A special delivery

The popular saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child."

For Tysen and Markie Rosenau, along with son, Brayden and daughter, Ember, it took all of that village (in the extended sense) and more to help bring their baby girl and little sister, Peyton, into the world.

The labor and delivery once they got to Jamestown Regional Medical Center was fairly routine as childbirth goes, as Peyton Ann Rosenau was born at 12:24 p.m. on Tuesday, February 1.

However, the journey to get there was the farthest thing from routine imaginable.

Living 10 miles east of Carrington on Highway 200, the Rosenaus are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to sudden emergencies presenting themselves.

"We had talked about watching the weather the closer and closer it got to Peyton's due date, and if it was looking bad, we would go stay in a hotel in Jamestown," said Markie.

As it turned out, she said, Tysen brought up that strategy the night before labor started.

"I assured him that I felt great, and that I had absolutely no reason to think I would be going into labor over the next couple days," she said.

But Peyton, as Markie stated, "clearly had different plans."

At approximately 4:30 a.m. that morning, after a steady drizzle of freezing rain and blowing and drifting snow took over the state highways, Markie's water broke.

The two woke up Brayden and Ember for a sudden and immediate trip to CHI St. Alexius Carrington for initial observation.

Tysen called the Foster County Sheriff's Office to get an update on road conditions.

"The travel map being 'no travel advised', did not look promising," she said.

When Tysen got a hold of Deputy Nathan Kruse, Kruse told him that there was a jackknifed semi truck just to the east of the Bordulac Road (County Road 1613,) seven miles east of town, that was blocking the roadway.

"[Kruse] said that there was a little room behind to get around it, but we would then have to be down on the slope of the ditch to do it. There was also a hard drift forming behind and on the west side of the semi," said Tysen.

So, the family got into their Suburban and decided to go south on the gravel roads to head towards Carrington.

"The roads were pure ice out our way," Tysen said. "The visibility was so poor, we were hitting drifts and couldn't see them until we were right on top of them and couldn't hit them with any speed due to the conditions."

From that point, he said, the parents elected to try a different strategy.

"We didn't want to get stuck on some gravel road, with kids in the back seat, while your wife is in labor."

Upon consulting with Kruse, the parents came to the conclusion that getting around the obstruction with a conventional vehicle would be very risky.

That left the Rosenaus to put themselves, Brayden, Ember, and their to-be-born baby in their John Deere tractor to take a slower trip, but with much higher clearance and surer ground grip should they veer off the road.

Tysen put down the snow pusher attachment to clear the highway up to the semi, and get to Carrington.

"After getting past that, it was pretty uneventful, even though it was patchy whiteout conditions the rest of the drive to town."

Now in the CHI Carrington emergency room, Markie, who works at the hospital as an RN, was monitored, and a three-member ALS ambulance crew (driver, nurse and paramedic) was quickly dispatched for the trip to Jamestown.

"Since we went through the feat of getting to town, we knew, for everyone's safety, that we needed to try and wait it out for more sunlight before trying to make it down to JRMC," said Tysen.

The hospital arranged for snow plows to assist the CHI Carrington EMS until they at least reached Pingree.

"Then, to our surprise, the Jamestown district plow met us there, and escorted us all the way to the hospital," he said. "The roads were still icy, but definitely an improvement from what Highway 200 was."

"It gave us more of a sense of security that we would get to Jamestown safely, as no one really knew what the road conditions were like at that time."

Markie said that the ride seemed like it took a long while, but said that as it went further and further along, she felt much more confident that things were going to turn out for the best.

"I was able to joke around with Jodi [Hovdenes, CHI Carrington VP of Patient Care Services serving as an RN on the trip] and the paramedic [EMS Manager Amy Andel] in the back seat about all of the crazy events of the morning," she chuckled.

Once arriving at the Jamestown hospital, Tysen said everything went smoothly, and they were able to relax.

"Or more so, me," he said.

With the help of a lot of people, "a lot more than we even planned for," said Tysen, they were able to get Markie and baby the care they needed.

"Peyton and Mom were safe and healthy, and that was all that mattered," he said.

The doting older brother and sister have been smitten with their new little sibling.

Markie says, "Both of them want to lay next to her and give her kisses. They're almost too helpful at times, as they sometimes argue whose turn it is to throw her diaper in the garbage."

On the Facebook post announcing her birth, Markie and Tysen say that Peyton has already been dubbed the "blizzard baby," and that her theme song should be the Vanilla Ice classic, "Ice Ice Baby."

"It took a village and plenty of resources, but everything went well in the end, and now we have a pretty exciting birth story to share," the post read.

The Rosenaus are very grateful to all those who helped, in their own way, to bring Peyton out into the world.

"We wish to thank the Sheriff's Department, Nathan Kruse, the CHI Carrington ER staff, the ambulance service, the state road department plow drivers, the JRMC hospital staff, and our doctor for all the wonderful care," Tysen concluded.