Peyton's First Three Weeks

I can't believe it's been over three weeks since Peyton was born. It seems like she's been here forever and yet it also seems like she's been here such a short amount of time. These three weeks have definitely been a blur, but we are so blessed to have amazing family and friends that love us and Peyton and have been such a huge help! Abuelita/Lala has spent numerous days and nights at our house to help out with cooking, cleaning, caring for the little one and me :) My good friend Jen R came up one Friday night to spend the night and take the night shift, cook some yummy tortilla soup and pigs in a blanket, watch Peyton while Matt and I grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner, brought yummy Teddy Grahams to eat, and took some amazing pictures of the cutie pie. My best friend Tera took a day off of work to spend the day with us, cook dinner, do laundry, and help out wherever needed. Multiple people have brought us dinner; so, we don't have to worry about what we are going to eat. My sister has come over to help out and give me great advice. Poppa worked from our house one afternoon to help out. And Nana came all the way from Georgia to spend a few days with us. Countless other people have come by to bring things and help out (I apologize for not naming everyone, but please know it has been very appreciated!!)

During the last three weeks, Peyton has been on numerous walks (thank you Austin weather!), made two trips to Poppa and Lala's house, gone to the doctor three times, "eaten" brunch at Jack Allen's Kitchen, "walked" around UT campus to see Daddy's job site, experienced her first snow, and entertained many people (some that came as far as New York to meet her! thanks Heather!)

Peyton's personality is really beginning to show. She has started smiling and "talking"/cooing at us! We are fairly confident that she is smiling in response to us and not just gas ;) She also loves her little bear on her play mat...he gets lots of smiles from her :) Each time she smiles, we catch a glimpse into what it will be like as she gets older and interacts with us even more! It is going to be so much fun!!

Peyton is really a very good baby. She has gone 4 and 4 1/2 hours between feedings a handful of times at night, and generally only cries when she is hungry, dirty, or in pain (needing to burp or upset stomach). She will sit in her bouncy chair or pack 'n play by herself and be perfectly content for a little while. Of course, she does have her "off" days and moments, but for the most part, she is a very good 3 1/2 week old! Can't wait to see what she will be like at 4 1/2 weeks!

January 13, 2011

Since Peyton did not want to come out on her own, we went into the hospital Thursday morning to be induced. I must admit that knowing the date and time we were going to the hospital was very nice and appealed to my planning nature. The night before, I unpacked our hospital bag (it had been packed for 3 weeks) and repacked it with warmer clothes (a cold front had blown in). I don’t think I got more than 30 minutes of sleep at a time that night before (not a good way to start weeks/months/years of little sleep). We woke up and got to the hospital at 9. We were admitted and got set up in our room (it was very nice) and introduced to our nurse (really liked her).

The nurse put in my IV (took three times to get it right) and hooked me up to a machine to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. Apparently, I was already having contractions when we got there, but thankfully they didn’t hurt yet. The nurse guessed that things may progress more quickly since my body had already started the whole process without drugs. The doctor came in around noon and broke my water, and that’s when things started to feel “uncomfortable”! I had let the nurse and doctor know that I would want an epidural, and the nurse informed me that it would be about 30 minutes to get the epidural once I requested it, so to keep that in mind. It’s amazing how the contractions really started to hurt after they broke my water…within an hour, I had requested the epidural and the pain stopped. At that point, we were just hanging out waiting for everything to progress. My parents and Matt’s parents came in to say hi and visit for a few minutes, then we just waited.

The nurse checked me around 3ish (I think) and I was almost ready to go! Things had definitely progressed but the baby still wasn’t quite low enough to start pushing; so, we continued to wait. At this point, I was starting to feel some pain/discomfort, but I wasn’t sure if this was normal because the nurse kept saying that they want me to feel a little so I know when to push. Well, the pain started to get worse and when my sister and her little girl, Sierra, stopped by to say Hi, I had to stop talking to breathe through the pain. At this point, we realized this wasn’t normal. My sister and Jen R left the room and the anesthesiologist came back to try and fix the epidural. He tried some sort of a “fix” and said if that didn’t work, they’d have to re administer the epidural. It soon became apparent that the “fix” had not worked because I was now in a lot of pain. After about 30 minutes, the second epidural was in and I was feeling good again….that was a looooong 30 minutes though!

At 5 o’clock, the nurse said it was finally ready to start pushing! She said 2 – 3 hrs is the average time it takes to push for a first time mom, but she thought it would only take me about an hour…woohoo! Well, an hour comes and goes….two hours come and go. At this point, her shift is ending and she has to leave. She said she would stay and see me through the end if she thought I would be finished soon, but she was afraid that I still had awhile (she apologized for getting my hopes up earlier). So, hour 3 comes and goes and still pushing! Finally, after 3 hours and 45 minutes, at 8:43 PM, Peyton made her debut!!!

It was an extremely exhausting day, but oh so worth it!

Peyton’s Arrival – From the Waiting Room

Hopefully, Melissa will fill us all in on her birth story and the Delivery Room side of Peyton’s birth, but I thought I would give the new parents and Peyton a glimpse into the excitement the rest of us were feeling, as well as the antics of her grandparents, as we waited for her arrival.  When I finally got to the RIGHT hospital (after first going to the Heart Hospital of Austin which is right next to Central Market) and the RIGHT waiting room, I found Melissa’s parents, Bob & Olga, waiting with Matt’s parents, Bruce & Susan.  Mel’s sister, Jen, and her niece, Sierra, had just arrived and they were visiting Mel in the delivery room.  Matt soon walked in the waiting room to bring Sierra to the grandparents and he joked that, “Look, Peyton came out as a toddler!”

Sierra ran right to her Papa,who was trying to get some work done while waiting for his 2nd granddaughter to arrive.  Sierra soon put a stop to that business though and temporarily distracted all the grandparents.

Sierra was also a big fan of Bruce….I think the feeling was mutual. (TIME: 3:54pm)

Matt took me back to say “Hi” to Melissa before things got “serious.”  When I got to her room, Mel said that she was feeling more pain and the nurse came in to check her epidural.  Her sis and I evacuated the room and joined the grandparents back in the waiting room.  About an hour later we got a text from Matt that they had put in a new epidural.

Mel’s mom and I made a trip to the cafeteria to learn that they did not open until 5pm, so we waited and then Jen & I went down to get some grilled cheeses.  At this point, I was actually nervous about leaving the room thinking that any moment, Matt would be bursting in with news.  But, hey, I’m pregnant and I love my grilled cheese.  The only person who enjoyed their sandwich more than me was Sierra, she demolished it and it perked her right up, she was soon charging up and down the hall hoping to see a “Bubble” (Baby) in the nursery.

At about 5:20, I started to think, “Oh man, I better get some pics before Peyton shows up and we all run out of here.”  Little did I know we had another 3+ hours ahead of us.

Yes, the Grandparents had had a long day at that point…but they were very good sports for the paparazzi.

Jen decided she had better take Sierra home and get her to bed and then come back up to the hospital.  Bye, bye, Sierra!  Tomorrow you’ll have a new cousin!

A little after 6pm, Mel’s best and oldest friend, Tera, arrived with not only food from Wendy’s for Matt and food for Mel from Jimmy John’s, but TIFF’s TREATS.  I don’t know if those were supposed to be for everyone or not, but she passed them around the table and we dove in.

Matt had called in a food order to Tera thinking that Peyton would be arriving soon and they’d be hungry.  Mel had started pushing a little after 5pm and we continued to get texts of “Still Pushing.”  At this point we had quite a crowd gathered…from the left, Kirstine & Jen V. (college friends of mine & Mel’s), Jen (Mel’s Sis), Tera (she of the Tiff’s Treats cookies), Olga, Bob, Bruce, & Susan.

There were definitely some funny moments in the night…excited, nervous energy has a way of making people say the darndest things.  I’ll leave out a few quotes, because this is a family blog, but here are some highlights of our conversation.

“She’s easy” – Bruce, in reference to his wife and Matt’s mom.  This was in reference to her being gullible, after Bob had “made her look” at something, Bob was quite the practical jokester that evening, so I don’t remember exactly what it was this time.

“She was beheading the roses.” – Olga, in preparation for Jen’s wedding, Bob had gone to Costco and bought 30 dozen roses so that they could “behead” them and have petals to throw.

“Those roses had like a 100 petals each.” – Bob, Olga disagreed and went to her iPhone for support.

“The average rose has 7 petals.” – Olga, per Google (she had previously looked up Rodney Dangerfield’s early career…he was a singer/waiter).

“Not Costco roses.” – Bob

“If she [Peyton] doesn’t come by midnight, we get to pick a new name.” – Bob

“Everyone, just take a bite.” – Olga, trying to pass two pieces of gum around the table for us to all share.

“She’s not built for running, but she was running.” – Bruce, in reference to Mel’s second nurse, Monique.

Olga also described The Situation (yes, from Jersey Shore) as looking like a certain part of the male anatomy.  Kirstine came back in and saw the quote and said, “What is that in reference to?  One of the babies?”

As the day wore on, Bruce started to pace some in the hallway and Olga went to get an up date from Mel’s nurse.  Matt’s texts of “Still pushing” just weren’t cutting it anymore.  A little while later we got this text from Matt:

“We’re getting reports from the nurses of parents lurking in the hallway.”

Olga and Bruce started to point fingers at one another.

“Lurker!” – Olga to Bruce

“You’re almost a stalker!” – Bruce to Olga

“There’s this BIG woman coming down the hallway.” – Olga, in reference to Mel’s nurse

“I figured out why she was running…to get away from you!” – Bruce to Olga

As the evening wore on, the grandparents were definitely getting more nervous and anxious, as evidenced by the lurking.

“She’s out & crying!” – text from Matt

Happy Abuela & Nana!!!

We all intended to remain patiently in the waiting room, until Bruce came in and said, “You can hear her crying.”  Man, I’ve never seen grandparents move so fast and, of course, I had to follow to document their rule-breaking as they loitered in the hallway.

Soon, everyone was in the hallway and then Peyton’s first picture arrived!  I don’t know what US Weekly would have paid to have that photo, but Susan & Olga would have paid plenty.

The phones were all busy sending out texts and making calls to spread the news.

“Did you get my e-mail?  HUGE” – Susan, in reference to Peyton, not Monique.

“She’s a wall-hanger” – Bruce, comparing his new granddaughter to a trophy fish/deer/etc.

3 of the 6 Codeheads….poor Carolyn was stuck at work (thanks a lot Freescale), Lindsay was in Denver, and Melissa, well, she was had her hands full.

Matt came out a little after 9pm and was very surprised to see his Dad “lurking” in the hallway and even more surprised when he turned the corner and saw ALL of us.

A little before 9:30, we ALL got to go in and see Mel and her new baby girl.

Look at that sweet pretty girl!

Matt joined Bob & Bruce in the “Daddy Club.”  And one day it will be him out in that waiting room or lurking in the hallway waiting for his grandchild to be born.

Peyton had to get a shot before being wheeled off to the nursery for her bath & whatnot.  Melissa did NOT want to give up her baby even for a little bit, but nurses do not take “No” for an answer.

Yes, that is Monique wheeling Peyton down the hall.

This VERY WEIRD ceiling tile was right outside the nursery and we could not make sense of it.

While Bob stayed with Melissa until she got transferred to her Post-Partum room, the rest of us went to check out Peyton in the nursery.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos through the glass INTO the nursery.  So, Matt got the camera and turned the tables on us.

Meanwhile, Peyton waited patiently for her first bath.

Well, she was mostly patient.

Then the torture began…

Ahhhh…finally over.  So precious!

Thank you Matt & Melissa for letting us share in your excitement and meet your new baby girl!  She’s wonderful and we can’t wait to watch her grow up…but not too fast.