Payton's Arrival

As I mentioned before, I am known to go over due with my babies and I was not progressing at all, so we were thinking that this delivery would pretty much be the same.

This past Sunday, I was at my mom's house and decided to grab some essential oils to help induce labor. I read up on it to find the right ones and pulled them all out. I wasn't going to use them right away, but I wanted to have them for when I was about to my due date, I could use them to possibly help speed things along. That night on our way home from my mom's house, we noticed that Brooklyn was coughing and that it did NOT sound like just any cough, but a croup cough!

That night I got home and laid in bed and listened to one of hypnosis/visual imagery cds and sat and smelt the Clary Sage essential Oil, but again, did not rub it anywhere on me...... just smelt it as I did some listening. I don't know what the deal was, but I honestly dreamed all night long that I was having contractions and I ended up waking up at around 4:00 with some real contractions. I woke up about every half hour or so with contractions until about 6:00.

Brooklyn came in that morning and her cough was really bad. She sounded horrible when she tried to talk and had a bit of a wheezy sound when she breathed. We decided to kind of watch it and see if we needed to call the Doctor or not through out the day. She acted fairly normal through the morning. While Kenidi was on her nap, Brooklyn and I snuggled on the couch watching a cartoon. I was loving my alone time with her and honestly, I knew unconsciously that I was going to be having my baby later that day, all I wanted to do was spend time with my girls. I was so calm and in love all day long with them. I had contractions through out the day (that weren't terribly close to each other) and I found myself pulling things out and doing things that needed to be done before I would need to go to the hospital (all unintentional though). As the day went on, Brooklyn started to not do well so I put her on a nap in my bed to see if that would help, but by the time she woke up, she was on fire and I was feeling worried about it. I started getting the idea that my contractions were starting to pick up a bit more & I wasn't sure what was wrong with my child.... we decided to pack the girls up and run over to the Instacare.

We arrive at Instacare and luckily there is absolutely no one else there! We go in and they weighed Brooklyn and took her temperature. The poor girl had a 101 temperature and they got her to take some tylenol right away to get the fever down. She did great (really cooperated) & was acting very cute. This whole time of being in there, I am fighting contractions and trying to not make a big deal of it. We meet with the Dr. and we are confirmed on our thoughts of Brooklyn having Croup! They had to give her a steriod to open her air ways and then had her sit and breathe in a Neulizer (which she DID NOT like one bit and screamed!) At this point, she was wanting me to hold her and I was fighting pretty strong contractions..... couldn't do it, she had to go back to her dad. Finally it was done and after the Dr. came back in, he gave us the good to go. I couldn't go! I had to stop and hang on to the door frame while a strong contraction was passing. We told him and the nurses that I was having labor contractions and they asked if they needed to wheelchair me out or call 911. I told them that I just needed to let it pass and get home so that I could go to the hospital.

We jumped in the car and I called my mom. We were going to go meet her to pick up a humidifier for Brooklyn, but I told her that we wouldn't be meeting her, that we were going to be running home and packing and just bringing the girls to her. As we were pulling up to our house, I realized that I was going to be having a baby and my daughter was sick and wouldn't be able to go to the hospital to meet her new baby sister.... I lost it, I started crying! I hated the fact that I wasn't going to be able to really involve my girls in the experience. I didn't have much time to be sad since contractions were picking up and I needed to get my girls fed and the care packed up. I was prepared for the most part and had already packed all of our stuff, except my husbands..... of course he didn't think it would be happening early and hadn't packed a thing! After getting our girls fed with quick hotdogs & me being all packed, I got a little impatient and told my husband that he needed to hurry because I needed to GO! We got everything in and made it to my mom's house. Normally I go to my mom's and wait to see if things pick up more and then go to the hospital, but my contractions were so strong at this point that I felt that I needed to jump back in the car and go.

If you remember, I mentioned earlier that I hadn't progressed at all the week earlier at my Dr.s appointment. I honestly thought I would be going to the hospital and they would be telling me that I needed to go home because I was only a 1 or 2 at that point, but I wanted to know.... the contractions were strong. We got there around 9:30 or 10:00 and they got me right in, got me checked and I was dilated to a 5!!!! Holy Smokes that progression went fast! I got taken to my delivery room and was told that I would be having this baby within a few hours. They asked if I wanted an epidural right away and I said YES!...... we got word back that the Dr. was in an emergency C-Section and wasn't available!

As I waited I got my IVs put in and the cute nurse was struggling getting it in! She stuck it into my right hand and I wanted to cry. It hurt so bad, it just didn't feel right. She hit a vessel and couldn't go through it so she had to go to the other hand. She got it to go in but then got blood all over me..... then they put the wrong label on my blood vile and the lab wouldn't accept it, so.... they had to stick my arm to draw more blood. My poor body had lots of pokes that night.

The epidural Dr. was finally available but there was another lady wanting the epidural. My cute nurses fought for me and he came to my room first, it was a good thing too, as soon as he got done putting it in and I went to go move, my water broke all over the table. As weird as it sounds, I was kind of excited to experience that because I have never had it break on it's own. The Dr. came in and confirmed that my water definitely did break & that everything was going to be progressing quickly. (My Dr. was out of town so the Dr. on call ended up delivering her).

It was kind of weird this time around, the epidural was working because I could feel the numbing in my legs, but I was still feeling things that I hadn't felt with my other 2 girls. It got to the point that I felt like I needed to push the epidural button to put more in and then they came in and needed to check me. I was fully dilated and was ready to push, but she wasn't in the proper position. I waited a while for the Dr. to finally come in and he was able to slightly turn her while I pushed and she popped right into position. My next contraction I pushed 3 smaller pushes and she was out! She was born at 12:58 on June 28th and weighed 8 lbs 11 oz.
Even with having pushed the epidural button, I still felt the "ring of fire" that I have heard about. I can't imagine what it would have felt like if I hadn't had the epidural. Thanks to me pushing the button right before needing to push, it took FOREVER to wear off. I tried shortly after having her to stand so that I could go to the bathroom so I could be moved to my other room, but I collapsed while standing and they had to bring in a wheelchair and have my husband pick me up to put me in it.

I could tell just from how she was in my tummy, that she was going to be a calmer baby, and I was right. She came out and hardly cried AT ALL! She was so sweet and quiet and just wanted to observe what was going on. They let me hold her for a little bit before they weighed her and then gave her back to me to have some skin on skin time.

I honestly feel so spoiled and blessed to have this little one. She is SO good! She is a good sleeper, she's a good eater, she has just been such a little angel and her older sister's adore her! I thought my other 2 girls were really good babies (which they were), but Payton is the calmest of them all.

We only stayed 1 night in the hospital. We couldn't take having the nurses come in every hour or 2 to check on us and not letting us sleep! We also wanted to take the girls from my mom so that she could go to my step-sister's bridal shower. So last night we were home in our own bed and Payton went to bed at 10:30, woke up at 3:45 to eat and then didn't wake up again until after 7:30. James and I both felt like we pretty got a full night's sleep!

I have a calm, sweet baby and I haven't really had any pain from having her! My tailbone is still bothering me a bit and my feet are still really swollen, but I honestly can't complain, I am recovering extremely well and feel like I am able to still function in every day life pretty easily. It is definitely nice when I have a 2 year old and a 1 year old to love on and play with still :) My mother-in-law has come in from Colorado to help us until Sunday and it is so nice to have some extra hands to help and play!