The Story

October 6th 2008 - A positive pregnancy test! We were SO excited.

The pregnancy was going great. I had bad morning sickness (well, all day sickness) but the baby and I were otherwise very healthy.

December 23rd 2008 - The first appointment with my new OB doctor. I previously had a midwife but my mom and husband talked me out of doing the homebirth for my first pregnancy. I loved my new doctor though! This was the day we first heard the baby's heartbeat. It was strong and perfect. Beating in the 160's.

January 22nd 2009 - Second appointment with OB. I was 18 weeks and 5 days pregnant at this time. Perfect heartbeat again, beating in the 140's. Dr. made a guess that the baby was a boy.

We were supposed to have the 19/20 week ultrasound on January 26th to find out the gender. But due to my sickness I had been off work for a while and my job had to let me go. So we changed to u/s date to February 4th because of the change in insurance.

February 4th came and Michael and I were super excited. My sister (who is due June 17th, just 3 days before I was) found out the day before that she was expecting a girl. We arrived at the Dr's office and I hopped up on the table. The tech looked a little confused as she watched the screen. She left for a few minutes and came back with a doctor that we hadn't met before. They looked at the u/s screen for a long time without ever saying anything. Finally I asked if everything was okay.

"We aren't seeing a heartbeat" she said.

"Come back tomorrow morning to talk with your doctor"

Everything after that was a blur. Michael and I prayed all that night and we just knew that a mistake had been made and Thursday morning at the appointment our dr. would assure us that everything was okay. It didn't happen that way though. I insisted that my dr. do another u/s. She did and there had been no changes. The baby's heart had not miraculously started beating again. We decided that I would check into the hospital on Friday at 5:00 pm to start the induction.

February 6th -7th 2009 - We checked into the hospital Friday night and started IV's and Cervadyl. Saturday morning my Dr. started the induction with Cytotec. I didn't really go into labor until about 4 pm. I got an epidural at 6 pm and delivered little Dylan Thomas at 10:20 pm.
As soon as he was born the Dr. knew why he passed away. His little umbilical cord was twisted very tight.

Dylan weighed 2.4 ounces and was 6 3/4 inches long.

We held him and loved him for a while. Then the nurses took him to clean him up. We had a photographer come from Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and she took some beautiful pictures.

Dylan's funeral took place Tuesday, February 10, 2009.