Tyler's Birth Story

So with each of the girls I have written out their birth stories while they were still fresh in my memory, obviously they include a lot of detail so if you don't care to know the entire story you can just skip this read. :-)


Tyler's birth story really started weeks before she was actually due. In a routine exam at 34 weeks we found out that Tyler was in a breech transverse lie position. Generally now days breech babies are delivered via c-section and I was terrified to have one. Not only because I didn't want to be cut open but also because with Austin at home and still needing so much help at 2 I couldn't imagine me not being able to pick her up. I started laying upside down on my back at night which made me feel awful and dizzy and going to the chiropractor every morning. Weeks went by and nothing happened so we scheduled an appointment with a doctor that would be willing to deliver Tyler breech if we met certain criteria. He was doing an examination to see where she was and miraculously she had flipped over night. Here starts the waiting game, with this being a second child everyone was sure that she would come early however Tyler had different plans. As we watched the days and weeks pass by still without a baby we started to get somewhat impatient, we had Joe's parents coming into to help with a new baby and to make Austin's transition from being an only child to a big sister as painless as possible but we still didn't have a new baby.
I started having the kind of contractions that will stop you from walking on Monday....Memorial day. I was working around the yard with Austin and Joe enjoying our time fixing sprinklers and playing in the dirt. Every 10-15 minutes I would have to stop what I was doing and wait for a contraction to pass but the past had taught me that if I could still talk through them that I was still doing just fine. I started bleeding ever so slightly and knew that my body was preparing for what would eventually come the next day. I called my Mom and had her come down that evening at 9PM just to hang around the house in case I went into full blown labor that night rather than giving her the 4AM panicked call. We decided to go to bed around 10ish and try and get some sleep. I started having some pretty rough contractions around midnight and tried to get some rest in between them remembering the 28 hours of labor that I had with Austin and realizing that this could be the last rest I get for a while. Finally I woke Joe up around 4ish since they were coming every 5 minutes and that fear of delivering in my car crossed my mind. My Mom was still awake just sitting there reading her book entirely too excited to go to bed, we grabbed the hospital bag that I had finally packed several days before and headed into the hospital. We checked in and went into the triage room where they admit you and figure out how far along you are. I was completely heartbroken and felt like such a sissy when they told me that after now almost 5 hours of contractions at home that I was only dilated to 3cm. At our hospital they won't admit you until you are at a 4, so the triage nurse suggested that we walk the halls for an hour and then get checked again. The walk was amazingly painful, with a lot of whimpering laying my head down on desks and window ledges. The whole time I was thinking to myself that if I go back in and I am not dilated more these kind of contractions are going to be the death of me. They were coming every 2-3 minutes and would stop me in my tracks, Joe followed along faithfully drinking his coffee knowing again from past experience that there is nothing you can do to help. I didn't want to be touched and couldn't be distracted from concentrating on staying standing. I continued to walk past a group of chairs and wishing that I could just sit down for a minute but I knew better than that, I didn't want to sit down I wanted the pain to diminish...which even hanging from my elbows on the space station wouldn't do, so why sit down and take the gravity pressure off the dilation process.
After one hour we went back into the triage area and I got undressed again, to which the nurse noticed that I had blood running down my legs...she said that's a great sign....needless to say she wasn't the one that just ruined her clothing. She checked the dilation and stated congratulations you are at a 6 now. Instantly the pain became so much more bearable, I can deal with it when I know it is doing something but just to feel like that for no reason would have been horrible. The nurse attempted to put an IV in my hand just in case we needed it later but my veins were rolling and she couldn't get it. I had several more contractions and told her that I was pretty sure on that last one that I felt that undeniable urge to push. She checked again and I was at an 8 and now into transition. She smiled and said well it looks like we will get this IV in once we are in the delivery room, I told her I didn't think I wanted to walk to the room after that last set of contractions fearing that Tyler would be born in the waiting room as we were walking. I waited for the next one to pass and we wheeled on down to the delivery room, a sense of pride came over me when we wheeled past the nurses desk and the shift that was getting ready to leave for the night and had mentioned that they wish they could be there for the birth but since it would be a while they couldn't, were now being beckoned to get a delivery cart ready and call the NICU just in case. We got into the delivery room and she got the IV in and my midwife walked in an hour earlier than she should have been there doing her rounds. Sharon smiled and said well it looks like we are going to have a baby in a hurry today huh? I had mentioned wanting to sit in the bath and they said that I could still if I wanted so they drew a bath and Joe helped me into it. They explained that while it was against hospital policy to deliver in the bathtub that it had happened in the past and that everything would be fine. But if I felt the urge to push again that I should pull the red cord next to the bathtub and they would try and get me out of the tub. One contraction came and I yanked on the cord, in walked 5 nurses smiling and reminding me that everything would be ok and that we would try and get me out but if we couldn't it was ok. Several nurses and Joe helped me into the bed that they had wheeled to the bathroom doorway and Sharon checked me again to feel that I was now at a 10 and could start pushing whenever I was ready. I had several more contractions but they were visibly less painful and no more urges to push. I turned on my side and the contractions got worse so I went back to lying on my back. Sharon suggested that I move around some more and I winked at her and said my body is doing just wonderful now and I will wait until it is ready. Sure enough 5 minutes later I felt a small urge to push and started pushing just ever so slightly which must have started the process since the next contraction came with a severe urge and I pushed once and they could see the crown of Tyler's head. I took a breath and waited for one last contractions and two pushes and one cuss word later Tyler's head was out. Sharon suggested that Joe take her and place her on my stomach, while he was hesitant thinking about how slippery she must be Sharon assured him that he would be fine and she wouldn't be harmed. So Joe delivered Tyler up on to me at 7:13AM and we talked and rubbed on her until she started crying and waited until the cord went flat and Joe cut the cord.

When I finally let go of her for the first time she was weighed and accessed, I asked the nurse if she could tell from looking at her if she was in fact 10 days overdue as the calendar suggested. She said that she was off the charts for development and responsiveness and smiled and stated but babies that are born to mother's like you that do it all natural always are. Joe had texted J to grab him a coffee on the way in to watch the birth, so she stopped at Starbucks and when she got to the door of my hospital room was greeted by a baby crying...apparently with second children you don't have the time to stop and get coffee.

Tyler turned out to be jaundiced just like Austin was again with the same blood type issue, Joe is AB and I am O...thus making our girls A and their little bodies fight my blood type. We had to stay an extra day in the hospital much to our disappointment since Joe and Austin were at home anxiously awaiting our arrival. Tyler was cleared to get out but we had to take a billierubin light with us, it was even more heartbreaking to know that she was in her own home and had to be so uncomfortable...finally Joe and I put our foot down and just held her. Luckily her levels had dropped and she didn't need the light therapy anymore.