31 hours to see my baby

I want to remember the details of my baby's birth. Those of you that are interested, it is below. 

 We went to the doctors office on Tuesday, Jan 24 so Dr. M could see if I had progressed at all. I was about 1 centimeter so he decided to go ahead and send me to the hospital that evening. [I believe I have explained before, they don't let women with gestational diabetes go past their due dates because of possible complications. My due date was Jan 26, and Dr. M was on call the 25th so that's when we wanted to have Peyton.] Drew and I grabbed a quick dinner and spent about 30 minutes with my mom, sister, Audrey and Owen. They came in town to see Peyton, but I really wanted to love on them before all the craziness came!

We arrive at the hospital about 6:45pm. Side-note: I wanted to wear my own clothes over the hospital gown and can I just say that was wonderful! I got situated and they started me on Cervadil which was supposed to open my cervix. When I was hooked up to all the machines (so annoying!) I realized I already was contracting, but once the medicine was in I started feeling them pretty consistently. They were relatively painful, and I started having about 6 every 10 minutes. [that's the most the doctors want you to have them in that amount of time] I asked for some medicine once I was pretty uncomfortable. They gave me Fentanyl which made me super dizzy and hot, but allowed me to get about 3 or 4 hours of sleep between the 3 doses I received.

I was scheduled to start Pitocin around 7 Wednesday morning, but my contractions were already about every 2 minutes so the doctor wanted to hold off. I walked around as much as I could that morning. Being out of bed helped so much with the pain. Whether I was on my knees or leaning against Drew, it was a huge relief on my back!

It wasn't until around 4 pm that Dr. M came in and asked if I wanted the epidural. He wanted to put it in and then break my water and start the Pitocin, because my contractions were starting to slow down. They put the epidural in, and then soon after broke my water and started me on Pitocin. Unfortunately that is when things started to get rough. The contractions definitely got a lot stronger, and I know that because despite the epidural, I felt them. My right side of my body, and lower left leg were numb, but my left stomach, side, and back weren't numb at all. NOT a pleasant feeling at all.

I had a fair amount of back labor, and strong contractions. Drew was wonderful with helping me concentrate and breathe. I honestly don't think I would have been able to get through it without him. Even when I didn't acknowledge him, he was there to remind me what to focus on to 'forget' about the pain.

The anesthesiologist tried to up my dosage in my epidural but it didn't help. Sometime that night he came in to give me another one. That was my first major breakdown. He put the needle in my back, but it was only making my right leg react. He kept sticking me closer to the left, but I literally had sharp shooting pains down my right leg. He suggested that I might have some scoliosis. Who knows, I might but I was terrified. Lots of tears and sharp pains (while contractions also ensued) later, he went to a lower vertebrae and it worked like a charm... for a couple hours.

After a few hours, the epidural wore off in many places that makes the epidural worth it. I kept having strong urges to push. My Dr checked me, and I was 9 cm, totally effaced, but Peyton wasn't down far enough. He had a C-section to do and said he would be back and I should be ready to push by then. Within 10 minutes I asked my nurse how long his c-section would take and she responded 2 1/2 hours. THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO BE ABLE TO WAIT THAT LONG! It was around 12:30 when the writhing in uncontrollable pain began, but by 1:20 I told my nurse I had to start pushing. So that's what I did.

I was really disappointed that Dr. M was in OR. He delivered me and I really wanted him to deliver Peyton. My pain definitely won out on that battle, so Dr. G stepped in at the last minute. I am so blessed to have multiple wonderful doctors around me!

Peyton was born at 2:22 am, and was delivered right to my chest which was such a great feeling! Obviously I was exhausted and in a lot of pain, but the adrenaline you have helped me to hold, kiss, and love on my baby right away. The first thing I noticed about Peyton [besides the ridiculous amount of black hair he had] was that he definitely had Drew's nose. That moment with Drew looking at our precious miracle was something I will never forget! It is honestly something  you can't understand until your there, and you can't really explain afterwards.

I joked later about how if I would have realized that the Epidural wasn't going to work I would have just gone with a natural delivery. I had the pain meds, but still experienced a lot of the pain anyway. Just didn't get the bragging rights of doing it natural. ;) I can honestly say though, that through the 31 hours of pain, I definitely plan on doing it again. It didn't scare me or turn me away from having another baby, because my baby is completely 100% worth it!

Brandon, SamShe, Mom, Phyllis, and Bryan were the troopers that waited all night to meet Peyton. We were so glad that he was loved on right away by some favorites! Dr. M also came by to apologize for not being there for the delivery. We had to get a picture with him as well!