Here is some of the story of our little angel who we miss so much:
I had a 36 week ultrasound(Nov. 16, 2017) and we discovered Sylvia had a large hole in her heart. The barrier between the lower ventricles was not fully formed. Andrew and I went to McKay Dee hospital in Ogden(Nov. 17). They couldn't see much more behind my ribs but assumed the main arteries were flipped. We then had to wait FOREVER to get into Primary Children's which was very nerve wracking. We finally got in on November 30th. I was 38 weeks along and they still could not see around my ribs, though they were able to see that the arteries were indeed flipped but they had a new worry that there was a narrowing of one of her arteries. The night of December 5th I didn't feel her move at all and I thought "I'm probably just being paranoid..." but I went into the doctor anyways to get a heart beat about 10 AM. The nurse didn't hear anything and called a doctor in to do an ultrasound and as you already may have guessed she was no longer alive. Lorelei was there with me and I sincerely hope she won't remember it. The nurse took her to get a sucker while I had to call Andrew at work. I kick myself for not having him come with me in the first place. He arrived and we both had to call our moms to tell them the awful news. The first thing the doctor had told me was that it wasn't my fault and there would have been nothing we could have done to change it, I am grateful for his words to this day. I didn't even have a second to think about blaming myself because he nipped it in the bud. Originally I was due to have a cesarean section the next day(12/7) with my normal Doctor, Anne Blackett, who was out of town until that night(12/6). The plan had changed since we had found out about her heart anomalies and I was to have her the same time but at the University of Utah hospital. After the news of her passing we decided to switch it back to the original plan of a C-section at 9 am on Thursday, the following day, in Logan. My body had other plans though as after we got back from the women's center I went into labor around 1 pm. Lorelei's dance recital was that night so my parents were already on their way and my mother-in-law had arrived shortly after.
We arrived at the hospital spoke with Dr. Kirkman(the one who did the ultrasound that morning) I told him I really didn't want to labor through this since we already knew she was gone.. It would just be too emotionally painful. So they started prep on the operating room but there was an emergency c-section, with a living baby, that needed to use the room. So a little before 8 pm was when I finally got in for surgery. The anesthesiologist came in to administer the spinal block which took over 10 minutes of trying.. rolling into a ball while having a contraction is something I do not recommend. I was poked so many times and I could feel every single trickle of blood down my back while my tears were pooling on the floor. Finally it was all said an done and our beautiful girl was born. Andrew held her and we wept, all the while the anesthesiologist was there to comfort me. She looked just like her big sister!
Sylvia Rose Shepherd was born December 6, 2017 at 8:22 pm, weighing 8 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long.
She was perfect on the outside so the cause of death couldn't' be determined but she looked to have passed away 2-3 days earlier. Apparently the false labor knocked her body around enough to feel like her movement. Months later the autopsy came back letting us know that she did indeed have a narrowing of the artery which would have required immediate surgery with a very low chance of survival. I'm glad I was able to be with her 100% of her life. She would have been whisked away to surgery and who knows how long she would have survived and how much pain she would be in.
to be continued...
