Payton's Birth Story

Saturday, February 11th...
My mom was at a Chicken & Beer dance with my brothers and sister-in-laws.  At 9:50pm she text me and asked how I was doing.  I replied back explaining that I had been having contractions all day but nothing consistent.  I wish she would have text sooner because no sooner than I replied, my contractions started coming every 8 minutes.  Around 10:30pm I decided to take a shower just in case we decided to go to the hospital.  Also, I had read or somebody told me that if contractions continue during a warm shower that they are real and not Braxton Hicks.  Well, they lasted through the shower.  I dried my hair and we decided to go to bed at 11pm.  I think I laid down for a total of 20 minutes.  The contractions were now coming every 6 minutes and it was all in my back.  I didn't want to disturb my sleeping husband so I moved out to the living room to watch TV and get my mind off of things.  Who was I kidding...that didn't help at all.  My Dr had told me to wait until my contractions were every 5 minutes for at least an hour...no need to get excited yet.

Sunday, February 12th,
At 12:00am my contractions were coming every 4 minutes and I could no longer concentrate on my DVRed Days of Our Lives.  I decided that we were going to probably need to head to the hospital.  So I did what any woman in labor would do...my make-up and hair.  Yep I stood through the contractions in order to get my make up on and my hair straightened.  I also wanted to make sure my hospital bag had everything in it.  I text my Mom at 12:30am and asked if she was still in New Athens.  I finally heard back from her at 12:54am and she said she was just leaving.  I explained to her that my contractions were now every 4 minutes and I thought we needed to go to the hospital, but was wondering if we could stop by and get her laptop.  I also told her not to rush too much because I still needed to wake up Dustin.  She told me that I could have the laptop and that I should probably wake up Dustin...I figured I would let him sleep as long as possible, plus I wanted to make sure I was ready to go. 
1:00am - I woke Dustin up.  He normally is really hard to wake after only sleeping 2 hours but he woke up effortlessly. 
1:30am - We stopped at my Mom's for her laptop and of course she talked to us for a little bit.  She said she was going to try and get some sleep but text when we knew what was going on.  We were finally on our way to the hospital.  Dustin asked when he turned on to the highway if he needed to drive fast and I replied with a simple no.
2:30am - We walk into Labor & Delivery at St. Anthony's.  I change into the hospital gown and get hooked up to monitors.  The on-call Dr comes in and checks and explains that I am 90% effaced and 2 cm dilated...My thoughts: 2cm that's it!?!?  Looks liek we are going to be here for awhile or maybe go home (that was my fear-that I wasn't in labor and was going to be sent home).
3:00am - Nurse comes in asks if I want Epidural...umm...YES!  So she puts a call in.  She asked me to lay on my side because the baby wasn't responding well to me laying on my back.  She also explained that the doctor would be in shortly to break my water.  She walks out and I look at Dustin and say "I guess were staying".  I text my mom and let her know what's going on.
3:30am - Dr comes in and breaks my water...strangest feeling in the world.  He broke my water this early since the baby wasn't responding well they wanted to do internal monitoring.  The nurse informed me that they would come in at 4 to give me the epidural...My thoughts "I can do this - it's only 30 minutes".
3:45am - I told Dustin I didn't think I could do this.  With every contraction the pain got worse and I still did not have my epidural.  This was possibly going to be the longest 30 minutes of my life.  I believe this is also when I told Dustin that we would NOT be having any more children. LOL  I was also thinking that we probably should have taken a Lamaze class.

4:00am - Anesthesiologist comes in...YAY!  He had a difficult time getting it in because my back was so swollen.
4:15am - Epidural in...only working on my right side.  The nurse and anesthesiologist told me to lay on my left side and they would come back and check on me.
4:25am - Anesthesiologist checks on me and I tell him that it's no better...so he cranked up the juice.
4:35am - He comes back in to see how I feel...my response "I love you".  Yep I told another man I loved him in front of my husband.  I was feeling ahhhmmaazing!  At this time we decided to text Dustin's parents because they are always up at this time.  We normally would not have texted my Mom at 2:30 but we knew she was up.
4:45am-5:30am - I SLEPT! :)
5:30am - The nurse comes in to check me and I am at 8cm.  She was quite surprised and so was I.  We still hadn't heard from Dustin's parents so we text them again.
5:45am-6:30am - I slept on and off for this 45 minutes.  I woke up around 6:30 and decided to text everybody (parents & siblings) and let them know what was going on.  While I was texting, the nurse came in to check me again.  She explained that I was at 10cm!  YAY!!!  My text said this "came to hospital at 2:30am, broke water at 3:30am, 10cm now".  She asked me to give her a practice push since the epidural was still really high and I passed the test.  She was calling the doctor. :)  This text message pretty much woke everybody up.  The vast majority had pretty much been out until 2am...oops.  I received a text back from my sister-in-law that read "Holy Shit". :)  LOL
I pushed for about an hour...I had told the anesthesiologist not to turn the epi down and I think about 30 minutes in somebody did because I could feel more and had better control and was able to push better.  (Note to self: next time have them turn that down sooner).  My nurse was simply amazing.  Shift change was at 7am and she stayed until the baby was born.  The nurse that was replacing her also was in the room.  The two of them were so awesome.  They neither one could believe that this was my first time and I had gone into labor on my own and hadn't gotten any Pitocin.
7:54am - It's a GIRL!!  Payton Jean Liefer was born and placed on my chest.  She was absolutely perfect and beautiful!

Payton Jean Liefer

8lbs 7oz

20.5 inches

7:54am

February 12, 2012