Introducing Tripp

On January 17, 2016 we welcomed Thomas William Cervino III into our family, and we decided to call him Tripp (or Trippy). He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 21 inches long. Newborn world time is so bizarre. In some ways time stands still, in other ways it feels like I blinked and the week was gone. We are loving the sweet snuggles and that newborn smell, and those adorable coos he just started, but I’m ready to feel like myself again and start getting out of the house. As a write this he’s snuggled up on my chest and I keep stopping to look at him. I should try to sleep but I’d rather just soak up these moments instead.

Tripp’s birth story really goes back to last Friday evening when we invited my brother over for dinner and we picked up pho. I don’t know why but I really think that pho is what got labor started for me. Saturday we woke up and I felt great, I really wanted to get outdoors since it was a nice day and we found a local trail we hadn’t checked out before and did a nice long walk there and everything just seemed really good – no signs of a baby coming at all. Saturday afternoon my stomach started feeling upset. Not contractions, just upset. Saturday evening my in-laws came over and we went out for dinner dinner. While at dinner I started really not feeling well, but it was just like my stomach was upset and not what I thought early labor would feel like. As I was induced with Maddie Grace and got an epidural pretty much immediately, I wasn’t sure what early labor would feel quite like. At some point Saturday night I started to think I was feeling what could have been contractions, and started even timing them, but they were short, irregular, and spaced out really far. I still went ahead and finally got my hospital stuff packed up just in case, but went to sleep and slept fine. I’d always heard that real labor you can’t sleep through so I still wasn’t concerned.

Sunday I was supposed to go to a surprise baby shower brunch and almost went, even though I was still having those short, irregular, not very strong contractions. They seemed to be increasing throughout the day so I cancelled those plans and gave the on call doctor for my practice a phone call. She told me I probably wasn’t in real labor yet but she was at the hospital so if I wanted to go in and have her check me out she would but just to be prepared she would probably send me home. So we loaded up the car and took MG with us figuring we would get sent home anyways. Actually we had to drive to the hospital twice as the first time we arrived and found out that my driver’s license and medical insurance card were missing thanks to a sneaky toddler who loves to play in my wallet.

But even as I was checking in to the hospital around 3:00 PM I felt fine and kept telling myself I was really overreacting. Once they got me hooked up to the machines they could tell I was having real contractions and after the most painful cervix check ever we found out I was dilated 3-4 centimeters, and had been barely 1 at my appointment on Thursday so something was happening. Still my doctor would have sent me home except my blood pressure shot up so they wanted to keep me and keep an eye on that. After getting checked into the room I was around 4-5 centimetres and after the contractions started to get stronger I went ahead and asked for an epidural. Fairly soon after I got the epidural the doctor came in and wanted to break my water, although when she went to do it she found that there it had already broken and I hadn’t noticed it. Very soon after that that the doctor came back and said that they had been watching my contractions from the nurses desk and could tell that it was about time to start pushing. I told her I had started feeling nauseous and she said that was why. We did some practice pushes and she said I needed just a little more time, and she would be back in 30 minutes. About 15 minutes after that I started feeling a lot of pressure and knew that it was time to push but of course at this point my doctor couldn’t be found. Another 15 minutes later she showed up and realized that it was indeed time to push. With Maddie Grace my epidural didn’t work at all for the pushing/delivery process and I had an incredibly painful and traumatic birthing experience so I’ve feared this entire pregnancy that it would happen again. I was amazed by how painless and peaceful Tripp’s delivery was. I didn’t feel any pain and after 15 minutes of pushing I had a precious, crying newborn laid on my chest. He latched right away and has been breastfeeding pretty much constantly every since.

Recovering from this birth was a lot easier than my recovery with Maddie Grace as well. I wanted to be up and walking around pretty soon after having him because it helped my back pain. I feel like I’ve been a lot more alert and in touch with what’s going on this time around. On Monday Maddie Grace got to meet Tripp and it was amazing. She instantly wanted to hold him, hug him, and kiss him. She kept saying “MY baby” and “aw cute baby” although she added in “ew baby stinks” during the week even though her favorite thing is helping with his diaper changes. My mom stayed with us Sunday through Friday which was a huge help, especially with watching Maddie Grace and helping us get caught up on the loads and loads of laundry.

Tripp is a much better sleeper than his sister ever was already. The last couple days he’s had more awake and alert time but for the most part he just eats, poops and sleeps. We are so thankful that he is a good sleeper. He’s sleeping better at night than Maddie Grace did all week. We are just now starting to be able to figure out what color his eyes are though. The problem is he squints whenever it’s bright enough to tell and is almost always asleep. They appear to be some type of  a hazel color right now. They seem brown towards the inside an dark blue around the outside. It will be interesting to see what they end up being.

Tom took off a whole week from work and so he goes back today and I’m absolutely terrified but trying to stay optimistic. We feel so blessed for our two amazing kids and I can’t wait to do life with Tripp in it – we are so thrilled that he is here and is a healthy, happy baby boy!