Dear Tyler,
We were scheduled to be at the hospital by 6am for our induction. Your daddy thought that was awful early and joked with me as to whether he could just meet me over there a little later in the morning. 🙂 Don’t worry…he was just kidding. He wouldn’t have missed your birth for anything.
I had a hard time sleeping the night before because I was so excited and so nervous. We arrived at the hospital right on time and the next hour was spent getting me all checked into the hospital, into a hospital gown and getting me hooked up to the fetal monitor and an IV. The finally started the pitocin drip around 7am and we were off!
Labor was very manageable for the first 3 hours or so. Around 10am, the anesthesiologist stopped in to check on me. They were about to perform a cesarean delivery on another new mommy and would be tied up for about an hour. He wanted to know if I wanted an epidural yet. An epidural would numb me from the waist down so that I wouldn’t have painful contractions. I was really hoping to have you without any pain medication like I did with Makenna. Since the pain was tolerable, I opted to not have an epidural at that time. The pain started to get more intense and around 1pm, I started to get “labor shakes” from the intensity of the pain. I decided I wanted an epidural after all. Once I decided on it, they couldn’t give it to me fast enough! It took about 15 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there and do the procedure. He did a fantastic job and was very thorough at explaining everything he was about to do. It took another 15 minutes for the medicine to start working, but once it did, I felt great and could finally relax and enjoy the experience.
Bailey, Makenna and Heather arrived at the hospital around lunchtime. They hung out in the room with me part of the time and spent the remaining time in the waiting room. Your grandma and grandpa Hobson also came up for the occasion.
Things started to move quickly after the epidural. Within an hour and a half, I had gone from 4 centimeters dilated to 9. Only 1 more centimeter and I could start to push and it was only 2:30. We all, doctors included, felt like we would be delivering within the hour. We had been keeping all of our friends and family updated on the progress of labor via Facebook and it was so cool that so many people were watching anxiously for updates on our progress. So many people were excited to welcome you into the world.
Unfortunately, you started to not tolerate labor so well. With every contraction, your heartbeat would drop. The nurses kept having me change positions in hopes that it would help, but ultimately, they had to turn the pitocin drip off. At that point, even though I continued to have contractions, they were not effective and I wasn’t able to dilate that last centimeter. At 6pm, I was disappointed to learn that my doctor’s shift was over and a new doctor was coming on duty. At 7pm, the nurse that I had had since 7am, had to leave as well. That was upsetting. The good news was that the nurse who started getting me ready at 6am had come back on duty and she was wonderful. So we stayed in a holding pattern for 6 hours. At one point, we were told that we would definitely have you by midnight, even if it meant a cesarean delivery. I was really hoping to avoid that.
Around 8:30pm, they decided to start the pitocin again, but slower this time. Luckily, that did the job and by about 8:45, I had dilated to 10cm and felt the urge to push. Once I told the nurse that I needed to push, things got crazy. I pushed through about 3 contractions and you were out! Your daddy was amazed that it happened so quickly and he watched the whole thing. The doctor was wonderful. Your umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck. Once she realized that, she asked me to stop pushing and she quickly looped it over your head and I was allowed to finish pushing you out. Your daddy had the honor of cutting your umbilical cord and then they handed you to me. You were SO tiny!!! Tinier than I thought you would be. I assumed that since you were a boy and because I had gestational diabetes, you would be at least 7 pounds. After I got to hold you and snuggle with you for a couple of minutes, they took you from me to get you cleaned up and check you out. Because you were a little early, you were covered in “vernix” which took some effort for the nurse and your daddy to scrub off of you. You entered the world at 9:05pm and you weighed in at 5 lbs 10 oz and were 19 1/2 inches long. I thought it was so neat that you weighed exactly what Makenna weighed and you were the same height as Bailey. Your sister Heather was a lot bigger than you at birth…she was 8 lbs 1 oz and was 21 inches long. Bailey was 6 lbs 7 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Makenna was 5 lbs 10 oz and 18 3/4 inches long.
We love the name Tyler Evan that we gave you and I hope you will like it as well. I proposed many names to your daddy early on in the pregnancy and he didn’t like ANY of them. When I suggested the name Tyler, it was the first one that he liked so we never wavered in our decision. Your sisters all put their heads together and picked your middle name. I think it goes nicely together and is a nice strong name.
After you were cleaned up, I got to breastfeed you for the very first time. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. You were absolutely perfect and beautiful. You had a head full of dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. You had your daddy’s chin and ears but the rest of your face seemed to resemble me…especially your mouth. You had long, skinny arms and legs and long fingers and toes just like your daddy and your sister Heather.
Around 10:30pm, your 3 sisters and your Hobson grandparents got to come back and meet you for the first time. Everyone got to hold you briefly and then they all went home for the night. It has been a long, exhausting day. We got moved to our room which was beautiful. The maternity ward had just undergone a major renovation months before. They had a framed picture of you already waiting in our room. Daddy went and got us some food. It had been a day since I had eaten and many hours since he had last eaten. We were starved. We ate a big meal at about 12:30am and then tried to get some sleep.
We were already so in love with our beautiful baby boy.
Love, Mommy
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