Carson Peyton

This is the story of Carson's birth. He has already been such a joy to us. There have been trials, him being the 4th boy and all, but we are managing and now that he is here, I almost can't remember what life was like before he came!

Carson's due date was March 5th. My mom showed up March 4th, we figured that it would be a good idea for her to have a few days with the boys before we were gone at the hospital and I also wanted a few days with my mom as well. I had way more than a few days though! Never in all the ways I imagined birthing a child did I think that I would be induced. A c-section came to mind easier than being induced. I knew it was something I didn't want and that was about it. 

But March 5th came and went and then my appt on March 6th came and went and then my next appt. on March 13th came and went and we decided it was time to schedule me to be induced. They didn't want me going past March 19th so it had to be the 17th, 18th or 19th. We decided that the 17th was best because that way we might be home with Carson for a week before my mom left. Not to mention that way Chris wouldn't have to take time off work since he was taking all that week of between switching jobs. So it was set and all we had to worry about was the storm that was hitting our area Sunday night and us getting to the hospital in time. 

To make it easier on ourselves we decided to get a hospital down in Columbia for the night of the 16th so that we wouldn't have to try to drive all the way from our house on the possibly crazy roads. And with how much snow we wound up getting it was probably a good idea. We would have had to leave at 6 to make it by 7:30 a.m. It was the worst night ever though. I learned the biggest reason why I hate being induced. I already was nervous and scared and unhappy about giving birth and being induced, but trying to sleep the night before you are going to be induced is impossible. I slept off and on until 3:30 and was awake after that. So when 6:30 rolled around and we were getting up, I was nervous and jittery and probably tired, but I didn't feel it at the time. We packed up, ate breakfast and left for the hospital. 

We got there at 8 in the morning, signed everything that I had to and met with my midwife and she was overly optimistic. That is her personality but she kept saying that she wanted this baby out by 8, the end of her shift. I smiled and nodded my head but I knew better. My body likes to have marathon labors. Even being forced on pitocin my body does not cooperate and go fast. Dallin took 15 hours (10. hours on pitocin), Tristan, (my natural labor/birth) took 24 and Warren took 29 (15 on pitocin). So, I kinda figured I would take my sweet time and I did!

At 9 my nurse had finished hooking me up and everything and changing and so we started the pitocin. And since you have to be monitored continually while on the pitocin I was stuck in bed. My nurse said I could use a walking monitor but that it really only worked in the room and I wasn't allowed to take a shower with the monitor on. How dumb. The two things I do during labor, walking and hot showers, were pretty much out of the question. So I sat in bed. Chris and I played games, watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 and 2 and napped and read. I also updated facebook a lot but honestly, I didn't have much to do stuck in the bed like that. I didn't have the epidural so I could still get up and move around but then the monitors would stop and the nurse would come in and fix them. So I mostly sat/lay there. Thankfully I warned my husband that this time I would be eating food while in labor. I was so grumpy when I had Warren because we got there at like 8 in the morning and I wasn't supposed to eat until he was born the next morning around 3 in the morning. Way too long to be without food. So he fed me snacks all day. 

Finally at 8 p.m., 11 hours of being on pitocin, my midwife came in to say goodbye for the shift change and I asked to be off pitocin for a while. I was FINALLY having regular contractions, every two minutes, and I was getting uncomfortable. So she said yes and that I could have some soup. Hooray! Soup! Chris's mom stopped at Chik fil'a and got him some food and me some soup. Then we walked. It was wonderful to be up and moving. Unfortunately I could tell pretty quickly that things were slowing down. Oh well. At least I had a break from the bed for an hour, or that was what I thought. 

At 9:15 we went back to the room for me to be monitored for the 20 minutes. The new midwife came in and she said she wanted to break my water to see if that would help. I had dilated a whopping total of 5 cm. I started at a 2 that morning and I was now at a 5, 13 hours after showing up. Marathon labor. My optimistic husband told me that if I kept that pace up that I would have a baby in like 16 hours. Not funny... So, she broke my water and we started walking again! And I could tell now that laboring with my water broken is pretty miserable. It hurt on the front part of my uterus, my cervix and it felt like I needed to poop. Hard to walk when you feel like you need to poop! 

We walked for another hour and at 10:15 went back to be monitored for 20 minutes and then started walking again. I think we made it to about 10:50 p.m. when I got hit with a huge wave of exhaustion. I was so tired all of a sudden so we went back to the room and I laid down. I tried to nap as best I could but even though labor had pretty much stopped, the few contractions I had would keep me awake. At 11:15 my nurse came in and told me that we had to start the antibiotic again (I was GBS positive) and be monitored. so we started that and at 11:30 my midwife came in and said since there were like no contractions it was time for pitocin again. And I said okay, can I get the epidural now? I knew that I wouldn't be having this baby without pitocin and I didn't want to experience that much pain. We just had to finish the antibiotics and then do a liter of fluid and then she would put in the call for the anesthesiologist. 

At 1 in the morning I was getting pretty uncomfortable. The pitocin had kicked in pretty quickly this time, unlike that morning. So the anesthesiologist came in and kicked Chris out for 25 minutes. My nurse was wonderful this time. I hate that they make the husbands leave at that hospital because when I had Warren I needed his support but I couldn't have it and I wasn't that big a fan of my nurse. But this nurse, Tasha, was sweet and nice and kept talking to me and holding me and was very helpful to getting through the strong contractions and the epidural. And then it was over and I started to feel better. 

Chris came back and we decided we would try to get some sleep. I know Chris slept and I dozed a little, I hate the feeling of not being able to not move my legs so I was continually uncomfortable. And there was a little bit of my uterus on the left hand side that never went numb. So as the contractions got stronger, that area I could still feel and it let me know what was going on, making it eventually hard to sleep. 

At 3:40 a.m. I felt this urge to push. It was pretty faint but I knew what it meant! So I yelled at Chris to wake up, who was very deeply asleep. He called Tasha, the nurse to come in and she emptied my bladder and the midwife was on her way. The midwife showed up at about 3:50 and she positioned me in the bed how she wanted. That took a few minutes since my right leg was dead to the world. Couldn't even move my toes anymore on that leg. So at about 3:55 she asks me to push, and I warn her that I am a good pusher. She hadn't even gotten her apron on yet. So I push once and she says "stop!" because she could see his head with that one push. She and her shadowing midwife get dressed quickly and I am so uncomfortable because I just want to push and finally they are ready and I push and push and push for about 5 minutes and out came Carson at 4:02 a.m. on March 18th, about 20 hours after we started the pitocin! 

We took off my gown and they handed him to me and I got to hold him for the next very long while. Chris and I were very concerned though because he never really cried and his face was blue. Very blue. And I know it takes a while for them to pink up but even after 5 minutes with the oxygen mask next to his face he was still so purple! So they take the mask away and I ask if he is all right and they finally tell me that he just has facial bruising. It apparently happens to lots of babies that come out too fast. I thought the 5 minutes was a long time to push but apparently it was fast for him! 

As I said, I got to hold him for a long time. Usually after a while they take the baby away and weigh him and clean him up and diaper him and such and then eventually take Chris and the baby to the nursery to bathe him but they must be changing policy because I got to hold him until about 10 minutes before we left the room to go to the recovery rooms. They weighed him and measured him at that point, which was about the time that enough feeling had returned to my leg(s) for me to get into the wheel chair. It was almost 6 at this point. 

We get to the recovery room and the nurse comes and gets Carson to bathe him and Chris and I wait for him to come back, I nurse him again and then swaddle him and we all go to sleep. And we all slept as much as we could with the nurses coming in and pressing on my uterus and pills and vitals. But honestly, this was the best hospital trip we have had so far. The nurses left us alone more than usual and I felt so much more capable physically after he was born than any other baby I have had. I must have really worked on those pelvic floor muscles during this pregnancy! 

Carson has been a dream. He is currently having gas and I guess diarrhea, he poops a lot. But he sleeps all night. From about 8:30 to 8:30 he sleeps, waking 2 times to feed during the night. His older brothers love him and like to help out with him. Today I had him on the couch while I switched laundry and I look over and I see Dallin picking him up (while sitting on the couch) and putting him in his lap so he could hold him. Tristan sings songs to him all the time and Warren is very concerned any time he cries and will run to him and find a pacifier for him. I think he will fit in well with us and be loved. 

Diarrhea at the airport

Today during dinner I was talking to the boys that there was dairy in the dinner and that Warren might have diarrhea tomorrow. That he might have lots of diaper changes. They were very interested in this and proceeded to ask "why" a million more times. All of a sudden, Tristan pipes up, "I had diarrhea in the airport!" I looked at him funny and was trying to remember what he was talking about. And then it clicked. He DID have diarrhea in the airport and in an effort to NEVER forget I am going to write down our experience for years from now I can show it to his fiance. hahahaha.

We were on our way home from Alaska at Christmas time. Tristan had gotten a stomach bug while we were there and kinda gotten over it and then it seemed to hit him again as we were heading home. We were in the airport, we had just gotten food and I kept trying to get Tristan to eat. He was so fussy and kept saying he wasn't hungry and he wasn't walking anymore. So the rest of us were sitting around, eating, while Tristan was looking quite miserable in the stroller. All of a sudden I smell something. Something fragrant. I look at Warren first and he was okay so then I am wondering where that smell is coming from. It couldn't be Tristan because Chris had JUST changed him and it had been quite the battle. But I go ahead and just glance over at him and oh my goodness. The back of his diaper pooched out a little like the pack of pants and in it I could see... the rising level of poop! It was like watching a poop tide. It was horrifying. I had no idea what to do! There was so much poop! And it smelled so bad! He just kept on pushing it all out and thankfully, thankfully, it did not overflow from his diaper. Chris and I kept looking at each other and back at his diaper and laughing and trying to not freak out and be supportive to him. I remember him looking over at me, so exhausted, and saying, "I'm all done". hahaha. I wouldn't let him get up, I just took the stroller and wheeled him to the bathroom and proceeded to make the bathroom a mess. Thankfully though when he stood up the poop level in his diaper sunk down a bit, but I remember thinking there was a lot of poop there. He didn't have to go poop again until after we got home.

Ahh children. They can be so frustrating but at the same time so wonderful and provide such great stories to share later on in life.

Head bob

We were gifted with this barbie jeep shortly after we moved into our house I think but we have never had it working. We didn't have a charger for it. And so I went out on bulk trash night for my SIL's neighborhood and found one and also grabbed a few extra batteries too. Unfortunately the wiring that goes along underneath the jeep doesn't seem to be working anymore so it doesn't go. But it does have the music still play in it. We have never changed the battery for the music and Tristan and Warren love it. They frequently climb into the jeep and jam out. Tristan though is the cutest thing ever. He plays his favorite song, stands on the back and smiles that very adorable smile and bobs his head. And he tells me that he is going to "go like this" as he shows me how he bobs his head. He looks so cute and every time I see I just think that he has got to be the cutest kid in the world. 

Slip n slide

So we have a very nice large yard. A huge selling point on the house when we bought it. And there was a while that I didn't enjoy the idea of most of the yard being a hill but we have figured out how to make the hill an amazing adventure. We buy plastic sheets from Home Depot and I stake them into the ground nice and snug and get a sprinkler going and the boys zoom down the hill! They LOVE it! This day we did the "short" slip n slide. It is about 50 ft. or so and to make it so the boys didn't go off the end I put the pool right there and they loved it! they thought it was pretty fun. They ask for the pool to crash into ever time now. On the 9th we will be having a Friday Fun day at our house and we will be putting out the big one. It goes on the other side of the tree, down the steepest, longest part of the hill and you get quite a bit of zip! Warren won't do it but every one else loves it!