Maleah Quinn Trenholm--Part 1, The Birth

On Friday, March 11, 2011, Maleah Quinn Trenholm joined our family. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches tall.

We went in to the hospital at 6:45 AM on Friday morning for a scheduled induction. Waiting for doctor

All dressed up and ready for action

Since that is shift change, it took a little while to get the ball rolling, but finally at about 8 am, I was hooked up to the IV and in bed, ready for action. My doctor had already informed me that she doesn't mess around on inductions, so she scheduled a pretty high dose of Pitocin to start. I was a little worried, but glad she didn't want to drag things out. Unfortunately, the nurses didn't agree with her, so they started me on a low dose and things started sloooooooowly. I had contractions for about 4 hours, and they were painful, but I knew they weren't painful enough to make good progress. Ben and I were bored and restless! It didn't help that there was nothing good on TV. Ben even played a few games on his phone and chatted with some friends.

At lunchtime, my doctor stopped by to check my progress. Much to my--and her--disappointment, I had only dilated 1 cm. When she left, I cried. I was so frustrated that things weren't progressing very fast, and I was in pain. Mostly, I was hungry and they wouldn't let me eat.

Well, apparently the doctor stirred something up when she checked me because as soon as she left, my contractions started getting a lot stronger and infinitely more painful. When the nurse came in about 2 hours later, she told me I was ready to get the epidural if I wanted. I hesitated, because I didn't know if my pain was severe enough to warrant an epidural, but she convinced me to get it and I agreed.

After the anesthesiologist gave me the epidural, the nurse wanted to check my progress again, and when she did, said I was at an 8 and was not going to be pregnant much longer! I cried again, because I was so shocked and excited that things had sped up so quickly and that I was going to meet my little angel in just as short time. She called the doctor right away, and then things started happening very quickly. Nurses flooded in the room, readying everything, they took the bottom half of the bed off, and when my doctor showed up, she instructed them to not let me have the baby until she could wash her hands. I was so close!

About half hour before she was born

4 pushes and less than 10 minutes later, Maleah was finally born!

A very bad picture of Ben cutting the cord

Weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces

Mom and baby are doing great!


Sweet little girl with big dark eyes

BATH TIME IS NOT FUN!