Tessa: the story

Here's the story of our little Tessa, formerly known as Cora. We have been calling her Cora since we found out she was a girl in the ultrasound. Then on Sunday, (The 21st) I got really sick with a bug. Lots of puking, diarrhea, etc. I kept down 1 saltine and a half a bowl of chicken noodle soup all day. We decided to wait it out by watching a movie: Oceans 11. Julie Roberts' character is named Tess. And something just hit me: Tessa. Her name is Tessa. I like the name Cora. I LOVE the name Tessa. So it's a last-minute change, and we are all trying to remember and get used to it.
Anyway, I was feeling better by the next day. Good thing too, because that night, I went into labor at 10 pm (March 22). Contractions went from every 30 minutes apart to 20 minutes to 10 minutes apart by 1:30 am. I was so hungry from all the work I was doing, I got up and ate 2nd dinner. By 3:30, contractions were so intense, I got up again and sat in the bath for a while, which helped. By 9 am, they were every 8 to 11 minutes. They continued that way until 11:30, when they got to every 6 minutes. At that point, we were heading to the car for the hospital. By the time we got to the car, they were every 4 minutes. During the 10-minute car ride, they were every 2 minutes, and I will just say that we are SO lucky we made it to the hospital! It's a good thing we were planning to go natural, because there was definitely no time for an epidural at that point. There wasn't even time for the mandatory hep-lock (major blessing there, with my irrational needle-phobia!)
So we got to the hospital at 11:45. I barely made it through the front doors, when I was overpowered by a major contraction and fell to all fours. Thad was parking the car. There were a bunch of people in the waiting room who were all staring at me as I was on all fours. I called out with the biggest smile I could muster "That's ok, you can stare!" I got a few chuckles, then someone came busting out with a wheelchair for me. I couldn't talk through the next contraction to even give the nurse my name, but fortunately she knew what to do.
Thad was there for me, as always, coaching and comforting me during the hardest parts. My new to-be sister, Caroline, is trained as a nurse, and served as my doula. Both did AMAZING jobs!
We were in the hospital for a grand total of 37 minutes before Tessa was born. I pushed for about 10 of those minutes. Her head was out in 2 pushes, and shoulders/body in 3 more.

Stats:
TIME: born at 12:22 pm, March 23, ON HER DUE DATE, and my mom and brother Danny's birthday! That makes 3 generations of March 23rd birthdays in my family!
HEIGHT: 20 inches
WEIGHT: 8 lbs, 7 oz
APGAR: after 1 min:8; after 5 min:9


She is a sweet, good-natured little girl, but she already has a well-developed wail, and will let you know if something is not right. Siena is LOVING having a little sister. We let her hold Tessa for a couple photos, and now all she wants to do is hold baby Tessa.

Enjoy the pics :)