My husband and I had 6 children
already before I got pregnant, and we
had decided we weren't going to have
anymore. Partly because I have really
bad hyperemesis with my
pregnancies.
In november 06 I found out I was
pregnant, I was shocked and excited
and scared all at the same time. We
have never gotten pregnant without
trying to before, in 19 years.
This pregnancy was different then all
my others from the start. I didn't get
sick until 9 weeks, usually I got sick
right away, or at the latest by 6
weeks.
At 10 weeks I started bleeding, it was
really scarry, I was sure I was
loosing my baby. I had an ultrasound 2
hours before I started bleeding, so
the doctor in the ER didn't think it
was necessary to do another one. He
told me that if I miscarried there was
nothing they could do anyways. They
checked my cervix, which was closed,
and send me home on bedrest until the
bleeding stopped. It stopped after 4
days, and my regular OB said to stay
off my feet as much as possible.
The next 3 weeks I had short spotting
episodes, every week for a couple of
days. Every time I was told to go on
bedrest until it stopped.
At around 16-18 weeks I had my
tripplescreen test, which came back a
1 in 25 chance for Downs Syndrome, so
my OB sent me to a High Risk Doc for a
in depth ultrasound. The doctor stated
he didn't see any signs for Downs, but
he saw the reason for my bleeding. I
had a subchorionic hematoma, I had no
idea what that was. He explained that
it was a bloodclot next to my
placenta, apperently my placenta
started to detach, when I had the
initial bleeding, but then reattached,
leaving the clot.
He recommended staying of my feet and
not doing an amnio, because the clot
put me at higher risk for my water to
break. And he told us we were having a
little boy. My husband was so excited,
because we only had one boy who had
just turned 18, and then we had 5
girls, so another boy was very
special.
After that everything seemed to be
fine, except for my hyperemisis, but
that was expected. We had 2 more
ultrasounds to check on the clot and
by 27 weeks we were told the clot had
disolved itself and was nolonger
there. And that I could resume normal
activities.
Since I was really sick alot, I was
laying down alot anyways, so not much
changed there.
On the morning of 5/23/07 I woke up
feeling my water break, I jumped up
terrified, all I could think of was
that it was too early, I was only 31
weeks and 2 days.
I knew that his chance for survival
was pretty good, but I also knew that
the nearest NICU was 1 hour away. And
I wasn't sure how well he would do if
I had him here and he needed to be
transported.
We went to our hospital right away,
since I didn't know if I would go into
labor or not, and my last labor was
only 2.5 hours long.
At our local hospital they examined
me, my cervix was still closed, so
they started an IV, gave me a steroid
injection for the babies lungs and
sent me via ambulance to the hospital
an hour away.
Once there I was hooked up to monitors
and watched for almost 12 hours in L&D
and they started me on antibiotics to
prevent infection. I also met with
anestisia, a nurse from the NICU and
the Perenetologist who was going to be
my doctor while I was there. They also
did an ultrasound to determine if he
was head down.
After the initial observation time I
was moved to a room in the Antepartum
unit, there I was to remain on bedrest
until the baby was born. I was told to
lay as flat as possible and I was only
allowed to get up to use the bathroom,
and I was allowed a sit down shower a
day.
The next day they did an ultrasound to
see how the baby was doing, and he was
doing good, a bit bigger then expected
and still a good amount of fluid
left.
My doctor told me they wanted me to
get to 34 weeks, and then they would
induce if I hadn't gone into labor on
my own, because by then the risks
outweight the benefits of him
remaining inside.
Well, I made it to saturday 6/9/07, 33
weeks 5 days, when my doctor came in
and gave us a choice, sun, mon or
tues, he said at this point either day
was fine. Since he was on sunday and
not monday we decided to go ahead with
sunday, so we could have him
deliver.
So on sunday morning they started my
induction, I was warned that it may
take longer since I was so early. And
it did, 12 hours and 37 minutes, I
haven't had a 12 hour labor since my
first daughter was born 15 years ago.
It was quiet the change, but I have to
say the pain wasn't as bad as I had
feared, and I made it thrue with 2
doses of IV meds and no epidural. (I
have never had one, and I really
didn't want one this time either)
The delivery was whole other
situation, everybody expected it to go
fast since he was so little. But,
nobody expected him to come out face
first, and not just face first, but
chin first with his head tilted back.
It was the most painfull birth I have
ever had, and he was only 5 lbs 15 oz!
His poor face was all swollen and
purple, he also had the cord wrapped
around his neck twice and once around
his leg.
He surprised everyone, he was kicking
and screaming, and required no
oxygen.
It has been exactly 1 week since I
delivered, and it has been a
rollercoaster ride of emotions. Our
little Michael John is still in the
NICU, but doing really well, he is
nursing great and he is finally
gaining some weight. The bruising is
looking much better, and we hope to
get him home tomorrow or the next
day.
I know this is really long, but maybe
it will encourage someone, that there
is hope even if your water brakes
early.
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