Tessa's Birth Story

She's finally here!

Tessa Quinn Rogers made her grand entrance into the world on Monday, February 18, 2013, at 5:31 pm. Here's how it all went down...

On Wednesday, February 13th, at our final Centering, our midwife, Susan, offered to check me to see if I had made any progress toward labor. I had been telling her that I didn't think I'd felt any contractions yet, but was having a lot of what felt like cervical discomfort. I had also been carrying a LOT of extra fluid in my feet and ankles and belly and was pretty ready to have this baby out. When she checked me, I was 2-3 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I couldn't believe it! It was so exciting to know that labor truly was imminent.

On Friday, February 15th, I finally experienced some false labor pains. The midwife on-call advised me to take some Tylenol, drink some water, take a bath and go to sleep on my side. If the pains didn't stop after all that, it was real labor. Well, they stopped. :-)

On Sunday, February 17th, James and I ran a whole bunch of errands around town. We stood in Verizon for about 2 hours, then walked around Target and Best Buy. It was getting increasingly uncomfortable for me to walk and stand. It was one week before my due date!

At 2:45 am that night (Monday morning, February 18th), my water broke! I was asleep and sooooo happy that I thought to put one of the baby's waterproof crib sheets on my side of the bed. There was so. much. fluid. I called the midwife on-call and she advised me to come to the hospital as soon as I could. It was difficult to get the fluid to stop flowing, so packing up my toiletries and other final things proved harder than I had anticipated. Also, contractions began about an hour later. They were never more than 2-3 minutes apart, and their intensity increased pretty rapidly. We arrived at the hospital at 4:45 am. The midwife was in the middle of something like 4 other deliveries (!), so she wasn't able to check me for awhile. The contractions were getting pretty uncomfortable, and I really wanted to have an idea of how much I was dilated. I had the goal of laboring without any pain medicine, but I wasn't completely committed to it. I had never been in labor before and wasn't sure if I could really handle the pain. When the midwife checked me around 5:45 am, I was 4-5 cm dilated. I was encouraged that I was progressing, but still felt like I had a ways to go. And I was already pretty uncomfortable. So I decided to ask for an epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived at 6:30 am. By that point I was so uncomfortable I barely gave the procedure of actually getting an epidural much thought. It was over by 6:45 and by 7:00 I was feeling much better. :-)

The epidural gave James and me the opportunity to rest up for the main event after only sleeping for a couple hours that night. By noon my mom had arrived at the hospital. She and James ran downstairs to grab some lunch. While they were out, the daytime midwife came in to check my progress. I was completely dilated, effaced, and ready to go! Mom and James came back to the room shortly thereafter to hear the news: it was time to push!

All the medical people set up their supplies. When everything was ready, I started pushing. This went on for about an hour. They determined that the baby wasn't turned the right way and wasn't coming down the birth canal quite like they anticipated. They decided they needed to start Pitocin, turned me on my right side, and then let me rest for a couple hours.

Around 4:00 pm, they came back and had me start pushing again. After another hour, it was clear she still wasn't coming out very easily. The midwife called the doctor to come assess the situation. The doctor figured out the baby's head was turned sideways. They advised a vacuum-assisted delivery. I was pretty nervous about this at first, but my amazing nurse, Peggy, took the time to show me the vacuum and tell me how the procedure would work. Dr. Campbell was also amazing and with two more contractions, Tessa was out! It was such a wonderful moment. Tears of joy were flowing from me and James.

You see that weight? She was 8 lbs, 13 oz! No wonder she needed a vacuum to get out. :-)

I had a little problem with anemia after the birth, but I doubled-up on my iron intake and was better in no time. We headed home on Wednesday, February 20th.

Getting ready to go home!

Daddy holding our little fashionista!

The pups were so curious about Tessa when we arrived home, but ultimately were pretty well-behaved. They've adjusted really well and Clover is even a little protective!

Meeting the pups

Our first weeks home have been wonderful and difficult. Nursing her is pretty time-consuming and getting her to sleep is always a trial. But we'll learn each other and get the hang of it soon, I hope! James has returned to work and I'm trying to learn how to care for this baby 24/7. I just love her so much, especially when she's quiet. :-)

I'll try to update again soon.

James, Randi, & Tessa

About Us

Welcome to our blog!

James and I met at the Catholic Center at the University of Georgia in 2000. We didn't really become friends until 2002, right before he was about to graduate. He then moved to Chicago to start law school.

I stayed at UGA for one more year, then moved to Augusta to start nursing school. While I was in my first year of nursing school and James was in his second year of law school we started dating. Yes, while he was in Chicago and I was in Augusta. Georgia. It was very hard. But, we made it through, flying to see each other about every six weeks. In October of my last year of nursing school and his third year of law school, James asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes. We started planning our wedding (again, long distance...again, pretty hard).

We both graduated in May 2005, moved into our apartment in Atlanta right afterward, started studying for our respective licensing exams, took those exams, then got married two weeks later. We were nuts. We got married in Athens, GA on August 6, 2005.

Then we started our adult careers.

After two years, we decided to move back to Athens so that James could take a position as an Assistant Public Defender for Barrow County. He is still in that position today, five and a half years later. He has learned so much in that role and has so much trial experience. I think this job will serve him well for years to come. I have been working in pediatric home health for about three years now, the last two of which have been as a case manager. I really enjoy this role. It utilizes my need for organization and making everything as detailed as possible. It's a lot of work but I like it.

This year we started talking about making a big change in our lives: adding a new family member. We already have Gus and Clover, our pups whom we've had since 2007 and 2008, respectively, but we were starting to feel that it was time for a two-legged person to take care of.

On June 17, 2012 (which happened to be Father's Day!), I took a pregnancy test that was positive. James really didn't seem to believe me when I was showing him the stick, nor that it could be accurate. So later on I took another test and it was again positive. And a different brand. This now seemed to be enough for James to believe it was true.

On July 2, we had our first appointment with the Athens Regional Midwifery Clinic. We met with an RN who asked us a bunch of questions and I had some blood drawn. They called me that afternoon to say the levels of the pregnancy hormone were good and high in my blood. Such good news! I was really, actually, this-is-going-to-happen pregnant. We scheduled an ultrasound and visit with a midwife for a couple weeks later. Here is what we saw:

Because its heart rate was so fast, James walked out of there calling it "Thumper." Which was much better than Thor, which is what he had been calling it up until that point.

There was actually a baby growing inside me! I couldn't believe it. This ultrasound dated the pregnancy at 8 weeks and 1 day. That put the baby due on February 24, 2013.

At 15 weeks and 6 days, we couldn't wait any longer and decided to go find out the gender of our baby. It was a Saturday morning and was so fun! We went to Baby's First Images in Lawrenceville and found out we are having a...

GIRL!

Well, they were 95% sure at that point.

I'm so glad James had stopped calling her Thor!

At 20 weeks we had our big anatomy ultrasound. That assured my anxious brain that things seemed to be going well and that our little girl was healthy. And still looked to be due February 24th. And was still a girl! Here is what we saw that day:

It was a little person with a little face! How crazy is that?!

I am now 28 weeks and 4 days pregnant. My belly is getting very big! James and I attend appointments every 2 weeks at the Midwifery Clinic for our Centering Program. It's kind of like pregnancy support group/birthing class all in one. We get to learn so much information and ask lots of questions, and the baby and I get a checkup each time. Everything is looking good so far!

I really can't believe how fast this time is going by. She's going to be here before we know it! The nursery is coming along, slowly but surely. Here's what we have so far:

Admittedly not a lot. But we'll get there!

I don't think the pups have any idea what's about to happen. We keep wondering how they are going to be with the baby around. We really can't wait for them to meet her!

Well that's where we are in a nutshell. I'll try to update again soon!

James & Randi