David, Molly, Annika, Benson: Tyson Glenn Beus

Tyson Glenn Beus | January 16, 2018 at 8:45 pm | 8 lbs 2 oz | 19 inches long |

14 inch head circumference | Lots of black hair

Our Tyson boy is here! He came 6 days before my due date (1/22). I had an appointment with Dr Small on Tuesday morning, 1/16. I had been having some real contractions the night before, nothing too painful or consistent. I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. I had Dr. Small strip my membranes and by the time I picked something up from a friend's house and came home with the kids, I started having contractions. They started coming every 15 minutes at 11 am and just kept getting closer throughout the afternoon. By 3:30, I was pretty certain we'd be heading to the hospital that day. Janelle and her kids came over at 4:30, just in case we needed to head to the hospital before 6, which is when Dena was done with piano lessons. I made rice and beans for dinner. By the time we sat down for dinner at 5:30, I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart. We left for the hospital soon after dinner. We arrived around 6. Lena Gilbert was the admitting nurse. She checked me and I was a 5! We were relieved that they wouldn't be sending us home. It took forever, 3 nurses, and 5 pokes to get an IV started. I think I was pretty dehydrated (not much of an appetite that day). I was so worried that there wouldn't be time for an epidural. The nurse anesthetist finally arrived to start the epidural. But she had a hard time getting it placed. As soon as the epidural was placed, I relaxed mentally, thinking the pain would soon subside. Before I even laid down after the epidural, I started shaking, which is what happens when delivery is fast approaching. I felt nauseous when I laid down. They said it was because my blood pressure dropped, which is common with an epidural. They gave me some meds for that and the nausea went away quickly. The epidural's effect was working its way up my legs. The contraction pain was greatly eased. But probably about 10 minutes after the epidural was placed, I had about 60 seconds of intense pain. I felt like I was ripping in half. I started to panic that the epidural wasn't working! I was laying on my side and didn't want to move at all. Lena checked and said baby was coming fast. His head was quite visible and low. Dr. Small came in at about 8:40. She was in her work clothes. She left her coat on a chair and threw a gown on. And then it was time to push. I felt helpless and anxious as I anticipated many more episodes of pain that would come with each contraction as I pushed the baby out. But, I finally had the kind of delivery that I've always been jealous about- 2 pushes and a few minutes later and the baby was born! Dr. Small wasn't there more than 5 minutes before he was born. I was annoyed that we went through all of the trouble to get an epidural started (and the cost of it) when it didn't even have to time to take full effect. But my relief that Tyson arrived so quickly was greater than my annoyance :) I was so grateful and in shock to be holding my baby so soon! He wasn't interested in nursing right away, but he did love being snuggled against my skin. I didn't sleep much that night and poor David was coming down with a cold, which we now think could have been the flu. But, Tyson slept great! He latched for a few minutes on one side around 11 pm. But, then I couldn't even wake him up enough to latch until around 4 am. David and I were excited to see the daylight. And we were looking forward to seeing our kids. Dena brought them by around 10 am. Annika was adamant about not missing any school, which we hadn't discussed. So she had Dena take her to school and said she would meet Tyson after school :) David went home to rest in the afternoon and Dena took the kids to her house. David felt really sick until Saturday. And the other three kids started feeling sick on Friday and Saturday. By some miracle, Tyson and I never got what they had. It was a long week with a newborn and sick kids at home. I am so grateful for David's flexible job. He stayed home until the next Thursday. The first 2 weeks were very overwhelming for me. I had more intense postpartum depression than I've had with any of the others. But, I'm enjoying Tyson a lot more now and feeling a little more confident in my capacity to manage everything. I'm still really worried about how I'm going to remain optimistic and take care of myself during tennis season. Tyson will be 6 weeks old when tennis starts. David is going to Kansas City for a work conference Monday-Friday of that same week. So he'll miss the first few days of tennis. I'm anticipating that being one of the harder weeks of my life. But, we can survive for 5 days.

Tyson has been a very content baby. I wish he would sleep a little more soundly at night. But he is a newborn after all. He eats every 3-4 hours at night. But he often wakes up in between and I give him his binky and occasionally, David will go hold him on the couch if he's having a hard time settling. But, during the day, he is so content after I feed him. He just looks around and is very quiet. The kids adore him! About 100 times a day I hear "Oh he's so cute!" or "hi little cutie boy" (that one is from Esther:). It's a joy to watch happy sibling interactions. We love you Tyson boy!