My Four Boys: October 2013

I'm finally getting around to blogging about baby Tyler's birth!

(Warning: I wanted to write every detail down to remember, so it is very long)

When Andrew was about 21 months old, we started trying for another baby. After two years with no luck, we decided to go see a reproductive endocrinologist. One of my friends at work had referred me to Fertility Specialists of Thousand Oaks. We got all the work-up testing and were told that one of my tubes was blocked and Nic had poor sperm quantity and quality. We were told that our chance of conceiving on our own was less than 5%. Wow! This fact told us that we were very blessed to have Andrew on our own! The good news was that with our young age and previous pregnancy, the likelihood of fertility treatments working were very good! We thought and prayed about it for a few months, then decided to try Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) with the added help of ovulation augmenting drugs. I went in for ultrasounds through the process so that they could see on

which side and how well the follicles were developing. I was disappointed when the ultrasound showed that I was going to ovulate on the side that was most likely blocked. The doctor still wanted us to try, stating that it still could be successful. I thought we were just going to waste our money going through with IUI that month. But I am so glad we went through with it! After the first try of IUI, we got a positive pregnancy test on Thanksgiving morning! I went in for my blood test to confirm pregnancy and got nervous when I was told that my HCG level was only 16 when it should be 50-100 at this point. The doctor told us that it could mean that I had miscarried or had a tubal pregnancy. They did more HCG tests and the numbers kept doubling, which was a good sign! Our first ultrasound was scary because the specialist didn't see as much as he had hoped (something about egg yolk/egg sac, etc) It seemed like ages, but we did finally get to see and hear the baby's heartbeat on ultrasound!!! What a relief.

At 14 weeks, we decided to go to a gender ultrasound boutique to find out the gender.

And we found out we were having a boy!!!! Nic, Andrew, Rebecca, Robert, Miranda, Amelia, and my Mom were able to come to the gender ultrasound.

Throughout the pregnancy, I had several ultrasounds done by a perinatologist because of my ulcerative colitis and mild Von Willebrand disease making me high risk.

At one of our appointments, the doctor took 10 minutes or so looking at Tyler's heart on ultrasound. Boy was that a scary 10 minutes because Nic and I both knew he suspected something was wrong. He thought Tyler might have coarctation of the aorta and sent us to a pediatric cardiologist. After much fasting and prayer and an ultrasound a couple weeks later, we were relieved to find out that his heart was healthy!

Overall, I felt good during this pregnancy. I had some mild nausea and light-headedness at the beginning and felt very tired and short of breath at the end. I decided to start maternity leave 3 weeks before my due date, which ended up being really nice since we were moving from Camarillo to Lompoc at that time. My OB offered to strip my membranes at 39 weeks, but I declined. I thought for sure I wouldn't go too far past my due date. Well, my due date of Aug 4 came and went and I had absolutely no signs of being close to labor. Each day past my due date felt like a week! I let my OB strip my membranes 3 days past my due date. I lost my mucus plug 2 days after that

but still no other signs.

Me at 41 weeks

At 8 days past my due date I was still stuck at 2cm (which I had been for the past few weeks) and my OB offered to strip membranes again (which I allowed) as well as admit me to the hospital to start labor. I had already arranged babysitting for Andrew and packed my hospital bags in the car before my appointment. Luckily when my OB called over to L&D, they were slow and told me to come right over. They admitted me and my OB came over during his lunch break to break my water (1pm). I was dilated to 3cm at that time, -3 station and my OB's guess for baby's weight was 8lb 2oz. He said that if I hadn't started regular contractions by 3pm he would have the nurses start pitocin. Luckily that was NOT NEEDED! At 1:15 I started having contractions. My doctor let me eat lunch at 1:30, which was really nice. I walked in the hallways and tried the birthing ball when the contractions started bothering my back a lot. At 2:30 I was dilated to 4cm. At 5:00 I got my epidural. The anesthesiologist placed it slightly too far to the right and I felt more numbness on the right side of my body than the left. The epidural definitely helped ease the intensity of the pain, yet still allowed me to feel contractions (and quite a bit of pain while pushing- which I didn't remember feeling during Andrew's birth) At 5:20 I was still 4cm and -1 station. At 7:36 was 6cm dilated. My nurse told me that the waveform on my toco monitor combined with my back labor pains made her believe that baby was posterior position and I would progress slowly. Literally minutes thereafter, I felt Tyler moving a lot and started to feel a lot of pressure. At 9:23 I was 9cm dilated!! Things progressed very quickly after that. At 10:11 I was pushing and at 10:30pm I was holding a beautiful 8lb 13oz 20.5inch baby boy!! I am so thankful for the beautiful blessing of family my Father in Heaven has given me! What a miracle life is!

Here are some more pics of this wonderful life event:

Nic and I at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital

We had nice company during labor. Nic's mom, my mom and my sister Tonya (who took these wonderful pictures!!) were there. Nic's dad was so helpful and watched Andrew in Santa Barbara that day (and night) so that he could bring Andrew by as soon as Tyler arrived!