The Pregnancy

I am constantly amazed at how God knows what we will need long before we do. He sees over the hills and around the curves...He has been in the our yesterdays, our todays and already in our tomorrows! This time of my life as no different. I had worked for Dr. Westbrook since 1985, but had not used him as my doctor in a number of years. Instead, I started seeing his partner right after I took the insurance position in his office. Our working relationship had not always been the best as we were both very strong willed, bull headed and very driven...ok...stubborn. He could sometimes be very overbearing, demanding and hard to work for. When I quit my job in 1992 after Roger and I got married, we did not like each other very much but still had a great deal of respect for each other. I went back to work for him filling in from time to time when someone was on vacation or when they were shorthanded...those times would range from a week to several months and end the end...I was back to full time before he retired in September 2001.

I guess that since I did not have to have the job and he did not have to have me working for him again...we had a new found, great deal of respect and an awesome working relationship. We finally got along perfectly...I guess...we needed each other in a different way. However, when I decided to get pregnant with Tyler....he and his partner had gone different ways years before and I continued to see his former partner, but I knew that as a former employee that Dr. Westbrook would see me for only what my insurance would pay him. So...I decided to return to his care and use him as my OB/GYN again. He was a great doctor, very gentle, kind and I trusted him fully.

My pregnancy with Tyler was totally uneventful except for the fact that I had "all day sickness" for about 5 months. It was a very exciting time for all of us as a family. Roger's girls were excited and watched my belly grow...and did it ever grow!!! I loved being pregnant and had said many times that I would carry the baby and let someone else raise them. Brandon also had a new and different excitement about him knowing that he was going to be a big brother. Brandon would be 8, Sommer would be 16 and Ryan would be 14 when Tyler was born.

My pregnancy with Brandon was pretty much exactly the same as with Tyler. As any new pregnant mother...you have your dreams of what you want you pregnancy and delivery to be like. I wanted to take childbirth classes, have my husband in the delivery room and have a normal, natural delivery. Well, with Brandon that was not the case....I took childbirth classes with my best friend, my best friend was in the delivery room, Brandon was breech and I never felt the first labor pain and ended up with a C-Section delivery. I felt immediately like a failure after I gave birth to Brandon because I felt robbed of that joy, experience that comes with labor and delivery plus, having my husband playing a vital role in my pregnancy and delivery.

When I got pregnant with Tyler, Roger knew how much all of the things that I just mentioned meant to me and he did everything that he could to see that I lived my dreams out to the fullest.

We did not take childbirth classes this time but I knew that a team of wild horses would not be able to drag him out of the delivery room. The exciting part for me was that they had started doing the VBAC delivery (vaginal birth after Cesarean)...if you had the type incision that would allow you to go into active labor...which I did. Dr. Westbrook also knew how much it meant to be to VBAC with Tyler and he did not see any reason why I could not try.

God was allowing me to live out another dream that I had been robbed of during my first marriage, pregnancy and delivery. God is so good and He cares so much about the small things that make us happy, as well as, the big things.

Roger and I talked about whether we wanted a boy or girl...which did not matter as long as he was healthy, but I really wanted to him Roger a son since he already had two precious daughters. We found at when I was 16 weeks pregnant that...I was having a boy!!!! Austin Tyler would be his name.

My due date was July 21st, 1994 and Dr. Westbrook was scheduled to be on vacation during that week. I was sick thinking that he would not be on call to deliver my baby and care for me...so I started talking, begging and seeing what I could work out. He promised me that if he thought that I was "ripe" and ready to deliver then he would induce me the week before my due date so that he would be there with me.

Stay tune for the events of Tyler's birth!