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Tyler Dennis Rudd

Tyler was born September 30, 2011 at 2:16pm weighing in at 8lbs 13oz and 21.5 inches long. Tyler is our little miracle baby as he was born with a "true knot" in his cord. Dr. Mathia, as well as the medical students observing the birth, were all quite excited about this phenomena. Apparently a true umbilical court often leads to fetal death because the compression on the cord. He had several angels looking over him and he was born a healthy little boy. We do feel so blessed.

This pregnancy was especially difficult for me. I was diagnosis with gestational diabetes and had to go on a strict 175 grams of carbohydrates per day. I am not much for meat so my meal options were limited. The positive side was I didn't gain any weight the entire third trimester. Twice a week I had to go in for a non-stress test (where they hooked me up to a heart rate monitor for 45 minutes). I also had to have a weekly ultrasound and weekly doctors appointment. I was also referred to a specialist for diabetes care. At 33 weeks, I began having some contractions on a Sunday evening. They were more like stronger braxton hicks contracts so II drank some water and lied down. They continued, every ten minutes, for the rest of the evening. Around 10pm, the contractions seem to slow down (an indicator of false labor) so I fell asleep. At 1am the restroom called and I got up but was in terrible pain. Once I gathered my thoughts I realized this pain would come and go. I thought maybe I was having preterm labor, which I also had with Emily about this point in the pregnancy. I called the doctor and he said to go to the hospital to be evaluated. They always tell you to go to the hospital or wait a bit long. Apparently my hours on end of apparent contractions was proof enough. I figured I would go to the hospital and they would give me a shot of something to make the contractions stop, much like my preterm labor with Emily. I figured there was no need to wake up Emily and take her with us to the hospital in the middle of the night, so I gently woke Mike up and told him I was headed to the hospital to get a shot to make the contractions stop. He was not quite awake and just said "ok, call me and let me know how things are going." Off I went.

The contractions continued on the way to the hospital. I arrived to find the parking garage I had parked in was not close to any unlocked doors. So after walking around outside the hospital, having contractions, in the middle of the night, I decided to walk back to my car and head to the ER. After checking in I was wheeled to the maternity floor and was sent to a triage room. The nurse was quite cheery for 2am, but helped make the situation better. I told her I had been having contractions since 5pm that evening and they were getting stronger. My hope was she could give me a shot and send me on my way so I could get some sleep before going to work. She hooked me up to the monitor and low and behold I was having pretty strong contractions every 3-4 minutes. I was dilated to 1.5 and not effaced. The doctor prescribed a pill to make the contractions stop. The nurse said it should take effect in 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile the contractions continued and were getting stronger. The nurse told me that I might be in the hospital for a while. I was thinking perhaps a few more hours and would need to go in late for work the next day. When she came back, after talking with the doctor, she told me they were admitting me and I should plan to stay for 2-3 days!!! I was floored. I had no idea things were that serious.

I got hooked up to an IV of magnesium right away. I called Mike to tell him things were a bit more serious than I thought. I was wheeled into the antepartum room. The medicine was just terrible. I felt like a billion degrees and my water allowance was practically cut off due to fear of fluid collecting in the lungs. Just miserable. The purpose of the magensium wash was to slow down contractions so that the corticosteroids, for Tyler's lungs, could be used to speed up lung development in the off chance he was born early. I spent a total of five days in the hospital and was sent home with a prescription for procardia to keep contractions at bay. I was on bed rest for another week which put me just at "full term." The following week I went back to work. The next five weeks continued to be difficult as I had several boughts of preterm labor that would fizzle out after two or three hours. One bought of contractions sent us to the hospital only to be send home. Thankfully Tyler's induction was scheduled later that week.

We were scheduled to be include September 30, 2011 at 8:00am. It as like a normal morning routine -- except I was headed off for some heavy labor. The excitement had wanned slightly as the nervousness of the pain I was about to experience was setting in. We arrived at Sacred Heart Medical Center on time and waited in the waiting room for about an hour. It was a busy morning at labor and delivery. The head nurse said they had to reschedule the other inductions earlier that morning. I felt lucky to have kept my appointment.

Things moved rather quickly. I immediately got into a hospital gown, started the IV and hooked up to the monitors. I was already 3cm and 50% effaced and having contractions every 5 minutes or so. My nurse was from Scotland and had such a pleasant accent which really helped calm my nerves. The epidural intern came in and spent some time explaining everything to us. I told her of my ineffective epidural with Porter and my blood pressure problems with Emily. She assured me they would do this one perfect. She left then a resident doctor came in and asked me the same questions the nurse asked me before. Arg. Dr. Mathia showed up and broke my water -- clear fluid thank goodness -- and turned on the pitocin.  She told me I could order the epidural as I was now "there for the long haul." So at 10am I was given the epidural (a lot happened in that hour huh!). The epidural did not go as well as I could have hoped. The doctor was having problems finding a suitable space to put the needle. After three (or possibly four) tries, and the help of her nurse, she was able to get the epidural going. Unfortunately, most likely due to my misunderstanding of the doctor's subjective tests of whether or not the epidural was working properly, I got too much medicine. I could not feel, nor more my legs. I got as comfortable as I could and watched Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee and Lyndsay Lohan.

Towards the end of the movie I began feeling a very uncomfortable pain in one particular spot. Mike helped me move from side to side to see if the epidural might work more effectively. This didn't seem to help so around 1:30pm we both agreed to call the nurse and have the epidural doctor come back in. A new nurse came in and looked at me suspiciously and said "we should probably check you."  I had been expecting at least another five hours of epidural labor as my contractions were not registering very strong or close together, but I figured this probably wouldn't hurt. Amazingly enough I was fully dilated and effaced and my body was pushing!!! If I was in the push phase and only this one particular spot was hurting I really had nothing to complain about.

Since my quick progress was a surprise I had to hold steady while the doctor was called, the nurses lined up and the room prepared. They let me push a few times. The first few pushes were practice. I forgot how to do them effectively -- and the epidural numbing everything wasn't helping. Suddenly I remember and gave it a try. The expressions on everyone's faces changed from excitement to surprise. Apparently that was the trick and Tyler was in position. I was asked to stop until the doctor would arrive. At 1:50 Dr. Mathia, along with two excited medical students, arrived and I began pushing. As Tyler was descending down his heart rate was dropping to a slow crawl. This was motivation for me to push with all my might. He was born shortly after. He was a bit blue but his little arms were flailing around. I opted to have him visit the nurse instead of rest with me. His little cry was so precious! Our little bundle of joy was born at 2:16pm.

Shortly after Tyler was born the nurse noticed the "true knot" in Tyler's cord. Everyone was very excited about this. I eventually asked what this meant -- "good luck or something?" The doctor said that it is rare to have a live birth when there was a true knot. I felt so thankful that Tyler was born healthy.