Peyton's Birth Story

She entered into our world on a winter’s day. Friday, December 10, 2010, at 2:02 p.m. in St. Clair Hospital, Pa. to be exact. I always thought I’d give birth in the early hours of the morning. It never occurred to me she’d arrive in the middle of the afternoon. This would be my first lesson of motherhood – expect the unexpected because the marvels of life this wonderful new creature will bring to me is more than I ever could have imagined.

But let’s rewind 48 hours earlier. I was working at my job, trying to wrap-up loose ends with my co-workers since I anticipated to only be in the office for a few more days before her arrival. Keith was in New York City on a business trip. Yes, that’s correct. He was flippin’ in NYC two weeks before my due date! Needless to say I was slightly nervous. I had countless of conversations where I looked down at my belly and gave Nugget strict instructions not to make her grand entrance until Keith safely landed in Pittsburgh.

Keith’s plane was delayed – of course – and he didn’t make it home until after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night. I was already in bed trying to stay awake. The funny thing is that he probably hadn’t been home for more than a couple of hours before I started to get an unusual feeling in my belly. Are these contractions I wondered? Keith had a look of concern – and exhaustion since he didn’t get much sleep during his first trip to NYC – but the tension I was feeling slowly subsided and we both drifted back to sleep.

Thursday morning arrived and I decided to work from home since I was still feeling “not right.” Keith went into the office and I spent most of the day on the phone working on projects with co-workers. A slight cramping in my stomach would come and go throughout the day, but nothing I was overly concerned about. In between my conference calls I did manage to cook a nice pasta dish for dinner that night (I’m an overachiever).

When Keith came home we had a nice meal on the island of our new kitchen. However, that darn cramping in my stomach was starting to get stronger. I left Keith in the kitchen to clean up the dishes so I could rest on the sofa in our family room for the remainder of the evening…an OSU Men’s Basketball game playing on the TV in the background.

Little did I know I’d get no rest that evening. I spend 11 p.m. – 1 a.m. walking around our bedroom, trying to remember to breathe as the contractions became more frequent. Eventually I was experiencing contractions every 5 minutes and we both knew it was “go time!” I called the doctor’s office and left a voicemail message on the Emergency Line. Within minutes Dr. Rankin called me back and said it sounded like I needed to go to the hospital.

So Keith quickly packed our bags in the car, let Walter out and made sure he had fresh water before we got in the car and drove to the hospital. Fortunately, Pittsburgh wasn’t experiencing a snow storm at the time and the roads were clear. Whew! It was just cold and dark outside with that sharp crisp air that nips at your nose.

We walked into the Emergency Room around 2 a.m. to check-in and I was quickly plopped into a wheel chair as we made our way up in the elevator to the 5th floor Family Birth Center. Being the “Type A” couple that we are, Keith and I already had a fairly good idea of what to expect next. A month prior we had taken an 8-hour labor and deliver class at the hospital and during the hospital tour they mentioned that once we arrived we’d be taken to a side room for an examination before being moved into a delivery room. So imagine my surprise when I was wheeled right into a delivery room with three nurses waiting to take my blood, change my clothes, ask questions and get me situated in the bed – all at the same time!

My nervous anticipation quickly changed to panic. Oh God! I’m really going to have a baby! I guess I had this small thought in the back of my mind that a nurse would examine me and tell me to go home because I wasn’t really in labor. Nothing like a few IVs in your arm to make that thought quickly disappear.

I was only 2 or 3 cm dilated so the nurse gave me medicine to relax my contractions and instructed both of us to get some rest. I tried to take the advice and Keith opted to open his laptop and get a few things done for work – yes, he’s crazy.

By 6 a.m. I was ready for my epidural. I was never under the delusion that I would have Nugget naturally. It’s times like these where it’s okay to view drugs as your new best friend. Unfortunately, I had to wait until Dr. Rankin arrived to examine me and break my water. I was told he’d be there by 7 a.m. Yeah right! It was more like 8 a.m. and I was ready to claw someone’s eyes out to make the pain stop. I guess I don’t have a high pain tolerance after all.

Finally feeling happy and ready to enjoy the experience of labor (if that is possible), I was given good news by both the doctor and nurses that examined me. Nugget’s head was super low and they imagined she’d arrive well before noon. Hallelujah! That was music to my ears. I wanted an easy and quick delivery and it appeared I was going to be granted my wish….yeah right!

Noon arrived and still no Nugget. My nurse Sherry decided maybe I should start pushing. With a little encouragement from Sherry and my sweet husband, I pushed as hard as I could. Half hour went by. Nothing. Another half hour went by. Nothing. Another half hour went by. Nothing!

I was starting to stress that maybe I wouldn’t be able to do this. Tears were welling up in my eyes when Dr. Warner (he had taken over the deliver shift from Dr. Rankin) finally arrived and decided I might need some assistance with getting her out. I won’t go into all the painful details from the last half hour of my labor – it turned into a posterior position delivery. (Yes, Nugget arrived “sunny side up!”). All I will say is that Keith was an amazing support! I know I was frightened and if he was frightened, he never showed it to me.

In the end, all that matters is that I had her snuggled up in my arms moments later. Ten fingers, ten toes, healthy, happy and all mine. What a miracle. What a blessing. What an overwhelming feeling of love.

I’m very thankful for Dr. Warner and the nurses who took such wonderful care of us!

And yes, she definitely looked like a Peyton Bailey Meckstroth. All 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches of her! So here begins her journey. I’m so thankful I get to be a part of it.

Chapter 3: Creating a Nursery

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, I selected the Hayley bedding collection at Pottery Barn Kids for nugget’s crib. My wonderfully sweet friends Kristy, Laura and Lynette purchased the bedding for me as a shower gift. And this was no easy task since the bedding is still on backorder…and has been for months now. But when my friends set their minds to something they typically get what they want. And that’s how I ended up with the complete set before my due date. What else can I say except they are amazing friends and I love them dearly! xoxo

I wanted to incorporate more of the nature theme found in the bedding into other elements of the room. While searching one of my favorite websites etsy.com, I found a few stores selling tree decals that stick to the wall. I was instantly hooked and ordered my tree in white with pink birdies.

When my tree arrived, everyone told me there was only one person who could help me with sticking it to the wall – Keith’s grandpa Milo. He is the sweetest and most patient man around – two qualities that were definitely needed during the installation process.

The tree measures 48.5" x 80". Yeah, that’s kinda big so it’s a good thing that Milo is tall.

The hardest part was sticking the tree trunk and all the branches to the wall. First, we used tape to temporarily fix the pattern on the wall since there were numerous pieces. Then we had to peel off the backing sheet and use a credit card to rub over the transfer tape to make sure it sticks well onto the wall.

Once the pattern was secure, we carefully removed the clear application tape by pulling it in a downward motion.

There were a few instances when we got air bubbles in the decal, but smoothing it out with a credit card really helped.

It took more than 1.5 hours to install the tree and branches. After that point, I released Milo from his duties and worked on the leaves and birdies on my own. That took another 1.5 hours.

But all that time was well worth it in the end. It’s so flippin’ cute!!!!! (Note: I realize the white tree is slighly hard to see in the photos, but I promise it looks fab in person!)

And the red armchair in the photo was my grandma Toot's favorite chair. It’s super comfy and I love the idea of snuggling with nugget in Toot's old chair because it will be like she is there with us. I bought a slipcover to go over it since red isn’t really part of the nursery theme. I’ve never used a slipcover before so I’ll post an update on how that goes…I’m guessing it will be a humorous. Stay tuned!

Chapter 18: Kitchen Renovation

Let the happy dance begin! This past weekend we had some helpers come into town to work on the house. The fabulous crew consisted of Keith’s grandpa, dad and brother. Let’s just say we got A LOT done...more than we even hoped to accomplish. Keith and I can’t thank them enough!!! xoxo


Project numero uno on our agenda was replacing the floor trim in the kitchen.

The old trim was plastic and got thrown away during the demolition phase. So Keith and I went to Home Depot and grabbed some new wood to match the trim in the rest of the house.

Keith’s brother Andy and grandpa Milo are experts at cutting precise lines with wood so we pretty much just left them alone to do what they do best.

Along with replacing the trim, we needed to also paint it with Glidden’s Dove White along with the chair rail, window frames, door frames and pocket doors.

One of the things I think is so cool about this happy house are the pocket doors. We have three total. Unfortunately, the previous homeowners did not use the pocket doors because the kitchen tile they installed blocked the doors shut. But now that the doors slide beautifully because of the hardwood, they needed a bit of TLC from us...with Walter supervising of course!

I swear the doors probably were white at one point, but 40+ years have passed and they kinda turned yellow. But nothing a little Dove White paint can’t fix. I envision myself using the pocket doors more frequently when I’m cooking dinner and the nugget is crawling around on the floor. I can simply shut the doors to keep her from roaming around the house without my watchful eye. Brilliant!

Like always, the Dove White paint really makes the wall color pop. We just need to spackle the nail holes in the floor trim followed by a little paint touch-up and we’ll be as good as gold. And we only painted one of the pocket doors – still have to two left to paint along with the door to the patio. Sigh! Painting is our lives.

Stay tuned… I need Keith to help me hang some items on the wall. Decorating is one of the best parts!

Chapter 17: Kitchen Renovation

After a long and arduous search, we finally found the perfect bar stools for our kitchen (insert sigh of relief)! I think we were both surprised by how expensive a bar stool costs. To us, something under $75 sounded reasonable. Ha! We quickly realized that might get us one bar stool at Ikea, but anywhere else we’d need to open our wallet and take out another Benjamin Franklin. So that was reality check #1.


Reality check #2 was the fact that I couldn’t find “inexpensive” white bar stools. I know, some of you might be thinking it’s weird that I would want white bar stools to go in my dark maple cabinet kitchen. But trust me, it can work! Pottery Barn and West Elm had some lovely selections, but the $200+ price tag for one bar stool was slightly ridiculous, in our opinion. We searched Target, Walmart, Garden Ridge, Billiard-type stores and even did some internet searching, but I just couldn’t find what I was looking for – at a good price.


So with two reality checks, I needed to rethink my vision. During a trip to Columbus, I dragged Keith into his first World Market store. Unfortunately, we don’t have any World Market stores in Pittsburgh and I had almost forgotten how much I love this place! And the best part of this trip was the fact that Keith really liked the store too…and that rarely happens! The second best part was the fact that we found bar stools – the Elana bar stool to be specific. I fell in love with the banana leaf fibers and how they were sorted from light to dark and then woven together to achieve an appealing herringbone pattern. It wasn’t white, but it was light and natural.


Only problem is that they didn’t carry the counter-depth height bar stools in the store – it was only available online. And while the price tag was right, we feared the bulk shipping prices would kill us. So we waited awhile to make a decision. As luck would have it, we got a special Friends and Family e-mail promotion a couple weeks later. The discount on the promotion would off-set the cost of the bulk shipping so we jumped on the opportunity and submitted our order.


And kudos to World Market for fast and efficient shipping. We placed the order on Friday before 5 p.m. and the bar stools arrived from California on Wednesday. Holy cow!

Besides looking fabulous in our kitchen, I adore these bar stools for being comfortable. We have a nice wide seat and high back for extra support. As an added bonus, I even think Nugget’s Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair will fit nicely on one of these stools.

The kitchen is getting very, very close to be done! We've been super busy the past couple weeks and I promise to share details soon!

Chapter 2: Creating A Nursery

With the realization that we had very few free weekends open before the nugget arrives, we decided to stay home two weekends ago (yes, I realize I'm behind with my posts). It turned into one of those nothing-special but because of that, so-very special weekends. I just loved the fact that it was just the two of us, running errands and putting items together for our daughter’s nursery.


Friday after work we headed to Ikea. My silly hubby thought we were only going to pick-up the Hemnes dresser and Billy bookcase. Then he remembered who he married and realized I had a few other items I wanted to purchase while we were there. Duh! :o) Extra items included storage containers, napkins, scissors, a trivet, a lamp, a few picture frames and a plant. I know – kinda random. But it was all either for the nursery or the kitchen.


After Ikea we headed to Babies R Us to purchase a shower gift for our friends Nick and Amanda. And right next to Babies R Us is a Half Priced Books and a Michaels. Our stop in Half Priced Books was rather short because they didn’t have a copy of “The Road To Wellville” by T.C. Boyle (the Newcomer’s Club October book selection that I’m not super trilled about reading). Then we had to run into Michaels so I could get scrapbook pages for the baby album I made for Nugget’s first year.


When Saturday morning arrived, I got us started off on the right foot by making some delicious pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and northeast Ohio maple syrup (the best there is)! I’m not sure if it was my yummy pancakes or the Buckeye music I had playing in the background that got us motivated to start putting together the Hemnes dresser.

While furniture assembly is normally a job that Keith completes solo, I decided to help. It was nice to tag team this project and spend time together in the nursery. It made me love the Havana Cream paint color I picked even more!

You can see how we utilized the crib to store the pieces and parts as we worked. This dresser truly is a perfect match to our crib so I'm pumped.

If you ever purchase this dresser, make note that four hands are probably better than two hands. We had to rotate and turn the dresser on several occasions, which I think would be a difficult task for just one person.

As you can see, the dresser is just the right size for a changing table on top. Exactly what we need! And that cute striped liner inside the drawers is yellow - how perfect is that?

And I know I’m going to appreciate the four mini drawers on top – I can have one for hair accessories, one of socks, one for first-aid items and one for diapers stuff...or something like that.

Ta-dah! Here's the finished product! And the cute lamp on top is one of the extra purchases at Ikea.

It took us about 2.5 hours to put the dresser together…just in time to break for lunch and watch the Buckeye’s beat Indiana!

Still a lot more to do with the nursery and I'm 31 weeks pregnant. Yikes! More updates to come so stay tuned!

Chapter 16: Kitchen Renovation

Back with a kitchen renovation update! It’s been a little over a month since our installation was completed and I have to say we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment in our new kitchen. If we had a TV in here I really don’t think we’d ever leave the room. Ha ha!

Although, there are a few more things that still need to be done – like replacing trim, painting window frames and pocket doors, finding décor, etc. The plan is to complete this list of "to-do's" by the end of this month. But, I’ve also had to deal with this...

Yes, that’s a sad little light bulb hanging above our beautiful island. Cue the “wa wa wa” sound effect.

For the past month this pathetic light was a daily reminder that the fabulous pedant light I purchased online at Shades of Light was on backorder. Sigh! Being the planner that I am, I ordered the light on August 19 because I figured it would arrive at just about the same time the kitchen installation was wrapping-up. I was disappointed to get an e-mail reply that the light was on backorder until September 10. Slight bummer, but no big deal. However, September 10 came and went and I still had not received my light or even a shipment update. Double sigh! On September 16 I called customer service to check on the status and I was told that my light was still in production, but it was scheduled to be completed the following week. That got a triple sigh out of me because I realized the light would most likely be shipped the week we were at the Outer Banks. So imagine my annoyance when we got back from vacation and I still didn’t have my flippin’ light! This required another call to customer service on October 5. Luckily for me (and the customer service rep who didn’t have to experience the wrath of an emotional pregnant lady), my light had shipped out that very same day. FINALLY!

If the pedant light wasn’t so fabulous I might have cancelled the order altogether, but I hung in there. And it was worth it! The light arrived last Thursday and, of course, it was the first chore I made Keith complete on Thursday evening.

I have to say my hubby is one handy-dandy guy to have around. The installation instructions were not the best, but he figured it out.

I think I'll keep him around for awhile. :o)

Ta-da! I told you it was fabulous!

I just love the design of the pedant. It’s perfect for our kitchen. The soft gray lines pick-up the stainless steel appliances.

Shades of Light named this the “Trellis Linen Drum Shade Pendant,” but I think they should consider renaming it the “Becky Light” because it’s just my kind of style.

Stay tuned because we finally decided on barstools and they are expected to arrive later this week! Double yay!

Chapter 2: Make New Friends

In case you haven’t read my sob story of having no friends in the Pitts, you can read it here. I made my second attempt at finding a friend at the Newcomer’s Club September Book Club meeting. I was again, super nervous upon arrival – especially since I was one of the first to arrive. But I was greeted by one of the gals I met at the Kick-Off Meeting so we quickly started chatting.

The hostess had selected the book “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.” I read this book in June and couldn’t put it down. I actually ended up reading the second installment “The Girl Who Played with Fire” last week at the beach and thought it was even better than the first. Now I’m trying to figure out how I can find the time to read the final book “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” and start our October book of the month “The Road to Wellville.” And let’s not forget I’m going through my whole “nesting” phase right now and I need to get the house in order before the nugget arrives.

Anyhoo, I had a good time at my first book club meeting and I even learned a few things…

1. Book Club never starts on time so don’t worry about getting to the hostess house right at 7 p.m.
2. Don’t eat dinner before Book Club because the hostess has plenty of yummy munchies!
3. I don’t think I really have to even read the book of the month because we didn’t spend that much time discussing…although I can’t figure out if that was just because this was the first Book Club meeting of the year and there were a lot of new members and introductions of how the club worked.

I was brave and even signed-up to host our July meeting. I figured that would at least give me six months to try and get the hang of this “being a mom” thing. Plus, by then I’ll hopefully have a living room.

I can’t really host an event with a living room like this. Yikes! That means getting a sofa, chairs, rug and wall hangings before July! Keith thought it was very sly of me to volunteer to host. It definitely puts a deadline on a project that’s probably at the top of my list, yet more at the middle or bottom of his list. Ha ha! (I love you babe!)

So like the Kick-Off Meeting, I didn’t necessarily walk away with a new BFF, but I’m making connections with other women in the community and getting out of my hubby’s hair for a few hours in the evening. I’d say that’s a success!

We’re staying in the Pitts this weekend to work on the nursery, the kitchen and few other home improvement “to-do” things. I’ll have updates next week. Stay tuned!