When I first discovered I was pregnant,
I had some mild bleeding, which I've
since read may be linked with PROM. At
the time, however, I was told that some
bleeding was common in early pregnancy,
and that the baby would either miscarry
or be fine--There was nothing to be
done.
Our baby didn't miscarry, but at 20
weeks into the pregnancy, I went to the
emergency room with what felt like mild
contractions, about 5 minutes apart. I
was examined and told everything was
fine and that what I was feeling might
be gastrointestinal. The following
evening I had a headache, and sat down
to watch a movie with my husband. When I
got up from my seat at the end of the
movie, liquid gushed out of me. This
wasn't a small amount of liquid. I'd
read that amniotic fluid smells like
Comet cleaner, but this liquid had no
smell at all. I wondered if maybe I had
some sort of infection.
After a rather sleepless night (where
the liquid kept pouring out of me), I
called my doctor and met him in the
emergency room. He tested the fluid, but
the test was inconclusive. He also
looked at the fluid under a microscope,
watching for the "ferning" that typifies
amniotic fluid. The fluid did not fern
(I later learned that amniotic fluid
often does not fern when looked at so
early in a pregnancy). Finally, the
doctor did an ultrasound. Even I could
see that the amniotic fluid around our
baby Anastasia was down to nothing. I
was sent home and told to stay on bed
rest until I could see specialist a few
days later.
The day I saw the perintologist was the
worst day of my life. He had nothing to
say that was positive. He explained to
me how important amniotic fluid was to
the baby at this stage, and told me that
she would probably not be able to
breathe at birth. He also said that if
she somehow managed to breathe, she
would probably have bone malformations,
because there was virtually no amniotic
fluid to protect her. I was in utter
shock.
The specialist advised me to "terminate
the pregnancy," which I immediately
refused to do. He told me that I would
probably then miscarry within two weeks.
With that, he sent me home for more bed
rest, and told me to look for signs of
infection and see my obstetrician
weekly.
Our daughter (who we now named
Anastasia) didn't miscarry, and I did
not develop an infection, so the plan
was to admit me into the hospital at the
beginning of my 25th week, if Anastasia
made it that far. At this time, I would
be on hospital bed rest, and would get
steroid shots to help Anastasia's lungs
develop. When I questioned why I
couldn't do all this sooner rather than
later, nobody gave me a straight forward
answer, other than the idea that the
baby wasn't "viable" until 25 weeks or
so. This was upsetting, but the fact
that Anastasia hadn't miscarried in two
weeks gave me some confidence. I was
going to carry this baby at least until
25 weeks, I decided.
When the end of week 24 arrived, I once
again felt contractions. When I called
my doctor, he sounded glum and said,
"Well, at this stage, I don't think we'd
attempt any heroics--no C-section." I
mentioned contraction-reducing drugs,
and he said yes they could do that, but
that they rarely worked well for a woman
whose water was already broken. But once
I got to the emergency room that night,
the contractions subsided. Since I was
scheduled to check into the hospital the
following day, my doctor decided to
admit me that evening instead.
The following day I had one steroid
shot. The next day I had another. And so
I settled in for what I thought would be
a somewhat long stay in the hospital.
The day after the nurses told me the
steroid shots had done all the good they
were going to do, I started having
contractions again. They came and went,
but eventually became pretty strong. My
doctor prescribed a contraction-reducing
medicine. This worked well for a day,
until I got up to take a shower...and
then the contractions started up again.
They continued to get stronger, until I
was in real pain.
My obstetrician came to the hospital at
about 5:20 pm, and preparations began
for Anastasia's delivery. The doc did an
ultrasound to see if the baby was still
breech; she was. He did a physical exam
to see if I was dilated; I was not. I
told him I wanted a C-section, because I
felt it was best for Anastasia. He
didn't like the idea of doing this
(because of what it would mean for
future pregnancies), but he consulted my
perintologist, who concluded he should
go ahead with a C-section, just so that
I would feel everything possible had
been done to save Anastasia. I believe
they fully expected my baby to die.
At 5:57 pm, my doctor pulled Anastasia
out from me and handed her to the
neonatologist. He stuck a tube down her
throat and tried to resuscitate her. I
later heard from a nurse who was present
that they had a difficult time getting
oxygen into Anastasia's lungs, and felt
sure this baby was not going to make it.
But they were (once again!) wrong.
Anastasia was resuscitated. She weighed
1 lb. 13 oz., and had no malformations.
She was born at exactly 25 weeks and 2
days...And, I understand, one week after
abortions are legal.
Initially, Anastasia was in a private
room, hooked up to a ventilator that did
all her breathing for her. The pressure
of the oxygen being pushed into her made
one of her lungs "pop." She had
emergency surgery to prevent air from
escaping through the hole, which has
since healed. Anastasia was also
diagnosed with Chronic Lung Disease, and
PDA and PFO (heart murmur), and was
treated for the latter with medication.
She graduated to a ventilator that only
breathed when she didn't, and then
started breathing on her own with a CPAP
machine. Almost immediately, she was
transferred to a Vaportherm machine that
gave her less oxygen than the CPAP. We
were now allowed to hold her.
She was moved to a "public" part of the
NICU, and just sailed along--until she
started having a lot of Bradys (where
she stopped breathing and her heart rate
dropped dramatically). She scared the
nurses several times, and had to be
"bagged" (oxygen hand-pumped into her
mouth). The neonatologist tested her for
infection, and it came back positive.
This, they said, was probably why she
was having trouble breathing again.
So she went back on the ventilator and
was treated with antibiotics. About ten
days later, she quit the medication, and
was back to her usual self. She gave us
a few other scares; once she aspirated,
and later on, was diagnosed with ROP eye
problems (that, so far, have not
required surgery or intervention).
133 days after she was born (and one
month after her original due date), we
brought Anastasia home. Although the
doctors all believed she'd go home on
oxygen, she didn't. Instead, she's an 11
lb. 5 oz. wonder, and looks like any
other healthy newborn. Even the most
doom-and-gloom neonatologist at the
hospital smiles and calls her "the
miracle baby."
Don't lose hope. Your baby could just as
easily be on the positive side of those
horrible statistics you're hearing!
www.kristinaseleshanko.com/baby.htm
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