At our regular 23 week sonogram, we
found out that the baby did not have
much amniotic fluid, had a one vessel
cord and was measuring 2 weeks smaller
than she should. Everything had been
wonderful on the 18 week sono, so we
do not know when the rupture
occurred. I never had a noticable
gush of fluid, just a lot of dampness
over time. Since we live in a warm
climate and I have 4 other children, I
just thought it was sweat and never
thought it would be a problem.
We were sent to the high risk
perinatologist the next day to confirm
the results and be advised as to how
to continue. He was wonderful, but
also realistic about the odds of going
into preterm labor, or of developing
an infection. We were sent home on
strict bedrest, with only bathroom
priveledges. I was warned that I
would have to come to the hospital
around 26 weeks and stay if things did
not drastically improve. We were also
given a tour of the NICU and shown
what would happen if the baby arrived
at various weeks, to help us prepare
ourselves for our baby's birth.
My family were all wonderful, with my
husband taking off to help as much as
possible, my mom moving in with us and
working from home a lot to help out
and my older girls (aged 15 and 12)
helping babysit the boys (aged 10 and
not quite 2). Church and neighbors
all brought food, books, playdates,
and a lot of support. There is an old
saying that it takes a village to
raise a child. In our case, it took
the whole village just to get her here
safe!
As the weeks went on, I continued to
lie in bed (on my left side mainly),
getting up only to shower, use the
potty and go to the doctors twice a
week for sonos and stress tests. My
amniotic fluid started to increase (I
drank A LOT of water) and I stayed
infection free. The doctors
determined that I had a high leak,
which never resealed, but due to the
high location, the leaking was less if
I stayed still in bed. I was able to
stay home the entire 15 weeks! I was
induced at 38 weeks, 3 days and gave
birth to a miracle baby girl, Abby.
The only complication Abby had was
jaundice at 1 day old, which required
her to spend the night in the nursery
under the bili lights. She is now
almost 6 months old and developing
right on schedule!
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