In April 1995, I was 29 weeks pregnant
with my first child, a boy. I woke up
at about 1AM to go to the bathroom and
the bed was wet. I smelled a strange
odor so I looked up in my pregnancy
book, which mentioned PROM. OB said I
should rush to the hospital. They
started terbutaline and I remained
there for six unhappy weeks. (The day
I was admitted they determined the
baby was 3.5 lbs.) I was "rock-stable"
during my stay. No sign of infection
at any time. No contractions. At 35
wks, my OB took pity on me and let me
go home. At 36 wks I stopped the terb
and went into labor that night. I
delivered Drew on May 23, 1995, after
only 6 hours of labor. He weighed 6
lbs, 1oz and had very good Apgars.
After birth, he was whisked away. they
did a spinal tap (without informing
me!) and a few other tests. He never
passed his meconium, which was
worrisome. He came home after a week
but would not eat. We went back to the
hospital when he was 2 wks old
(severely dehydrated and with a
serious bowel obstruction). They told
us he had Cystic Fibrosis. But within
a week, that turned out not to be
true. He did have Hirschsprung's
disease, in which the large intestine
(or colon) is missing certain nerves
that it needs to sense the presence of
stool. He had a colostomy at 3wks,
then a reversal of that and a repair
of the underlying disease at 9 months.
He's been a joy and totally healthy
since then. He's now almost 7 and I am
expecting again. I'm wondering what
will happen this time.
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