Several weeks into my first pregnancy,
I noticed that my underwear was wet
everyday. It smelled a bit funny, and
I broke out in a rash between my
legs. I asked several friends who
were already mothers about it, and
they all confirmed that discharge is
normal during pregnancy. I really did
not give it a second thought.
Outside of the normal "morning
sickness" during my first trimester
(although for me it was 24 hour a day
sickness!) I really did not have any
problems at all at the beginning. I
even lost weight before I started
gaining. At 24 weeks, I stepped on
the scale for my weekly weigh-in and
had gained seven pounds in one week.
I had only gained five pounds total
before then, so I was shocked by the
sudden weight gain. One week later, I
had gained eight additional pounds...
15 in two weeks. I wasn't eating
more, and I began to get a feeling of
dread that something might be wrong.
At my 26 week doctor appointment, my
blood pressure suddenly shot up to
158/96. My doctor informed me that I
was likely having signs of pre-
eclampsia (not sure I spelled that
right!) and told me to go straight
home and go on bedrest. I also
flunked my one hour gestastional
diabetes test that day. All the women
in the waiting room were staring at me
when I left, I was crying and quite
upset. I work full time in
television, and we were in the middle
of a ratings month. I had been
putting in a lot of overtime, on a
project that wasn't finished yet.
Stress was definitely a factor here!
But after one day at home, my BP went
down to 146/90, so my doctor said the
bedrest was working and to stay at
home for at least another week. Then
we would discuss going back part time.
Three days later, while laying on the
sofa watching "Oprah", I felt the
sudden warm gush of fluid between my
legs. Absolutely frantic, I ran to
the bathroom, not quite knowing what I
should expect to find... blood, what?
When I didn't find anything but clear
fluid I realized my water had broken.
I was absolutely frozen with terror.
I could not get in touch with my
husband and did not know what to do,
so I called 9-1-1, unlocked my front
door and laid down.
They look me away in the ambulance and
my poor husband came home to a police
officer standing in our driveway.
When we arrived at the hospital, they
did a ferning test and confirmed that
my water had indeed broken. The
statistics they cited were pretty
grim. They told me I would likely go
into labor within 48 hours and kept
asking me if I felt contractions. I
didn't even know what contractions
exactly were at this point... it was
my first baby! They started the
magnesium sulfate (fun stuff) and gave
me the betameth shots. I kept
watching the hours tick away. And
nothing happened.
The next morning they checked me into
the antepartum unit and told me I
would be there until I delivered. It
was a long, hard nine and a half
weeks... during which Thanksgiving,
Christmas, New Year's took place. The
doctors could not believe that I was
able to last that long. I was very
blessed with having plenty of amniotic
fluid even after I ruptured, although
I continued to leak. Once there, I
realized that I had been leaking fluid
practically my entire pregnancy. We
had a few scares... my daughter liked
to play with her umbilical cord, which
would cause her heartrate to dip, and
the doctors and nurses would rush in
and flip me around to get her off of
it. Even though I had passed my
gestational diabetes test earlier in
the pregnancy, it flared up a few
weeks later, courtesy of the fact that
I was confined to bed. They induced
me at 35 weeks, 7 days. My beautiful
baby girl was born on her Daddy's 41st
birthday, on January 21, 2001.
Her APGAR scores were 9 and 9, and
outside of jaundice and an umbilical
hernia (which healed on its own within
a few months) she's done great. I
thank God everyday for the most
incredible blessing I will ever
receive.
I welcome e-mails from anyone who
needs to talk who is going through
this. We will likely try to get
pregnant again in a year or so. I am
very scared about making it through
another pregnancy, but my doctor says
it was a fluke and that it would not
necessarily happen again.
Good luck to all of you!
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