I PROMed right after I woke up on the
morning of 21 weeks, 3 days. I
thought I had had an accident
urinating in my underpants. My
pregnancy had already been complicated-
-I had a large blood clot near the
baby and this contributed to many
instances before 21 weeks, 3 days
where I was not sleeping, was
experiencing heavy bleeding and at one
point, thought I had miscarried in the
bathroom at my work. I even fished
what I thought was the fetus out of
the toilet and called my husband. We
went to the hospital immediately and
discovered that I was still pregnant.
Anyways, on the morning I PROMed, I
didn't think anything of it until two
days later at the ultrasound where I
was expecting to report the sex of the
baby to my sister-in-law...she had to
know, my husband and I didn't want to
know. The doctors were with us for an
hour, so I knew something was wrong.
I was immediately admitted to the
hospital for two days to be
administered antibiotics to keep the
fetus uninfected...I didn't know that
50% of women go into labor within 48
hours of PROMing. We went home on my
birthday and I was put on bed rest for
two weeks...with the promise of
returning at 24 weeks to begin steroid
treatment for the baby's lungs. The
baby was moving very little the week I
PROMed, but I noticed a little more
movement the week after. Granted, no
where near the activity before
PROMing. After 24 weeks and two
steroid shots, I was tested for
diabetes and preclampsia, both
negative. My blood pressure was high,
but I believe it was the salt in the
food I was eating in the hospital--my
husband does the cooking in the
household and he never uses salt--in
fact, he even leaves it out when a
recipe calls for it. I was put on a
low sodium diet and my blood pressure
returned to normal. At 25 weeks, 1
day, I was lying flat on the bed
hooked up to a baby monitor and
everything seemed great--I felt
kicking for the first time in that
position...reason to believe that the
baby was getting bigger (when the
amniotic fluid ruptures, it is
difficult to get a fix on how truly
big the baby is--that fluid is a
window into where the baby is..no
fluid, no window. I started feeling
cramps that afternoon around 2 p.m.
They continued on and off for th next
day and I was monitored closely, but
the contraction monitor didn't pick
anything up. Just because there was
no pick-up didn't mean there we'ren't
any. The pain subsided a little late
the next night at 25 weeks, 2 days.
About 2 hours later, it was back with
a vengance. I called my husband at
1:45 a.m. and told him it was back.
He rushed to me and he wasn't there 5
minutes when they took me to the
operating room. I had a c-section and
it went very fast. I was prepped for
surgery and my husband wasn't in the
room for three minutes when the baby
was delivered. He weighed 1 pound, 4
ounces. You don't know about the
lungs and their development until the
baby is actually born and tries to
breath on his own. My husband was
immediately called to the corner of
the operating room to where the baby
was when he was given the news--the
oxygen level was 19% and it was
supposed to be at 100%. The doctor
was candid with my husband and told
him the baby was not going to survive
because he wasn't breathing on his
own. I know they did everything they
could, but he lived a full hour after
he was born and he died while he was
wrapped in a blanket on my chest. He
looked so beautiful and so perfect--
like nothing was wrong with him. We
gave him the boy's name we picked out
and that helped to make the experience
more personal (as if it needed to be
made any more personal).
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