Peyton Matthew Carpenter Has Arrived!

Well... Matthew and I had a pleasant surprise on January 22. Peyton was born!

6lb 11oz - 19 inches - 7:51am

Saturday evening, Mom had come over to my house to bring me a maternity dress because I was carrying so low that it hurt to wear pants. I told her that I had felt pressure below my belly that evening, like I was on my period. By the time she left at 8pm, I was feeling slight cramps every once in a while and I was leaking clear fluid instead of the normal mucus. Mom said not to worry about it, so I thought they were Braxton Hicks. I was getting the cramps more and more often through the night, and about 11:30pm I called Mom and told her what was going on. Again, she said not to worry about it and go to sleep (because the cramps were only below my belly, and she thought contractions would be the whole belly). Through the rest of the night the cramps would get worse, so I couldn't sleep. I ended up just walking around the house trying to ease the pain. A little before 5am, I called my doctor's office and spoke with the nurse on call. I still wasn't sure if they were labor pains, because I hadn't had any Braxton Hicks and I was only 35 and a half weeks along. At that point, I was able to time them about 10 minutes apart. The nurse said that since I was that far along, I needed to go to the hospital to get monitored. I told Matt, but we took our time packing my bag, I decided to eat because I was starving, and Matt took a shower. We finally left the house at 6am. When we got to the hospital, we had to wait in the waiting room for around 30 minutes before the nurse came to get us - even though we had preregistered. I got to the room, put on the gown, and monitors were placed on me. The nurse then had to ask me a bunch of silly questions regarding family history and such, which I already answered at my doctor's office. She THEN checked to see how dilated I was, and said I was 6 and a half cm. Then they had to take my blood for testing so that I could get the epidural and put in the IV. I had to wait for the tests before I could get my epidural. I rolled on my side to see if we could ease the pain, and after a bit my water broke. As soon as my water broke, the contractions were HORRIBLE. I could already feel him coming, and of course I was very vocal about the pain. The nurse checked my cervix, and I was 10cm already. It was then I was informed that since they didn't have the lab results back, I was so dilated, and my water broke, I wouldn't be able to have the epidural. By the time the doctor came in (Dr. Eric Tallent was the doctor on call who delivered Petyon - Dr. Fiore was in Vegas), I could feel him crowning. I didn't push though, because everyone says not to push until the doctor says. So during this time I was screaming. The doctor came over and tapped my head and said, "You know, if you stop screaming and start pushing, the baby will come out faster and you won't be in pain anymore." So I started pushing. About 4 contractions later, with 2-3 pushes per contraction, and a few snips from the doctor, Peyton was born! Matthew said, "Charity, look at our baby." So I leaned up and said, "He's gross." haha... Peyton was all purple with white stuff all over him, and I was so tired from not sleeping the night before and birthing a baby with NO DRUGS. Peyton was pulling kind of hard to breathe, so they admitted him to the NICU for 4 and a half hours. We got him back around 1:30pm on Sunday. He is wonderfully perfect :)

He came home on Tuesday, and that's when the sleepless nights really began! I am trying to breast feed him, but he isn't very interested in staying latched very long. On Thursday, we took him to the pediatrician, Dr. Patz. His Billireuben count was 16 something, which means he is a bit jaundice. He also lost quite a bit of weight. We had to feed him 2 oz of breast milk or formula every 2 hours during the day and 3 hours during the night. It was rather difficult to do this, as it took him forever to eat that amount. It was like we were constantly feeding him, and he never had the chance to let it sit. Mom came over (I don't know if I could have handled it without her) that evening to help. I felt like I was up all night getting him to eat enough. When we went back to the pediatrician, his Billireuben count went down to 15 something, and he gained 3 oz. The doctor felt like that was good progress! We've got to try and keep up this schedule for at least the next week, because Thursday is his two week appointment where they will check him again.

Friday afternoon, Kathy and Alison came up to see Peyton. They have been a big help to me, especially while Matt has been at work. The doctor said to use a syringe to feed Peyton so that it won't cause nipple confusion (because we are still working on nursing). I talked with my mom about it, and we decided we would try to use a bottle. Guess what... It works so much better! Peyton drinks from the bottle quicker than drinking from the syringe, and he has also started latching on for a couple minutes at a time. I was able to get more sleep last night than this whole week because he was eating faster.

Tomorrow Peyton will be 1 week old! I can't believe how fast this past week has flown. I want it to slow down! I'm also dreading five weeks from now when I have to go back to work. I know he will be in good hands at my mom's house, but he's my baby! He won't be small for very long, and I want to spend as much time with him as I can. We gotta do what we gotta do... Matthew and I will just have to work extra hard to make the time we have with him worth every minute. He will absolutely know how much we love him.