Tyler James' Birth Story

It all started a month ago with nice "semi" painful contractions that were 5 minutes apart... I went from a 1 to a 3 in one week's time, so we thought that we would be having a baby earlier rather than later. My kid had other ideas. Every week's appointment came and went after that with no progress. Until my 39 week's appointment - Tuesday, 3/27/07. At that appointment I was a "big 3" and my doctor started talking induction with me since obviously my contractions weren't getting regular on their own. I was still having them about every 10 minutes and they were getting more painful every day. But they would only stick around for an hour or so at a time. So she said that she felt my body was ready, it just needed a little push to make contractions consistent enough to work. My doc can only induce on days that she is on call in the hospital - it happened that she was on call for that weekend. So I was supposed to come in on Friday (3/30) if I hadn't had Tyler on my own by then, but I was still having inconsistent contractions. Here's how Friday went...

8:30 - John, Brayden, my mom and I all leave the house to head to the clinic to get checked. I'd been up since 7 am and was having contractions about every 10-15 minutes - about every 2nd or 3rd one was BAD, and I just generally felt very crampy. I felt a lot different than I had for the last 3 weeks, but I didn't think anything about it - just that I was excited that I would most likely be induced that morning and would have my second baby boy by the end of the day!!

9:00 - We get to the clinic and I get checked in. I get called back about 9:20ish, but doc doesn't come in until about 9:45. I had THREE contractions while waiting, one of which was very, VERY hard. She finally came in and talked to me for a second or two and then wanted to measure and check me. As I was lying down to be measured, a hard contraction hit me, so she checked me during the contraction and SURPRISE - that contraction bumped me up to 5 cm dialated!!!! I was also about 80% effaced. Tyler was head down, but not totally engaged yet. She said that she was going to admit me and we should head right to the hospital - especially since I was GBS+. This basically meant that I had to have 4 hours of Ampicillin before she could break my water or add pitocin, so it was going to be a long morning. Of course, if Tyler came before the 4 hours was up, it wouldn't be THAT bad (although potentially serious), but we couldn't push my labor along until he was covered from the GBS.

10:00 - We make it into the hospital and I get gowned up and in bed. The nurse hooks up my IV right away so that we can get the Ampicillin going along with my sugar water solution to keep me from getting dehydrated (got the drip started at 10:30). We get all the monitors in place and everything looks good. Tyler's heartrate was steady and where it should be with the nice peaks during contractions (which were still not consistent). I had a few hard contractions, but nothing that I was having problems breathing through. I knew I'd get an epi if we had to start pitocin, but I didn't want to be on it too long, so I was holding off on it until we got my GBS drugs in.

Noon - John, Brayden and my mom go to get some McDonald's for lunch and give me a chance to rest. It was nice to have the quiet for a while and watch some TV on my own.

1:30 - Um... Oklahoma in springtime = storm season. We're under tornado watch and flash flood warnings. We've got it locked on the news channels because my brother, sister and dad are all in the "red zone." It gets kind of scary for a while and the nurse lets us know that if things get serious, we'll all head to the basement of the hospital. Fun. I'm not worried, though...

2:30 - We're done with the major dose of ampicillin, so we start the pitocin. She said that she'd let it get through the first couple of rounds before my doc would come break my water. I let her know that I want the epidural right before we break the water.

3:00 - My nurse lets me know that my doc will be coming soon to break my water - but it will probably be close to or after 5 since she's still got patients over in the clinic. But we're upping my pitocin every 30 minutes or so, and I decide I'm ready for the epi.

3:30 the epi guy comes in and gets started. Takes him more than 30 minutes to get the darn thing in and going. I have no idea if he was just slow or what, but he wasn't even that good... I wanted it on a very low dose, but he started me out on a semi-low dose... By 5:00, my legs were starting to go numb. Not too bad at this point.

5:50 - I'm on the internet on my mommy boards updating the girls on the morning thus far and I feel Tyler kick. I think - Oh DANG! This kid just made me pee myself!!! But it didn't stop coming, so I knew it was my water. John rushes over and tries to take the laptop before it gets all amniotic-y and I yell - NO!! I have to hit post first. I type my last line, hit post and call the nurse.

6:00 - The storms & my contractions are REALLY BAD at this point. My dad wants to come, but doesn't want to drive in the flood, so he says he'll stay put. John's parents are on their way. We turn the lights off so we can watch the lightening. I tell her that I'm uncomfortable with how strong my epi is right now and I'd really like to have it lowered. The guy comes right in and lowers it 4 points. I'm kind of worried that I'm already too numb to push effectively. Brayden is tired and hungry... He's just sitting on John's lap and his eyes look so heavy it's not even funny. My mom gets out a pencil and some paper to "take bets" on when Tyler will be making his appearance and what his stats will be. I say 6:20, 7 lbs 4 oz, 19". John says 6:32, 7 lbs, 5 oz, 20". Mom says 6:50, 7 lbs 10oz, 20". Brayden is holding up 2 fingers, so we say he says 6:22, 7 lbs 2 oz, 20". We go ahead and let the nurse know that I'm starting to feel presure and will probably be ready to push soon. 5 minutes later, I tell her that I really think I'm going to want to push VERY soon. She checks me - I'm a 9.5 and Tyler's head is RIGHT THERE. I've got a little bloody show and she asks me to give a little practice push. She goes to call my doctor... Guess she took me seriously when I said that when I say I'm ready I mean it.

6:15 - We're set and ready to push. I am still fairly numb, but at least I can move my legs now! I'm a little upset that I didn't say something a little sooner... But hindsight is 20/20. They actually have to help me lift my legs onto the supports. I can feel the contractions and a need to push, but it's so faint that I'm not sure how effective my pushing will be... But I guess Ty's head was low enough that it really didn't matter.

6:32 - I had 3-4 sets of 4 pushes and WHOOSH! There he is. Total pushing time was about 15 minutes. No tears, rips or complications. John's time guess was right on!! They are a little weird in this hospital and don't weigh and measure the baby until they are taken to the nursery. Very odd. But whatever. They let me have Tyler for a little while and give me a chance to let him nurse a little. My mom & Brayden come in right as I'm getting done (he only nursed for about 15-20 minutes). I really wish you all could have seen Big Brother's face when he got to see Tyler for the first time. He had the biggest smile - and just stared at him. It was like he KNEW that Tyler was HIS brother. We took pictures and a little bit of video... Then the nurses came to get Tyler to measure and weigh him. John gets to go with... I'm stuck in bed. Mom and I start talking about what to get for supper. Brayden is tired and hungry - he's starting to get hard to handle.

7:15ish - John comes back and tells me how HUGE Tyler is - 8 lbs 9 oz (Brayden was only 7 lbs 7 oz)!!!! I was FLOORED. I never in a million years thought I'd have such a big baby!!! He's 19" long and got a 10/10 on his APGARs - the nurse said that that's the first time she's got to assess a 10/10 baby! I was very proud! His head and chest are both 13", he's got brown hair with a red tint and dark eyes - they aren't really any color that we can tell. He had a very healthy color - in fact, he's just downright red!! And BOY do his lungs work!! The nurse tells me that's it's okay for me to eat now, so we send John to get us all food!!!

8:00 - John gets back with food... My dad gets here (he decided to brave the storm because he couldn't stand not seeing Tyler). I have to go to the nursery to fill out some paperwork and they start to move us to our room.

9:30 - We FINALLY get Tyler back from the nursery. John's parents get here. My parents are ready to leave and head home with Brayden. So we give hugs, kisses and they head out the door. John's parents stick around until about 10:30ish... I'm started to get tired and want to feed Tyler, but I don't want to rush them out...

10:30 - John's parents leave, I get Tyler and get to feed him. It's the first time I've had him 100% to my self and really get to concentrate on him. He's just perfect and I am so happy!!!!! I can't believe that I'm a mom to two kids now. But it's one of the happiest moments of my life!!!!!

Ready to have a baby?

Well, we have a light at the end of the tunnel!!! At my appointment yesterday, my doc said that she would be willing to induce us on Friday if we haven't gone into labor on our own by then. I've been contracting off and on for a month now, so that's been pretty tiring. She could tell I was miserable, and she said that really, my body is ready to have the baby, I probably just need a little push with some drugs. SOOOOO... We're looking at Friday ifeverything goes according to plan. If there are a lot of others having babies on/around Friday, I won't get to go in - I'm "low priority" for a room unless I'm in labor on my own. I'm really hoping that things will work out for us and we'll get a room.

We are so excited that there's an end in sight. It was weird to think this morning that the DAY AFTER TOMORROW I could be a mommy of two.

Keep us in your prayers - of course we'd LIKE to go into labor on our own because it'd be a lot easier and less risky, but we don't mind the induction.

Next time you hear from me, I'll probably be posting a "birth story"!!!!!

One Week to Go!

This baby is stinking stubborn. We've been having signs of labor for 3 weeks now, but they've all been for naught. We are one week from our estimated due date now, and hoping that we won't make it that far. If I thought I was huge and miserable before... yeah... It's almost a comedy now. We're pretty much ready for him to be here. I've got all his clothes washed and hung up, we have a couple packs of diapers and some cloth (fuzzibunz) ready to go. There are the few little things that I don't have, but that I don't want to buy ahead of time because I'm not positive that I'll want or need them (like lotion).

I think he's gonna be a big boy... I'm guessing he'll be pushing 8 lbs and about 20 inches. It's gonna be funny seeing Brayden and him side-by-side. Brayden started out as such a chubby little thing and has thinned out quite a bit since being mobile. I'm pretty sure that there will be a couple of months where they are fairly close to the same weight!!!

Speaking of Brayden... He's still showing us that he has all the personality of about 20 people stuffed into his little body (remind you of anyone?!). He's still not talking, but he's doing a ton of other things that are pretty advanced. And he RUNS now. Literally. He sprints away from me at the mere mention of changing a diaper. I don't know how or why diaper changes became such a tramatic experience, but he sure knows how to throw a fit when it comes time to get "cleaned up."

We've discovered that he's a MAJOR lover of the outdoors. He HATES to be inside if there are people outside that he can see (like Daddy). He runs for the door when you say, "Wanna go outside?" And then he screams bloody murder when it's time to come back in. He'll be Daddy's little helper really soon!! I don't think Daddy can wait for that either!

Okay, well... I've got a few things to do around the house and a dirty diaper that needs tending to. Hopefully it won't be too long before you're seeing pictures of little Tyler on here.