A Baby Story (Tyler)

Seeing as Kylie is due to make her entrance into this world sometime within the next 4 weeks I figured I better write down Tylers' birth story (since I wasn't blogging when he was born) so I don't forget or mix up the details between the two. (Not that you can really forget anything like that, but you know what I mean) This is a long one, so grab some popcorn and a drink and get comfy!

So I blame it all on Nanci's wedding. (sorry Nance, but it's the truth. You'll always be apart of Tyler's story.) I guess "blame" isn't the right word because it's what brought upon the birth of my beautiful baby boy, but we were so far from being prepared that if what happened that night hadn't happened I honestly believe we would have had a little extra time. Let me back up just a little.

Tyler's due date was Feb. 27, 2007. Wed., Feb. 14, 2007 I went in for my 38 week check up. The doctor told me that everything was "locked-up tight" (no dialation, no effacing, nothing) and that he would definitely see me at my appointment the following week. I put full faith in those words and didn't think twice about it, just went about the next few days as normal. Work, Work, Work. Since my last day of work was going to be Fri., Feb. 16 (I was SOOO excited for the fact that I was going to have a whole week to myself to relax and mentally prepare for this baby and really just enjoy those last few days of "freedom" alone) I put in a lot of extra hours at work that week to get my job done so that my replacement would have everything he needed to continue on without a problem. Fri. Feb, 16 I was at work till 7:00 just trying to finish every last detail, but still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I would have stayed later, but my super fab co-worker Nanci was having her wedding reception that night that I just HAD to go to, so I decided to give up for the night and come in the next day (sat.) and finish up.

Earlier that morning I told Bobby about the reception and that he would need to be ready to go as soon as I got home so that we wouldn't miss it because I knew I wouldn't be getting home from work till late. Now when somebody tells me to "be ready" that means dressed, teeth brushed, keys in hand, I honk...you walk out the door, get it? It's really hard for me (and something I am constantly working on) to be patient when things don't go exactly as I have planned for them to. I am a "planning" person and I usually have every detail of my day scheduled out in my head in the morning and if something messes up my plans I have a hard time adjusting. Let's just say...I'm not a very flexible person. Whatsoever. This day was no exception and as I had been planning since 8:00 that morning, I was going to arrive home at 7:15, honk the horn, Bobby would walk out, we would arrive at the reception by 7:30. So I get home, I honk the horn...no Bobby. I take a deep breath, park the car, walk into the house and there's Bobby standing in the kitchen, caught orange-handed, eating cheetos! Any other normal (and even any other not normal) person would have laughed about this and left for the reception. But for some reason that night I was really on one. And I FLEW off the handle! Even my problems with adjusting to hiccups in a schedule is NO excuse for how I was acting. I literally went crazy and even as I was talking I knew I was being crazy, but couldn't help it. Things just kept flying out of my mouth before I could even think about what I was saying. It's almost been two years since this happened so I don't really remember everything that was said, I just remember that I was ridiculous and I can't believe Bobby didn't just walk out of the house and never come back. (And I promise I'm not exaggerating; Nanci and Beckie can back me up on this-they heard the story just days after it happened) But it went something like this.

Me: (annoyed that I had to come in the house to get him) WHAT do you think you are doing?! You know we have to go to Nanci's reception and I told you to be ready the second I pulled up! (what? like he's some 5 year old child? I can't believe I'm even writing all this because it's SO embarrasing-I promise I'm not ever like this!)
Bobby: Uh, you need to calm down. I was just waiting for you and I was starving because I haven't eaten since lunch and I know you wanted to go out to eat afterwords so I was just having a little snack.
Me: Well that's just ridiculous! How dare you be so un-thoughtful.
Bobby: It was un-thoughtful of me to eat because I was hungry?
Me: Ugh! You are so selfish. It's always about you!
Bobby: What are you talking about?
Me: Look at you. Your hands are disgusting and you have Cheetos breath. Cheetos breath! I can't go out in public with you like that! Like you couldn't have a cracker or a piece of bread? No, you had to choose the most disgusting food in the house and binge eat till I got home. Bobby wants Cheetos so Bobby eats Cheetos. Who cares that Angela wants to go to a wedding reception and have me be presentable.
Bobby: Angela this is NOT a big deal. I was planning on washing my hands and brushing my teeth. Everything's going to be fine.
Me: Everything is NOT going to be fine. You are a liar. You are going to have Cheetos breath all night now and nobody will talk to you.
Bobby: That's fine I don't want anybody to talk to me. I hate wedding receptions.
Me: You are impossible! Just apologize for making me mad.
Bobby: What?! Are you serious?
Me: (totally in tears by this point) Just go brush your teeth and bring an entire pack of gum. I'll be in the car.

There was more ridiculousness on my part the entire drive down and Bobby actually pulled off the freeway at one point and almost turned the car around to take me back home because he couldn't stand to be with my anymore (it's a good thing we can laugh about this now). We finally made it and by the time we got there the line to talk to the bride and groom was SO long and Bobby refused to stand in line with me because he said he couldn't stand that close to me for that long. (that's how mad he was-but really do you blame him?! At this point I couldn't even stand myself.) So I waved hi to Nanci from across the room so she would know that I had come and then we left. The drive back home we didn't say a word to each other and when we got home I locked myself in the bedroom and cried my eyes out.(It was about 9:00 at this point) After giving myself adequate time to feel sorry for myself, I noticed that there were no lights on in the house and no noise coming from the living room which means he wasn't watching TV, so what was he doing? I thought maybe he had left and gone on a drive or something so I walked out into the living room and he was laying on the couch in the dark. At first I thought he was asleep, which made me mad all over again (how dare he be able to sleep when I'm in the other room totally broken up, right?! Ha ha!) but as I was standing there watching him from the kitchen I heard him say,
"Are you done being the devil yet?"
I busted up laughing and ran over to him and gave him the biggest hug in the world. And then I cried some more and he just held me as I told him how sorry I was for being a psycho and I had no idea what had come over me. He agreed that I was a classifiable psychopath, but that he would forgive me as long as I promised that that crazy person was gone for good.

Here I'll just suffice it to say that we were making-up from THE WORST fight we had had since we'd known each other when...my water breaks! It was so weird because I had no contractions, no pains, nothing. All of a sudden I'm just feeling something running down my leg and I know it is NOT pee! I freaked out to say the least (as did Bobby) and was in complete shock. This could not possibly be happening to me. The doctor said he would definitely see me back next week. He said that there's no way this was going to happen. Not yet! I have to go to work tomorrow. Ahhhhh! What are we going to do? We have nothing ready. The car seat is still in the box, the crib is put together but it is piled full with baby stuff:

I have no hospital bag ready, and at this point I can't even remember what it is I'm supposed to bring; maybe an outfit for the baby, some clothes for me, I don't know I can't remember what they said to bring! I called my mom in a complete panic and she totally calmed me down and told me that it was ok, that I had plenty of time to get ready and go to the hospital. So I get off the phone and start running around like a crazy person between bouts of laughter and tears. I was driving Bobby nuts and he told me to just go sit on the toilet because I was getting "nasty uterus droplets" all over the carpet by running around. "It's not water Angela, it's not going to just dry, I have to clean all that up. Just sit still. Go sit on the toilet. I'll get everything ready." What a sweetheart. We finally headed out the door at about 10:30 and I was all checked into the hospital and in my room by 11:00.

Bobby being a dork


Me, not amused that Bobby wants a picture of me as we're leaving for the H.


I still wasn't having any contractions and I could tell the nurse didn't believe that my water "just broke out of the blue" (well, that's what I told them...they don't need to know anything else. My water broke, I'm going to have a baby, end of story.) So she did that test thing they do to make sure and I could tell she was totally shocked that I was right-which totally bugged me. They checked to see if I was dilated and I was at 1 cm. 1 cm! Most people are at 1 cm for the whole last month of their pregnancy. The nurses kept telling me that it is SO rare to just have your water break with no contractions and not to be dilated. Since I didn't progress AT ALL over the next couple hours they gave me potocin and that's when I went ahead and got my epidural. I still hadn't felt any contractions but I figured that 1. if potocin is supposed to make you dilate which=contractions, which=pain, I might as well go ahead and get dosed up so I don't have to feel anything and 2. I was planning on having an epidural (congrats to all those of you who do it naturally-you are apart of some prestigious club I will never join if I can help it, but I don't have anything to prove to anybody. They make pain meds for a reason!) so I figured heck, if I'm paying for this thing anyway why wait till I feel pain? Let's do this thing! Thankfully, as per the nurses, the best anesthesiologist in the hospital was working that night and I have no complaints as everything worked perfectly and I really never felt any pain. After that I went right to sleep and woke up a couple of hours later because the epidural started to wear off a little bit and I was feeling a little pain, but I just pushed that glorious little red button that admitted more drugs into my body via IV and I was right back to sleep. The nurses would wake me up periodically to check how fast I was dilating, but even with the potocin it was really slow. Around 7:30 that next morning (Feb. 17) I was still only dilated to a 5 (still feeling no pain-amazing) so they gave me an extra dosage of potocin and it only took about an hour for me to dilate from a 5 to a 10. At 8:30 a nurse came in to check on me and was really surprised that I was at a 10 already. A hospital doctor came in to verify and check the baby's position and found that he was posterior (face down to the floor instead of face up to the ceiling) so she tried to turn him with her hand, but couldn't get him to turn. She went to get another doctor (Dr. Reese who ended up delivering me because my doctor was out of town for the weekend on a scout camp out with his sons! I might have been more stressed out about this but my mind was a little occupied with other things.) He said that Tyler was definitely posterior and before I started pushing he had to be turned, so he tried turning him (which I will just tell you hurt almost as bad as the pushing itself. It was SO painful!) and he was able to so I went ahead and started pushing around 8:45. After almost 45 min. of pushing Tyler was still not coming and his heart rate was starting to drop REALLY fast so the doctor said he would let me try and push 1 more time, but if Tyler didn't come he was going to have to do an emergency C-Section. I really didn't want to have to go that route if I didn't have to so I gave it my all one last time and thankfully little Tyler was born at 9:27 am. All 5 lbs. 9 oz. and 17 inch. of him.



He was so small! I couldn't believe that that little peanut gave me such a problem (4th degree tear, an episiotemy and forceps! I had quite the recovery). Apparently I have a tilted uterus which I didn't find out about until I was in the middle of labor, and that makes it harder to deliver "through the birth canal" (I hate the normal word for that). Isn't that something my doctor should have mentioned?

He started crying right away, they weighed and measured him, put some drops in his eyes and let me hold him for a couple minutes, then wheeled him away to do all those other tests they do to them. Since I had had a pretty good nights sleep, and from the huge adrenaline rush of having a baby, I was wide awake and I remember being really talkative with the doctor as he was working on all my "repairs". I remember him laughing and saying that it was a good thing I was really drugged up right then and to enjoy it because when it wears off in a couple hours I was going to be in a lot of pain. At the time I thought it was funny too. Later that night, not so much! I kinda wanted to kill him to be honest. Anyway, even though Tyler was as tiny as could be, he was healthy, alert and precious, precious, precious! Everything about that weekend was so surreal, and I remember just staring at him not believing that he was really mine, that he was really here (I mean, not even 24 hours ago I was in a completely different world), and that I was really a mother.


A thanks goes out to Nanci for having a wedding reception, to Bobby for eating Cheetos, to Heavenly Father for blessing my life with this priceless gift, and to Tyler for making my life more wonderful than I ever knew it could be. Enjoy these pictures of my sweetheart!