This was a miracle pregnancy for us.
I was born with a unicorniate uterus
and an abnormally shaped cervix. We
went through many years of fertility
treatments, many procedures, tons of
money and no baby. Two doctors told
me it was unsafe to carry a baby and
to either adopt or get a gestation
surrogate to carry. We decided to go
all the way and get a gestational
surrogate. She got pregnant with our
twin girls but then went into labor at
19 weeks and sadly they passed away.
We escaped to Italy and came home to
find out that I was pregnant! Should
I be feeling happy or sad? It was not
an easy pregnancy, I was terrified
that I was going to have something
horrible go wrong. Right away my
doctor told me I at high risk due to
my uterus and cervix and I needed to
see a specialist. I would see him
ever 2 weeks and my OBGYN on a weekly
basis.
The last week in June my high risk
doctor did his ultra sound and
measured the amount of amniotic fluid
around the baby and it was 27 which
was high. I never really felt the
baby move and my OBGYN said it was due
to the large amount of fluid around
the baby. Then on July 6th I kept
running to the bathroom to urinate
every 20 min. Then at 5:30pm I felt
like I wet myself. I waited a few
minutes and it happened again so I
called my doctor and took a shower. I
saw a spot of blood but that was it.
By the time we got to the hospital I
was drenched and tests confirmed that
my water had broken at 27 weeks. We
were devistated and prepared for the
worst. The baby was fine and I was
not having contractions. I did test
positive for Group B ( I had to get
antibiotics for this while I was in
labor). I got my 2 steriod shots and
got hooked up to IV fluids and
antibiotics. The peri came in and
explained to us what we could expect
if I delivered the baby.
I remember on the 2nd night around
12:30am a team of doctors came running
in and were moving me all around, here
the baby's heart beat dropped for 6
mins and was not coming back up. It
ended up being that I was laying on my
left side and from then on I had to
sit up even when I slept. After the
third day I was taken off of the
fluids since I was drinking enough
water. After a week I got moved to the
antepardum unit where I would stay on
bed rest until I delivered the baby.
Who knew I would be in the hospital,
on bed rest for 47 days. I had lots
of support from family and friends but
also from the doctors and nurses at
the hospital. Everyone from the front
desk, to the cleaning crew, cafeteria
staff and the valet parkers knew who I
was and my family. They were all
counting down the days until I had the
baby.
Around two weeks or so I was finally
able to get up and take a 5 min shower
ever other day. I would do my hair
all nice just to make myself feel good
and I also got wheelchair privledges 2
times a day. On a weekly basis I
would get wheeled to my high risk
doctor's office for an ultra sound to
check our baby's heart beat, the flow
of the cord and the amount of fluid.
If there was a concern I would have
been induced. To everyone's surprise
the fluid amount had gone back up so
now it was just rest and wait.
Finally on Aug 20 I got induced and
was in labor for 36 hours- I was not
dialate and didn't have any
contractions.
After pushing for 1 1/2 hours on Aug
22nd we welcomed to the world our baby
boy Brandon who was 4lbs 7oz 18.5
inches long. We knew he would be in
the ICN for 10-20 days and he was in
there for 20 days exactly. He could
not eat for the first 7 days- he had
to be on meds to close a hole in his
heart ( this is not uncommon with a
preemie). He also was squished inside
of me and when he came out his right
foot was bent all the way back but it
went back to normal on it's own.
I was so happy to finally be able to
go home but I was so sad to leave our
baby. I was so use to not doing
anything, my muscles got extremely
weak and I could not drive for over a
month and had lots of muscle
problems. I would have to depend on
my mom to drive me to the hospital
during the day- she didn't mind seeing
her grandchild and my husband would
visit him at night after work.
We were able to bring Brandon home on
Sept 11th and we are happy to say that
he is getting very big and is over 12
lbs!
I wanted to share my story since I was
told that it was impossible to carry a
baby and I did it! There would be
nothing else that I would have done
differently and I would do it all over
again. Who knows if I will be able to
get pregnant again or if I would be on
bed rest at the hospital. We are just
so happy to have this miracle baby in
our lives and we have two beautiful
angels watching over us who helped us
get through everything. Even my high
risk doctor and the doctors at the
hospital were shocked that I was able
to stay on bed rest as long as I did.
It was all worth it!
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