I had a too busy weekend, not feeling
well but decided to take my two children
to a hilly zoo. Too much walking for
someone carrying twins and feeling the
way I was feeling.. Tuesday night, I
fell asleep with the TV on. My husband
was far out of town. I awoke to a
feeling of being alittle wet. I thought
incontance had set in. Then maybe not. I
had never heard of PROM. I was not
feeling any labor pain, my fluid was not
gushing out, I didn't know what to
think. I called my ob, and was
instructed to come to the hospital.
Thank goodness for good neighbors and
friends. I wept all the way to the
hospital 35 miles away. My ob checked me
and said I wasn't in labor and only one
of the sacks had ruptured.
Well I didn't understand. If I
wasn't in labor what was going on? I
was kept in L&D all that night. My
husband arrived the next day in time for
the level 3 ultra-sound I needed to have
to determine the weight of the babies.
If they were smaller than 800 gms I
would need to be moved to a University
hospital. The boys looked fine , so they
sent me to a room to wait. My Dr.
started an antibotic IV that he kept up
until the beta-strep test came back. I
recived the first of several
betamethsone shots. My Dr. told me if we
could last 72 hour the babies chances
would greatly improve, even better
everyday after that. I prayed. I asked
my church to pray for my babies. Other
churches put me on their prayer lists. I
read books, maybe not a great idea since
the ones that were avalible to me were
so out-dated and scary.
After 1 week they took me off
anti-biotics, no beta-strep. My white
blood cell count started to rise, not a
good sign. My hope that the tear would
heal was fading. I discussed the
possibility of delivering just the baby
whose sack was broken with my Dr.. He
did not feel this was a medically
prudent thing to do, not an option here.
On the 10th day my white blood cell
count rose steadly. Labor finally
started. Both babies were head down.
Baby 1, whose sack had broken was
delivered first. He came fairly quickly,
and sounded great! He cried. I saw him
for a second before they whisked him
away to the NICU. Baby 2, whose sack had
not broken and had no interest in
rushing out, turned transverse! My labor
stopped. The ob doing the delivery 'the
one on call' seemed to consider leaving
him in place, but she went ahead. She
tried to ease him out but he only went
higher. Finally after a long 45 minutes
my husband and I and the other 12 people
in the room went to the OR for a C
section.
Even then it was tough getting him
out. The babies almost had different
birthdays! Burton was great, better than
great. He was intibated for only 3 days
and skipped c-pap altogether. George did
well, but alittle more normally. 4 days
on the vent and 3 days c-pap. They spent
60 days in the NICU. We had more ups
than downs. I pumped more milk than
Elsie, but George needed the calorie
boosted formula. George had some
breathing prolbems at 3.5 months and
again at 5 months. A wonderful OTL did a
bronc. and saw a little damage to his
windpipe from when he was intubated. A
little laser surgery and no prolbems.
The boys are now 2.5 years old. They
are a little on the small side, but
other than that they show no signs of
their premature birth. We go to see the
Developmentalist next week I think for
the last time, because there will be no
need to anymore. I still sometimes
remember how terribly scared and
frightened I was for their very
survival. I feel truely blessed for the
gift of their health..
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