Teen Mom OG veteran Tyler Baltierra got real about his struggles since placing his daughter, Carly, for adoption.
Tyler and Catelynn Baltierra comprise the longest-lasting couple on Teen Mom OG and have been together for 15 years.
Catelynn and Tyler share four daughters: Carly, who they placed for adoption in 2009, and Nova, Vaeda, and Rya, who live with them in Michigan.
Teen Mom 2 star Tyler Baltierra gets candid about Carly’s adoption
After Tyler and Catelynn’s latest visit with Carly was aired on Teen Mom OG, Tyler talked with Kate Casey, host of the podcast, Reality Life with Kate Casey.
Tyler recalled watching Carly sleep as an infant and knowing that placing her for adoption was the right choice for him and Catelynn.
“I remember just staring at her while she was sleeping, like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t bring a kid into this craziness,'” Tyler revealed.
Teen Mom OG fans might remember that Catelynn’s mom April and Tyler’s dad Butch were once married, technically making Tyler and Catelynn step-siblings while they were dating.
Tyler said that Butch and April’s tumultuous relationship and the environment it fostered was a major factor in deciding to place Carly for adoption.
“At that time, my dad was with [Catelynn’s] mom. They were both using [drugs]. It was just kind of wild and unpredictable and crazy. So for me, it was just pure panic,” Tyler told Kate.
“We both kind of looked around, like, it was just natural without any words. It was, like, a feeling. From then on, we just kind of knew adoption was just the right thing to do.”
Tyler Baltierra admits he got ‘sad’ welcoming daughters Nova, Vaeda, and Rya
After placing Carly for adoption in 2009, Tyler and Catelynn welcomed three more daughters – Nova in 2015, Vaeda in 2019, and Rya in 2021.
“You do get sad having more children after [adoption],” Tyler admitted. But he said that seeing pictures of Carly helps ease the pain.
“But then it does ease the pain of not knowing at all what [raising Carly] was like. When we saw Nova get older … we [went] back to old pictures that Teresa sent us when [Carly] was that same age, and it helped a little bit,” Tyler said.
If anything else good came from their adoption experience, it was that it forced Tyler and Catelynn to enter into therapy for their deep-rooted issues.
“We actually were thankful because it kind of helped … get this thing in check that we kind of ignored for a while. So we really feel like, in a way, our children just saved us,” Tyler expressed. “They came to us exactly at the right time when they were supposed to be in our lives and helped project the healing.”
Tyler and Catelynn’s visit that was filmed this season on Teen Mom OG was more complicated to deal with than previous ones, as Tyler explained.
“She’s not a little kid. She’s 12. Like, she has more mature emotions. She’s really understanding the situation that we’re in.”
“For the first time, I [saw] her have a hard time saying goodbye, which made me … totally lose it. It’s a weird thing to want to [comfort her] naturally, organically, and then realize, ‘Oh, wait, you can’t because you’re not really raising her.’ And those are her parents. It’s kind of crazy,” Tyler said about the emotional reunion.
Although Tyler and Catelynn certainly didn’t choose an easy route when Carly when was born, they’ve learned that all they can do is find ways to cope with the “emotional tug of war” that it is.
“That’s adoption,” Tyler concluded. “That’s just how it is.”
Teen Mom OG airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on MTV.