Heidi Jane Nance

Heidi Jane Nance was born on August 23 at 3:38 p.m. at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was 8 lbs. 11 oz. and 22" long.

Meeting her big brother, Thomas

First family picture with all three kids

Going home in the same outfit I went home in.  My brothers and dad picked it out after I was born.

Now for the birth story of my precious little girl.  I will do my best to remember since I am writing this more than three months later.  I started to have contractions a few days before she was born.  I remember I had had a bunch of contractions and was telling everyone about it during playgroup at Lake Willastein on Tuesday of the week she was born.  With Stuart I had had contractions for at least five days, so I kept telling myself it was still going to be a while and tried not to get my hopes up.  I remember at one point telling David, "I don't think I can do this much longer."  Luckily that didn't last as long as it had with Stuart and on Wednesday night the contractions started to get a lot stronger and I was pretty sure it was the real deal.  Well, they got a lot stronger and more regular, but not terribly close together, but definitely strong.  We went to the hospital about eight in the morning on Thursday.  We hit some rush hour traffic and on top of that David got off on the wrong exit (in his defense they are doing construction and the exit had changed a lot).  When we finally got there they checked me and admitted me.  I was dilated to a four.  My contractions weren't close together, but they were doing the job.  It was perfect.  Not too early and not too late.  Dr. Deed came in and broke my water shortly after I was admitted and then they got me going for an epidural.  They told me that I would probably go quick since it was my third (like before noon), but luckily I didn't believe them.  The epidural worked really well on one side and was really weak on the other side.  They had me get on my side, but it never helped much.  It wore off so much I could feel all the contractions pretty strong.  I felt like I wanted to push, but the nurse kept telling me I wasn't quite dilated all the way yet.  After checking me half a dozen time, she had another nurse come in and check and she said I was ready and to call the doctor, so then I had to try to hold off pushing until the doctor got there.  If the nurse would have called when I wanted her to she would have already been there.  Anyway, by the time Dr. Deed got there it took less than 15 minutes of pushing to get her out.  I could feel a lot by this point and it hurt like crazy.  I don't know how women do it without anything!  She had to cord wrapped around her neck twice and she wasn't breathing, so they rushed her over to the team of nurses.  They got her breathing in just a few seconds and she was fine.  I got to see my placenta (and it was big) and the cord was thin (which the doctor told me was a sign of an overdue baby, but she was a week and 2 days early).  I was shaking like crazy after she was born and it took me quite a while to settle down.  When I finally did and tried to feed her she latched on like a pro right away (my first one like that).  All went well after that.  We stayed our 24 hours and went home.  The boys were staying with Grandma and Grandpa Nance and they came to visit as we were moving from the Labor and Delivery room to the recovery room.  Stuart was unsure about being there, but Thomas was excited to finally see his little sister.  They came home the night after we got home (we got home late afternoon).  All in all it was a great experience and we love our little angel!