Riverbend

I had a great morning with my mom, dad and sister today. A lot of hard questions were asked, but I enjoyed working through the sadness together as a family.

We first met with the Nurse Manager, a Midwife and the Chaplin at Riverbend. They walked us through a lot of difficult scenarios with concern, knowledge and patience. They treat this situation very delicately and care immensely about what I want. We got a lot of our questions answered.

Typically, blessings or services take place bedside after the baby is born. We weren't sure if we would go to the chapel or not, but I think I would like to stay in the room, because the chapel is too public. It has windows and is always open to anyone.

Since I am over 20 weeks pregnant, the hospital does not do cremation, so we'll have to find a mortuary to take care of the baby's remains. This was actually validating because they do not see his body as medical waste. I also found out that this is also a determining factor that both a birth and a death certificate will be issued.

Next we got a tour of both the labor and delivery ward and the Mom and Baby ward. The gal that gave us a tour shared with us that she lost one of her babies and encouraged us to create and make as many keepsakes as possible, because once baby is gone, its too late. Again, I'm amazed how this condition opens people up to sharing. The L&D rooms are very large and comfortable. They do not have any restrictions on the ages or number of family members in attendance, which is nice, but as of now, Todd will be the only one with me while I labor and deliver... :-)

If I need a caesarian, they only allow one support person. When I had Maylee, they allowed two, so my mom was there with me, when Todd went with Maylee to the nursery.


Next we had a WONDERFUL doughnut and coffee in the cafeteria overlooking the river and walking path.

Then I went to Maternal and Fetal Medicine to have my ultrasound. I had the same ultra sound tech as last time and she remembered me, so it was nice that she was familiar with Gabriel's case and I could ask questions following up on our last visit.

All of the same ailments were visible again, which we expected, but other than that, he looks good. His heart is beating. He's still very active. The ultrasoundographers always say, "He's making me work for my money." There is good amniotic fluid and good flow between baby and placenta. It was helpful that Dr. Balderstein said that they can kind of start to see "when" baby is starting to stress (which Gabriel is NOT), so hopefully, his heart beat not being detected isn't a TOTAL shock. We got a lot of 3D pictures and a video. He weighs about 12 ounces and would fit in the palm of your hand. He is currently measuring about 2 weeks smaller than a healthy baby would.

My family and I had a lot of laughter and tears. It was a good day. :-)