I had a normal pregnancy, except for
noticing abdominal cramps throughout. I
was under some stress (I'm a classic
Type A personality), but didn't think
it was a problem. My husband was
traveling on business every week until I
was 38 weeks, so he was just home on the
weekends. His brother got married the
day before my PROM, so we were pretty
busy with the rehearsal, ceremony,
reception, and entertaining out of town
guests. I felt fine, just a little
tired. Oh, I also had a Basset Hound
puppy that had grown to over 40 pounds
and required daily walks, so I was
definitely getting a workout (mostly
pulling him back when he constantly got
into trouble).
Anyway, on Sunday (the day after the
wedding, which was also my 6th wedding
anniversary), I felt tired. I was out
running errands with my husband when at
3:00 I felt my water break. We went to
the hospital and confirmed my PPROM. I
was 36 weeks and 2 days, which until
then I had thought was considered full
term. I had not yet been tested for
Group B strep, so they put me on
antibiotics just in case (it ended up
that I did NOT have it). I was not
dilated or effaced AT ALL, and had not
had any "productive" contractions (I
had Braxton-Hicks ones from 29 weeks)!
They said I had a "gross rupture of the
membranes" - GROSS was right!!! I was
leaking everywhere. They put me on
Cervadil to loosen my cervix because
they said that Pitocin would be awful if
I hadn't made any progress.
I was on Cervadil for about 12 hours
and, although I was having contractions
every 2-3 minutes, had only dilated a
"tight" 1 cm (the good news was I was
80% effaced). They began Pitocin at 8:00
am. I was on Pitocin for a long time,
and was having contractions 2-3 minutes
apart but was hardly dilating at all.
It seems that even though my water
broke, my cervix was planning to stay
tight for 4 more weeks. I got an
epidural about 10 am. After 9 hours of
Pitocin, I was about 5 cm. I was
starting to think about a c-section,
since it had been over 24 hours, but my
prayers were answered when at 5:30 they
said I was fully dilated and ready to
push.
I pushed about 2 1/2 hours - I think it
took so long because I had so much
Pitocin I had quite an epidural going -
I was completely numb which made it so
hard to push. When my baby boy was born,
he was fine. He was also huge, at 7 lbs
10 oz. Everyone says I miscalculated my
due date, but I didn't. I know for a
fact, since we'd been trying over a
year and I have temperature charts and
ultrasounds to prove it. Anyway, my boy
was healthy, but had to get a spinal
tap, have IV antibiotics through a vein
in his head and stay in the NICU. He
was the biggest baby there. He ended up
being totally healthy and got to go home
after 4 nights. We were very blessed
and thank the Lord for this! What
really gets me though is why this
happened. I have absolutely no idea
why, and wonder if it could happen
again. I'm glad to have found this
page and look forward to keeping up to
date to see if anyone else had a similar
experience.
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