| Bryce's Pregnancy and Delivery page 2 |
| The more time that we spent with the staff at St. Louis Children's Hospital, the more comfortable we felt. This staff was very capable, incredibly caring, and would give our child the best care possible. I had weekly biophysical profiles (BPP) ordered in St. Louis at the Center for Advanced Medicine. On September 20, I met with the perinatologist at the Center for the first time. At this point, Bryce was still only approximately 2 lbs, so his gestational growth was severely less than it should be. The doctor ordered me on left-side bed rest in order to increase the blood flow to Bryce. He also arranged for me to have weekly non-stress tests (NST) in Springfield at my OB's office in order to monitor the baby, rather than having us travel to St. Louis once a week. |
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| This is me at almost 36 weeks gestation. Things went pretty smoothly during bed rest. We went to our weekly NSTs and Bryce did what he was supposed to...until Friday, October 15, 2004. On Friday, October 15, we went for our normal NST. Bryce's heart rate was not spiking like it should, so my OB arranged for a BPP that afternoon. During the BPP, he did not move as he should, so my OB called St. Louis. They arranged for me to go to St. Louis to Barnes-Jewish Hospital "for observation". We got to B-JH at 6:30, I was admitted, and by 9:00, I was being prepped for a c-section. we had to go with cesarian because we needed to get Bryce out quickly and an induction could take a couple of days. I got the epidural. It wasn't easy. The poor nurse that helped me, Tracy, was just wonderful helping me through the epidural. I leaned on her through the entire thing. It honestly wasn't easy, but was worth it so that I could see Bryce right when he was born. |
| I heard them say that they were starting the surgery at 11 p.m. Bryce was born at 11:20 p.m. A c-section with an epidural is the weirdest thing, because you can feel them moving your insides around and you wonder what they're doing in there. I was so thankful when Prentice came into the room, because then I had something/someone to focus on other than the movements that I was feeling. The neonatologists were present so that when Bryce was delivered, he would be immediately checked and supported. Sometime after Bryce was born and my husband was over looking at him while they were cleaning him up, I remember the nurse telling me that she heard baby noises. I remember hearing some kind of baby noises, like cooing, I think, but that is the only time that we got to hear Bryce's voice. The doctors held Bryce up for me prior to whisking him away to the NICU at St. Louis Children's Hospital. I was wheeled back to my delivery room, where I was greeted by several guests! As soon as they heard I was having a c-section, my best friends got in a car and drove to St. Louis! Special thanks go to the Gammaitoni's for letting my friends stay there. It was so nice to have them there. They didn't get to see Bryce until Saturday. I was so pleased to see Jen, Lori, Kris, Candi,and my friend Eric, who actually worked just one floor up! They got to see me really silly too...after the epidural. |