Payten's Birth

Payten will be six weeks old tomorrow! This has been the most rewarding, amazing and exhausting six weeks of my life. And the time has just flown by. For the last month of my pregnancy I felt like she was never going to come out and now i can't believe she has been here for six weeks.

As most of you know, I had big plans for a natural childbirth, however in my last weeks of pregnancy i realized that dream might be a bigger reach than I planned. My platelets (what clots your blood) were dropping. They scheduled me to be induced on October 8th. I had heard bad things about Pitocin and knew I wanted to avoid it if I could so Jennifer my midwife suggested an alternative but said it could be a much longer process since it was much less invasive. I started doing acupuncture about a week before the induction to try to ripen and open my cervix.

Brandon and I spent a lot of time together the week before Payten's birth just relaxing and preparing for our new arrival. The morning of my induction my dad came over at six to make pancakes and bacon. What a great treat!!! Then we were off to the hospital! We looked like we were moving in when we arrived... I wanted to be prepared.

We spent most of the day just relaxing at the hospital...waiting! My mom and I took a walk around outside and then Brandon and I took a walk... still nothing. Around 5 the women who had been doing my acupuncture came in to do one last session with me in the hospital. It took almost no time at all once the needles were in place for my contractions to start! What a great feeling. At that point the pain was exciting. With each contraction I felt like Payten's birth was getting closer. Jennifer was wonderful and sat with us for over an hour and then checked my cervix before she left for the night. Only one centimeter! I was so disappointed, but my doula (Merka) Brandon and my parents were all great in getting my spirits back up.

As it started to get dark people headed home and soon it was just Brandon and my mom. None of us had got great sleep the night before and we were up early that morning so Brandon and my mom took turns with me through the night as my contractions got stronger and closer together. They became so intense it took all i had to focus on the end result, Payten! Brandon and my mom were both great, Brandon tried to sleep but wasn't able to. At around four my mom laid down and Brandon and i decided to walk around the birthing ward. It was very peaceful and quiet, there was no other laboring mothers there at all. My dad showed up around five, by that point my contractions were intense and with almost no break in between. I was excited when Jennifer showed up a few minutes later. I was sure she would check me and tell me I was at least 6 centimeters... wrong still only a centimeter and a half. The really bad news was that my platelets had dropped from 125,000 to 106,000. After talking with Jennifer and then between us Brandon and i decided to go ahead with a c-section. It seemed to all go by so fast from there. It was only about 30 minutes after our decision that I was getting in a gown and Brandon in scrubs.

Dr. Murphy did the surgery and he along with his team made the experience as special as possible. They let Merka come in to the operating room and they even let me bring my own music!! The surgery was quick and after only 20 minutes they were pulling her out. The weird thing about the spinal is that I felt no pain but could feel as of the sensations as pressure. When they pulled her out everyone kept saying how much hair she had and how beautiful she was. It took a couple seconds and then I heard her first cry! What an amazing feeling, it was so overwhelming at first I couldn't hold back the tears. They quickly checked her out and wrapped her up and set her right on my chest! I could have layed there forever just staring at her. She was beautiful! I know all parents say it but she really was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen! All ten fingers and all ten toes, she is perfect!