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My husband, Sean, and I met in high school. We weren't high school sweethearts, but we were friends. Sean's son, Cory, was born during my senior year and I remember the day he told me that Cory had been born. He was so proud that it just radiated from him. I remember thinking how special it must be to be a parent. I had no idea that years later this very same person would be witnessing the birth of our son, Tyler.

Tyler was conceived on Valentine's Day, 2001, my 27th birthday. By this time, Sean and I had been married for 3 years and had lived together for over 6. We had been tossing around the idea of starting a family for a long time and had finally decided that we were ready. Tyler was conceived on our 6th month of trying. Never were we happier! You can read more about how we found out Tyler was on the way, and my pregnancy by clicking here .

My pregnancy with Tyler was rough from the start. I had several episodes of bleeding, one lasting more than 5 weeks. I felt from the start that I would lose him and every week that I stayed pregnant gave me a glimmer of hope. At my 14 1/2 week ultrasound, I was diagnosed with placenta previa. That is where the placenta is covering the opening of the cervix. It can cause bleeding, so I started to feel more confident thinking that the previa is what had caused all of my previous problems. However, I still had trouble letting myself get too happy about the baby. I felt like a horrible mommy because I wasn't singing about my pregnancy from the roof tops, but I was too afraid that something bad would happen.

At the beginning of June we drove to Michigan to pick up my stepson, Cory. It was a long drive and I was very tired for most of it. I hadn't felt the baby move during the trip and I started to worry. However, the day we got home, I felt him rolling around and that set my mind at ease. Having Cory around was great. He was so excited about the baby that it gave me a reason to be excited as well. I remember walking through Wal-Mart with Cory. He came up to me, put his arm around me and said "how's my little brother or sister doing?". It made me feel like a real mom! I finally felt like things would be okay.

Less than a week later, I started feeling really tired and worn down. I thought I was just trying to do too much. I had a nagging lower back ache, but I have a bad back so that isn't anything new to me. It wasn't until I started bleeding again that I began to worry. I remember going to the video store with Sean and Cory the day before Tyler was born. I put my head on Sean's shoulder and told him I didn't feel very good. We didn't end up renting a movie because I felt too bad to take the time to find one. We did go shopping that night though. Cory wanted to find a Father's Day gift for Sean. We bought him a few goodies and got a white tank top to decorate for him. Cory and I sat up late in his bedroom decorating the tank top. He put his hand print on it, and I added "Baby T" to the shirt. It was supposed to be such a happy day for Sean, his first Father's Day spent with Cory, and his first Father's Day with the new baby as well.

Early in the morning on June 17th, my backache started to get worse. It would start to hurt and then intensify like I imagine a contraction would do. I thought I was crazy to even consider that I might be having contractions, but I did time them just to be cautious. Each contraction was 30 minutes to 2 hours apart. I figured that they probably weren't even contractions, but I was scared anyway. I had a horrible sinking feeling that my baby wasn't going to make it. I started praying that God be with me. (I'll continue this story soon... its hard to write about so I have to do it in spurts, please bear with me)
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