On Thursday April 13, 2000 my husband
went out of town on a business trip. I
remember telling people at work that I
felt really uncomfortable with him going
out of town. I was 24 weeks pregnant
and up to that point had an incredibly
uneventful pregnancy- no morning
sickness, no weight gain, ultrasound at
21 weeks looked normal. That day
someone asked me when I was going to
start my maternity leave. I jokingly
said "How about tomorrow?"
At around 5:00 am on April 14th I woke
up when I felt fluid coming out. I
figured I had urinated on myself. I
went to the bathroom and changed my
clothes. While I was putting my PJs on
there was another trickle. I thought it
was strange that I could have peed on
myself again when I had just gone to the
bathroom. I laid back down and about 15
minutes it happened again. This time on
the way to the bathroom there was a
gush.
I remember sitting on the toilet looking
through my pregnancy books trying to
figure out what had happened. All the
books said that if you were leaking
amniotic fluid to call your doctor
immediately. All I could think was
"What the heck does amniotic fluid look
like?" I finally called the doctors
and was advised to go to the hospital.
I then had to call my husband (who was
3+ hours away) and tell him that my
parents were bringing me to the
hospital. I can't imagine how hard the
drive home was for him. At the hospital
they confirmed that it was amniotic
fluid. I remember that the first words
out of my doctor's mouth were "This
ain't good kid." Since my local
hospital didn't have a Level III NICU,
I was transferred via ambulance to a
hospital about 30 minutes away. My
husband got there about an hour after I
did.
I stayed in L&D for the next 24 hours
while they waited for me to deliver. I
remember thinking at the time that there
was no way I was going to have a baby
that day. Thankfully, I didn't. I
never went in to labor or even had a
twinge of labor pains. I was put on a
ten day course of two different
antibiotics. I also received two rounds
of steriods. One at the first hospital,
and the 2nd 24 hours later.
I was transferred to the maternity ward
where I stayed on bedrest for the next 3
weeks and 4 days. The doctors did an
ultrasound and told us we were having a
girl. The weekend before I delivered I
started to notice just a twinge of pink
in my morning discharge. It was so
slight that it disappeared into the
maxipad before I could show it to the
nurse.
Early in the morning of May 9th (27wks,
4days) I started to have labor pains. I
called my hsband and was transferred to
L&D. By noon the monitors no longer
showed contractions, but my back was
aching. The doctors decided to wait a
little longer before sending me back to
my room. Within an hour I was in
full-blown labor with contractions 5
minutes apart.
I was fortunate that the baby could be
born by vaginal delivery. While we were
in the delivery room, the NICU team
asked the baby's name. We told them
"Erin Katherine". The baby was born
without any difficulties. We even got
to hear a cry which was music to our
ears. The NICU immediately went to work
on little "Erin". After a few minutes
the NICU nurse looked at us and said
"What did you think this baby was?"
We replied "A Girl." She said, "This
isn't a girl, it's a boy." The NICU
doctor thought she was joking. We
quickly renamed our baby boy "Berkeley
Philip". We got to take a quick look
at him before he was wisked off to the
NICU. I got to kiss his nose. I
remember thinking how warm it was.
Berkeley spent 65 days in the NICU and
did very well overall. He never had any
surgeries or major complications. He
came home 3 weeks before his due date
with no monitors and no speical
medication. Even his eyes checked out
perfectly.
Berkeley is now over a year old. His
health is wonderful and he is developing
right on schedule. He is the joy of my
life and I thank God everyday that he is
here with me.
-Kuleen
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