The Eskelson's: The Story of Tyce

December 3, 2012

38 1/2 weeks pregnant with Tyce

I took this picture before my appointment because I just really felt like I was going to be having a baby that day and didn't think there would be time to take it later in the day..... I was right!

3:45 PM

I went in for my Dr. appointment with Dr. Fowers. I was completely ready to have this baby! I had spent the weekend cleaning out the garage, power washing and organizing hoping to get some contractions going.... I had the house ready to go and my bags were packed and loaded in the car.

I went into the office thinking, "I am ready for this, I want this baby today". I already had a scheduled induction for Friday, Dec. 7th but I just didn't feel like I was going to make it to Friday..........and if I did, I figured I had might as well wait 5 more days to have him on 12-12-12.....cuz that would just be cool!

I was dilated to a 2+ and 80% effaced the week prior so I was thinking with all the cleaning and organizing in the garage, that surely I was past that........to my surprise, and Dr. Fowers, I was the same.

Lucky for me though, my blood pressure decided to climb pretty high that day. I think Dr. Fowers said something to the effect of my blood pressure had been climbing the past 2 weeks but I was unaware, I thought it was fine because the nurses had never said anything until this visit.

Dr. Fowers then asked me how I felt about waiting until Friday to have a baby. I told him that I would like to have him sooner than that. He then asked me if I wanted to have him that day, or on Wednesday. The only thing was, he said I had to have him that night because his son was having surgery in the morning (Tuesday) and would not be able to deliver me. I told him I wasn't too worried....thanks to my speedy delivery with Tenley. Dr. Fowers went ahead and scheduled my induction for that day!

Part of me wonders if he was doing me a favor. I am not sure how much my blood pressure played a part in it or if he just knew how worried I was about having this baby without an epidural. Almost every appointment I voiced how scared and concerned I was to have this baby. I really think he just wanted to make sure I was in the hospital when everything started to happen. For this, I will always be grateful! I was all of a sudden very relieved to know I was going to be in the hospital when contractions started and I was going to get an epidural whenever I wanted it.

As soon as I got to my car, I made the phone call to the charge nurse in Labor and Delivery to see exactly what time she wanted me to come in. She was busy so she was going to call me back.

I quickly made phone calls to Dave and my Mom and then headed home to pack for the kids. Dave met me there. Around 4:45, the nurse called and asked if I could be to the hospital as close to 5 as possible. We loaded up the car and headed to my Mom's to drop off the bag for the kids.

Once at my Mom's, I had a hard time saying goodbye to Tenley. She had been my baby for 17 months and I had just enjoyed her so so much. I knew the next time I saw her, it was all going to change. I was worried she wouldn't be a momma's girl anymore and that she would be mad at me. My favorite part of the day was hearing her say, "Mom, Mom, Mom", over and over and over in the mornings when she was ready for me to get her out of bed. I had to fight back the tears while I said bye to her.

On the way to the hospital I all of sudden started to dread what was about to happen. I just did not want to go through it. Giving birth to Tenley just really did a number on me and I did not want this to happen. There were so many things that were running through my head... How long was the labor going to be, would I get an epidural, would I get it in time, would it work, was I going to throw up, would it go fast or slow..........so many things unknown and it scared me..I even wished I could just get a C-section so I knew exactly what was going to happen. (Crazy, I know! But I honestly felt that way)

All the way to the hospital I tried getting a hold of my Dad so he could help Dave give me a blessing. I didn't get a hold of him until I got the hospital but he said he was on his way. This helped me calm down a little.

We arrived at the hospital sometime between 5:20 and 5:30. We were admitted and taken back to my room. I started to panic inside. We started on the paperwork and the fun stuff began.

My dad came in to help give me a blessing. I love my Dad so much and having Dave and him give me a blessing really helped me relax.

The nurses and students came in to get my IV, antibiotic, and pit going. One of the students tried to get my IV started. She stuck me twice. She blew my vein in my R hand and in my R wrist. It felt like she was kinda digging around.....I was not enjoying it. Finally the nurse put my IV in my left hand and got in the first time.........Thank goodness! I started on the pit a little after 7:00 PM.

I started feeling pretty steady contractions. Nothing major. Just a little cramping. When the nurse came in, I asked her if my contractions were really coming like I thought they were. She said the were and that the anesthesiologist was already there so she would have him come in. GREAT! I was still only at a 2+ :-) Fine by me though.......I didn't want to feel anything this time around!

Joel, the anesthesiologist came in. He was a really nice guy and gave us a hard time about not having a name picked out. He kept saying, "Joel is a great name". We told him we would consider it depending on how well the epi worked..... we joked that we might have to name the dog after him.

Well, he tried to get my epi in. He had to stick me 3 times before he could get it. The first 2 times he hit bone. The worst part is that he had to keep sticking me with the stinking/numbing stuff. I could also feel stuff running down my back, which was blood. I wasn't feeling too great about how this was going. The third time he said I was one very unlucky girl. The thought that immediately hit me was that I wasn't going to be able to get my epidural. I was shaking by this time as panic started to set in. I asked why and he said he hit a vein but thought he could still get it in and then I felt it hit! It was smooth sailing after that!

Dr. Fowers then came in to talk and to break my water. He was so great! I highly recommend him!

Around 10:20 I really felt like things were progressing. The nurse came in and I was at a 5. I was a little surprised because I felt like I was further. I also started to feel like I was going to throw up. The nurse gave me an alcohol wipe (she said it helps with nausea! Who knew?) to smell and gave me some Zofran in my IV and she left. Again, I started to really feel some pain and pressure. I pushed the epi button and called the nurse back in. 15 minutes....maybe....had passed when I called her to come back in. This time I was at a 7+. As she walked out the door I started to feel like I needed to push. I pushed the epi button again and Dave grabbed the nurse because I felt stupid having her come back in after she just walked out. She came right back in and said, "Whoa! You are complete"! All of a sudden, the room was full of everyone needed to bring a baby into the world. Dr. Fowers was there super fast and it was game time. He told me when I felt another contraction coming on to let him know and he would have me push. So, I let him know, I pushed 1 full push and 2 little pushes and our little man was here!

It was the first time I really saw what happens immediately after birth. I saw that the cord was wrapped around the baby twice but once it was off, he let the world know he was here. The first thing everyone said was, "Oh, he has a birthmark on his cheek"!

Baby Boy Eskelson was born at 11:07 PM, 6 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches long.

The little guy cried for his first hour of life!

With Kaylee and Cole, Dave went to the nursery with the baby while I was in "recovery" and moved to Mom and Baby (Tenley was born in a different hospital so it was different) This time, they let me keep Tyce the entire time, which meant Dave was also with me! It was nice! We were all moved to Mom and Baby together.

Holding Tyce for the first time

I still couldn't feel my legs. They were completely numb! It made it very awkward and interesting to move from bed to bed....pretty much I had to roll with help from the nurses.

When we were settled in Mom and Baby, our nurse came in to give the baby his bath. I have never been able to watch them give the baby their first bath so I LOVED it! She just washed him at the foot of my bed. It was one of my favorite times in the hospital.

1st bath at the foot of my bed

Watching the nurse give Tyce his bath

After the nurse got the baby all bathed and swaddled, she noticed he kept grunting and asked if she could take him to get his Oxygen checked. She brought him back and said he was ok.

Around 4:00 am, a different nurse came in and said she kept hearing the baby grunt too and wanted to take him to get his Oxygen checked. This time our baby didn't come back with the nurse. She told us his Oxygen was low so she took him to the NICU where we could go see him at 8:00 am.

When we got down to the NICU, they told us he had some fluid in his lungs which was probably pneumonia and he had some kinds of infection, but they didn't know what kind of infection. He was put on Oxygen and an antibiotic and were told he would be in the NICU for a week so they could run the course of the antibiotic.

Well, later that day, the 4th, he was taken off of Oxygen and did just fine! He never had it put back on! YAY!

The kids didn't get to come hold the baby in the hospital. They could only see him through the window :-( Of course, that didn't hold their attention for very long so we ate Dinner with them in the waiting area and they headed back to my Mom's.

All the kids together for the first time!

1st picture together as a family of 6!.....HOW did that happen!?!?
PS...I really debated whether or not to put this picture up because I look so GREAT and HUGE, but that is a lame reason so.......here it is looking my best :-)

We could only have 6 visitors allowed in the NICU. We couldn't change them so most people had to come see him through the window. Here are some pictures of some of our visitors.

Grandma Poulsen

Grandma and Grandpa Gene

Grandpa Poulsen

Some of our other visitors were:

Jan Funk (Dave's Aunt)
Dustin and Brikelle (My brother and SIL)
Kenny and Jamie (My brother and SIL)
Nathan (My brother)

So, we have a really hard time picking names for our boys! The Dr's tried to help, the nurses gave us suggestions, and even our anesthesiologist tried to suggest his name.... Joel. (We told him it depended on how my epidural worked....Joel might become the dogs name!) Our poor little boy had several different names throughout his little stay in the hospital. When we went in, I thought he was going to be Tate.... the story with Tate was kinda crazy. I had thought of it and had mentioned it to Dave but no one else. Well, Kaylee got off the bus and told my Mom that the baby's name should be Tate, which my Mom couldn't believe because she had heard it on a TV show earlier that day and had thought that was a great name for our baby! SO, I kinda figured that was going to be his name when we went into the hospital. I even called him Tate in my head when he was first born. Well, it didn't stick and now I am kinda wondering if we messed up on his name as I sit here and write this! His first "official" name that even went on the white board was Jace. Dave came by after work and erased it off the board. Then he became Mason, but that didn't stick too long, and we took him home as Trace. The entire day we were home with Trace, Dave and I both kept calling him Tyce.......so first thing the next morning, Dave called and had his name changed to Tyce Ralph but that only lasted a day. Then FINALLY, our little boy was named Tyce Holt! OH MY!

We had several different lists that looked like this!

Our middle names we were trying to decide between were: Ralph, Holt, Weston, LaMont, and David.

December 5

Dr. Rogers decided that our little man was doing really well, so they pulled his IV to see how he would do taking his antibiotic orally. They said if he did great that day, he would probably go home the next day if all his labs came back clean!

Dave had his first EVER Christmas work party. We decided to make an appearance so that I could meet everyone. It was really hard to walk out of that hospital without my baby! I did not like it one bit! We only stayed for an hour so we could get back to our baby!

Because our little man had to stay longer than I did, I opted to do the extended hotel stay in the hospital which was $15 a night. Not bad, right!?

December 6

I went down early in the morning to make sure I was in the NICU in time to catch Dr. Rogers. When I got down, the nurse told me that one of his lab results went up a little bit so she didn't want me to get my hopes up that we were going to be taking our baby home that day.

I decided to run to my Mom's to see the kids before they went to school. While I was there, Dr. Rogers called said he WAS going to let us go home! YAY! I rushed back to the hospital, called Dave to see if he could come get us during his lunch, packed up our things, and returned to the NICU to get Tyce ready to go!