Catelynn and Tyler parent their three other daughters after placing Carly for adoption in 2009.
Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra are still working through the complexities of their adoption process with daughter Carly 13 years later. The Teen Mom stars placed Carly for adoption in 2009, featuring the experience on MTV's 16 and Pregnant.
In this week's episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, the longtime couple, who now parent their three other daughters, Nova, 7, Vaeda, 3, and Rya, 1, had a candid discussion with Nova, after she came home from school upset.
"She just started sobbing and she was like, 'I really miss Carly.' She was like, 'Why did you have to separate us?'" Catelynn, 30, tells Tyler of Nova. "It just never occurred to me when I was making the decision at 16 how it would impact my future children, you know?"
"I guess I never really thought about it affecting them in a negative way," Tyler, 30, admits.
Nova then joins her parents, who ask her again about why she was upset about Carly.
"I felt like that's my sister and I can't see her that much," Nova explains. "Like, imagine getting split up from your sister or your brother."
Nova asks her mom how old she was when Carly was born. When Catelynn tells her 16, Nova replies, "That is not a grown-up! You should be, like, 40 or something."
"Forty is a great age!" Catelynn says, laughing.
Nova asks her parents why they decided to have a baby so young.
"We didn't. We weren't very responsible," Tyler tells his daughter. "We made bad choices."
"When Mommy found out she was pregnant, she was like, OK. Well, me and Daddy talked and we said, 'We can't raise a baby right now,'" Catelynn says. "We didn't have cars. We were still in school, no job."
Nova is confused, telling her parents, "You should have asked God for a baby later."
"It's not really God, though. Me and Mom had to make the baby," Tyler explains. "That's what animals do, they mate to have babies."
"Oh, you guys mated!" Nova declares as Catelynn bursts out laughing.
Catelynn and Tyler have been open about their experience with adoption in the past. In a previous episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Tyler got a vasectomy noting that they were "done" expanding their family.
In March 2021, ET spoke with Catelynn, who said she's never re-watched her painful episode of 16 and Pregnant.
"When I am older and Carly is in her 20s or 30s, I'm blessed to be able to have a copy of my 16 and Pregnant episode that I can show her to... I mean, right there is like, I don't even have to say too much," Catelynn told ET at the time. "We can watch it. Then I can answer questions that she has because it was so 100 percent real. I still haven't been able to watch my 16 and Pregnant. I can't do it."
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.
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