Bryce Alexander Moline came into our world quite unexpectedly on Sunday June 7, 2009 at 10:41 p.m.
We were on our way home from Dripping Springs when I had what I mistook for Braxton Hicks or gas. We stopped to check my blood pressure, just in case, and it was well within the normal range. This felt like an assurance that everything was fine and so we headed home for a warm shower and to lay down.
It was only in the shower that I realized that what I was feeling was a serious contraction but by this point they were so severe that I was unable to move or call Caleb until they subsided. I remember looking up at the minute hand of the clock as it swung past 10: 30 p.m.
Caleb was in the living room so when I could I quickly got out of the shower and was able only to reach the door of our bedroom to say call the midwife when I began to have another contraction. I knew this was looking bad but I never imagined that after that contraction my water would break like a flood gate opening.
Caleb walked in right in the middle of this contraction because he heard me crying. He quickly saw my pain and tried to get me to lay down but the pain was so intense that I couldn't even think of moving. When my water broke on our bedroom floor we both knew we needed to get to a hospital as quickly as possible.
Caleb was back on the phone with our midwife debating which hospital would be best and I had just enough time to get to the bathroom, this was 10:41 p.m. according to Caleb's phone records.
I think I was planning to get a robe and try to get out the door but then another contraction came on and my instinct told me to squat - ten seconds later there was blood gushing everywhere and I knew that something had come but my mind would not let me consider the possibilty of it being our precious baby boy.
I told Caleb that something was there as he was hanging up on the midwife. He reached down and pulled up our son. I told Caleb to call 911 as we all three squated down onto the floor in our bathroom, this was 10:42 p.m. per Caleb's phone records.
Literally one minute from when my water broke Caleb was holding our son in his hands.
The 911 operator may very well have saved our son's life. She got help on the way and then talked us through CPR as we waited for CPFD, Acadian EMS and CPPD to arrive. Although Bryce was making noise and moving when he came into this world we knew that at only 24 weeks and 1 day of gestation he needed us to help him survive this traumatic entry into the world.
I did 30 chest compressions on baby Bryce, Caleb followed with 2 small, swift puffs of air into both his mouth and nose. We did this, sitting a pool of my blood, for what seemed like hours but was likely only minutes. We still do not know.
The firefighters were first on scene - swiftly followed by about 15 other faces that I cannot see in my mind's eye but I'm sure were shocked by what they walked into. A man took over chest compressions as a young woman entered the room, clamped and cut the umbilical cord and handed Bryce off to get help from someone else.
I distincly remember watching as they carried my son out of our bathroom and into the bedroom. There were so many people in our small bathroom that he was quickly out of sight - this was in some ways even harder for me than what we had just been through. This awful feeling of anxiety when I cannot see him has become painfully more common as the days have past.
I don't know where Caleb was during this time but I can easily guess he was with our son. The EMT put an IV in me and helped me put on a robe. They put me on a stretcher and wheeled me to the waiting ambulance where I joined Bryce. I faintly recall hearing someone tell poor Caleb that he couldn't go with us and actually asking him if he could follow in our car. Luckily, Officer J. Miller of the Cedar Park Police volunteered to drive him. Caleb even had time to pack us a bag, answer a neighbor's concerned phone call and arrive at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center just as the EMS was pulling into the ER bay.
The jumble of getting us inside the ER and Bryce attended to by the doctors is like a nightmare of being inside an episode of ER. I couldn't see Bryce but I could see a team of people working frantically on where he was only five feet from where I lay. After a few minutes like this I was wheeled up to labor and delivery as the pediatrician stepped in. I remember the nurse taking me and saying that's the lady that is here to help your son but she's busy with him right now. I never saw her again and I spent what seemed like an eternity in a dark, silent room upstairs agonizing over where and how my son was.
I had recieved word that "Baby Boy Moline" would be going to Dell Children's Center. Little did I know at the time what a blessing that would be. My mom arrived as the Dell team arrived as well. They stabilized our baby boy and brought him up to let me see and touch him before they took him away. I will forever be in debt to this team of angels.
At about 1: 30 a.m. the transport team left with our son for Dell.
Eventually an OB/GYN arrived, delivered my placenta and disappeared. Family came and stayed with us through the night as we waited impatiently for my release so we could join Bryce Alexander at Dell. We went directly to Dell after my eventual release at about 8:50 a.m. and have been here ever since.
Needless to say, Bryce will face many obstacles due to his early arrival into this harsh world but he is so obviously a fighter. We long for the day that we can hold him in our arms, look into his eyes and see that he understands how very much his Mommy and Daddy love him.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
Dad's recollection of Bryce's birth
Life started out for Bryce in very rough and less than ideal conditions. I'll take you back to Sunday night (6/7/09) when Katrina and I got home from my mom's house because I was helping her move out of her house. Katrina obviously didn't help out, but on our way home she complained of having pressure in her lower belly and thought it was just gas. We stopped at HEB to check her BP and everything was good. So we get home and she goes to take a shower and tells me to call the midwife because something wasn't right and when I get off the phone with her I here her crying in the other room.When I get in there, she has her knee's bent a little and leaning on the bed. I tell her to get on the bed but she says she can't because of the pain and in less than a minute, her water broke. This might seem normal but she is only 24 weeks pregnant, which is 16 weeks early. I am freaking out at this point and she wants to go to the bathroom so we go in there and I call the midwife back. In less than a minute she tells me "something came out" and stands up all the way and I see Bryce in the toilet. I am about to pass out at this point but I pick him up and am able to hold him with one hand, hang up on the midwife and dial 911 with the other. The operator gives me instructions to give him chest compressions and mouth to mouth until EMS arrives. I first gave him mouth to mouth, covering his mouth and nose with my mouth and giving him two puffs of air then Katrina followed with thirty chest compressions. We did this until EMS arrived about ten minutes later. I had to shove Lexi (our nosy cat) out of the way a couple of times because she always has to get in everyone's business. They took over from there and I was in panic mode at this point with so many people around. I wanted to help out but there was nothing for me to do.
Once they wheeled Katrina out, I gathered up some cloths and officer J. Miller from CPPD took me to the hospital. Bryce and Katrina went to Cedar Park regional medical where he stayed for a few hours until they sent him to Dell Children's Medical Center. Katrina and I stayed until her discharge around 9 am. That's pretty much it, most everything else as far as updates are on the blog.
-Caleb