Peyton Marie Ives

Monday, October 5th of 2009
We became parents to a beautiful little girl!
Peyton Marie Ives

Monday Oct. 5th we went to Unity Hospital at 6:30am and started my induction to labor. When Dr. Hamel came in first thing in the morning, he said that the weekend had helped a little and that I was dilated up to 2+. They started me on Pitocin and we began labor. At the beginning it was pretty boring, got hooked up to the monitor (monitoring the same things as the NST) and the waiting game started for the day. Not knowing how long it would take or in R's case, what would be going on during the Vikings vs Packers game at 7:20. With both Grandma's and Grandpa's and Uncle Gerrit there, we sat around and talked and joked about the scene in "Baby Mama" where she's sitting on the birthing ball and they ask who wants drugs and she raises her had and goes "Whoo Whoo!" - the laughs were good to keep my mind off the pain when I could actually start feeling the contractions (the first couple I didn't even know I had- too bad they couldn't all stay like that!) Also to pass the time, R went online and did some shopping- He ordered her Minnesota Wild cozy cover for her car seat and her Lobster Halloween costume, I even did an update to the blog for the previous Monday apt.

When Dr Hamel came and checked on me around noon, I was about a 3+ and about 1pm, I took the epidural as the pain was starting to get to me. That was not fun... not that anyone said that it would be but at that moment it was like getting the pain from 2 places at once. But once it was done things got better and I was able to settle down a little bit and take short naps on and off. My legs felt like they were burning up but from waist up I was freezing.

At about 5:15pm R got back from dinner right as Donna my nurse came in with the Dr and they checked me again and I was already dilated to 9cm, and Donna said we are having a baby in the next 15 mins or so... Never tell a pregnant women in labor 15 mins... cause it was no 15 mins!

Just pushing wasn't working but once I was given the stirrups to pull on that helped speed up the process a little more.

We had one scare when we were getting close... Hamel checked on her position and asked for an ultrasound, I could not see anything that he was seeing on the ultrasound but Mom and Ma said that they did and that she was trying to

come out sideways. We heard Dr. Hamel say "that's what I thought" and we thought for sure that it was going to turn into a c-section. But with a little twist and turn, he helped her along and got her to turn her body so that her shoulders would came down and out correctly. He said at this point that I could keep trying to push and sometimes that helps or we could have the epidural upped to help reduce some of the pain, cause at this point I could feel EVERYTHING, the epidural was doing nothing at all! With the chances of the epidural sending me backwards and slowing things down again, I said I would keep pushing, total time pushing was an hour and 15 mins.

It was a long day with lots of "I just want to be done" comments from me and R trying his best to be supportive and not laughing at me in pain :), but after 12 hours and 45 mins of labor our little bundle of joy was born.

When the Dr. put her on my chest, the first thing I said was "she's got my God Damn nose!" and everyone laughed!

As they took her over to clean her up, I also finished up and shocked the Dr a little in the process. When he was looking at the placenta, he said that I should have had complications during pregnancy (other then the Preclampcia) because the umbilical cord was not in the middle of the placenta, it was off the side and that could have caused a lack of blood flow to the baby and he was shocked that it didn't. I was shocked when he was looking at it and he asked if R wanted to come and look at it and R actually went over and looked at it as he explained it to him. There's no way I could have looked at it.

But what a feeling, holding this little baby that had been inside of me for the past 9 months. To finally holding this baby that has been in the making for the last 22 months and seeing her moving, opening her eyes and hearing her cry, it was the most amazing feeling ever.

And to top R's day off, she was born at 7:17pm - the game started at 7:20pm and kick off wasn't until about 7:30pm, so he didn't miss any of the game. He even had the game turned on before the Dr. even left the room!

Everyone came to visit and were there at the hospital when she was born. Auntie Anna was outside the door talking Grandpa Bart through everything they were hearing, and she got to see Peyton before she had to go home to Tim who was home sick and had the kids. Aunt Nancy, Aunt Bummer and Nikki came too. Nikki got to hold Peyton before she was even 30 mins old, I know that made her day. And Haley, Joe, and Haley's mom even made it out before we moved to our new room-- at half time. The nurse could not have planned that any better. We got all settled to move right as half time started. R pushed the lullaby music that plays threw out the hospital saying that a baby was born and we made it into our room and were pretty much settled by the time the 2nd half started.

After settling in, I got to feed Peyton her first bottle (they told us she could eat about 1/2oz or so and she drank half the bottle - whoops - it was only 1oz that she had but still, that's where the little eater started!) We did have her stay in the nursery for the night, as I was really sore and tired and R's back was already out so sleeping in the chair that folded out meant he was not getting up fast or anything, so she slept there for the night to allow us to get a little sleep.

Here are some photos from Peyton's first couple hours. Our first family photo
And yes, R is looking up at the game and not at any of the cameras
Grandma JoAnne was taking the photos and we didn't get one of her holding Peyton right after she was born but she took her turn holding her

Grandpa StevePapa Bart Grandma GailUncle Gerri