Tyler was born on Friday, November 19, 2010 at 5:03am. It truly was an awesome experience, so I will start from the beginning. Wednesday night Greg and I decided to do everything we could to induce labor. Since my mom was in town, I was determined to do anything and everything to get Tyler out! This would be the second attempt at doing this. The previous time I had really bad contractions for about 2 hours. I fell asleep, and they went away. So, I was willing to try it one more time before Thanksgiving. If I didn't go into labor, I would stop. There was no use to induce painful contractions if nothing came of it.
Wednesday night Greg and I went walking. We must have walked for about 3 hours. When we got home the contractions began. They were pretty intense, but I was able to go to sleep that night. I woke up on Thursday morning with contractions. They were 3 minutes a part, but much less intense than the night before. I went to work as usual. I stopped timing the contractions and focused on work. I was training my maternity leave replacement, so I was pretty busy all day. At lunch time, I started to feel as though I had peed on myself. I wasn't walking around with wet pants or anything, but enough to grab my attention. I was busy, so I didn't get the opportunity to go to the bathroom to investigate until 3pm. I won't go into the details, but the feeling had me concerned enough to call my mom to get her opinion. I was still contracting at this time, but again, it was nothing I couldn't work through. I could walk and talk through each contraction. I would look ridiculous going to the hospital with these weenie contractions.
When I told my mom what was happening, she insisted I go to the hospital to get checked. My next scheduled appointment with Dr. Parise was the next morning. I didn't want to go to the hospital, especially since I had an appointment the very next day. My mom was persistent. What to do? I hung up with my mom and called my sister, Melanie. She would know what to do, especially since she is a labor and delivery nurse. She gave me some instructions to better determine if it was amniotic fluid leaking or urine. As I was on the phone with her, I had a strong contraction. I felt a small amount of fluid leaking with the contraction. That had me! Time to go to labor and delivery!
I called Greg. He really tried to be indifferent. He didn't want to get excited because we were unsure if this was really "IT". I went home, took a shower and got in some comfy clothes. After all, you never know how long they will keep you. I was still convinced I wasn't leaking fluid, but I wanted to be clean.
We got to the hospital near 5 o'clock. I apologized several times to the nurses saying, "I'm probably not in labor, I just peed on myself". Their response was, "Well, if your Melanie's sister, it is probably the real thing". I got all settled in the room. The resident came in and did her exam. She determined that I was leaking amniotic fluid. I was there to stay! Greg and I looked at each other thinking, "Holy moley, this going to happen". I was terrified. I didn't know what to expect. TV shows and movies depict labor and birth in such horrible ways.
I was in labor for about 12 hours. I got the epidural about 6 hours into the labor process. I was doing great lamazing through the pain. We had a frustrating experience with the labor and delivery nurse. She was very sweet; however, she thought that she would slowly increase the pitocin rather than increasing it at the standard rate because she knew I was hurting. I wanted to scream! I knew this process would be painful, but she was prolonging it. I stayed at 4 cm for 6 hours. I knew that I would get a C-section if I did not make appropriate progress. So, I got the epidural. It was heaven! At this point, I got a little aggressive. I called the nurse every 15 minutes to increase the pitocin. My mom would leave my room and go find her if necessary. Within 4 hours, I went from 4cm to completely dilated. It was time to push! Thirty minutes of pushing and Tyler was here. He weighed 6lbs 14oz and was 18 and 3/4ths inches long. I was able to watch him enter this world! It was great. I remember thinking that he was HUGE! My belly was never really that big. I was amazed at his size! In fact, my entire family under guessed his size. Good thing he was 2 weeks early! He could have been MUCH bigger. It is crazy to think that Tyler was inside of me and now he was in my arms!
After Tyler was born, he began to retract and grunt while he was breathing. We were told he was going to go to the nursery for an hour to be monitored. One hour then turned into 3 hours which turned into an NICU admission. The doctors did not know why he was having this "respiratory distress". The reasoning they gave was due to some possible scenarios: difficulty with transitioning outside the womb, pneumonia, or infection due to prolonged rupture of my membranes. Tyler had a rough first few days. It was obvious that he was struggling to breathe. The doctors also decided that it was best for him to be on IV nutrition rather than breast milk. They wanted all of his energy spent on breathing and not feeding. They also believed it was best that he not be held. He would get too excited with any kind of stimulation and his breathing would worsen. It broke my heart to watch him struggle. He was obviously uncomfortable and hungry. Many tears were shed. My baby was hurting and I could not do anything to help him.
After 2 days, Tyler began to improve. All the testing was coming back negative. Tyler was placed in a step down room where we could stay with him. We were only supposed to stay one night in this room to make sure he was feeding well before we went home. The next day his bilirubin was checked. It was too high to go home. So, we spent another night with Tyler undergoing phototherapy. Thankfully, the next morning the doctor was open to home phototherapy and we were sent home with a bili-bed. Finally, this hospital stay was over and we would finally bring Tyler home.
While Tyler had a rough first few days, his birth experience was amazing. I found labor and birth to be easy. I was terrified to have a horrible experience, but it was the complete opposite and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Greg and I were as prepared as we could be and I truly believe it made a difference. I know I have said this about 5 times in this blog, but I have had a strong belief that Tyler would be healthy and that I would have a easy and fast labor and delivery. My experience was exactly this. There is definitely some power in positive thinking!
Here are some pictures from his labor and delivery.
This picture is before the strong contractions began.
Tyler is here!
I cried when I saw him for the first time.
We are so happy to be parents!
My little Ty guy:)
In the NICU:(
Getting his GTL on while under phototherapy.
Time to go home!
Here is the link to Tyler's newborn pictures. He was so well behaved!
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