My husband and I found out I was
pregnant over Thanksgiving 2004.
Although it was an unplanned pregnancy
and my husband was preparing to deploy
to Iraq, we were very excited.
Between weeks 6 and 16 I had some
issues with bleeding. Several times
the bleeding was so severe and
accompanied with clots that I was
convinced I was having a miscarriage.
My OB discovered a polyp on my cervix
that she believed was causing the
bleeding and removed it.
Unfortunately, it did not stop the
bleeding. At around week 16, the
bleeding resolved itself.
On the night of March 16, 2005, I was
preparing a test for my students (I
was in the middle of my student
teaching) when I felt a gush. This
gush felt like my previous bleeding
episodes, but when I went to the
bathroom there was a clear fluid
instead of blood. I called the doctor
on call who instructed me to go to L&D
to be checked, but told me it was
probably nothing to be worried
about.
After arriving at L&D I was instructed
to change into a gown. As I did so,
the nurse did a strip test on my
underwear, which had fluid on them,
and the fluid was indeed amniotic
fluid. She tried to hook me up to the
monitors, but the baby was too little
to pick up a consistent heart rate.
Once she conveyed to me how serious
the condition was, she began the
process of getting a message to my
husband, who by this time was already
in Iraq.
The next morning, I was sent to
radiology for an ultrasound that would
determine how much fluid I had left.
The u/s tech let me know I had 4
centimeters of fluid; a regular
pregnancy has about 11.
Throughout the next 10 weeks that I
was hospitalized, I was given weekly
ultrasounds to check the baby's growth
and the fluid level. At one point,
the fluid reaccumulated to 10
centimeters. Needless to say, I was
very excited! Unfortunately, at week
27 my water "broke" again and my fluid
level returned to very low numbers.
However, I never went into labor or
developed an infection, which
impressed my doctors. At my first
visit with the perinatologist, he
informed me that I had an 80% chance
of going into labor within a week of
my water breaking. Obviously, I was
lucky enough to fall into the 20% that
don't.
When I was 30 weeks, 2 days, I began
to bleed and have some very mild
contractions about 8 minutes apart. I
was moved from my room in the high
risk ward to L&D to be monitored
overnight. The OB on call was intent
on not delievering me, but when my OB
got into work the next morning she
decided that we should go ahead with a
c-section.
Spencer was born at 9:48 am on May 23,
2005. He weighed 2 lbs. 14 ozs. and
was 15 inches long. I was thrilled to
hear him cry when he was born.
He stayed on a vent for 6 days (first
an oscilator, then a conventional
vent). He was then put on the nasal
cannula.
When he was 6 days old, the doctors
thought he had developed NEC and he
was transfered to another hospital for
surgery. Fortunately, it was simply a
hole in his stomach that had been
caused by his feeding tube and was
stitched up without much further
complication.
He was released to come home after 43
days in the NICU. He weighed 4 lbs.
5.5 ozs at the time of his release and
came home with no monitors. I am
convinced that he would have been home
sooner had it not been for his
surgery.
It was a rough journey, but I got a
beautiful and healthy baby boy out of
it. I thank God everyday that Spencer
made it through 10 weeks of low fluid
without compromising his lung function
too severly.
Keep hoping and praying and feel free
to contact me at any time.
Mandy
Mom to Spencer, born 5/23/05 @ 30
weeks due to PPROM
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