We had a rough go of labor this time for both of us - at least the second half. It was a little unexpected but with an awesome husband/labor coach/nurse helping me through it and a tough little baby we are all ok on the other side of it. I have to write it down now as I don't even remember all of it! It wasn't what we expected but makes us that much more thankful for a healthy baby in the end.

I was 8 or 9 days overdue with Maisie and Janie (Francie was c-section 4 days early when she flipped breech) so I expected to go late with this pregnancy too. But Friday night/early Saturday morning I woke up at 12:30am with contractions and not feeling well. I thought they were just Braxton-Hicks or false labor so just kinda hung out but then started geting sick after an hour of contractions. I waited for them to go away and to feel better but just got worse.

Last picture of the belly -

So at 3am we pulled the girls out of bed and took them to Jannie's - they thought the middle of the night ride was pretty cool! JJ was talking away the entire drive cracking her sisters up (her new favorite line when she see's Heff's hunting skulls on the wall is to say "SHOOT! BIG! ELKKK!" and it usually digresses to other animals to get a rise out of her sisters like "SHOOT! BABY CHICK?!" to which they go nuts "NO NO JANIE YOU CAN'T SHOOT A BABY CHICK!! HAHAHA!" That is all I remember from the drive to Jannie's as I was nauseous and struggling a bit already!

Of course I didn't have a hospital bag packed but I had these laid out in her crib - first time I had bags and bags of stuff - fourth time I had my favorite post-baby hospital gown and his/her toothbrushes for Brian and I :) and going home JanKnits for the baby! Threw these in a bag and we hit the road to Jannie's

We got to the hospital 3:45am and went into the pre-admitting room to get on the monitors and see one of the doctors to decide if I was in labor "enough" to stay. I was still only 3cm and contractions had slowed down so they weren't sure I would stay - but then they picked up and I got sick again, they checked and I was a little more dilated so they decided to admit me.

We got settled in Room 10 in Labor & Delivery and contractions were going well on their own... but alternating between regular intervals but not very strong or irregular intervals and very strong. They decided to do the "Foley Bulb" which is what they used to induce me the past two babies since I can't start with any chemical/drug inductions after c-section since I'm always deemed a "VBAC" and a little more high risk.

So I got the Foley around 6am and that worked well to kick contractions into gear as usual (I won't go into details on how that one works :) It did it's job by 10am and then with a little pitocin to stay on track the contractions were strong and regular but I was still only 4-5 cm. They kept upp-ing pitocin and we were laboring through strong contractions - Heff is a good labor support and kept me feeling good and motivated! He asked every third one "epidural time? ready yet??" because he hates to see me enduring the pain but I didn't want to slow down dilating so I wanted to wait a bit longer. Finally at 6:00pm we called it - time for drugs!

The anesthesiologists on duty were tied up with 2 patients in front of me so they said it would be about an hour. My STRONG contractions were 2.5-3 minutes apart so we decided we had about 10 to go and counted them down. Good mental games to get through! But after 40 minutes they nurse said a lady just came in screaming at 8cm and they had to do her first (Heff asked if he screamed like a girl could we get them faster?) I was ok to wait but it was getting intense so we just got through each contraction - pitocin is no joke! at 7:15 they came in for my turn. I don't like getting the epidural put in AT ALL (mostly knowing what they are actually doing!) so had to psych myself up but it wasn't too bad. After I was lying down waiting for it to kick in, texting my mom and ready to get a little rest and just watch those contractions tick away on the screen.

The epidural starting kicking in around 7:45pm and I was ready for "the party" as Heff and I call it after you get the drugs - usually just start feeling great and so thankful to not be feeling the contractions anymore. I was back to texting to check in with family/friends and ready to get to the "easy part" before pushing. Well that sure didn't happen! I remember taking this picture to make sure camera settings were ok for Heff's big job as brand new baby photographer - and then everything went a little haywire...

I started feeling a little light headed and then asking the nurse about the epidural because I was only feeling it on one side and too high. I was turning over to get the medicine to even out and started shaking Heff got me warm blankets but I wasn't cold - just couldn't stop shaking. This turned into violent tremors I couldn't control and were making me feel awful and go a little crazy. I had 12 blankets on me so the weight would help control the shaking but my head/neck/jaw wouldn't stop so I had to have Heff hold a folded thick blanket pinned on the side of my head against the bed.

I started spiking a fever at this point which I tried to convince the nurse was just from the blankets but it was 103.7! I would fall asleep for 2 minutes and then wake up desperate for ice chips or water or juice. I was pretty delirious - just trying to focus on controlling the shakes that tried to take me over every few seconds. It was brutal and I was not really making much sense according to Brian. Poor Heff was so worried but did his best to hide it and just take care of me and my 100 requests for ice chips spoon fed under my cocoon of blankets.

I really don't remember much else - I was focusing on weird things and going a little crazy! Felt like an out of body experience looking back on it. The epidural never really hit all the right places so I was still feeling the contractions pretty strong too - just not everywhere which was strange and not so comfortable on top of everything else.

At some point, I think around 9 or 10pm they put a fetal monitor on the baby's head which breaks the water. (Seems rough on baby but I guess keeps better track of heart rate and stats than external monitors - we had it with Maisie too but not Janie) There was no meconium or anything and baby seemed to start moving down.

I was progressing about 2 cm more each time they checked every couple hours and by midnight I was 10cm and ready to push. We had a flood of people in the room - nurses, two doctors from my OB clinic, an attending and the whole NICU team from Packard Children's (who were there mainly because she was showing a little heart arrhythmia in utero but turned out to not even be an issue after birth - but the other stuff was so glad they were there!) Stanford Hospital is a good place to be if you need specialized care that's for sure.

I remember this part more - adrenaline must have kicked in to override everything else. I pushed through 4 contractions (harder work this time after my body was so tired!) and we had a baby! I saw her face and she looked like a Heffernan baby girl but she wasn't crying and was pale (not blue but really white) they whisked her right to the waiting NICU doctors set up in the room to start respiratory therapy.

Heff and I were so scared/nervous we didn't even bother them to ask if it was a boy or a girl. Finally she was making some squeaking noises and the pediatrician said "there you go sweet pea" and we said "does that mean it's a girl?" and they all said "YES! SORRY! IT's A GIRL!!"

the NICU pediatrician team working on our new little baby girl (this was a good bit after they got her crying)

They had to work on her for awhile to get the gunk cleared out of her lungs so she could breath better and they gave her an oxygen mask and had to rub her chest and back a lot to keep her crying/breathing ok. It was pretty scary. They took her temp and she had a 101 fever (I think) which was surprising to me since I still felt like mine was just from too many blankets :)

Cleaned up a little for the stats: 7 pounds 7 ounces 21 inches long born at 12:37am 9-16-12

They let me kind of hold her for a quick few seconds. Kiss from mom before they whisked her off...

a tired, TIRED but thankful mom

taken down the hall to LPCH NICU - Dad went along with her. I love that she is flipping the bird - very appropriate for the circumstances Tessa :)

The first picture Heff sent me from his phone holding her - her poor little black eye from birth! Still there and a little swollen but it's getting better. She's one tough cookie!

and I know I already posted this but this one made me so happy to see him holding her while I wasn't there

first time in her isolette (in the cute-but-not-as-cute-as-JanKnits hat and blanky from the NICU)
she looks like "What the heck just happened!?"

After trying to rest a little in the room and let the doctors work on her - I got to go meet her a few minutes before the 7am round change. They ended up doing more respiratory cleaning (but she didn't need to go on the CPAP thank goodness), a chest xray (I think?), a spinal tap (poor thing!) which they attempted three times and couldn't get any fluid to test, put in a IV (two unsuccessful attempts before they got a vein), a bunch of blood work and and I'm not even sure what else.

Her arrhythmia was not an issue but possible infection if I had Chorioamnionitis (an infection in the fetal membranes - chorion and amnion) which was causing my fever and her fever/distress. This is usually a result of prolonged labor but might have been that I had a flu bug that's going around which is why I'd been getting sick earlier and contributed to lowering my immune response.) She is taking it all in stride though despite the little poke marks on her hands, head and back - poor baby!

- then Heff and I burnt the 30 minutes of time for rounds and got breakfast in the cafeteria (in my wheelchair!) and this is what he got me to eat since I hadn't eaten in forever. Mountain Man breakfast!? I didn't eat those biscuits and gravy - those were passed back over to Heff :)

Back after shift change at 7:30am to finally HOLD MY BABY GIRL! SO happy to have her in my arms

Sad to leave her here instead of having her in the room with us but she's in good hands and they call me every time she wakes up to come feed her and hold her. I'm getting lots of rest (in 1-2 hour spurts - it's like Vegas in here! they wake you up all night and you never know what time it is) and pretty much feel like my body got hit by a truck I'm so sore from all the shaking but my fever broke right after delivery and I am doing fine.

Tessa is a great baby so far - happy to just eat and sleep. She latched on right away, which I was very thankful for since I didn't get to see her for so long, and nurses like a champ.

They are treating her for possible infection since her white counts were high and she had the fever - 48-72 hours of antibiotics and if no infection shows up in further tests and the bacteria culture she can go home Wednesday we hope.

Seeing all the very sick babies in the NICU - we feel more blessed than ever for our healthy children and four beautiful baby girls. We can't wait to add this little one to the mix at home as a family. Thanks to everyone for their texts and messages of love and support - we love you!!!