Amy and Rich's Family: Bradley Richard

Brad was born February 18, 2008 at 34 weeks via emergency c-section at 2:53am. He weighed 4 lbs 7 oz and was 17 inches long.

I was having contractions on and off all day. My water broke about midnight. We woke Billy up and the 3 of us left for the hospital. Billy was excited about being out when it was dark. Since we lived in Florida we didn't have anyone to watch him and so he was going too.
When I got to the hospital I was 5cm, I was ready for the epidural. When they were doing the epidural, they punctured the dura around my spinal cord, called a wet tap which causes a horrible headache.
Then, after all that was over, the same thing that happened after Billy was born, my blood pressure dipped and the baby's heartrate, but this baby didn't pick back up. The nurse started rolling me from side to side then up on my knees, back and forth to get him to pick back up and then started calling for help. My doctor hadn't even arrived yet and a resident came in and said they needed to do a c-section, they started wheeling me out immediately, people all around me and I waved goodbye to Rich and Billy. Rich couldn't leave Billy but even if he wasn't there it was happening too quick for Rich to get ready. When I got in the operating room, people were running all around me and they were calling for a NICU team, I remember them scrubbing my belly, my epidural never kicked in and I was so scared. Then, a nurse that was holding my hand put a mask on my face and the next thing was I woke up in recovery. They gave me a general so I was asleep for his birth. When I woke up, I felt my belly and wanted to know where my baby was, a NICU nurse came in and said he was ok and gave me a picture of him. The doctors told Rich after he was born that they were in such a hurry to get him out that they cut his face. IT wasn't bad and there is no scar. He was really bruised, the whole side of his face was purple. I could barely speak for a week from being intibated. We were both pretty beat up, but we were ok. From the time they decided to do the c-section to his delivery was 6 minutes. While I was still asleep, a nurse asked Rich what the baby's name was. He said my wife wants it to be Bradley and she said "Well, that is his name then"