There were quite a few things that were actually not just things, but miracles, in fact, involving Bryce's birth.
On March 9th (the day before my due date), I went in for a normal checkup. My kind doctor said she wouldn't let me go past 41 weeks, so I knew I eventually had to have this baby, even if it had already decided it wasn't coming out, ha!
My doctor had "just randomly" scheduled an ultrasound to check up on the baby. Miracle #1.
That morning, I was in the ultrasound room for so, abnormally long. The ultrasound tech, Miss Shelley, checked his heartbeat and it was fine.
She then turned on some different settings that allowed her to view blood flows, etc. Miracle #2.
I remember looking at the screen and seeing a red line, then a blue line, then red, then blue, about 8 times. Weird. I had no idea what this meant.
I then happened to mention to Miss Shelley that the baby hadn't seemed to move as much as it normally did that morning at home. Miracle #3.
I had done the fetal kick counts: drank cold milk and laid on my left side, poked my belly, and prayed. My doctor wanted 6 kicks within an hour (I think) whenever I did fetal kick counts. The baby just so got that number in, but some "kicks" felt more like an arm falling or something.
Miss Shelley is a super sweet woman. She just calmly took this information in, finished up with me, and sent me out to the waiting room. A couple minutes later she came out again and said, "Could you come back in? I want to try to get 3 movements from the baby.".
I didn't see this as a huge deal because remember, the baby's heartbeat was fine. I kept coming back to that.
It took Miss Shelley 20 minutes to get him to move 3 times. And she is a professional ultrasound tech, watching the baby, knowing exactly where to poke and push. Ouch. Twenty minutes is a long time for that kind of poking activity.
She then sent me to the room to wait for my doctor. I knew something was up, but really had no idea.
My doctor walked in and said, "We need to talk.". Okay! She proceeded to tell me that they weren't positive, but it looked like the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck 4 times. FOUR TIMES. This is what they were able to see when Miss Shelley turned on the color feature.
I remember feeling a terrible fear in the pit of my stomach. After the doctor talked for a while, I finally asked, "So am I going home today or not?". She said no she doesn't think so. I felt a little fearful, but actually pretty excited, because THIS WAS IT!
My doctor proceeded to tell me that she was going to send me over to the hospital so they could monitor the baby's heartbeat for a while. IF it was fine, I could try to have this baby normally. I would have to be induced that day, and would have to be aware of the fact that it would most likely end up in an emergency C-section. Or we could schedule a C-section in an hour or two.
She kept saying, "It is very common for babies to be born with the cord wrapped around their neck one or two times, and they're fine.". But her recommendation was getting a C-section.
I called Dustin and he left work right away, stopped in at home to take a quick shower and to grab my hospital bag. We didn't even have to discuss that long which option we wanted to do. Miracle #4.
It seemed so clear to us to take the C-section route. It didn't seem worth it to have to be induced, only to most likely end up in an emergency C-section. It also didn't seem worth it to put the baby through that stress.
So at 4:52 p.m., on March 9th, 2015, Bryce Camden Graber was born!! That is the ultimate miracle. When the doctor pulled him out, she said the cord was for sure around his neck 4 times and it was about 4 feet long! She said the cord grows to accommodate how active the baby is. Apparently Bryce was a super active baby! He did move a lot, but I just have no other baby to compare him to! Also, the doctor showed me a perfect little knot that was in his cord. Wow. Thank God that it wasn't tight enough I guess to harm him.
Different nurses kept referring to him as the "acrobat baby". :)
Sometimes I look at our sweet baby and am just overwhelmed at the thought of what could have happened depending on so many factors. I am just SO GRATEFUL to God for sparing his precious life.
So this is our miracle baby. :)
