Kolay Piquet

Kolay Piquet was born at 2:30 PM on December 13, 2014 weighing 7 lbs.9 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.  I finally got it finished! I love writing birth stories because I love re-reading them to help me remember the details of the special day, and I feel like I’m already forgetting things at age 22. Just like Kason’s birth story, this is really long, so feel free to skip through to the pictures! Here is Kolay’s birth story:

On Wednesday, December 10th, I had my 37-week doctor’s appointment with Dr. Allphin at the Rigby Monarch Healthcare office.  Kason and I met Kolt there.  I had gained 23 pounds so far this pregnancy. I had also been a little dehydrated and holding protein in my urine, but at this appointment, everything was right where it needed to be.  This pregnancy had already been much better than Kason’s as far as nausea,but this pregnancy really drained me physically.  Keeping up with Kason really adds to the pregnancy fatigue.  I also worried that this baby was going to be as big as Kason, and the doctor assured me that we wouldn't let that happen.  Kason’s delivery was really hard on me, and it took a lot longer than normal to recover. At this appointment, I was dilated to 4 cm. The baby’s head was down low, and my body was ready to have a baby. My doctor offered to strip membranes which Kolt and I felt good about, so we gave the doctor the okay.  It didn’t hurt as bad as I expected, but I had Kolt hold my hand just in case. Dr. Allphin explained that there was a 50/50 chance I would go into labor in the next 24 hours, but that he wasn’t very aggressive and would be more aggressive next week if I hadn’t had her.  At that point, we were excited!

I had to go into work that afternoon to print checks and decided I had better finish a few other things in case I had a baby.  We spent lots of time with Kason in the evening, still thinking we could go be going to the hospital that night.  I had contractions for the rest of the day, but nothing very painful or timeable.  Well, we didn’t go in that night, or Thursday night! We started to think maybe we wouldn’t be having a baby, but I continued to have mild contractions. On Friday evening, I started getting tired of the anticipation, so Kolt said it was time to walk. Kolt pushed Kason in the stroller, and I tried to keep up.  We “briskly” walked 1.44 miles around Iona.  It was a workout! Kason loved the walk, since he had started a slight fever earlier in the day and had been quite fussy.  We finished packing the hospital bag that I had started on Tuesday.  Once again, we went to bed thinking that we might go to the hospital that night.

Kason was up for 2 hours in the night with a fever.  I was exhausted! I spent an hour trying to rock him and then decided to bring him into our room and let him watch his favorite channel Sprout.  He sat at the end of our bed and watched Sprout for an hour and then came back up and fell asleep between us.  At 5:45 AM, regular contractions started. I had been stressing about what “real” contractions were. I asked for lots of advice from my sisters, my mom and my favorite OB nurse, Makayla.  At about 6:30 AM, I decided they were real contractions.  On Saturday, of course, Kolt was supposed to go cross country skiing with his class in Teton.  He needed to leave at 6:30 and wouldn’t be home until 1.  I debated the whole hour trying to decide if I should make him stay home or not. I decided to let him go, but then called about 7 minutes later saying he’d better come back home because I thought we were going to have a baby today.  He decided to pick up Rope who was going to go skiing with him and bring him home.

While Kolt was gone, my mom helped me breathe through contractions. She and my dad were going to the temple, so she left just before Kolt and Rope got home.  When they got home, my contractions were 10 minutes apart.  Kolt decided we had better find out if this was real labor or not, so Kolt, Kason, Rope & I went to the church.  Rope & Kolt played basketball, and I pushed Kason in the stroller about 50 times around the church gym.  Makayla had told me that when contractions were bad enough that I couldn’t walk through them, then I was in real labor.  Well, I figured out what that meant! By the time I finished, I was having contractions every 3 minutes apart that I literally could not walk through! I kept shouting out times to Kolt, and we knew it was time at about 8:30.  We rushed home, left instructions for Rope to dress and feed Kason, grabbed our bags, and headed out the door.  On the way, we called Grandma Piquet to let her know we were going to the hospital and asked her to pick up Rope and Kason.

On the way to the hospital, I had my first contraction that was painful enough to bring on the tears.  I realized with Kason that I never felt those early contractions, so this was a whole new experience for me.  At 8:50 AM, we checked into the hospital. The contractions were starting to slow down, and we started worrying about this being a false alarm. The room we checked into was right next door to the room we had Kason in.  Room 119.  Kolt and I talked for a while about how similar the two births had seemed so far.  Kolt gave me a Priesthood blessing in our room.  I instantly felt peace and comfort that things were going to be okay that day.  Our nurse was even the same nurse we had first with Kason.  We really like Nurse Karen! When she came in, I was right in the middle of a hard contraction and she commented that she thought I was laboring pretty good. Yes, I was! She checked my cervix right away, and I was dilated to a 5 almost 6.  At that point, Kolt and I were still not sure if we were having a baby today or not! Another nurse came and hooked up my IV and contraction monitor as well as the heartbeat monitor. Baby’s heartbeat sounded great, as usual.  I requested the epidural and answered a lot of questions from the nurse while we waited. 

The anesthesiologist was a great guy, and the epidural was a breeze.  Kolt got to watch, and Karen was awesome to take Kolt’s place by my side because I was nervous.  Just before the epidural went in, I asked Karen if we were really having a baby today.  She sweetly said, “Oh yes! You’re having a baby today.” Kolt and I both laughed because we were relieved that our worst fear of being sent home wouldn’t happen.  When the anesthesiologist came back to check on how I felt, I was still feeling a lot of pain on my right side.   I tried lying on that side, but it didn’t help, so I got a second dose of the medicine in my epidural.  That seemed to knock it out.  After that, the nurse told us that Dr. Allphin would be delivering our baby, since Dr. Huggins was out of town.  We had hoped for Dr. Huggins who had delivered Kason, but Dr. Allphin was a close second, so we didn’t have any problem with that.   She also talked to us about “laboring down” meaning that Dr. Allphin wanted things to progress naturally as much as possible during the delivery.  At that time, my mom came over for a little while to visit.  Things were pretty slow, so we had a nice visit and watched a basketball game on TV.  It was a good chance for Kolt and I to take a deep breath and enjoy being together before this baby came. 

At 12:30 pm, the nurse checked my cervix, and I was dilated to a 9.  Kolt guessed that the baby would be born at 2:30.  How’d he know that?! At that time, I also started feeling pain in my right side again.  It felt similar to when I had Kason which made me nervous.  The anesthesiologist came back and gave me another dose of the medicine in my epidural which helped, but not enough to make me feel good.  We waited it out another hour and a half with regular, hard contractions.

At 2:00 PM, Dr. Allphin came in! We were happy to see him! I will always remember that he came in with a BYU shirt and ball cap.  It actually reminded me of my dad and gave me some peace and comfort.   Dr. Allphin broke my water and checked my cervix.  I was dilated to a 10! He said I just needed a couple more contractions to bring the baby’s head down so he’d be back in 20 minutes to have a baby.  Kolt and I both kind of thought that was a joke because Kason’s delivery took so long. I had to push longer than that, so we were skeptical that it would be so quick.  Since I was still feeling lots of pain in my right side and moving to my back, they gave me more medicine in my epidural, but this time a different kind that they hoped would help.  They said it may not kick in until after the baby was born, but I told them I wanted it anyways. In the next 20 minutes, contractions got pretty intense, and I could feel them much more than I wanted.  I had Kolt and my mom on either side helping me through.  I remember giving Kolt a hard time about not being a very good birthing coach. He sure tried hard, but at the time, his effort was not cutting it! I asked Kolt, “Why did I think I could have another baby again?” I was so worried this delivery was going to be like Kason’s.

At 2:20 PM, I started to feel like it was time to push, and so the doctor came back in and said, “Let’s have a baby!”  It was amazing how as soon as he said that, I was ready to go. My medicine must’ve kicked in right at that minute.  My mom went outside and met my dad in the hallway to wait.  I did my first round of 3 10-second pushes. I was so surprised how easy it was.  I felt like I was making progress already, and the doctor confirmed that.  Right then, Dr. Allphin asked Kolt if he wanted to help.  Kolt looked like he didn’t think I would let him, but I was feeling so great, I told him to go ahead! Plus, Karen was great to stay by me. Kolt got on his gloves and got instructions from Dr. Allphin.  Kolt said he felt like he got medical school in a minute.  The doctor said once the head starts to come out to hold it and push it down slightly until the shoulder came up and to then pull up.  He was ready! I did 2 more rounds of pushes just like I had already done.  Kolt, the doctor and the nurse kept saying how much progress I was making, and I just couldn’t believe it. I expected so much more pushing.  After the second round, I remember looking at Kolt’s face and just feeling like I could do anything.  His face just lit up as he saw Kolay come out.  It was the most rewarding moment of the whole delivery.  I was also so happy when Kolt said she had hair! After the 3^rd round of pushes, Kolt did as the doctor said.  He grabbed her head and slowly pushed it down and slightly pulled until the shoulder came out and then lifted the baby straight up and out. I remember the doctor saying quite firmly, “Don’t drop her.” Kolt said Kolay was really slippery, so it was actually harder than it looked! We have laughed about that a lot since.

At 2:30 PM, Kolay was born.  I was 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  Kolt put Kolay up on my chest to warm her up.   It was so neat to have Kolt be the one to hand me our baby.  Kolay was quite purple and dark in color with quite a bit of dark hair on her head.  Kolt got to clean up and come up with us for about 10 minutes while we just got to look at her.  It was so different from Kason’s birth because he had to be rushed over to the nurses to clean out his lungs.  I kept asking if they needed to take her, but they kept assuring me that it was okay to keep her.  Kolt got to cut the umbilical cord.  I only had to have one stitch for what Dr. Allphin called “a minor scrape on the knee” type tear.  Kolay just cried and cried which was a good sign.  Another nurse came to take Kolay’s measurements.  Kolt went with her to the other side of the room.  It always makes me feel better to keep Kolt with her while they do that.  She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz., just like her mom was when she was born!  She measured 20 inches long which is shorter than both Kolt and I when we were born. 

Kolt went out to talk to Grandma & Grandpa Lindley in the hallway.  They wanted to know if she had hair and if she was dark like Kason was.  Kolt told him that she was still kind of purple at the moment.  Once the doctor and nurses were all done cleaning up, they gave us about 45 minutes to spend some time with Kolay and decide what her name was supposed to be.  Grandpa Lindley held the baby before they left.  Grandma Lindley was feeling sick, so she didn’t hold her at the hospital.  We fed Kolay right away, and she latched great which was a relief to her mom.  Kolt and I then spent a lot of time talking to our sweet baby girl and trying to figure out what her name should be.  She had such a sweet Spirit already. We had a few names that we liked, so we tried a few of those, but only one really fit her and felt right.  We kept deciding on one and then using it for 5 minutes until we decided it wasn’t right.  Finally, we felt like her name should be Kolay Piquet.  

After we chose her name, they moved us to a new room.  Right after we moved in, Kolt’s family came and brought Kason to meet his little sister.  They brought Kolay a blanket/burp cloth, afghan, outfit, pink boots, and beautiful flowers! I was already so excited to dress up this sweetie! Kolt and I thought it would be best if Kolt held Kolay, so that Kason could have some time with his Mommy while everyone else got a chance to hold Kolay.  Kason hadn’t been feeling very well, so he wasn’t very chipper.  Grandpa got him a new outfit! He came dressed in a CUTE hat, western shirt, light blue jacket, Wranglers, and new boots! He was adorable and looked like he had grown up 4 years in 1 day! It was hard to say good bye to Kason, but it was good to know he was taken care of, and I also knew if he was sick he shouldn’t be around the baby much.  We tried to have Kason give Kolay a kiss like we had practiced, but he didn’t want to. He just tried to push her away the 2 times we tried.  We were able to get a family picture at the hospital though. I sure love my babies!

Natalie and Nathan came to visit next, and Kristi and her family came afterwards.  Natalie and Nathan were on a Mommy-Son date and stopped by before their ice cream stop.   It is always good to visit with sisters.  My 2 sisters and I all each have a boy and a girl which is fun! Kristi brought us some diapers and wipes and treats for mom.  After their visit, Landon came down when he finished his shift in the ICU.  We are so grateful for all the support we have.  We feel very loved and grateful for our family. That evening, Kolt gave Kolay her first bath.  Kolay did really good although she didn’t love it.  Unlike Kason where they bathed him right away, they now wait 6 hours after birth to bathe the babies to help them keep their temperature stable.  It was nice to get her cleaned up and feel her soft beautiful skin.  They put the cutest pink and white bows in her hair and combed her hair in a cute little Mohawk.  It was a great evening with our new little sweetie.  She hardly fussed and loved snuggling with her daddy.  That evening our nurse was Brandi who was great with Kolay and took her for a few hours between feedings at night, so Kolt and I could rest.

The next day was Sunday. I was amazed at how well I felt.  I was able to get up and felt great with not a lot of pain medication. I felt like that was a huge accomplishment, and Kolt was relieved.  Kolay continued to nurse well.  On Sunday, we had a visit from Kolt’s family and Kason after they got out of church.  This time Brand was able to come. He had a game the night before, so he didn’t get to come to the hospital.  Kason was still fevering and had a slight cough, so he was pretty sad.  He snuggled and snuggled with me on this visit.  I had gotten dressed before he came, so I didn’t scare him.  He also liked that I didn’t have the IV in anymore, since he wanted to pull that out last time.  Kolay passed her hearing test with flying colors on Sunday.  She also got her pictures taken by the photographer. They turned out so cute, and I’m anxious to make another hospital board like Kason’s for Kolay.  Jeanna and Tatelyn Hill came to visit on Sunday as well and brought a darling outfit for Kolay as well as treats for mommy! Kolt used the time to study for his finals the next week.  He was starting to stress about being prepared.  Tiffany was our nurse that day, and she was great to talk with us.  Kolt worked with her husband at the BHC, and Tiffany also helped train Kolt on one of her first days at the BHC.  My dad came to visit and hold Kolay in the evening again before he left for meeting in Boise on Monday morning.  We also found out that Grandma Lindley had pneumonia and was going to be down for a while.  We had the Stork Dinner on Sunday evening.  It is a special dinner for new parents that the hospital provides.  Kolt got the London Broil, and I got the Club Salad with a side salad.  Kolt thought I was a little funny for that, but that’s what sounded good to me! It is fun for us to sit and enjoy some time together.  Kolt went to visit Kason for a couple hours and see how he was doing.  He played really well while he was there and seemed to be feeling better.  In the evening, Kolt and I also took Kolay for a walk around the nursery and women’s center.  I was still amazed at how well I was feeling! Rose was our nurse that evening, and she also helped with Kolay through the night between feedings.  We are grateful for good nurses.

Monday morning Kolay kept doing well on her assessments with Nurse Molly, although she scratched herself really good during them.  Dr. Southwick also thought she was doing well, so we decided it was time to take her home.  She doesn’t have a heart murmur which is a relief, since Kason and I had one when we was born.  She tested average for her jaundice test, but she is getting better.  She also has a sacral dimple which the doctor said is okay! During the day, we worked on discharge paperwork.  Kolt went to Wal-Mart to pick up prescriptions, diapers, and a few other things.  Once he got back, we packed up and got ready to leave.  Kolt pulled the car around to the front and came back to help us move things out. Kolay passed her final oxygen test with a 96% which was a relief because that was the test that Kason did not pass that put him in the NICU.  The CNA walked us out.  Kolt carried Kolay in the car seat.  We got home around 5 and had an hour to unpack and get settled before Shauna & Landon brought Kason home.  It was perfect timing! We were so happy to spend the evening as a family together finally. 

We are very thankful for all the love and support we feel from family and friends.  We feel very blessed. It was so nice to know that Kason was taken care of while we were in the hospital.   I’m also very thankful for my sweet husband.  He is a great daddy and husband.  Having Kolt help deliver Kolay made this special experience even more memorable.  We are also grateful to add Kolay to our forever family.  We feel so blessed that Heavenly Father sent this sweet little girl to us.  Kolt and I talked several times about the reality of having two kids.  We wondered how we were going to do it.  We felt like Heavenly Father wanted us to have her, but we just had a hard time imagining life with two babies.  It felt really overwhelming, but at the hospital, we realized that Heavenly Father really did want Kolay to come to our family at this time.  He helped me have a great pregnancy and delivery.  He also knew that having two kids would be hard, so he sent a sweet baby like Kolay to make the adjustment easier.  Kolt and I have been calling Kolay an “angel baby” because she is so sweet. She hardly fusses, sleeps great, and loves to eat.  We feel so blessed to have her in our family and love her very much. Welcome to the word, Miss Kolay!

I decided to take her newborn pictures by myself. Thank you, Grandma Lindley, for helping me! Considering I don't have much experience, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Good thing Kolay is beautiful! Here are her newborn pictures: