As Paul Harvey has said: And now, the rest of the story...six weeks later!
When I went in for my 40 week appointment on Monday Nov 28th I never in a million years expected to be watching my daughter snuggling skin-to-skin with her daddy at home 48 hours later.
Dr. Freeman checked me at my 40 week appointment and I was at 2.5/3 centimeters dilated and still 50% effaced. Since there was good progress we sent an induction date for Friday December 2nd at 8am. I left after giving my doctor a hug, bidding the receptionist adieu and laughing when she said "you'll probably go into labor tonight". I was feeling satisfied and already planning my last few days of pregnancy.
After a lunch date with Sally McConnell and a bank visit I called Bobby and we called the moms with the news. When I arrived home Bobby and I put together the new doggy car barrier sent by Bobby's brother Jeff and SIL Tawnya and took the dogs for a test drive. We came home and I fell asleep watching a movie with my husband. I can't even remember now what movie it was!
Two hours later I woke up to a wetness down below that actually had me questioning if I seriously pee'd my pants. Sure enough I had soaked my pantyliner so I decided to lay on my left side for a while and see what happened. Same results 15 minutes later so I sent Bobby to the school to finish up his weekly lesson plans just in case. At 10:45pm I had another leak and decided to call the on call doc (which happened to be my regular doc) to see if this was all a sign of labor!
She said "come on in and get a amniotic fluid test" so I called Bobby with the news and hopped in the shower so I could feel clean again. At 11:30 we packed up the car (again) and headed into the hospital which is 30 miles away. Along the trip I felt pretty silly since I didn't have any real contractions but I did notice a cramping and tightening in my belly a few times during the drive. It was silent the entire car ride because we were definitely sensing this was it! After getting checked in at Labor & Delivery and into a gown and into bed they did the Amnio Fluid Test which came back positive. I got a cervix check (solid 3), my blood drawn and an IV next and that is when I started to feel real tight contractions but they were too infrequent to check.
At this point we called in our labor coach (Lacey) who had to get back in the car and return to Bozeman after just leaving Monday morning to return to school.
At 4am Dr. Freeman checked in and I was still at a solid 3 but having some painful cramping contractions irregularly so we decided to start a Pitocin drip to see if they could get my contraction more regular and start some serious dilation.
Oh boy did that work. From 4am to 8am contractions went from bad to oh baby bad! I was in incredible pain and very uncomfortable in every way. Tried laying on my side, standing, squatting, the birthing ball, the bath tub and no matter what we tried I just felt worse. I kept working thru each contraction until they were back to back with very little break. At that point I begged for the epidural so I could try to get some relief and maybe sleep!
Of course it was time for a shift change so it took an hour and a half for the anesthesiologist to come in but let me tell you he quickly became my favorite doctor! He was wearing blue jeans and a tshirt with sunglasses on his head. He prepped me, taped me up, stuck me and I was completely numb from the waist down in only 10 minutes!!! Ahhhh...
I fell asleep immediately after and slept until 11:30 when my new on call doctor (whom I had never met) came in to check me. Dr. Bradford was a pretty nice man and was very happy to tell me that in 4 hrs I had gone from 4 cm and 80% effaced to 8 cm and 100% effaced. Whoo hoo! Still couldn't feel a darn thing and they said that when it was time to push I would feel it. Boy were they right! Two hours later I started to feel an intense pressure and so I flagged the nurse down and said "it's time!" After 15 minutes of practice pushing it was time to really push! At one point I heard Bobby say "I see the head" and so the nurse brought over a mirror so I could see the full head of hair my baby had. It wasn't too much longer after that when Peyton came out (waving her hand and screaming). Daddy got to catch her on the way out and cut the cord. It took a couple minutes for me to ask: is it a boy or girl? "It's a girl!" Bobby exclaimed! And I started sobbing uncontrollably with joy! A little girl! Peyton Kathryn Lauver weighed in at 7# 15oz and 20in long and scored a 9 on the Apgar scale. She roomed in with us and breast fed for the first time while mommy got some stitches. So perfect and on her due date! She is more punctual than her parents have ever been! They say only 5% of babies arrive on their due date - so glad we are in that 5%!
So that is how Peyton came into the world after 16 hours of labor, 45 minutes of pushing with her parents, her labor coach, and three nurses cheering her on!
Even though Lacey had to go back to Billings for school and work, Peyton had plenty of visitors. Caitlyn Butler stopped by after work, Bridget Lambert came for an overnight, Ann Dickensheets & Kay Lansverk stopped to see her the next day, and Sally McConnell came for hugs. By 4pm we had watched all the necessary videos and had all of her newborn shots and tests so it was time to take Miss Peyton home!
What a ride! More stories to come!
