Peyton Kyle Riley--Labor & Delivery

Peyton Kyle Riley arrived at 10:15pm on Thursday May 15, 2008. He weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and measured 20 1/2". He is perfect. All of our prayers have been answered and our lives have changed forever. I imagined for a long time how it would feel to be a dad...let me say that the moment he was introduced to our world, my life took on a whole different purpose and was far more than anything I could have ever have imagined. I find myself staring at him in awe.
Amy did a perfect job and was amazingly strong through labor & delivery. Her water broke around 5:30am on Thursday. We jumped out of bed and began scrambling to get everything together. We arrived at the hospital (driving time was 17 minutes, 21 seconds) at about 7am and were checked into Room #6. They hooked Amy up to the monitors to check all of her vitals. They then examined her and she had not progressed much since the previous Tuesday at our appointment. Amy's desire was to have a natural childbirth so we started walking the hallways hoping that would help the progress towards labor & delivery--according to the doctor, she was not even in labor yet, but because of other situations, we had to stay at the hospital to get IV antibiotics. We walked the halls from 8am until noon, at one time with my parents, myself and Amy. Amy was then examined again and had progressed a little, but nothing close to what the doctor wanted. Since her water broke prematurely, they wanted our baby to be delivered within 18 hours. They then discussed the option of Pitocin...not what we hoped for since we were working towards natural childbirth, but we had to realize that the health of the baby and Amy were the most important thing. At 3pm Amy starting receving Pitocin. They started with the the smallest dose and then increased it every half hour. They increased the dose 6 times and life changed. Amy's contractions became closer together and unbearable. She was dialted to 5cm and was 90% effaced...still slower progress than everyone hoped for. At about 6pm, all of our family members went to grab some dinner (they had been there all day and were absolutely wonderful). When they came back from dinner, Amy's smiles had turned into tears. She was pushed to her limit and then decided to try IV pain medicine. It worked for a little while, but then she was asking for an epidural. The Pitocin was just too strong. The epidural was administered at about 7pm. Within what seemed like just minutes, she dilated from 5cm to 9cm and was in transition, almost ready to push. At 9pm, Amy felt the urge to push and began pushing. Dr. Sadr came into the room about 15 minutes later. All of our family and friends were in the waiting room while our moms were in the room helping to hold Amy's legs while she was pushing. They were critical to Amy's success and they were as amazed as I was with Amy's strength. Amy pushed for about 45 minutes and then the head was visible. Just a few more pushes and the baby was delivered. Our baby boy was in Amy's arms and life is great. We thank God every day for how he has blessed us. It has been a long road, but we are now at home with our little Peyton Kyle Riley.