After having pin pointed our due date the pregnancy became a variable roller coaster, mainly caused by me having to switch doctors a couple of times. The main reason for this being that we really wanted to try having this baby vaginally, but our current OB said if we stayed with her practice we’d be forced to have it via c-section. Stating that the hospital she practiced at had some sort of policy against VBAC’s (vaginal birth after c-sections), it was a liability issue to them. So began the stressful journey of finding a new doctor and a new hospital. I won’t bore you with the details of that except to say that we eventually did find a doctor and a hospital.

The pregnancy itself seemed fairly easy going, for the most part. I had some morning sickness in the early months, but nothing terribly unbearable. At my monthly OB visits the baby’s heart beat was strong, generally in the 140’s. We had sort of hoped that the slower heart rate was a sign of the baby being a boy, so we started calling the baby “Bud” for lack of a well thought out boy name. At each visit they found no protein in my urine, and no anemia. I had no bleeding or cramping like I had had with Grace. From all indications, we had ourselves a healthy baby.

FINDING OUT THE GENDER
At 18 weeks, we were scheduled for an ultra sound, just the routine kind and by this time we knew we should be able to find out the baby’s sex. Prayers for a boy had been said, and the anticipation was built up. The technician said they baby looked great no signs of deformities, limbs were proportionate etc. The baby was cooperative to show off it’s genitalia and we were told that we were having another girl. A bit of a disappointment since we’d hoped for a boy, and been calling the baby “Bud” still it wasn’t the end of the world and I think we hung on to a little hope that the u/s could be wrong. We had become so accustomed to calling the baby “Bud” we never did stop, although we did start rethinking the possible names as to include girl names.

PICKING A NAME
We quickly decided that her name would be Sarah Elizabeth. Sarah after Alan’s maternal great grandmother. And Elizabeth was a traditional middle name for women in his family, his mother’s mother, his mom, and his sister all bore the middle name Elizabeth, so we would continue to carry on that tradition.

Because we had called the baby “Bud” for so long we decided to think of it more as a flower bud - a ROSE bud to be exact. The rose just so happens to be one of the signature flowers of Alan’s and my courtship and one of my absolute favorite flowers. So at the last minute we decided to tack on the Rose to Sarah choosing to hyphenate it so it would be all one word. So for those who are tempted to just call her Sarah, we quickly correct them and say her name is Sarah-Rose not just Sarah.

WORRY POKES IT’S EVIL HEAD
The fact that three times our baby had measured smaller than expected coupled with the fact that I thought the baby seemed less active than my other children had been starting to weigh heavily on my mind. However, I made myself push aside all the negativity deeming myself paranoid. There was no real concrete reason for these feelings, so I moved on convincing myself everything was fine. I reminded myself there wasn’t much to be worried or disappointed about, even the fact that we were having a girl was nothing to complain about cause she looked great. Anytime my mind wandered into paranoia, I simply said a quick prayer that God would protect and keep our baby safe. This was enough to ease my mind and I was able to go on with life as usual.

HER WEB PAGE IS BORN
Life as normal meant we prepared for this baby’s arrival in much of a similar way that we had when we were expecting Grace. So one day Alan created a web site for the baby and surprised me with it. At the top it had a little heart felt blurb saying he made the site to keep everyone updated on how the pregnancy was progressing, a sort of journal of what happened at our doctor visits etc. He also put a count down ticker at the top that told everyone exactly how pregnant we were and when the baby was due to arrive. The body of the page listed the updates of what was new, and he would also post a few images there of our u/s pics. Of course he also created the normal picture gallery set up to share pictures of the baby’s birth, just as he’d done with Grace. It touched my heart - to me he seemed to be the best daddy in the whole world. What can I say? My hubby is quite thoughtful and sentimental. We have since converted to a single family web page to give brief updates about us and share our recent family photos, but the original site still exists. There is a list of our personal photo links on my LINKS page for those interested in viewing them.

HER STORY CONTINUES
By the time we had our next doctor visit we were nearing our 20th week, at this time they informed me that the AFP test also commonly called the triple screen had come back with markers for Down syndrome. I was well aware that this was a fallible test often having false positives and false negatives. They discussed my options, possibility number one was to go for a level 2 u/s and number two was to have an amniocentesis done to find out for sure. After further discussion they took back the offer for the level 2 u/s because the u/s we had just done showed no abnormalities so in the end they the amnio was the only option they offered us. They left us alone to discuss it.

We were both leery to do the amnio because of the risks to the baby. This combined both with the fact that statistically the AFP proved to not be a very accurate test and our recent u/s was normal – we voted against the amnio. Being that Alan and I are of Christian faith, we also knew that even if there were something wrong with the baby we would never chose to terminate so really the amnio was a mute point. We went forward not really worrying at all, we had every hope that the AFP results were just an inaccurate finding from a flawed test. We thought nothing more about it really.

So we continued with our monthly OB visits with no problems, we had found a new hospital and doctor by this time, one that was on board to let me try to do the VBAC. The hospital was 30 miles away but we live in a pretty rural area so that wasn’t a big concern, we are used to making that drive on a regular basis. Entering into the third trimester we starting making all the necessary preparations, like packing a bag for the hospital. Setting up child care for our other four kids. Very normal for a couple expecting a baby.

AN UNEXPECTED TWIST
At our 24 week OB appt, the baby measured a tad small – 23 weeks instead of the expected 24. No biggie they sometimes lag and then catch up. We should have had another check up in our 30th week, but due to having switched doctors we didn’t get in until our 33rd week. Again the baby measured one week behind. The baby’s heart rate was fine, I was feeling great had no bleeding, cramping so there was still no reason to raise any red flags At this visit our doctor said I was far enough along to start seeing her bimonthly and that was when the real adventure began.

RED FLAG RAISED
Two weeks later at my next visit, once again the baby measured small, this time at a more alarming rate, the measurement was 33 weeks when it should have been 35. This is where real concern started to set in. The doc said that if at my next visit the baby was still measuring small she’d send me to the hospital for an u/s. Well as it turned out at the next visit the baby was still measuring too small this time she measured somewhere between 33-34 weeks, I should have been 36 weeks. At this time my visits were bumped up to once a week as is standard in the last part of a pregnancy. The u/s was ordered and I went in the middle of my 37th week.

The u/s tech told us nothing, said they weren’t allowed to. All the results would be sent to my doctor and the doctor would call me. Despite several calls the two days after that, I was unable to reach or get word from my doctor about the results, so I just proceeded with my next scheduled visit, nearing what should have been my 38th week. So this is when they informed us that the u/s reports showed the baby to only be 33 weeks 4 days big but the good news was that the baby still looked healthy and the saw no signs of abnormalities. Of course all my paranoid thoughts came rushing back in and I asked what they had planned for us from here.

They said they were gonna move me to the another room where they could put me on the NST monitors to see how the baby was doing. The baby failed this test, which meant the baby’s heart wasn’t following the desired pattern of beats, so that same afternoon I was sent straight to the hospital to be monitored more closely. I was told my records were being faxed right over.

SARAH-ROSE’S BIRTH STORY
At the hospital I was checked in on a temporary basis, and seen by the emergency OB staff. Several doctors examined me, I was put on monitors and finally one of the doctors decided to do another u/s cause she felt much more confident seeing for herself what was going on with the baby.

She was very thorough when she did the u/s, and indeed found the baby to measure small (appox. 34 weeks) and she also found that there appeared to be a problem area in my placenta and that the blood flow from the baby’s cord was not right. This mixed with the fact that the baby’s heart wasn’t following the desired patterns - made the ER OB decide to admit me. She was sure that the problem she saw with my placenta was causing the baby not to get the proper nourishment hence explaining why she was not growing (this was later confirmed in my pathology reports). This meant that it was better for the baby to come out, she said they would enduce me and we’d be having our daughter that very day. It was pretty much up to the baby as to whether we’d deliver vaginally so there was at least still hope for that.

Okay wait! I was not prepared to have the baby yet. The bag we had packed for the hospital was back our house as our day started out only being our weekly OB visit. So we have none of our stuff with us and keep in mind that our house is 30 miles away, so we had no camera, no clothes, no snacks for dad - nothing. So we spent the next half hour making desperate phone calls to friends and family. We needed a sitter for Grace, and we requested someone buy us a disposable camera just in case. And we had to arrange someone go to our house to inform the older kids what was going on. This was no time for them to be alone especially now that there was concern for the baby’s well being.

COULD THIS DAY GET WORSE?
So now the docs come back and inform me that they see no reason we can’t try a vaginal delivery. They inform me that they will soon have a room ready for me. After I was moved to my new delivery room I was again hooked up to monitors and I was waiting for my labor to be enduced this is when all of a sudden I have a contraction. The monitor’s alarms all started buzzing and a whole team of doctors/nurses came running in to see what was the matter; apparently the baby’s heart decelerated during the contraction. They ordered me to lay on my left side, put an oxygen mask on me to get the baby back in good shape. The baby recovered pretty well but soon after my doctor arrived and told me she didn’t feel too good about how the baby would do in a vaginal delivery based on that one contraction, and she said I would have to have a C-section.

At this point we were okay with the c-section as we were concerned for the baby’s health above all else. There was no rush as the baby had recovered from the previous contraction and I had no other subsequent contractions. They said when the OR was available we’d go, then they came back and said there had been an emergency c-section that would get the OR before us and our wait would now be longer. The day then stretched into night, but finally around 9 pm they said we were a go.

Sarah-Rose's Story Continued