Ty's Birth Story!

Tyler Gabriel Tellinghuisen made his big debut on Friday September 18th, 2009 at 2:23 p.m.


The night before his birth was kind of rocky. I couldn't for the life of me get any sleep. Not really because I was worrying, I actually felt really calm about his upcoming arrival. I had come to terms with the mysteriousness of it all and was ready to roll with the punches. It was just plain pregnancy qualms that were keeping me up! So I went to the hospital on about 2 hours of sleep...

6:45 am - Check in and registration! We got set up in our room and introduced to our day nurse, Amy. She didn't have any exact orders from my doctor yet as to how to proceed, so we waited...



8:45 am - Water is broke! Our doctor was not in at this time, so he had the partner doctor on call break my water. This hurt! Doc said this baby "wasn't coming in the next 10 minutes". I was only 1 cm and the baby wasn't close to coming down. So we settled in thinking we were in for a long day...

9:00 am - Started the pitocin. My contractions started right away. With Aidan my contractions were felt all over my belly. With Tyler my contractions were all mainly in the very lower regions of my stomach.

Noon - Got my epidural. I mentioned to the anesthesiologist that with Aidan I had a "window" of pain that wasn't covered by the epidural. He had to re-do it once because it wasn't going in right. It felt a little different this time - I could still move my legs, but they were numb. With Aidan I couldn't move my legs at all.

1:00 pm - Still only 2 cm dilated. I began to start feeling my contractions again, meaning the epidural didn't work! I also started to get the spins. I threw up every time I had to move positions. I knew that throwing up could mean the baby was "almost here", but I was only 2 cm right? So that couldn't possibly be why I was throwing up. So we didn't even bother to check my cervix again.

2:00 pm - The head nurse came in to check on me, and my nurse told her I had been throwing up. She checked me right away and said I was completely dilated! Whoa! Now that was fast! "Don't breathe, don't throw up, don't move!" The baby was about to pop out!

It was about this point that I started shaking, another sign that the baby was ready to come out! I started shaking right before Aidan came out, too. The nurse called the doctor right away and he rushed to the hospital.

2:10 pm - The doctor made it fast! Everyone took their places in the room. We had 2 sets of grandparents in with us. They lined up on one side of me. The NICU team, nurses and such lined up on the other side. Jason took his place next to me, holding my hand. It got really loud in the room, really fast!

I began to push, and Jason kept saying "You're so close, keep pushing." I remember thinking "That's what you said the last time!" haha

I pushed for about 10 minutes...Had no trouble getting the little peanut's head out, but he got a little stuck after that. He had some bruising on his arm and left hand from coming out.

2:23 pm - Finally! My baby boy was here! The doctor put him on my belly and I kept saying "He's soooo cute!" I just couldn't believe how adorable he was! Jason then cut the cord and my family went picture crazy :)




This is when the birth plan we had set up started to come into play. And it played out beautifully. Everything about Tyler's birth screamed that this was a "normal" birth. The doctor asked me when I was ready for Ty to go to the table to be assessed. I told him he could take him after the cord cutting, and off Ty went. I watched from my bed to see if he was doing ok, and he looked alright. I remember the seizures that Aidan had right away, and I looked for those... I only saw normal movement. I was so happy! He didn't seem to be in any distress!!!!!

Ty cried when he came out, and he cried when they gave him his bath (which, by the way, they did in the room with us). Our birth plan was followed exactly! Ty NEVER left the room, never left our side! He received all the normal baby stuff (antibiotic in his eyes, Vitamin K shot, etc). We opted out of all the heel pricks to check his blood sugar.



After his first check (weight 6 pounds 13 ounces - length 19.5 inches), Jason got to hold him and parade him around the room! Everything had happened so fast! I still couldn't believe he was here and that he was doing SO well! I finally got to hold my baby boy and really soak him in. He was so beautiful. Jason left the room to go get big brother Aidan!




All of a sudden Aidan looked SO big and SO grown up!





As Ty was being passed around and held by all those who were there, I could begin to see little facial tics. Even from across the room I could see them. These tics were so familiar because I see them in Aidan everyday. I kept my mouth shut and looked to Jason to see if he could see the same thing. I have to admit my heart dropped a bit, but I just took a deep breath and jumped back into the moment!

It was obvious as the minutes went on that Tyler was having seizure-like behavior, tics, jerks, spasms...whatever you want to call them. They were almost identical to a lot of the movements that Aidan has. I just kept watching to make sure he was breathing ok, that his color remained pink, that he didn't look like he was in any pain... He seemed to be holding up ok, so I didn't mention the seizures.

Throughout the whole birth experience and even our whole hospital stay, the word microcephaly was never mentioned. Our baby boy was not "labeled" or diagnosed. He was treated like a typical baby, and this was SO new to us. It was obvious that his head was small, yet it was not mentioned. It was such a stress free birth!

About an hour after his birth I mentioned to Jason and our family that I noticed some movements and seizures. He agreed that he saw them, too. And that was it. We didn't dwell on them. The nurses mentioned maybe once or twice that they did see some seizures as well. Unlike with Aidan's birth, this time we knew what we were looking for, and this time it didn't feel like the weight of the world on our shoulders. There was such little "medical" talk. It was just plain "enjoy your baby" talk! We loved it!

So - after just under 6 hours of labor and a beautiful delivery, we finally were holding our newest little guy in our arms! The WHOLE morning/day was such a whirlwind. It almost felt like a dream. We got the birth experience that we wanted, and most importantly, Tyler wasn't poked, prodded and treated like a "case" or "diagnosis". The doctors and nurses were great!


Aidan was born about 5 hours after they broke my water, and so was Tyler! They are so in sync with each other, even during delivery haha. Another special thing I'd like to note is that ALL my guys are born on the 18th! Jason's birthday is November 18th, Aidan's birthday is July 18th and now Ty's birthday is September 18th!

And so the story of Ty begins...
I will write more later about the rest of our hospital stay and what we have discovered about our newest little "tough guy"! There is SO much more to tell, and he is only 4 days old at this point!

A HUGE thanks for all the messages and support. We are surrounded by love, and most importantly our boys are loved. That is THE MOST important thing to us - that they feel overwhelmingly loved at ALL times. So thank you to you all :)

Please stay tuned for more tales from the storybook of baby Tyler Gabriel....