Peyton is here! (long)

Peyton Olivia made her entrance into the world on 10/2/10 at 1:13 pm.

10/1/10 was just an ordinary day for me.  I went shopping for a table for the baby's room and did some grocery shopping.  I did have a little back pain but I told myself it was from walking around so much during the day.  I ended up staying up pretty late that night into the early morning.  At about 3:00 am I finally decided that it was time to go to bed.  I powered off the computer and as a began to stand my water broke!  At first I though that I had wet myself but as I straightend up I realized that was not the case.  I went into the bedroom and told my DH to get up that I thought my water had just broke.  I then ran into the bathroom and stood in the bathtub because I couldn't think of what else to do at the moment.  DH called my doctors office and spoke to the nurse.  While he was doing this I made my way to the toilet where I continued to leak fluid.  Finally the nurse called back and told us to head to the hospital.  We grabbed a few more things for my hospital bag, got dressed, took the dog out and headed to the hospital. 

I was fine during the ride and was feeling no pain at this point.   We arrived at about 4 am.  When I got out of the car I felt the biggest gush yet!  It soaked through my clothes!  For whatever reason  I was really embarrased to walk into the emergency room with my clothes wet.  Luckily there was a nurse there with a wheelchair and we were checked in and taken to our room quickly.  Once in the room I changed, got hooked up to the monitors and got my I.V.  When I was checked I was 1cm and 50% effaced.  I still was in no pain so we were left to get some rest. At about 5 am I started feeling the pain of the contractions.  It felt like really bad gas pains and a dull stabbing pain in my stomach.  But it was not unmanagable.  At 9 am I was checked again and was 3-4 cm.  My nurse ordered my epidural and by 9:30 it was in (didn't hurt at all, just felt like someone poking me with their finger in my back).  From them on I felt nothing!  It was wonderful! 

At about noon I was ready to start pushing.  I pushed for a little over an hour and at 1:13 pm Peyton was born.  She weighed 5lbs. 15 oz. 19.5 in. I can not explain the feeling that came over me when they put her on my chest.  She was so beautiful and I fell in love instantly!  My husband was great through it all.  He would not watch the birth in the mirror with me but he held my leg and counted for me.   

My stay in the hospital left much to be desired.  My day nurses were great but my night nurses pretty much ignored us and offered no help at all.  Breast feeding has been a real challenge for me.  Peyton would not latch on properly and everytime I tried to feed her it would cause me immense pain.  This lead to her not eating well the first night we were in the hospital.  My night nurse showed no concern.  The next day they tested her for jandice and said her levels where extremly close to being positive.  She was also a little dehydrated.  Of course I fell to pieces over this news and tried and tried to get her to nurse properly.  I called my night nurse that evening in tears because I was so frustrated and my nipples were so raw that I could barely touch them.  She just looked at me with a blank stare and offered no advice.  I finally asked her about supplimenting with formula but told her that my hesitation was because I feared her not going back to the breast.  She just looked at me and said "yeah, I guess we could do that".  She also never once offered me any pain medication during our stay.  On dispatch day they came and ran her test again and told me that unless we could get an appointment for the pediatrician for the next day, they were going to keep her for observation.  Again I broke down.  Here we were being told that our baby was in the "danger zone" for jandice and there was a possibilty that she would not go home, yet (knowing this was my first child) no one was offering me any advise or help.  While we waited for her test to come back I finally got to see the lactation specialist who tried to help me with getting her latched on properly.  Her advise helped a little but it was still really painful.  Finally her tests came back and they showed that our risk had gone down.  They told us she could come home, which was a huge relief to us.  We packed up and got out of that hospital so fast!  My day nurse had started me on the breast pump so we rented one and headed home.  When I left the hospital I was attempting to breast feed, pumping and supplimenting with formula. 

We did see the pediatrician the next day and she made us feel 100% better.  She was not worried about Peyton having jandice and said she was perfectly healthy.  She said the hopital sometimes uneccessarily freaks people out.  She did notice that Peyton had a bit of a tounge tie and referred us to the ear nose and throat doctor later that afternoon.  We saw him and he said Peyton has an unusually short floor of the mouth.  He said there wasn't much to snip but he would snip what he could and that hopefully that would offer me some relief in breast feeding but he doubted it.  He said breast feeding just doesn't work out for some people and that I should not beat myself up over it.  He will see her again in a month to see how she heals up.  Hopefully her short floor will not affect her in the future.  It's something we will have to check on again when she starts talking. 

We are so happy to have Peyton home.  I have begun to exclusivley pump and she is now eating like a champ!  We are a bit sleep deprived but we are loving every minute of it!  God truely blessed us with an angel and we are so love.