Welcome Baby Trey!

Steven "Trey" James Welch III

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

3:06 a.m.

7 pounds, 14 ounces

18 1/2 inches

We've been settled back at home for a few days now, so I thought I would write out the story of Trey's birth before I start to forget.  Our due date came and went with no baby, and although I had been having some contractions, they never developed into anything regular.  I had an appointment a few days before my due date, and Dr. Martinelli said I stood a good chance of going into labor on my own before my appointment the following Tuesday.  The week of our due date, I was off work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday due to two feet of snow, but I didn't really feel like going back on the following Monday.  I decided to go ahead and have them get my sub started, and I went for a chiropractor adjustment and massage on Monday.

On Tuesday, I went to my appointment with Dr. Martinelli at 3:00.  Before I left the house, I did some cleaning and packed our last minute hospital stuff just in case.  At my appointment, they started by hooking me up to the fetal monitor to check on my contractions and on Trey.  Things looked fine, so Dr. Martinelli came in to check my cervix.  As she was checking me, my water broke.  Gushed.  No question about what had just happened!  They left me to figure out how to get dressed (I skipped socks....why bother?!) and then brought me a wheelchair to take me next door to the hospital.  On the way, I called Steve so that he could get started on his way over.  This was a little after 4:00, and Steve was a good hour and a half drive away from the hospital.  I also called Mom, and she headed to the hospital, too.

I got put in my room and changed into my hospital gown.  Dad came by to keep me company while they got all the paperwork done to check me in.  Dr. Pappas came in and checked me a short while later, and I was still not effaced or dilated any more than I had been at my last appointment.  I had started having some contractions, but they started me on pitocin anyway.  Steve made it to the hospital at about 6:30, and between the time they started the pitocin and him getting there, my contractions were getting pretty intense.  One contraction lasted two and a half minutes.  When they checked me again I was between a 2 1/2 and a 3.  I think that was when I decided to get an epidural. :-)

The anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural, and it went very smoothly.  It was hard to get through the contractions during the actual procedure, but he did a very good job and didn't take too long.  Within five minutes after he finished, I was unable to feel pain from my contractions.  He was my hero.  We visited a while longer with Mom, Regina, Steve, Linda, and Brandi, but they left for the waiting room at about 10:00 so that we could rest.  I don't think I got any heavy sleep, but I was able to doze here and there to get some rest.

I progressed fairly quickly, going from a 6 to a 9 in under an hour.  My cervix still hadn't thinned out enough though, so I wasn't allowed to push.  They even sat me up to try to let gravity help thin it out the rest of the way, but that made it that much harder not to push!  Although I wasn't feeling pain because of the epidural, the need to push was incredibly intense.  With every contraction, I would have to close my eyes and focus on counting to keep myself from pushing.  Dr. Pappas came in to check on me and said that even after my cervix thinned, they like to have patients wait for another hour or two to begin pushing...ha!  Steve thought he was joking, and after I made it clear that there was NO way I was going to be able to wait that long, he said that we could go ahead and try to push on the next contraction to see if we could get Trey's head on past the cervix.  The next contraction came pretty quickly, so we tried to push, and his head slipped on past the cervix.  Dr. Pappas left for a while, and we pushed with just the nurses for a while.  That was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.  They had me push in groups of three, and it was so hard to push to the whole count of ten, especially on the final push of the group.  In between contractions, I was so tired and was really having a hard time thinking that I could do the next push.  When Dr. Pappas came back in, I tried to give it all I had.  He said it looked like there just wasn't enough room for his head to get through, and was I ok with an episiotomy.  At that point, anything that would help me get Trey out was ok!  He said that if I didn't have an episiotomy, he thought I would end up tearing much worse.  After the episiotomy, he had me keep pushing carefully, and after just a few more minutes (maybe 45 minutes of pushing altogether?), Trey arrived!  They put him up on my chest for a minute, but then they took him to warm him up and clean him and everything.

Giving birth was by far the most incredible thing I have ever experienced.  The whole time Dr. Pappas was stitching me up, I just cried because I was so happy and could not believe that our baby was finally here.  Steve was such a proud daddy and took Trey out to see his family.  After I was all fixed up, they brought Trey back for me to nurse.  He was so alert with his eyes open, looking around.   His APGAR scores were an 8 and a 9, so he was a healthy little man! We spent a few minutes loving on him, and then they came to get him for his checkup in the nursery.

It's been a little tricky to find the time to sit down and write everything out, but I want to make sure we remember.  I'll try to get caught up with our time in the hospital and these first few days at home and all the pictures we've taken.  There's a bunch!