Celeste checked into the hospital on May 11 at 11:00 am. Her water broke at home so the nurses were required to keep her, even though she wasn't dilated and hadn't started having contractions. They hooked her up to all the machines and started her on pitocin. After over 9 hours, she had barely dilated a little over 1/2 a cm. She finally gave in and agreed to an epidural in order to help her sleep through the night. It also allowed the nurses to increase the pitocin, and hopefully get her to progress faster. It was a long slow night for us but after almost 24 hours, she was finally moving along. Around 3:00 that afternoon, she had finally progressed to a 10 and was ready to start pushing! After 2 hours with no baby, her doctor gave her the option of continuing with forceps or doing a c-section. She was exhausted and feared the baby was as well and decided to opt for a c-section. They prepped her for surgery and away we went.
Upon entering the operating room, the stress of the day took its toll and Celeste spiked a fever of 104. Because of the length of time Celeste spent in labor the baby was too far down in the birth canal and they had to have a nurse push from below to get him out. After what seemed like an eternity, the baby emerged but something was wrong.....
Dierks John Wayne Bruening III was born on May 12, 2011 at 5:21 pm. He was 8 lbs 3.2 oz and 21 inches long but our little miracle wasn't breathing!
The nurses acted quickly, grabbing the baby and doing what they could to resuscitate him. If it weren't for the charge nurse Mary, and our pediatrician Mitzi Conover, Dierks wouldn't be here today!
Upon waking up in the recovery room, Celeste was bombarded with an enormous amount of bad news. In the process of helping Dierks start breathing, they punctured a small hole in his lung. This allowed air to enter his chest cavity causing a pnuemothorax. This was preventing his lungs to fully expand, making it extremely difficult for him to breath. On top of that, Dierks and Celeste had an infection. Bud was still in the nursery with Dierks, and the first time she got to see her baby was in a picture where he was fighting for his life.
Dierks was on oxygen and IV antibiotics. The pediatrician called the family together and informed everyone that Dierks had 30 minutes to turn around before they would be forced to life flight him to IMC to their NICU. If that were to happen, Celeste would have to stay at Alta View with out him.