At 7:05 p.m today, it will be 20 years ago that our son, Tyler, was born by Cesarean section because even at that "newbie" stage, he was so stubborn! Poor Ol' Doc Harmston tried and tried to convince him by manipulation to turn around and conform to the "normal" way of being born. Tyler would not be pursauded by any of the not-so-gentle prodding proving from day one he would do everything his own way. Doc would get Tyler's head pushed to about mid-abdomen on me, push a little harder and Tyler would throw his head back and spring back into his preferred position of foot first, head upright. Doc Harmston dismay and my whimpers were not easily disguised during our battle of the wills with this tiny infant! We spent nearly 2 hours trying so very hard to get Tyler to just turn around, but, as the scar across my stomach proves, he refused! He was 6 weeks early, tiny, but always full of fight! Doc was impressed that this little guy was 5 lbs. 13 oz and born a month and a half prematurely. Doc Harmston informed me Tyler would have been a very large baby had he not been quite so impatient. A comment we laughed about thinking it was so cute for this itty bitty baby described as "impatient". That foreshadowing was oblivious to us until later.
This child, at three days old, quit breathing and was blue when I checked on him at 2in the morning. Thank God Robert was so quick to react. He spent what felt like an eternity pounding my tiny baby's back trying to get him to keep breathing, suctioning out his mouth, and trying to help me calm down while we waited for the ambulance to get to our house. I was so thankful to see the hard working EMTs finally appear at our front door. They were so patient and wonderful with this new hysterical Mother, a cyanotic premature baby, and a Father who was not about to trust someone else to keep
his boy breathing. Robert and I happily brought our bundle of joy home three days later with a very expensive, loud apnea monitor and both of us certified in CPR. The apnea monitor was intended to be our security so we could at least attempt to fall asleep and let Tyler go to sleep. This equipment had a tendancy to have a lead fall off, usually in the middle of the night sending out blood-curdling, piercing alarms. After the first false alarm I did not sleep at all and neither did Robert. At this point in my life, I became Shirley Maclaine's character in Terms of Endearment checking our baby every two minutes, nearly sleeping in the crib with him. At his next doctor's appointment, Tyler was diagnosed as having severe jaundice. So at less than 2 weeks old, this child had changed his chameleon colors from blue to yellow and neither was a color the doctor wanted to see. It was devastating when Dr. Schmidt told us he wanted to hospitalize this baby again. Robert and I were exhausted from driving back and forth from Wright to Gillette but could not leave this baby. Thank God my parents were living in Gillette and able to visit Tyler when we could not. I was breast-feeding at this time and that did not help out this situation. This was not what we had envisioned when we decided to have a baby. We just wanted to bring this baby home and start living our visions of this new family.That picture required our baby to be home with us and thankfully the doctor took mercy upon us. Dr.Schmidt said we could take Tyler home if we would keep him under a Bilirubin light, so now we had a light rented from the home health clinic and the apnea monitor and I was still a nervous wreck. We were told Tyler must wear constant eye protection or he would go blind, words no new, nervous mother needed to hear! The doctor told us Tyler could not wear anything but a diaper, eye protection and apnea monitor. I cannot even describe the constant cries of anger and frustration Tyler screamed when the eye protection was applied.For being so tiny, Tyler had no problems pulling the eye protection off as fast as we could put it on his eyes. I knew my beautiful baby was going to have to face life without his sense of sight because of my failure to keep the eye protection constantly. The first night could not even be described as bearable, but on the second night, I went to check on Tyler at about midnight and he was lethargic, cold and refused to eat. Our tiny mobile home was 100 degrees and my baby was cold. I called my parents in a state of panic and they drove out to Wright in the middle of the night to take me and Tyler to the Emergency room. Much to his own dismay, my dear husband had to go to work to try to pay off this very expensive endevour into parenthood. The trip into Gillette was a stressful blur. Three trips back to the hospital with my baby as a mother made me think maybe I should have just gotten a puppy! We had the heater in my parents car cranked up on high, Tyler wrapped tightly and upon arrival at the ER approximately 45 minutes later, Tyler's temperature was a mere 92 degrees. Hypothermic, tiny, jaundiced, predisposed to apnea but a fighter! This tiny baby defied odds and showed all of us he was not a quitter. The traits that pulled him through all of the hardships he faced when he was born were the traits teachers failed to appreciate during his school years. If asked to describe Tyler, people would agree about of his qualities using similiar words such as stubborn, determined, not easily persuaded, and very head-strong. These are qualities that I believe are responsible for Tyler's successful fight to survive that first month of his life. After saying that, I must confess that I did lose some, sometimes ALL of the endearment I had for these traits during approximately the fourth trip to the school to sit down with the teachers or principal to discuss Tyler's "qualities". These trips to the school continued through all of his school years. This head-strong son of mine definitely k
ept us busy, at times frustrated, but always laughing and amazed at his obscured view of the world. We fought so hard to make sure this child had a shot at life but he fought harder to exceed all expectations placed on a premature, sickly baby. It amazes me that twenty years have passed but this "child" still is not persuaded to fall into what others consider the "normal" path. He is still head-up and feet first and someday I will convince him to look first before delving into things feet first but I am not holding my breath! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYLER! WE LOVE YOU!
This child, at three days old, quit breathing and was blue when I checked on him at 2in the morning. Thank God Robert was so quick to react. He spent what felt like an eternity pounding my tiny baby's back trying to get him to keep breathing, suctioning out his mouth, and trying to help me calm down while we waited for the ambulance to get to our house. I was so thankful to see the hard working EMTs finally appear at our front door. They were so patient and wonderful with this new hysterical Mother, a cyanotic premature baby, and a Father who was not about to trust someone else to keep
his boy breathing. Robert and I happily brought our bundle of joy home three days later with a very expensive, loud apnea monitor and both of us certified in CPR. The apnea monitor was intended to be our security so we could at least attempt to fall asleep and let Tyler go to sleep. This equipment had a tendancy to have a lead fall off, usually in the middle of the night sending out blood-curdling, piercing alarms. After the first false alarm I did not sleep at all and neither did Robert. At this point in my life, I became Shirley Maclaine's character in Terms of Endearment checking our baby every two minutes, nearly sleeping in the crib with him. At his next doctor's appointment, Tyler was diagnosed as having severe jaundice. So at less than 2 weeks old, this child had changed his chameleon colors from blue to yellow and neither was a color the doctor wanted to see. It was devastating when Dr. Schmidt told us he wanted to hospitalize this baby again. Robert and I were exhausted from driving back and forth from Wright to Gillette but could not leave this baby. Thank God my parents were living in Gillette and able to visit Tyler when we could not. I was breast-feeding at this time and that did not help out this situation. This was not what we had envisioned when we decided to have a baby. We just wanted to bring this baby home and start living our visions of this new family.That picture required our baby to be home with us and thankfully the doctor took mercy upon us. Dr.Schmidt said we could take Tyler home if we would keep him under a Bilirubin light, so now we had a light rented from the home health clinic and the apnea monitor and I was still a nervous wreck. We were told Tyler must wear constant eye protection or he would go blind, words no new, nervous mother needed to hear! The doctor told us Tyler could not wear anything but a diaper, eye protection and apnea monitor. I cannot even describe the constant cries of anger and frustration Tyler screamed when the eye protection was applied.For being so tiny, Tyler had no problems pulling the eye protection off as fast as we could put it on his eyes. I knew my beautiful baby was going to have to face life without his sense of sight because of my failure to keep the eye protection constantly. The first night could not even be described as bearable, but on the second night, I went to check on Tyler at about midnight and he was lethargic, cold and refused to eat. Our tiny mobile home was 100 degrees and my baby was cold. I called my parents in a state of panic and they drove out to Wright in the middle of the night to take me and Tyler to the Emergency room. Much to his own dismay, my dear husband had to go to work to try to pay off this very expensive endevour into parenthood. The trip into Gillette was a stressful blur. Three trips back to the hospital with my baby as a mother made me think maybe I should have just gotten a puppy! We had the heater in my parents car cranked up on high, Tyler wrapped tightly and upon arrival at the ER approximately 45 minutes later, Tyler's temperature was a mere 92 degrees. Hypothermic, tiny, jaundiced, predisposed to apnea but a fighter! This tiny baby defied odds and showed all of us he was not a quitter. The traits that pulled him through all of the hardships he faced when he was born were the traits teachers failed to appreciate during his school years. If asked to describe Tyler, people would agree about of his qualities using similiar words such as stubborn, determined, not easily persuaded, and very head-strong. These are qualities that I believe are responsible for Tyler's successful fight to survive that first month of his life. After saying that, I must confess that I did lose some, sometimes ALL of the endearment I had for these traits during approximately the fourth trip to the school to sit down with the teachers or principal to discuss Tyler's "qualities". These trips to the school continued through all of his school years. This head-strong son of mine definitely k
ept us busy, at times frustrated, but always laughing and amazed at his obscured view of the world. We fought so hard to make sure this child had a shot at life but he fought harder to exceed all expectations placed on a premature, sickly baby. It amazes me that twenty years have passed but this "child" still is not persuaded to fall into what others consider the "normal" path. He is still head-up and feet first and someday I will convince him to look first before delving into things feet first but I am not holding my breath! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYLER! WE LOVE YOU!
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