Gabriel Thomas Welch

Well, I thought this story would come with plenty of pictures, but unfortunately, there are none until the end! Especially because of this lack of photos, I want to write out the story of Gabe's arrival before I begin to forget all the details. Gabe's due date was Friday, March 15th. Although I was hoping he wouldn't wait that long, there really was no reason to think he would come too early. On Tuesday, March 5, I started having fairly regular Braxton Hicks contractions every 15 minutes or so, but they definitely didn't hurt and weren't even all that uncomfortable. The BH kept up the next day with a little increased frequency, but they still just felt like the regular BH contractions that I'd been having for months.

On Thursday, March 7th, Trey and I left the house early to head to an appointment at the chiropractor. She went ahead and did some adjusting to open the pelvis that she doesn't do unless you're term and ready to deliver. Trey and I headed to Mom's afterward and spent the day just hanging out there.  Before my appointment with Lucy, we took the boys to the park for about 20 minutes. While we were there, I had three contractions and went ahead and sat at a picnic table because they were a little uncomfortable. I thought I maybe just had a gas bubble or something, so I let Mom drive my car back to her house. I felt fine by the time we got there, so I just took her van to my appointment so that she could take the boys back to the park.

At my appointment with Lucy and Dana, everything sounded good. I was still having contractions, but they still didn't hurt at all. After chatting a little about getting our birth kit ordered since we wanted to give Gabe Vitamin K, I headed on back to Mom's house, laughing at Mom for her offers to drive me to my appointment. I felt fine!

The rest of the afternoon, I continued to have contractions, but other than discomfort from the tightness, especially with Gabe's feet in my ribs, everything was fine. Trey and I had dinner with Dad, Mom, and Joey and then headed back to Siloam. We got home around 7:30, and I put Trey to bed. I sat down on the couch and noticed that I was having contractions less than 3 minutes apart, and they were starting to feel kind of crampy. I chatted with Melinda and Regina on Facebook for a bit while I waited for Steve to get home but still didn't think it was anything significant.  Steve had joked about stopping by the shop (I didn't realize he was joking), so I called him back to tell him I really wanted him home.  I really didn't think I was in labor, but I just didn't want to be home by myself just in case something was up. He grabbed a few groceries and made it home around 9.

About that time, I went ahead and called Lucy because the fact that the contractions were so close together was making me a little curious. She said it would probably be a good idea to have Dana come check me before everyone settled in for the night. While we were waiting for her, Trey woke up screaming. After about 15 minutes, we got him calmed down and back in bed.  Completely bizarre! Dana made it over and checked me but because my cervix was posterior, she had a hard time reaching it to see if I was dilated. She suggested that I get a bit of a snack and try to get some rest, so Steve and I watched some tv while I ate a sandwich. By the time the show was over, I was closing my eyes during contractions, but they were still just making me feel crampy.

Steve decided to take a shower before bed, and I went to lay down. It didn't take me long to figure out that sleep was going to be a little difficult. This was maybe 10:30ish? I went to tell Steve to hurry up in the shower because I didn't want to be by myself. I felt like the contractions would be tolerable if he was with me  I sat in the bathroom with him while he finished his shower, and although the contractions were starting to cross over into pain territory, I still didn't think I was in labor.  Apparently I'm pretty dense.  I had been texting a bit with Lucy to tell her that the contractions were getting more intense, and reading back through them, I can't help but laugh. Thankfully she picked up on all the things I was/wasn't saying and said she'd feel better coming over, even if she ended up sleeping on the couch.

Somewhere in there, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and noticed that there was blood in the toilet. I think THAT was when I finally realized, "Oh, ok, I think this is it!" I think we went back to the bedroom at that point, but the contractions were just really intense. If I didn't relax and focus at the beginning of a contraction, I wasn't able to relax at all and would end up fighting through the whole thing.  The biggest thing that helped was just having Steve there.  I think my most frequent request of what I wanted him to do during a contraction was one word: talk.  Just talk to me.  I don't think it even mattered what he was saying, but having him talking to me and encouraging me helped so much.

By that point, we were trying various labor positions that we learned in our Bradley classes, but the contractions were intense enough I couldn't think of new positions to try, and there was hardly time in between contractions to get moved anyway. At this point, the contractions were about 50 seconds long and 1:45 to 2:45 apart. At one point, Steve had pulled out our Bradley workbook because we had tried several positions that I didn't really like, but about the time he found the page he wanted, another contraction would start, and he'd just drop the book in the floor. I kept meaning to put tabs in the book but just add that to the long list of things I THOUGHT I had time to do!

At this point, Lucy was on her way, so we were just working through contractions until she got here and could see where exactly we were/how dilated I was/etc. I was leaning up against the side of the bed with Steve alternating between holding me up under my arms and doing counter pressure on my lower back when all of a sudden, I needed to push. I had simultaneous thoughts of, "Oh my goodness...what is going on?!" and "This carpet is new!  I cannot have a baby right here!"

I told Steve that we needed to get into the bathroom (aka: off the carpet) and that he needed to call Lucy to let her know I was feeling the need to push. I think she was almost to the house by then, but since we had a bunch of snow the morning of our scheduled home visit a few weeks before, she hadn't been to our house before. Steve put my phone on speaker and was telling her how to get to the house while she was telling him what to do if Gabe got there before she did! Meanwhile, I was on my hands and knees in the bathroom floor trying to remember what our childbirth instructor had said just a few weeks earlier about what to do when you're trying NOT to push! In between pushing because it was so overwhelming and hard to not, I remembered that she said to use high tones and not low vocal tones. So I'm sure I sounded like quite the mess trying to figure out what to do! During one push, my water broke, and I really was having a hard time wrapping my mind around what was happening!

Lucy said she was pulling up, so Steve told her the door was open and to come on in. We could hear her talking to someone, but it wasn't us, so Steve told me he'd be right back. He went outside and Lucy was walking over from across the street where she had gone into the house of a bunch of JBU guys. Hilarious! My sister, Lydia, said it sounds like the beginning of a joke.

"So a midwife walks into a house full of college guys..." :-)

She came in and helped get me moved back to the bed where I'd be a bit more comfortable.  Thankfully they got me moved quickly since the contractions were so close together.  I really am not sure about the time frames in here except that I think she said something about leaving her house around 11:45/50 and running stop lights/signs on the drive that takes me about 35-40 minutes when I follow traffic laws!  So this was maybe somewhere around 12:15/20ish?  Dana showed up shortly after that. At this point, I really started wondering what I had gotten myself into with this whole home birth thing!  I had gone from watching tv and eating a sandwich less than two hours ago to this!  It had been so intense, that I wasn't sure how long I could deal with pushing like that. I said something along those lines, and Lucy told me that she could already see Gabe's head and told me to feel it. That was amazing. Knowing that his head was already crowning helped me so much mentally. I don't think it was many pushes more before his head was out (12:41) and then at 12:44, the rest of our little Gabe was delivered!

After his delivery, I was still bleeding quite a bit, but Lucy and Dana were so incredible that I didn't even realize there was anything going on. Even Steve said from what he could see and hear them talking about, he thought I just had a tear or something. They gave me a shot of pitocin in my hip and went ahead and called an ambulance, just in case. I think at one point, I asked Lucy, "Am I going to be ok?" and she replied, "You're going to be just fine." There was just a calm sense of peace in the room that I knew she was right. I did go ahead and call Mom to let her know that Gabe was born and to have her come over to help with Trey in case I had to go to the hospital. Gabe was laying on my chest with towels over us, and after I delivered the placenta, the bleeding got much better. He had pooped at some point, so the two of us were covered with goopy baby poop, but eh, no biggie. The EMTs came in, and we had quite a lovely visit, ha. :-) They checked my vitals and gave me some IV fluids and said I was ok to stay at home. Thankfully things were fairly normal after that. :-) Gabe and I got all checked out and I got a few stitches while Steve slept in the hallway with Gabe. Judging by the snoring, Daddy was pretty tired!

Gabriel Thomas Welch
3/8/2013 12:44 a.m.
7 pounds 6 ounces
20 inches long

Daddy holding Gabe while Dana checks him out and Lucy documents everything.

And check out those lovely clean sheets and nicely made bed!  What amazing ladies!

Trey meeting Gabe the next morning.

 

 This was not exactly the home birth story I had envisioned in my mind, but I can't imagine it being any different or more perfect! No pictures (sorry, Regina!), birth pool lying deflated in the cleaned out playroom floor, the plastic mattress cover packed in the container in the playroom, ha! We were SO not ready! Goodness knows there were several opportunities to get flustered, but I really think Steve and I were too oblivious at first to get alarmed, and then once Lucy and Dana were here, they just took everything right in stride and kept us calm. God answered our prayers for Gabe's birth above and beyond what we even asked.  And gave us a story that I will absolutely love to reread over the years to come!