Payton Audrey Harms

Payton Audrey Harms was born on Tuesday April 6th at 12:56pm at Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, CO. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and measured 20.5 inches long. At my 37 week appointment on Wednesday March 31st, we discovered that I had developed mild preeclampsia, which wasn't a surprise as I had been experiencing many of the symptoms starting around 35 weeks. My doctor decided it was time to schedule an induction as the baby was considered full term and preeclampsia tends to get worse once it sets in. She scheduled my induction for Wednesday April 7th, exactly 38 weeks and said it was time to quit working and just take it easy until the 7th. She did have me schedule 2 appointments one for Friday April 2nd and one for Monday April 5th so they could monitor me. At my Friday appointment the preeclampsia had gotten a little worse, but she was still comfortable waiting until the 7th. We spent the weekend hanging with family and celebrating Easter, we even hosted an Easter brunch on Saturday for my entire family, Brian even made it into town. Kole's parents arrived in the morning on Easter Sunday to spend the week and be here for the birth of the baby. I started feeling pretty bad throughout the weekend and wondered what might happen at my appointment on Monday morning. Kole and I went to my appointment on Monday morning and I say a different doctor in the practice as my doctor was off. She checked my blood pressure, urine, and reflexes and decided that my preeclampsia had progressed from mild to severe and my body couldn't wait until Wednesday. She told us to go home, pack our bags and have some lunch and check into the hospital at noon to be induced. We were a little surprised, but I was really glad not to have to wait until Wednesday as I was feeling pretty crummy. We left the appointment and went home to grab our bags, we had already packed, and join Kole's parents for lunch.

We checked into Avista at noon and they nurses started getting me ready to go. At 1:30 they gave me a medication to soften my cervix as it was closed and hard when the doctor checked in at my appointment that morning. I had to stay in bed and be monitored while the medication worked for 4 hours and then they let me order dinner and take a shower. At 8:00pm they gave me a medication that is supposed to continue to soften the cervix and hopefully cause it to dilate. The medication stays in for up to 12 hours so they told us to relax watch a movie and get some sleep. I woke up at 1:30am, not feeling all that great and having some mild contractions that kept me up the rest of the night. At about 5:00am my contractions started to become more regular and they came in to check me at 6:00am and I was dilated to a 1. Over the next several hours my labor began to progress and I continued to get pretty uncomfortable. By 8:30am I was dilated to 4 and labor was becoming pretty intense. I was started on a medication called Magnesium Sulfate to help treat the preeclampsia and prevent seizures as I was continuing to get worse. About an hour later they checked me again and I was a 6, my contractions had started coupling, coming 2-3 back to back every 2-3 minuted and I decided to go for an epidural. The epidural provided some nice relief and I caught a break for a little while and around 11:15 am I was a 10 and the doctor said it was time to start pushing. Kole happened to have just jumped in the shower so his mom had to get him out, which was pretty funny. After about an hour and a half of pushing the doctor told me that with my high blood pressure and the position of the baby she may have to use a vacuum to help deliver the baby. We were okay with that and she did end up using the vacuum. With one try of the vacuum she deliver the baby's head and discovered the cord was wrapped tightly around the baby's neck, she quickly clamped it and cut it off and then with a couple more pushed delivered the rest of the baby. They quickly passed her off to the nursery nurses to work on her, I couldn't see a thing but Kole later told me she was pretty blue and not crying but she was moving around. After what seemed like an eternity I finally heard her cry and Kole told me we had a baby girl! They continued to work on her for about 20 minutes cleaning her off and checking her out, while the doctor tended to me. I was an intense labor and delivery, but she was here safe and sound and both Kole and I were overwhelmed with emotion. I had to stay on the Magnesium for 24 hours after delivery which sucked as it has some pretty crummy side effects, making me really hot, slowed down my muscle function and made me pretty out of it. Also, I had to stay in bed on a monitor and catheter for the 24 hours. It was rough and made it hard for me to care for Payton, but Kole was wonderful and did everything that I couldn't. I started to come around and recover and I was able to go home on Thursday afternoon as we had hoped. They weren't able to get my blood pressure under control so I had to come home on medication.

We have a beautiful baby girl, below are pictures to prove it!