My little angel Baylie Layne Tignor was born on Tuesday, August 21st at 10:39 PM. She was three weeks early and weighed only 6lbs and was 19in. I had never been more excited in my life! My contractions started late Monday night, which I thought was cramping from a previous doctor's appointment. By 4am on Tuesday these pains were increasing. I called up my sister who is experienced in this field and asked her if I should be concerned about these pains. We started to time them and they were pretty regular every five minutes and a little difficult to walk through. By 8:00 I had paged the doctor and he told me to come up to labor and delivery to be checked. My mom and I packed my bag and got everything ready and headed up to the hospital by 10:00. When we got there the contractions just pretty much stopped. I was thinking great this is probably false labor. Being just 37 weeks I really wasn't expecting it anyways. So Dr. Lepi came up to check me and I was about 2 cm dialated. Tuesdays are his surgery days and since I hadn't changed much and the contractions were irregular he told me he would have me walk aruond the floor for about an hour and if things hadn't progressed I would be sent home. As my sister put it...I would be doing the walk of shame out of the maternity ward. :) Haha. So my sister Heather, my mom and I began the walking. All around the floor for an hour, by the end of the walk I was having to stop for each contraction. We got back into my room and I let my mom and sister know they could go get lunch and bring it back for them and I would rest, just in case I would be delivering that night. By the time they got back my contractions were coming stronger one after another and I was about 3 cm so they decided to admit me! I didn't show it but I was so nervous! I would be meeting my baby girl within hours the time had finally come! Baylie's daddy was at work and things were going pretty slow so I let him know he could wait until the day was over. My sister Lindsay was there and my Dad didn't go to his golf league he was also there. I wished my oldest sister Mandy could have been there and I know she wished she could've too but she got to meet her neice Labor Day weekend and I got to see her and her babies!! Back to the story...so around 4 cm the doctor broke my water and man oh man the contractions intensified something horrible. I felt like a little baby, considering my sister Heather had to stand the pain for quite awhile. The first contraction after my water broke I was asking for my epidural! Within minutes they had the bags of fluid in me and the anthesioligist was in the room. I think it was love at first site, I wanted to kiss this man! Got the shot and was feeling better but nervous, my right side was not numbing! This got better later on but even when I was pushing I could still feel more on my right side. Anyways the doctor checked me around 8:30pm I was 6 cm, they had already put me on pitocin (sp?). The nurse decided I needed to try and go to the bathroom, which I thought was rediculous considering I couldn't feel half my body, there was no way I could control this. She ended up putting a catheter in and that must have done it. My family stepped out so I could rest and an hour and 1/2 later I was at 10cm! Ready to push! My mom, Brad (Daddy), and two sisters Lindsay and Heather were in the room with me. I pushed for about 45min and Baylie arrived! What a cutie..there was some scary things going on though! Being early and so little my baby was having trouble breathing, they brought in oxygen while the doctor assured me I could hold her before they took her to special care, but this wasn't the case, something went on with the oxygen tank and they took her away. I was a blubbering mess! I had no idea what was going on and I just wanted to see my baby! By this time my epidural was wearing off and I was itching like a crazy person! They gave me benadryl and I was out of it. I fell asleep and woke up at 3am realizing I had not seen my baby girl yet. I finally got to go see her after my bath. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL BABY!! I know my opinion doesn't really count by my goodness I've seen some pretty babys but she is a beauty! I'm so proud :). So she stayed in special care over night and ended up in our room around 7pm Wednesday. We didn't leave until Saturday because of high levels with jaundice. But we finally brought our baby girl home. And for the past 4 weeks we've been learning to take care of her and loving her so much! She is a sweet little baby and I can't wait to watch her grow even more!
