First of all, I want to say that this is
a wonderful site. It got me through my
10 weeks on bedrest. I e-mailed people
and got such great support from them.
Here's my story. My water broke at 23
weeks 5 days while I was napping. They
told me that 90% of women will deliver
within 1 week of PROM. I was
devastated. I thought for sure that
everything was over. I was taken by
ambulance an hour away from my town to a
hospital that had a good NICU. To make
a long story short, I was there on
bedrest for 10 weeks! I was able to get
up to go to the bathroom and have a
sitting shower daily. When I got to 30
weeks, I was able to take a daily
wheelchair ride around the hospital. I
was so sick of being in the hospital,
the food, nurses, etc. Luckily I had a
laptop computer and internet access, so
I researched PPROM and got a support
group going. It was so great.
I had weekly ultrasounds, almost all of
which showed no fluid. At one point, I
had an AFI of 10, and I was so happy,
but low and behold, the next week, it
was back down to 0. My baby was head
down the whole time, and I think that
helped. I also took everyone's advice
and drank lots of water (my dr. said it
didn't matter, but I believed it
helped). I leaked fluid constantly.
They told me that was a good sign
because it showed that the baby was
continuing to make fluid. The
neonatologist came in and explained
about pulmonary hypoplasia. I was
devastated and feared my baby would have
this. I just continued to hope and pray
everyday. Then ultrasounds were also
off on the baby's weight estimates. A
few days before I delivered, the
ultrasound estimated my baby to weigh 3
lbs 11 oz, and she actually weighed 5
lbs 5 oz!! I started contracting a few
days before my baby was born. They told
me that was normal because I was getting
farther along. I knew something was
about to happen. The contractions
started at 5am and I started bleeding,
so my dr. decided it was time. My baby
girl, Paige, was born at 33 weeks via
C-section (due to a previous classical
C-section) weighing 5 lbs. 5 oz. She
was a huge 33 weeker!! She came out
crying, but later had to be put on the
high frequency ventilator as the
conventional one just wasn't doing it
for her. We were so scared because they
referred to her as being "very sick".
She was on the vent. a total of 2 weeks,
and then on to nasal canula, and home 2
weeks later, so she was in the NICU for
a total of 4 weeks. She has now been
home for a month and is doing great.
She is not on any meds or monitors.
She's now like a healthy newborn. The
neonatologist suspects that she had mild
pulmonary hypoplasia but couldn't
confirm the diagnosis. She is truly a
miracle! For those of you out there on
bedrest, don't give up hope and don't
dwell on all the negatives you will
hear. Take one day at a time and have
faith. The NICU experience is very
stressful, but you will be able to get
through it. A very hard part of all of
this was being away from my husband and
son. They were able to come and see me
but not often enough.
* My first child was born at 26 weeks.
I went into labor and was completely
dilated at 24 weeks, but was on complete
bedrest for 2 1/2 weeks and delivered
him at 26 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 oz.
He is now 2 1/2 years old and is as
normal as ever (naughty too)! He has no
disabilities except that he just got
glasses to correct a lazy eye.
Hopefully he won't need them very long.
* The doctors cannot tell me why these
totally different premature deliveries
happened to me. I wish I knew why and
am scared to try to get pregnant
again.
God Bless!
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