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!

Kayden Michael Frericks--birth story

I have decided that since I wasn't blogging yet when the boys were born, so I never posted their birth stories, I'm going to do it for their birthdays this year(what I can remember of each story anyway).  So, here it goes:

About two or three weeks before Kayden's due date, we found out that he was a BIG baby. The ultrasound tech estimated that he was about 9 pounds by 37 weeks gestation, and was also breech.  So, my doc decided that if I haven't gone into labor on my own by 39 weeks, he would either induce me if baby had turned around, or schedule a c-section if he was still breech. 

So, at my 38 week appointment, I expected to be scheduling a c-section, since I hadn't felt the baby flip, and I assumed that if he was as large as they were telling me, that I would have noticed.  I had mentally prepared myself to be having surgery.  THEN, my doctor went to examine me, and said, "it sure feels like the baby is head-down", so he ordered another ultrasound, and sure enough, the little bugger had flipped!  So, we scheduled an induction for February 26th, and were on our way. 

This is where, four years later, things are a little foggy.  I really wish I would have documented this experience better when it first happened.
Our induction was scheduled for 8:00 (I think).  We arrived at the hospital, got checked in, put on a beautiful gown, answered five million questions, climbed onto a bed, got hooked up to an IV of Pitocin, and waited. I don't remember exactly how far into things the real contractions started, but I know that it was some time after my doctor came and broke my water.  I do remember that there was A LOT of water!  The nurses couldn't believe how much water I had.  They had me walk around to keep things moving, although this didn't last long, because I was much happier to just lay in the bed and be miserable.  I remember extremely painful contractions, and holding onto the side of the bed.  I know that I fought through the pain way longer than I should have. I tried a drug before my epidural, and it kind of helped, but it didn't last long.   Once I got my epidural ( I don't remember how many cm I was when I got it, I'm thinking 7ish?) the pain was manageable, but not gone. I remember my nurse, giving me a little controller and saying that I could push the little button to give myself another dose every 15 minutes.  She said I could push it as often as I wanted to, but it would only release medication every 15 minutes. That little button was my friend!  I remember asking quite often, "Has it been 15 minutes yet?", then pushing the button and feeling the cold liquid move down the tube against my back.  Lovely I tell you.

Once I had the epidural, I was able to rest, and even sleep for a while.  I went through at least three or four nurses throughout the day.  One told me she thought I'd have a baby by 7 p.m.  When that didn't happen, the next nurse said, by 9:00, so I had Mike call my mom and tell her she could come down, because we'd have a baby by 9:00.  

At about 8:00 p.m, the nurses had me start pushing.  I pushed, and pushed.  And pushed.  And pushed.  They had put me on oxygen to help me breathe through all the hard work.  I pushed for four hours before my doctor decided that the baby just wasn't going to come out.  So, he rolled in a cart with a little machine with a suction cup on the end.  He attached the cup to the baby's head, and as I pushed, he pulled him out.  When he finally came out, I remember hearing the doctor say, "Well, no wonder he wasn't coming out!  He's huge!"  
They put him on the scale, and there were the numbers:  9 pounds, 14.7 ounces.  That's a ten pound baby.  
He was huge, but he was healthy and he was beautiful!

Two days later when it came time to go home, we realized that the cute little outfit we brought for Kayden to go home in was too small, and Mike had to go home to get a new outfit that was a little bigger.  Of course, the one he brought said, "I love Daddy!".