We want to share our story to give
others hope. POSITIVE THOUGHT, PRAYER
and a GOOD SUPPORT SYSTEM definitely
helped us. Miracles do happen and our
little boy Seth is a testament to
that.
At 21.1 weeks my water broke at 2am in
the morning. I was not expecting my
amniotic sac to break so thought I had
wet the bed. Just to be sure I called
the on-call Doctor and was told to
come to the hospital. After 2 hours of
tests and waiting, I was given a clean
bill of health and sent home. Three
hours later I woke up wet again. As
soon as my OBGYN's office opened I
called and got an afternoon
appointment for an ultrasound.
The ultrasound showed possible lowered
levels of fluid. The AFI (amniotic
fluid indicator) was 12 and normal is
14. Nothing too alarming. We asked to
see my doctor just to get some
reassurance. She squeezed us in. After
hearing our story from that day she
dropped the bomb. She believed my
water had broken and we were going to
lose the baby. She explained 21 weeks
was too early to save the baby and
once your water breaks, most women
deliver in the first week, maybe two.
Or an infection sets in and at 21
weeks they have to terminate the
pregnancy. She suggested we terminate.
We were in shock. She wanted to send
us for an additional test, since the 3
other tests were not reliable so early
in a pregnancy and the leak might be
intermittant.
The test was a BLUE DYE TEST, an amnio
with dye injected into the amniotic
sac. We learned if you do not leak
during the time the dye is passing
through, it may give a false negative.
Also, if you do not know what you want
to do about the pregnancy once you
have the test results, it is not worth
doing. You introduce another hole! We
decided not to do it and went home to
process our news.
I could not stop crying and that night
I started having contractions and
vomiting. We rushed to the hospital
convinced we were losing our child.
That's when our first miracle
happened. I stopped having pain an
hour after I was admitted. But here's
something interesting to note. Because
my OBGYN and that hospital did not
generally deal with high risk
pregnancies, they assumed I was losing
the baby and just let me be. I was
given no IV fluid to try stop the
contractions, no medications, no
monitoring of me or the baby. All I
had was a test to see if I had a
stomach bug since I had been
vomitting. The next morning we were
told to go home and wait. I later
learned from the nurses at the
hospital I delivered at that I should
have at least gotten IV fluids.
It was now Friday and after calming
ourselves down, we decided to make
some changes. We started researching
high risk OBGYNs in our area and
looked for someone with fetal maternal
medicine training. We called to get an
appointment on Monday and were seen
that Thursday. We also got educated on
PROM cases, we had not even been told
this lable, but found it on the web
and this website. We read and started
to understand what was happening and
learned THERE WAS HOPE. Up until then
we had not been told our baby could
possibly survive! My husband and I had
cried so much, we made a pact to stop
and start getting positive. The crying
was taking too much of a toll on my
body. I was exhausted and dehydrated,
both bad for pregnancy. We put me on
limited bedrest, but my original OBGYN
had said it was not conclusive it
helped so I did still get up and walk
around. I just did not lift things
(even our two year old - hard)and I
did not leave the house.
When we saw the new OBGYN, the first
thing he said was if we wanted a
chance to save this baby, I needed to
get on bedrest, get horizontal. I was
allowed to go to the bathroom and
shower - NO BATHING. We made me very
comfortable, internet connected at my
bed, constant supply of water, tray
table for food, books, phone, TV.
Constant calls from family and friends
to give us positive reinforcement
everyday. Tell us we were going to
make it. My in-laws stayed with us a
few days and then my mom came over
from South Africa. She came to save
her grandchild and was not leaving
until he/she was safely in the world
and we were both recovered from the
birth. She stayed 4.5 months. The help
was invaluable from family and
friends. They looked after our
daughter, sent food and books and
support. We had to learn to ask for
help, accept we needed to rely on our
loved ones and sometimes strangers,
our unborn child became my number one
priority.
Everyday I focused on thinking
positive. Believing I was not going to
get an infection, not going to go into
labour and my child was going to
survive. I told the baby too. I had to
believe it. I know it can be hard to
put the worry aside and hand the daily
things over to others, but one has to
in order to remain positive, rested
and focused on saving one's baby. I
believe this worked for me.
I was not allowed to leave my room
unless to see my doctor once a week
for an ultrasound. My AFI went down
steadily. I had thought I had stopped
leaking, but it must have been
happening when I went to the bathroom
because the fluid kept dropping. I
went as low as 2. After a few weeks
the leaking became very noticeable. I
leaked constantly. I had to wear a
thick pad and sometimes that was not
enough. I never stopped leaking
amniotic fluid. I just kept drinking
water and the baby kept producing the
amniotic fluid. This helped with lung
development.
At 24 weeks I was admitted to the
hospital. At this point the baby was
viable so the NICU had a chance to
save the baby if it came. I was given
steroids to boost the baby's organ
development, anti-biotics to ward off
any possible infection and a tour of
the NICU (an eye opener). We were
educated on preemie babies and told
some things to anticipate. We were
given hope the baby could survive from
then on. We were so happy to just get
to 24 weeks.
At 24.5 days I had contractions and
was given magnesium to stop them. It
worked. From then on, things were
quiet until the end. I had 10
roommates, one stayed 5 weeks, the
rest came and went in days. I was not
allowed to leave my room (until near
the end and that had to be in a
wheelchair). I was told to make my
room homey, to make me comfortable to
be there. The nurses believed
psychologically it would make me stay
longer. Photos, flowers, laptop,
books, food, portable DVD player and
such to keep me busy. I was just so
excited each day to still be pregnant.
We had a daily count up of my weeks
and days of pregnancy. I had goals to
reach and celebrate and I just kept
thinking positive. I learned a lot
about various things that can go wrong
with pregnancy, and I clung to the
success stories.
We celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Chanukkah, Christmas and the New Year
in hospital. My daughter visited
everyday with her granny or dad and
she loved to hear the baby's heartbeat
being monitored.
Most OBGYNs will deliver a PROM
patient at 34 to 37 weeks. After that
complications can arise. We were
shooting for 37 weeks, but at 34 weeks
my ultrasound revealed the baby had
moved from breach to transverse and
the cord was hanging below. This, with
low fluid, put the baby at risk for
crushing its own cord and dying. I
also had some bleeding. Normal for
being ruptured as long as I had been
but it scared me. I started to feel
changes in my body and the nurses told
me to tell my doctor. He saw me
everyday because he had rights at the
hospital I was at, but we set a date
for my husband to meet with him too.
At 34.2 weeks we met to decide a
delivery date. The ultrasound worried
him and the fact I was starting to not
feel right. I felt ill that morning,
had woken early and tried to eat
something to make me feel better. It
had not worked. He felt we were
getting signs it was time, so agreed
to deliver the baby via c-section that
afternoon. 30 minutes after he left my
room I was in labour. The contractions
were not painful but after an hour
they were less than a minute apart. I
was rushed to labour and delivery. My
OBGYN teased me that I must be very
controlling to keep the baby in 13
extra weeks and as soon as he says it
is okay to deliver I go into labour. I
would not even wait a few more hours
for my breakfast to digest!
So on 1/6/2006. Seth was born. A big
preemie at 6lbs 1oz, but he was
struggling to beathe. The NICU took
him and discovered he had a small hole
in his lungs. But all was well and
Seth was only in the NICU 12 days, the
hole closed and he learned to breathe
on his own. He also had a small hole
in his heart, which is closing up and
does not appear to be impacting his
health, he had difficulty digesting
milk/formula the first few days, but
after a week that came right. I
started breast feeding him at 10 days
and he is still feeding just fine on
the breast. At 3.5 months he is doing
great. He was confined to the house
until recently due to the cold winter
weather and illnesses, but he has
stayed healthy thus far. He is
smiling, laughing, rolling over,
tracking objects and doing what other
3 month old babies do. He is a little
smaller than average but growing at a
good rate. His pediatrician says he is
just fine and expects him to remain
so.
I am also gaining back my muscle
strength and functioning almost back
to normal.
So please use our story to believe.
Miracles happen and you play a big
part in making them happen. Stay
positive, don't be afraid to believe
in a good outcome, it is so worth it
in the end. You can be positive and
believe and possibly be let down, or
be negative and more than likely be
let down. Give yourself and your baby
the benefit of the doubt. Try stop
crying and grieving prematurely, your
baby has a fighting chance with your
help.
Feel free to contact me for questions,
just to talk or a positive
reinforcement chat. I am not going to
preach to you, I am just happy my
little boy is alive.
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