Hello,

I have been on this website since I was in the middle of my pregnancy, but I never bothered to set anything up until now. As you can see, I am a procrastinator. Sometimes, life just gets in the way, I guess.

Okay, so a little about myself and my family: I am married to the man of my dreams! Chris & I met in the summer of 1991, and have been together ever since. We married on March 18, 1995, and are very much in love. We have an 11 year old daughter, Hayley, 8 year old son, Taylor, 2 year old daugher, Madison, and are happy to have added the most precious twin boys - Peyton and Brady, who were born July 24, 2007! As you can tell, we have a rather large family, and life can get a little crazy. I like to call it "Controlled Chaos"!=)

Peyton and Brady were delivered at 37 weeks - no c-section necessary! I was actually induced, and only had a 3 hour labor. Robert Peyton Welch was born at 12:59pm and weighed 5lbs 14oz, and was 20 inches long. William Braden Welch came 11 minutes later, at 1:10pm, weighing 6lbs 6oz and was 21 inches long. Even at 37 weeks, Brady's lungs were still premature, so he required a one week stay in the NICU, which was definitely a new experience for us - all of our babies had always gone home with us. He is fine now, but that first week of complications sure put us on edge. He has also had a heart murmur scare that ended up nothing, but I can tell that the baby of the family is always going to make me worry.=)

Although I am grateful to have carried these boys to term, free of any serious problems, I can tell you that this last pregnancy has taken a toll on my body! I now suffer from carpal tunnel sydrome, varicose veins, phlebitis, and diastasis recti (separation of the abdominal muscles, that can only be repaired with a tummy tuck). I was also recently diagnosed with Postpartum Depression (Postpartum OCD, to be exact) and am happy to report that it is under control. Praise The Lord! Don't get me wrong - Peyton and Brady are worth every minute of pain. I just know that this pregnancy is my last. My hubby is getting a vasectomy very soon to ensure this!=)

I am glad to have found this website. I find it very beneficial to my sanity - we all know what it is like to be busy mommies, and can learn from one another! Thanks for sharing your stories!=)

I am posting my post from the month to month pages, which tells my story of Postpartum Depression (OCD). It is my hope, that if someone with PPD reads it, they will seek help, so that they do not have to suffer another day. Please read, and feel free to private message me, if you have any questions:

Good Morning Ladies! I posted my story about living with Postpartum Depression on several month by month pages the other day, and received such a positive response, that I feel that I should post it to the rest of the pages, just in case someone else may benefit from it. Keep in mind, Postpartum Depression does not just occur right after giving birth - it can occur anytime during the first year after having your baby. Thank you for listening. Hello ladies: Some of you may remember me. I was welchmom, and stopped posting on here in December. It seems I got offended when several people didn't like me or angel4 commenting on sad stories in the news. Well, little did I know, I was on the verge of a mental meltdown, and that is probably why I overreacted. I did not realize it, but I was suffering from Postpartum Depression, or in my case, another Postpartum mood disorder that I had never even heard of, Postpartum OCD. Now that I feel soooo much better, and after reading several of the comments from yesterday, I felt the need to get on here and sort of tell my story, because if it helps one person out there that feels like they must be losing their mind, then it is worth telling. I have never experienced PPD until now. I had 3 children prior to my pregnancy with our twin boys, and never had anything more than the baby blues. This time around, of course, I felt overwhelmed - who wouldn't with an 11 year old, 8 year old, 2 year old and now twin newborns to tend to. I had myself fooled for a while, that I could get it all done, but as time went on, instead of things getting easier, they got harder. I found myself staying up late (2:30am-3:30am) just so I could get work around the house done, which just made be more sleep deprived. My anxiety level was crippling, but what sent me to the doctor was the constant fear of my kids being hurt. I have always been a very protective parent - kids can't play outside unless someone is with them, etc - but this was way different. What began playing constantly in my head were images of bad things happening to them. I now know that these are referred to as intrusive thoughts. The mind of someone with Postpartum OCD, has repetitive thoughts that won't go away, and cause anxiety and panic attacks. Of course, it is normal to want to protect your children and worry about them, but when it is happening 24/7 and it consumes you, it is time to reach out and get help. I had been reading way too many horrific stories in the news, which then had the OCD part of me overanalyzing my thoughts. 'Well, if I'm picturing these things happening, am I going crazy? Will I hurt my kids? Is that how Andrea Yates felt?' Let me reassure you, this is not what Andrea Yates had. She had Postpartum Psychosis, which is a completely different mood disorder, which rears its ugly head within the first 6 weeks of giving birth - you believe the images are real. Anyway, to try to make a long story short, I called my doctor the second I didn't feel right, and was started on a low dose of Prozac. The three weeks it took to get in my system were hell. I had such terrible anxiety that I didn't want to be left alone, which thank God for a supportive hubby, MIL, and church family. This was very hard, as I am a very independent person, one who would much rather do for someone than have someone do for them. I have been seeing a therapist, which is quite helpful - I recommend it to anyone!=) Anyway, I now understand why it isn't a good idea to talk about such horrible things, particularly on this sight. In fact, I try not to read much of the news these days - it IS depressing. Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you all, and also give you a website to check out, if you think this describes you: www.ppdsupportpage.com. You can read journals, post questions, and it really has been very helpful and informative. I am mommyx5 on there, if you want to read my posts. I have a daily journal, but my original post is under introductions. This whole ordeal has taught me so much, and I just feel the need to reach out to tell everyone that if you feel this way, you are not alone, you just have to ask for help. I also feel that more needs to be done to give mothers this information, so if they feel this way, they can reassured that they aren't 'nuts', it is normal, and you don't have to continue to suffer. Thanks for listening. I will have to create a new page, as everything has been deleted, and my old passwords don't work, but I guess I am back for good! =)

Here's Chris the year before we met - Class of 1990!

Here's one of my senior pictures - Class of 1991 - we met that summer. Check out that big hair!=)

Here is a wedding photo of my hubby, Chris and me. We've been married since 1995, and I love him more and more each day!

This is our daughter, Madison hugging my belly at 25 weeks. Look how big it is already!

This is my belly at 33 weeks. Don't I look miserable?=)

This is how big my belly was at 36 weeks. I had them the following week. You can tell that they had dropped by this point. I look back at this photo, and still can't believe how huge I got!

This is the boys' first portrait together. They were 3 weeks old. We used it for our birth announcements.

Here's a copy of the birth announcements I made. I found the baby blue safety pin paper on the scrapbook aisle at Hobby Lobby and cut it down to size. Then I bought pretty vellum paper that had sparkly glitter in it, and cut it down to size and printed on it. I used glue dots to adhere the photo of the boys to the vellum,and then hole punched the pages and tied them together with baby blue ribbon at the top. It seemed like I was never going to finish them, but they finally got mailed out!=)

Here is one of the boys when Brady first came home from the hospital. They cried and cried and wouldn't sleep that day, but I was able to get them to calm down and fall asleep when I put them in the bassinet together!=) Peyton is on the left and Brady is on the right.

Here is a photo of my 3 oldest kids. This was taken when Madison was 9 weeks old, Hayley was 8 1/2 & Taylor was 6.

This photo was taken the same day, but Madison had fallen asleep, and we decided to take it anyway.

Here is a close up of Madison when she was 9 weeks old. Her hemangioma was so small at this point, that we thought it was only a scratch, and requested they airbrush it out.

Here is a photo of Madison's hemangioma, when she was 5 1/2 months old. She was at the hospital fixing to get put under anesthesia for her final steroid injection. Hemangiomas usually hit their peak in size by 6 months of age, so she didn't have treatments from that point on.

Well, this is Madison at 2 1/2, and as you can see, you can hardly see her hemangioma. If there is any residual by the age of 5, it can be lasered, but we feel confident that it will go away on it's own!=)

This photo was taken in the summer of 2006 for my hubby's Father's Day present!

Here is a photo of the boys, taken at around 3 months old. Look, they are holding hands! Peyton is once again on the left, and Brady is on the right. I don't know why or how, but I always put them in that order - I guess oldest to youngest!

Here is a photo of Brady - he's 3 1/2 months old here.

Here is one of Peyton, taken 11/09/07 at 3 1/2 months old. Although he was the smaller baby at birth, he is now the chubbier baby - go figure!=)

Here are the boys at 3 1/2 months old. Peyton is again on the left and Brady is on the right. Peyton looks like my hubby when he was a baby, and Brady looks like his mama!=)

Here's a photo of the boys when they were 5 months old. Again, Peyton is on the left, and Brady is on the right.

Here are the boys again. They are now 6 1/2 months old!