Alberto Horche
Tessa Semey
We Met
24/05/2019
Alberto went to Berdorf (Luxembourg) to climb outdoors with his friends. This was his first ever camping experience.
That same weekend, Tessa also went climbing there with her friend and fell in love with the clumsiness of the Spaniard in the camp site.
We Fell In Love
25/06/2019
Tessa proposed to spend the night of her birthday together on her natural habitat: the dunes of The Hague.
That night there was a lot of Dinoflagellates in the beach, which lit the water as we walked on it, making the whole night feel magical, as in something important was starting.
We moved in together
28/07/2020
After some time travelling and climbing we noticed that we were almost all the time together so we decided that it was time for Tessa to move in with Alberto. It was just more practical, and yes, we kind of enjoyed each other´s company.
So we endured the COVID lockdowns in a 60m2 apartment. We thought that would be the ultimate challenge, but keep reading…
We travelled a little bit
2020 – 2022
We bought our first house!
01/09/2022
The previous apartment was great but not futureproof so we started browsing the city for options.
Lucky us, a wonderful house in our neighborhood came up for sale and we jumped right at it.
After moving what felt like a million boxes down 4 floors (stairs only) and scaring of a gigantic spider in the curtains, we settled into Marshalllaan.
We travelled a little more…
2022 – 2025
We did adult stuff
05/07/2025
You know how that works…
The first test confirmed it!
19/07/2025
After 3 months of us not avoiding getting a new family member, we got lucky and we can now say that…
We Are Expecting!
First Echo
19/07/2025
In the middle of this clump of cells, you can see the baby upside down on the left side in the middle of the uterus.
That big circular shape attached to the baby is just the yolk sack (they said).
They showed us for the first time a couple of flickering pixels in a screen, and we were told that that was their heart. Tessa pretended she could see something. Alberto actually did.
Second Echo
09/09/2025
Now you can really tell that the clump of cells resembles a little human. With a large head, nose, ears and a little foot.
Currently the baby is 48.57mm and has been baking for 11 weeks and 4 days.
The due date is officially set to March 26, 2026.
Third Echo – Week 13
23/09/2025
During the sonogram, for the first time, without introduction, the heartbeat!
Admittingly, a little confronting to realize that this moving picture is actually alive and kicking by hearing the heartbeat thumping at 180 bpm like ‘Living la vida loca’ inside you.
Baby is baking at 74mm, 80gr for 13 weeks and 5 days. The back is closed, the heart is pumping around blood in 4 chambers and the brain has 2 hemispheres. Keep it up little munchkin!
Anatomy scan – Week 20
04/11/2025
We are halfway. Time for another ultrasound. If you assume, half baked is half a baby you are sorely mistaken. During the 20-week scan we got to see organs, bones, blood flow through the heart and umbilical chord and so far everything looks as it should. The face profile shows us the cutest button nose and we can’t wait to meet our little munchkin. In the picture you can see the right foot.
Healthy baby, happy parents (for now…)
Gender Reveal
08/11/2025
We are ready to share with you the gender of our baby, but we know some people prefer not to know.
Spoiler alert!!! Play the audio below if you want to know the gender of the baby!
Now we need to start looking for a fitting name… Do you want to help? Text us your suggestions!
What’s happenning?! – Week 24
08/12/2025
9:40 – Pain
Without any warning, Tessa felt a sharp pain on the right side of her belly. Very strong. Paralizing. She can barely move…
10:24 – Call the midwife
Alberto calls the midwife. Tessa is in so much pain that she cannot talk. They think it’s unlikely anything pregnancy-related and advise paracetamol and calling the GP if it persists.
14:25 – Visit the GP
Time passed but Tessa cannot even walk so we went to the GP. They are worried that something serious could be affecting the baby. Maybe it’s “just” a kidney stone, but maybe not so we are sent to the hospital for better screaning.
15:34 – Diakonessenhuis
We arrived at the Diakonessen Hospital and after some tests they cannot rule out that Tessa is entering into labour so they need to send us to the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, specialized in neonatal care, This time with an ambulance.
This looks serious. We are quite shaken.
19:03 – Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis
They are expecting us. We go to triage and after multiple tests they make their evaluation:
There is a 20% chance that Tessa will deliver in the next 24 hours. Wait what? We are not ready and, most importantly, the baby is not ready!
21:18 – Choices
Our baby is now 24 weeks and 4 days. If a baby is born in week 24 or 25, their chances of survival are very slim and having a normal life thereafter is rare. They called this Extreme Prematurity and there is an official website to inform you about your options.
Not a nice read, but we need to carefully study it right now and choose what we want to do with our baby if Tessa does go into labour soon.
22:42 – Admitted to the hospital
After the hardest conversation of our lives, Tessa needs to remain in the hospital for monitoring. Alberto goes home to pick up some personal care items and goes back to the hospital to sleep together, hoping that nothing happens.
08:05 – A new day
We didn’t sleep much, but feel much better. Nothing progressed during the night and the pain is completely gone. Doctors cannot really determined what caused the pain, but they can determined that the baby has not been born yet…
12:24 – Dismissed
Considering the development of the situation and since the pain is gone they let us go home with the condition that we come back every week to keep a close eye on the baby.
Before we leave, doctors tell us that we need to take it one day at a time, one week at a time. They hope the baby stays in as long as possible, but it is critical to make the 28-week mark for improve the survival chances. If they could wish, they hope we can make it to week 32. Right now, thinking to deliver at term (week 37+) is just science fiction.
Growth scan – Week 29
12/01/2026
After several weeks with Tessa wrapped in cotton wool and having uneventful weekly appointments, we went for a new growth scan where they told us that, compared to the Dutch average, our baby is quite small (900gr vs 1150gr). We are also smaller than the average Dutch couple, so we are not too worried about it.
There was only one detail that made us a little bit concerned. It seems like the femur is very short but the size of the belly and the head is closer to average. That might be an early sign of achondroplasia, but doctors need multiple measurements to really suspect that diagnosis, so we kind of ignore it for now.
A magical moment – Week 29
13/01/2026
At night, winding down before going to sleep, Alberto uses Tessa’s belly as a pillow and starts to talk some nonsense to the baby. Suddenly his eyes become big. He checks Tessa’s heartbeat in her neck (to rule it out) and says: “I can hear the baby’s heartbeat! It goes like this.” and starts drumming the rhythm with his fingers on Tessa’s hand.
He is quiet and focussed only on listening, breathing, being. This is the first time he really connected to the baby. Hearing its heartbeat with his own ears and its kicking at the same time was really special. In an echography, thru a monitor is really not the same.
Fetal Growth Restriction – Week 32
02/02/2026
The baby starts to measure small consistently, not only femur, but now also belly and head. Now its weight is about 1.500gr and we are told there is a posibility of Fetal Growth Restriction. New concern unlocked! Yey!
From now on we will start measuring every week also de so-caller Doppler. How this works is fascinating: they use sound waves to measure blood flow velocity in fetal, placental, and uterine vessels to measure if there is high resistance in the umbilical cord, which could signal growth restriction. This basically monitors the performance of the placenta and allows intervention (when needed) before the baby stops getting enough oxigen and nutrients from it.
By the way, baby’s favourite position is on the left side of Tessa’s belly, happily kicking her in the crotch and with its head towards her heart. Lovely.
Baby in breech position – Week 34
16/02/2026
They start to monitor the position of the baby to determine which procedure we can expect for delivery. Our baby has been in the so-called breech position since week 20. This is not ideal and, apparently, doing some exercises help the baby to naturally move in the right position. Even if it doesn’t, pictures are priceless.
Some times the baby just turns before week 36. If that doesn’t happen, they can try to manually turn the baby (external cephalic version), although it’s a 50/50 chance. In breech position we can still choose for a vaginal delivery, but there are some risks involved and a C-section intervention becomes more possible.
In the meantime our baby is 1.920gr and keeps growing, slowly but surely. A steady grinder we’ve got!
Last growth scan – Week 36
02/03/2026
We had the last growth scan and the baby keeps growing slowly. Current estimated weight now is 2.300gr while doctors wish it was close to 3kg. However, there is stedy progress. Now we just need to make sure the baby keeps cooking for as long as possible so that we can have a healthy little one.
The baby is still in breech so we will need to try an external cephalic version soon (external manual rotation of the baby´s position). Here some more information about what it is, its risks, etc.
Made it to term! – Week 37
05/03/2026
We reached week 37, the baby is officially fully grown and the delivery now is considered to be “at term”. However, the baby is still quite small and it’s still not clear if we could avoid the need of an incubator, but still, this is great news for us.
Remember the discussion we had at week 24 about extreme premature labor? Well, it is just a distant (sour) memory now because “science fiction” is actually here!
On another note, we tried to rotate the baby yesterday, but it did not work. We will try again on the 9th and if it is not sucessful we will need to have another interesting discussion about what we want to do regarding the delivery. A vaginal delivery has always been the preference, but it would imply certain risks… Of course, we have an official website to help with that decision as well.
Stubborn baby – Week 38
13/03/2026
After two attempts at external baby rotation, weeks of Spinning Babies exercises, and a week of moxa therapy, this baby is still committed to keeping its head up. So we have to make peace with it and prepare for a delivery with a baby in breech.
On the positive side, Tessa’s house arrest is over, and we’ve decided to be a little more active again. Please see Exhibit A (I mean, the picture accompanying this text).
Keep moving – Week 39
19/03/2026
Our bags are packed, and we are ready to run to the hospital as soon as this baby finally decides to meet us.
Meanwhile, we are just doing some exercise, trying to go hiking and climb as often as possible.
Timeline of the delivery – Week 39+4
21/03/2026
20:35 – Am I peeing myself?
During dinner with a good friend, Tessa felt she was losing some pee, but it didn’t stop…
Wait! might that be broken waters?
20:55 – Call WKZ Hospital
They are not sure because there is no pain, no contractions etc. and they advise to come and check, just to be on the safe side.
21:30 – Are you ready?
After we got everything ready to leave and said goodbye to our friend, we found each other in the kitchen, we looked at each other and Tessa asked if I was ready, and I said no.
We took 20 seconds to breath, hug, and get mentally ready. Let’s do this!
22:00 – Triage
We got to triage, collected some liquid to evaluate if it’s actual amniotic fluid, but there is so much fluid that they have no doubt: the membranes are broken!
22:45 – First Contraction
First small contraction felt in the crutch. Similar to period pain. Very weak.
00:20- Echo
It looks like a perfect breech. No legs crossing, nothing out of the ordinary. We will sleep here for monitoring. If nothing changes, no more actions until tomorrow morning, so around 1 am we are ready to doze off. Although contractions didn’t wait long to start.
03:40 – Alberto, wake up!
Tessa is in enough pain that she is afraid she might faint and wants to know how the baby is doing. Time for Alberto to wake up to keep an eye on her and connect the heartmonitor. Contractions are now serious and coming every 3 minutes.
03:50 – First exploration
We got a 3cm dilation. The walls are soft and the doctor feels a little butt already there. It’s going very nice, fast and smooth. Normally for first time mothers we can expect 1cm dilation per hour, more or less, so they will check again after 2h and see how it goes.
Tessa is having contractions every 3min and the averave is 3 or 4 every 10 minutes, so all good.
Laying on her back is no good. All 4s a bit better, kneeling and leaning back seems to be the best so far, to let her relax into it deeper.
She holds my hand pressing for the first time. I can see she is a climber, still got the grip strength!
For a while she used my ‘bed’ to curl up and worked. But then it did not work anymore. Same for the TENS machine.
I see her leg shaking.
5:00 – The pain is intense
Tessa cannot talk and it’s difficult to communicate at all. Taking a warm shower helps. Warmth in the belly is good, but the rest of the body shivers. Is it too late to ask for a bath?
5:40 – Cannot endure this anymore
We called the midwife. Pain is too much, we need pain relief (epidural).
During exploration, we are told it’s now 6cm dilated. That is much faster than expected. That would explain the pain as well. They are going to start the epidural procedure asap.
6:30 – Man down!
During the placing of the epidural, Alberto was asked to hold her shoulders while Tessa was sitting, leaning forward. I felt Tessa shaking in intense pain with the contractions, while trying to keep still for the epidural to go smooth. I was overwhealmed and got lightheaded so I asked the nurse to take over. Had to lie down on the floor for 10 minutes. This is a clear sign why men do not deliver. Tessa was going through all the pain, and I was the one fainting. Ridiculous!
7:00 – Tessa smiles again!
Epidural starts to work and Tessa is so exhausted that she falls asleep. Night shift comes for the last check and to say goodbye. There is 7cm dilation now and they will talk to the gynecologist to see if the progress is good enough. Normally with breech they do not give oxytocine, they rather have natural dilation.
9:50 – Morning check
Dilation is now 9 cm, and the baby’s butt got lower. There is still a little edge around the cervix and there is meconium, but probably because the baby’s pelvis is pressed and not because of distress.
12:00 – Fully dilated
Maybe a little bit of a border deep in, but neglectible. Now baby just needs to come down, her bottom is the same height as before. So, time to be more active instead of just lying down. Sitting up, all 4s, etc. for the last part of the pushing, after the butt is born, midwife prefers all 4s. Before that, as many changes as possible.
13:30 – No progress
Baby is not coming down and the longer it takes the more energy the baby will need to endure during delivery, so we are advised to go for a cesarean to give baby the best chance possible. If it was not breech, we would wait a bit longer, but in breech the risks are to high.
14:15 – We go to the OR
The team is ready for us, I counted 9 people there. Anesthesia starts to work and as soon as they paste the blue screen, everyone activates. Tessa and I see each other. Are you ready to meet our daughter? Cariño, she is almost here! I am too excited to be emotional, but sometimes I get a thought that makes me cry a little bit.
In the meantime Tessa is feeling REALLY cold and they try to keep her warm with heated blankets. It seems like the anesthesia was too strong, she could not feel her breast and her arms were tickling.
14:37 – Our daughter is born!
Tessa’s belly is open, curtain comes down and we withness the birth of our daughter. Butt first, then one leg, then the other one, then one arm, then the other one, and finally the head, facing the belly, and doing a 180 flip to see papa and mama. Alberto cut the umbilical cord after waiting for 20 seconds. They dry the fat directly to avoid the baby getting too cold too fast. Tessa was shivering the whole time.
Meet Carmen Luisa Horche Semey
22/03/2026
Please meet our daughter.
A new journey starts, this was our last update (for now).
Thank you for following us on our journey.