3:30 Saturday morning Jan. 13, 2007 i
awoke from a dead sleep to several
huge gushes of clear amniotic fluid. I
ran to the bathroom and emptied my
bladder before calling my OBGYN's
office. I spoke to the answering
service and my doctor called me right
back. She had me meet her in the ER
because i was to early at almost 16
weeks to be seen in OB triage. My
doctor tried to assure me and calm my
worst fears by telling me that in
these cases it is usually just urine.
As a senior year nursing student at 20
years of age with only my second
pregnancy i knew that it was not
urine. The nitrazine paper and the
microscope fern test both came back
negative and durring the sterile spec.
exam there was no pooling of fluid in
the vagina nor any gushes when she had
me cough and i had not had any leaking
since the original gushes. An
ultrasound also showed "normal fluid".
So i was sent home and told to return
if i had any further problems. My
doctor also told me of a case she had
where a woman had a cyst on her cervix
that had burst and they both thought
that her membranes ruptured. So we
returned home (6am) and both went back
to sleep. My husband Chris got up
around 8 am and headed off to work for
the day as everything was "fine".
Right after he left i got up to
urinate and had 2 more significant
gushes of fluid. I called my Doctor
who wanted to see me again but wanted
some more time to elapse so that we
could see by ultradound if the fluid
had decreased. We returned to the ER
around 5 pm that night where the tests
for amnio. fluid came back positive
and there was decreased fluid on
ultrasound. I was admitted for
observation and 48 hrs of IV
ampicillin and erythromycin
(antibiotics) despite the fact that i
had no signs of infection (normal wbc
count and vaginal cultures). We were
sent to Maternal Fetal Medicine and
given all the grim statistics. We
decided to continue on with
the "conservative management" and give
the baby a chance. I went home on
bedrest which meant giving up my last
semester of nursing school for the
time and drank approx. 1 gallon of
water a day along with tons of
gatorade. I took 1 gm of vit. C to
keep the urine acidic warding off a
bladder infection, and
probiotics/acidophilus to create an
acidic vagina (keep infection away). I
went for a weekly CBC to monitor for
infection as well as weekly
ultrasounds to monitor amniotic fluid
index which never made it officially
above 5cm. At 23 weeks i was admitted
to Eastern Maine Medical Center as a
high risk antepartum inpatient and was
given betamethasone steroid shots. At
18, 22, and 24 weeks i was put in
labor and delivery for monitoring of
bleeding that they assumed was coming
from a placental abruption that was
not detected on ultrasound. Despite
weekly ultrasounds we never learned
the sex of the baby as i have a
bicornuate uterus and the baby was
breech, facing out, sitting over the
cervix. Then on Thursday evening March
22, 2007 i came down with mild flu
like symptoms. I thought that i was
getting the Flu or a cold as i had
been recently exposed. I also had some
mild, vague uterine tenderness that
the nurses and i attributed to
stretching ligaments, lack of fluid,
and a vigorous ultrasound that day. I
was given Tylenol and Ambien and sent
to bed. My husband stayed with me that
night as i told him earlier "...don't
go to far i have a feeling that things
are going to be bad." The nurse asked
me that night why i was so anxious and
i told her that i thought that i was
getting a uterine infection. She told
me that i had anxiety and that she
would knew if i had a uterine
infection, however she called the
doctor with my vital signs despite the
fact that they were all within normal
limits (even temp).I awoke around 2 am
and could not get back to sleep due to
sharp pains in the uterus and general,
nagging discomfort, i had heartburn
and felt nauseus so around 3 am i had
a glass of milk and some saltine
crackers. At 3:30am i involuntary
vomited before i could make it to the
bathroom and lost a large amout and
blood and fluid at the same time wich
soaked through everything. I began to
shake and sweat and became very weak.
They came in and put me on the monitor
and the babies heartrate was at its
baseline of 153 and i was not showing
any contractions on the monitor
despite the fact that i was feeling
them. By 6 am i was moved over to
labor & delivery in extreme pain and
agony and was screaming for anyone to
get me pain meds and that the
contractions that were not registering
were not giving my any break. The
nurse in L&D immediately checked me
and reported that i was fully dialated
and that the babies arm and hand were
already in the birth canal. The doctor
on call walked in and checked me again
and reported that i should just push
and that it was too late for pain
meds. I pushed 3 times before they
stoped for a heart check on the baby,
it was 135 and going strong so they
decided that in order to save the baby
they would perform a classical
emergency c-section. Off to the OR i
went alone still screaming for pain
meds and for them to just put me to
sleep. In the OR they told me that
they would not put me under til the
last second because it was best for
the baby. I was prepped and put to
sleep. Meanwhile they removed the baby
alive and reported no steady heart
rate while they worked on him with no
avail for 15 minutes before bringing
his little, pink, warm body to my
husband. Samuel Aiden McDonald was
born at 6:28 am weighing 1 lb 10.9 oz
and was 12 1/2 inches long. I was
moved to recovery where i stayed for
approx 2 hrs. When i woke up my mom
was there to inform me of the news, it
was a boy and he did not make it. I
was in agonizing pain, i later found
out that they could not get the
morphine pump to work. Around 9 am i
was brought to my room and my family
and the baby came in. He was already
bathed and dressed by my husband and
in a bassinet. I could hardly move and
despite the extreme exhaustion and
pain my family was able to hold him up
for me. They took him again to take
pictures, get prints, and complete
paperwork. He was brought back to me
where i was able to have him on my
chest after thourghly examining him
and i kept him for several hours. He
had one severe club foot and the other
was heading that way. Looking at his
pictures know i can see that his chest
was small in comparison to his
abdomen, his nose was also a little
squished. Other than that he was
completely perfect and had a whole
head full of reddish-brown hair. He
looked nothing like his brother which
we were surprised at. We plan a
private family graveside tomarrow, he
will be burried with his brother. The
NICU doctor told us that the lack of
fluid for so long caused his lungs to
be hypoplastic (underdeveloped). The
extreme prematurity (I was not due til
July 4, 2007) and infection also
worked heavily against him. Despite
this grave outcome, i have nothing to
regret, i know that i did everything
possible to save his life, which meant
giving up mine for a while. We are
extremely saddened that he did not
make it like others have, but at the
same time we are relieved and i am
anxious to get back to normal life.
Full labor, a classical c-section, and
10 weeks of bedrest have made for a
hell of a recovery, but we are
getting there. I do not regret our
decision to give him a chance, his
life was worth every minute of
agonizing pain and bedrest. We know
that he is in Heaven with the Lord and
his brother. --Chris & Auburn
P.S. My first pregnancy ended at 28
weeks on April 16, 2005 with the
delivery (induction)of a stillborn
baby boy named Levi Christopher who
weighed 2 lbs 5 oz and was 16 inches
long. His cause of death was a "cord
accident". He also had several cardiac
anomalies which would have needed
surgical repair after birth. He would
be two this July 15.
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