Tyson John

My induction with Tyson was scheduled for April 20th.  We were to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m.  My mom came over the night before to stay with Kayden and Tyler.

We snuck out the door at about 5:30, and headed for the hospital.  

After the whole "check in" process, we were ready to get things started by 7:00. I was surprisingly calm.  They got my IV started, and Mike and I "relaxed" and waited for things to get rolling.  It didn't take long for contractions to start. I knew I was going to get an epidural, so I requested it when I thought the pain was "pretty bad", because I knew (from previous experience) it can take a while for the anesthesiologist to get there even after you request the drugs.  

By the time he got to my room, the contractions were bad.  I remember crying a little, but I don't know if I was crying because of the pain, or because everything was becoming so real.  He ended up having to put the epidural in twice, because the first time he hit a blood vessel(sounds a little scary now, but at the time all I cared about what getting those drugs).  

As with Tyler, within minutes of getting the epidural, baby was ready to come out!  Anyone who has had an epidural knows that it doesn't work instantly.  It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to start working.  Well, Tyson didn't give me that 10 minutes, because he decided he was coming now!  So, basically, we paid a lot of money for the drugs that I didn't even get to enjoy!  I knew I had to push, but my doctor wasn't in the room yet.  The nurses called him, and he said to tell me to "wait", and he'd be there soon since he was just finishing up a c-section. 
Well, I couldn't wait. 
The on-call doctor made it to my room, and he said that I needed to push now.  *I didn't know it at the time, but the cord was wrapped around Tyson's neck, and his heart rate was dropping, so they wanted him out*

It took about 2 pushes, and he slid right out (I know--that might be TMI for some people, but that's exactly what happened). 

I remember the nurse commenting on how small he was, which was NOT what I expected having given birth to nine and ten pound babies previously. Turns out, he was 7 pounds, 9 ounces and healthy!

Baby went nameless for about an hour after he was born.  We came to the hospital with one girl name, and three boy names.  So, after a little discussion, we came up with Tyson John.  Tyson, because it has become a bit of a tradition to have our kids names include the letter, y, and John because John is Mike's middle name.  

All was going well after Tyson's birth.  He was healthy, our families came to see him, and I was feeling good.  

Except for one thing.  

I had some excessive bleeding going on.  The nurses tried a few different things to get it under control.  They even put me back on pitocin(the drug that makes your uterus contract).  When nothing else worked, they called in the doctor that delivered Tyson (Dr. Stocker), and he decided that he'd do a D and C.  

He explained that he would need to go inside and scrape he remaining parts of placenta out of my uterus, which was what was causing the bleeding.  He said I had two options.  He said I could, either be "put under" for the procedure, or stay awake and he would do it as quickly as he could.  It just depended upon how "tough" I was.  Somehow he convinced me that I could do it without being put under, so that was what we did.  

We had to ask our family to head home for the night (it was already about 8:00 anyway), and Rhonda(Mike's sister) stayed to stay with Tyson in the hospital room.  I didn't really want to send him to the nursery yet, and since she is an RN, I figured he'd be safe with her.  

After everyone was gone, they put me in a wheelchair, and we headed to another room where they performed the procedure.  I won't go into details on this part, but it wasn't fun.  I'll just say that much.  I'm thinking the nurse who told me to squeeze her hand if it hurts might have regretted saying that by the time the procedure was done.  

In the end, it worked.  

Like magic.  

The bleeding stopped.  

I was back in my room, resting for the night within an hour. 

A day and a half later, we were home and the reality of three boys under three and a half hit, and life has been a bit blurry ever since, but I wouldn't change it for the world!