Samuel Donovan

*** Samuel is now almost 2 months old!! I've done well with keeping a daily journal of Samuel, thanks to my mom for helping me start one when she came out. i will do my best at keeping this blog updated but I'll need to play catch up first beginning with his birth leading up to today... it will take some time so please be patient : ***

June 24, 2011

.... Eric and I went in for my prenatal appointment for a biophysical profile (BPP) at 9am with Dr. Chau. Samuel hadn't been moving much during the week so I was hopeful to have some answers as to why he wasn't moving much.. maybe he was getting "too big" for my little belly or maybe there wasn't much amniotic fluid.. During the bpp, Dr. Chau noticed that Samuel's movements were very sluggish. He had also developed an arrhythmia. She tried to wake him up by using a machine that made a buzzing noise. They did it the first time and he jumped because it scared him, but when they tried it again to get him to move more, he didn't really budge. Dr. Chau didn't like how sluggish was and she really didn't want to have to deliver him early. (I was only 34 1/2 weeks along and we had set a date for a C-section on July 8th, just before I would be 37 weeks). She was considering admitting me for the night but decided to admit me to Labor and Delivery for an hour to keep an eye on him.. another NST. After that hour she wasn't happy with his lack of movement and wanted to do another BPP. Within seconds she saw that he still wasn't moving well and decided that she needed to deliver him. She said better early and healthy than dead. We, of course, completely agreed.

On a side note.. It's funny because both Eric and I had a feeling that Samuel might be born that day. We had been praying that Samuel would be able to make it to 37 weeks, if possible.. he obviously had other plans ;) During the week I had a feeling that Samuel might be born early, on Friday, but didn't say anything to Eric about it. As we left our apartment that morning, we joke that wouldn't it be kinda crazy if Samuel had to be delivered today?? (because of his lack of movement that week) Hmm... :D

Back to Samuel... So they took me to the freezing cold OR, gave me a spinal and waited til it kicked in (it took a little longer than they expected I think because they kept poking me to see if I cut feel it and were surprised that I still could. They said they didn't want to give me anything else to help numb me because Dr. Chau wanted me to be awake). I'm not sure when they brought Eric in, either before or after the first incision. He stayed by my head the whole time and kept his hand on my shoulder and arm. I was freezing cold and tried hard not to shiver. I tried not to cry but a few tears fell as I thought about how I was nervously excited about Samuel's early delivery. I was nervous because I just hoped he was ready to be delivered and excited because I would finally be able to see him!

I could feel the Doctors tugging and pulling at me and could hear them suctioning the fluid and within minutes Samuel was out and I heard his little cry for maybe 3 seconds before they whisked him away. I cried when I heard him cry. How could I not?! A few minutes later they called Eric out of the room so that he could take pictures of Samuel and while he was gone, Dr. Chau and the other Dr. stitched me up.......

Samuel Donovan Pruett was born at 1:37pm and weighed 3 lbs 13 oz and measured 15 1/2 inches long.