Sellner Family

Tom and I went in to the hospital the evening of March 8th as a scheduled induction expecting to have a baby by March 9th. We arrived at the hospital at 8pm and by 9pm the induction was started. Upon arrival we found out that I was actually having contractions about 3-5 minutes apart, so labor was well on its way. Yay!

The next morning all was going well but I hadn't made much progress, so I was started on an IV drug to help my contractions get stronger. We were told that on average women dilate about a centimeter and hour once on this drug. Since I was 2 cm, we estimated that by 5pm we would be close to having our baby. Unfortunately, that did not happen for me. At 11:45am I was only 3cm so they broke my water, which was followed shortly by an epidural. Thank God for epidurals!!! At 5pm I was only 5 cm dilated. We just figured slowly but surely I would make progress. Well at 7pm I was 7cm, then 9pm I was still 7cm, then at 11pm I was still 7cm. So by 12:30 am on March 10th by doctor suggested a c-section. I quickly agreed because 27 hours of labor was plenty for me!

We were rolling into the OR by 1:15 am. They left Tom in the hallway while getting everything ready for the c-section. I warned the anesthesiologist that Tom might have a weak stomach, so he should keep an eye on him. Once they got started Tom was brought in and after checking on me the first thing he did was look over the drape. He actually handled it well. At 1:34 am was had our baby! The doc said "Steph he is a good size baby...where were you hiding him?" We expected him to be in the 7 lb range...so to our surprise he weighed in at 8lb 11oz and was 22" long! While they were putting me back together Tom looked over the drape again expecting to see them finishing sewing me up. What he did see he described as a "purple plastic bag", the doc then told him that was my uterus...he handled that well too. Shortly after that they brought our baby over for Tom to hold him and his response was "I have to hold him first?". Despite his lack of confidence with babies, he did a great job!

After about 24 hours of debating we decided that Christopher Joseph Sellner was a perfect name for our little boy. Toms' middle name is Joseph and mine is Jo, so the middle name easy. We simply just liked Christopher the best for first names. (Bradley was our second choice. Tom already likes Bradley Thomas if we were to have another boy.)

Since arriving, Chris has been a great baby! He cries when he is hungry and that is about it. He also eats and sleeps good, so both Tom and I aren't nearly as sleep deprived as what we expected.