April Update

The Third Time Was The Charm!!!!

On Wednesday, April 20th, at 8:33 am, Tyler Davell Petersen entered this world with a loud yelp! That delivery room was too cold for him!!! The C-section was wonderful!!! It was the easiest one and most feeling-free that Stephanie had had! Kevin's first words were that Tyler looked just like Kyle and he was right!!!! Talk about a spittin' image at birth! There is no denying those two are brothers!!! (Ryan looked like Kyle too, except he had a very pronounced cleft in his chin that was his distinguishing "birth mark").

Tyler weighed 8 lbs and 5 oz. (Kyle was 7-7 and Ryan was 8-8) and all three boys were 20 inches long at birth. Tyler’s "birth mark" are his fingers and toes! They are the longest fingers and toes the nursery says they had ever seen in a new born! Tyler is so good-natured! He never cries and he is so easy-going! He allows his brothers to literally maul him and he doesn’t appear to mind a bit. His brothers Love to Love him... we are all In Love with him actually!

Shortly after the c-section was completed, Stephanie started to experience excruciating pain in her stomach. At midnight that evening, Stephanie was undergoing a second surgery to remove a blood clot that had formed in her uterus that was reported to be the size of a volleyball. It was the largest blood clot the hospital had ever seen... and the surgery was pretty serious... but Stephanie pulled through wonderfully. After spending the night and part of the next day in the ICU, Stephanie was released to the Maternity Dept. again...back to her private room... however, by noon that next day, she was being transferred out of Maternity and was headed to the CCU where they could monitor her heart, give her a blood transfusion, and perform a series of tests (C-Scan on chest, Heart monitor, ECHO, Blood work, VT Scan, etc...) all in the company of her Jamaican roommate (and that is a story in itself).

This was Friday and poor Kevin was trying to manage the boys and all of these complications with Stephanie. They were afraid Stephanie was suffering a heart attack or embolism. It ended up being a complication of water that had collected in her lungs from the two surgeries. The water was causing her to not be able to breathe deep enough to give her heart enough oxygen to make blood. Stephanie lost so much blood during the second surgery that she had to receive ultimately four units worth of blood, above and beyond the amount pumped into her during that second surgery. Ultimately, her heart and her heart was having to work too hard and it appeared to be a heart attack. But, there was no heart attack...and she coughed her brains out (which felt great on the c-section incision, as you can imagine) but that cleared her lungs of the excess fluid.

Needless to say, it was a long three days at this point...but it wasn't to end there. Friday night, Stephanie underwent an attack of gas... and not just any gas! After a C-section, women are to get up immediately and start walking so they can get their bowels working again, but I had had two surgeries there and had not been up to walk in three days. Suffice it to say, the gas attack was pretty horrific! It lasted over three and a half hours and had both depts., maternity and CCU, working to remedy the problem. They tried so many things, even an experimental procedure but then finally they gave up... they wanted to just give me a shot to knock me out and have me sleep... but I knew I would have to deal with the gas when I woke up, so I refused the shot... and well, I wont go into details, but finally I was able to pass the gas and the nurses said it was more gas than they had ever had to deal with in their collective 50+ years of experience. To Stephanie, the gas was the hardest, most painful part of the whole four days... actually, of her life!!!! After enduring the pain of that gas, she feels like the incision in her stomach is more like a scratch, comparatively speaking!

So, that is our story. But the results were worth it! Tyler is our dream baby! Good-natured and so sweet. He smiles all of the time, awake and asleep. I know this one is especially close to our Heavenly Father's spirit!

We are anxious to hear from you guys! These last two months of our pregnancy and then the hospital stay has really set us behind in keeping up with the news!

Do know that we love you all and that we looked forward to being able to share our great news with you!

Love, the Petersens .... Kevin, Stephanie, Kyle, Ryan and Tyler too!!!!


Stephanie
Mommy

Posted @ 1:44 PM
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Tyler Davell Petersen

Well, Tyler was born yesterday, April 20, 2005. 8 pounds 5 ounces, 21 inches. He looks a lot like his brothers too. We had some complications with Stephanie, but everybody seems to be doing well now. We'll try and have sonn pictures up soon.


Kevin
Daddy

Posted @ 8:22 PM
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