Can you believe that baby Trey is 11 weeks old now?! This time has flown by so fast you guys! He’s smiling all the time and talking so much, and I just know he’s going to start giggling at any moment. He’s comfortably wearing 3-6 month clothing. He weighed in at 12 lbs at his 2 month well-check appointment and is now 23-inches long. That’s crazy to me considering he was actually slow to gain weight his first few weeks of life. He’s such a chunky baby now and I love to cuddle him!
So it’s been way too long since I’ve posted and I’ve thought about it non stop. It’s just so hard to find time to sit down and write with a newborn. So I’m really excited to finally share Trey’s birth story with you!
Since my first born, Gabbie, was almost two weeks late, I was very hopeful that Trey would come early. It’s been over a decade since giving birth to my first child and so I was anxious to meet my new little man. I had always heard that the second child comes sooner than the first, and also delivers faster, so I was sure he would come early. Wishful thinking I suppose, lol…
As it got closer and closer to my due date, I rolled my eyes every time someone would ask me if I was feeling contractions yet. Ugh! This little boy was going to be stubborn just like his big sister was. I did have a couple friends offer to pray for my water to break. “NO!” was my response. I don’t want to leak a bunch of icky water when I’m laying in my clean bed or driving my car. How in the world would I get that fluid cleaned up, ha ha!
Whelp! My water didn’t break, and he didn’t arrive early.
At my 39 week Obgyn appointment, my doctor swept my membranes. I was crossing my fingers that it would trigger labor. I had cramping the next day and the day after. I thought I was feeling signs of labor, but it just wasn’t so.
I had another Obgyn appointment at 40 weeks and 2 days, and had my membranes swept again. My doctor also made a plan with me to be induced the following week if labor didn’t initiate on its own. I went home again hopeful that this would trigger my labor to start naturally. I really didn’t want to be induced.
The next day was Tuesday, August 20th. I was at home alone. Junior was at work and Gabbie was at gymnastics practice. Like every day prior, I would get a text message from Junior asking how I was doing. It was about 1:30 PM and I responded,
“Do I have contractions or do I need to poop?”
I honestly wasn’t sure at that point if the cramping I was feeling were legit contractions or not. Until they started to really hurt!
I was supposed to pick up Gabbie from gymnastics practice at 2:30 PM so I decided it was probably a wise idea to finish packing up my hospital bags and have them in the car in case these contractions continued. We could hang out at my sister’s house afterwards because she lived about a block from the hospital where I was going to give birth.
During the process of packing my bags and driving to the gym, my contractions were getting more and more painful and closer together, roughly five minutes apart.
I arrived at the gym around 2:20 PM. There was a group of other gym moms outside the front door. As I hobbled out of my car and headed inside, they asked me how I was doing:
I’m good! … Uh, I think I’m in labor.
They ask if I’m OK and if I need a ride to the hospital, or if they want me to watch Gabbie while I go… I felt overwhelmed hearing all the questions, and probably should have taken a minute to consider accepting the help, but all I could really focus on was handling the pain of the contractions and thinking that I was pretty sure this baby was on its way, so I needed to get my daughter and get to the hospital as soon as possible.
Intake
I opted to skip my sister’s house and just drove straight to the hospital. Gabbie and I arrived around 2:45 PM. I checked in and was put in a little room so the intake nurse could check out how I was progressing.
My sister showed up shortly, so I had her and Gabbie by my side. Junior was on his way from work. We also let the grandmas know what was going on.
I’m so thankful my sister was there with me in the beginning because MAAAN! The contractions got really painful, really fast and I felt like everything was progressing so quickly, way faster than with Gabbie. My sister was all over the intake nurses insisting I get a room. The process was fairly quick to get admitted to a room, although at the time it felt like forever!
Junior arrived just before 3:00 PM and we were moved to my delivery room about 3:20 PM. All I could think about was getting my epidural but there were so many obstacles to get through first! The intake nurse, then physically moving to the room where I’d be delivering, the IV insertion, blood draws for labs and then waiting to get the results. Ugh! Finally they called in the anesthesiologist and I started getting some relief.
Delivery Room
In the delivery room was my husband and daughter, my mom and husband’s mom and my sister. Unfortunately my doctor wasn’t on call, so her associate came to introduce herself to us. She let us know that after the epidural kicked in some more, she would examine me to see how dilated I was and if it was time to push.
So because my doctor wasn’t on call, I wasn’t planning on seeing her. But apparently she had a note on my chart that she wanted to be called when I went into labor. I didn’t know, but the doctor on call gave her a ring and then let us know my doctor was on her way!
I was so thankful that my doctor was coming to deliver my baby! She’s been by my side through so much this past year. Not only during this entire pregnancy, but also supporting me through an ectopic pregnancy last summer, which resulted in a miscarriage. That was an extremely emotional and stressful time in my life and she was always so supportive and empathetic and I’m so honored that she wanted to be there for Trey’s birth.
My doctor arrived! I was so happy to see her! She checked my cervix and informed me that I was dilated enough that she could break my water to get things going, but she wanted to do a quick ultrasound first to check what position he was in.
Trey was in posterior position aka “sunny side up”
She informed us that it was very possible that Trey would turn over on his own when delivering. She could also manually turn him if he needed it. She didn’t seem to be too worried about his position, so I wasn’t either. I was more so focused on the fact that I was still feeling pain on the right side of my body from the contractions. My doctor had me lean on my right side in hopes that the medicine would move over, the nurse also turned up the dosage.
After a little more time, my right side was feeling relief, but then my left side was left completely numb! I couldn’t feel a thing! I couldn’t move my leg or even wiggle my toes.
By this time it’s minutes before 6:00 PM and it’s ‘conveniently’ time to start pushing. My amazing husband had to help by lifting my leg back for me because I couldn’t feel it at all.
Since I was completely numb, I also couldn’t feel the contractions. So the nurse would watch the monitor and let me know when it was time to push. When a contraction would start I would push for ten seconds, take a quick deep breath and push for a second set of ten seconds, then take another quick deep breath and push for a third time for ten seconds. It was actually really frustrating because I couldn’t feel where I was directing the pushes. I was just hoping and praying that I was “doing my job” and getting him out.
With the pushing being so strenuous, I was feeling light headed and at one point like I needed to throw up. The nurse gave me an oxygen mask to put over my nose and mouth in between contractions so I could catch my breath quicker. It also gave the baby some relief as well.
I didn’t like being completely numb so they adjusted the dosage of the epidural and eventually I was able to feel the pressure of the contractions a little bit. The nurse instructed me to push on every other contraction in order to give the baby time to relax in between. They were worried he was getting stressed out.
Complications
After pushing for more than an hour, I was feeling so out of it, I didn’t even notice when my husband asked our family to leave the room. A swarm of nurses then filled the room as things were getting complicated.
At one point Trey’s heart rate was down in the 80’s and I could hear my doctor talking to the nurses about different options to get him out. I remember I heard “C-section” mentioned and I just began to pray. I wanted so badly to push out my baby boy so I could hold him and make sure he was okay.
My doctor and the nurses had been so encouraging the whole time I had been pushing. Telling me when they first saw the hair on his head and I just needed to keep doing what I was doing. It was a frustrating process for me because with Gabbie I only pushed for about 15 minutes. With Trey sitting posterior, it was a lot harder to get him out because he didn’t turn as they hoped he would.
My doctor informed me in all seriousness that Trey needed to come out in the next couple pushes or they’d have to take other measures to get him out. She asked me if she could perform an episiotomy and without hesitation I said, “Yes! Anything you need to do!” She promised me that he would come out the next time I pushed.
So when the next contraction came, I pushed harder than I had ever pushed before and at 7:55 PM…
Trey was born.
A beautiful 7 lb 13 oz and 20.5 inches long.
I can’t believe we did it again.
He was immediately placed on my chest for skin to skin and I was overwhelmed with a sense of relief and feeling of love. I was beyond thankful that he had finally arrived and even though we experienced some complications, he was healthy.
I just gave birth to my second child, my first baby boy. Our family is growing and I’m still so amazed at how much I love this tiny little person. I honestly couldn’t imagine how I could love another child as much as I love my daughter. But it’s true what people say, that your heart just grows. The love you have for your children isn’t divided or shared. The love you possess just increases.
Trey is now 10 weeks old. He is such a good baby! He started smiling when he was only about 3 weeks old. He started talking/babbling at about 5 weeks. He’s very attentive and is starting to grab at items with his little baby hands. He absolutely loves his big sister and he is the biggest cuddle bug! Some days I can’t get anything done because the moment I put him down, after I think he’s asleep, he wakes up and whines until I hold him. Then miraculously he’s asleep again, ha ha…
He’s a chunky little guy with plump, kissable cheeks and the sweetest personality. I’m excited to watch him develop and grow and can’t wait to see what kind of little human he becomes.
