little one was misaligned, and coming out forehead-first, and the doctors said she never would have made it out that way.

Finally at 3:43pm on January 13th, 2009, Tessa Camille arrived! She weighed in at 7 lbs, 2 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely adorable and we were instantly in love! We've had a bit of a rough start -- she had a low red blood cell count at birth (likely due to her early arrival) and ultimately ended up with jaundice. She was treated for jaundice before our discharge on Friday, but had to be readmitted on Saturday since her levels rose significantly overnight. We came home again late Sunday night, and she has been doing great. It's so wonderful to be out of the hospital and able to enjoy the comforts of home with our new family! We couldn't be happier!