I was 14 weeks 5 days pregnant with my
second baby when I woke at 4 in the
morning to use the bathroom. As soon
as I lay back down in bed I felt a
gush of fluid. I ran back to the
bathroom thinking I must have started
bleeding, but it was just clear fluid.
I’d never heard of pprom before, so I
didn’t know what was happening.
It kept happening all that day, so I
called my Ob/gyn and went in for an
ultrasound. I still had amniotic fluid
at that point, and the baby was
sitting right on my bladder, so my
doctor thought I was just peeing my
pants.
I kept leaking fluid for the next six
weeks and worried something was wrong,
but since I didn’t even know it was
possible for your water to break that
early I kept telling myself not to
worry – it must be my bladder.
At my 20-week ultrasound I found out
otherwise. My doctor noted very little
fluid and immediately sent me to see a
specialist, who told me I had
virtually no fluid and that because
I’d ruptured so early and had such
little fluid, my baby would never
survive. He advised me to terminate. I
told him that wasn’t an option, so he
told me to go home and wait for my
baby to die.
I went on bed rest but began bleeding
just a few days later and was
convinced I was losing my son. I spent
a night in the hospital, but his
heartbeat was still strong, so I went
back home for more bed rest.
I got steroid shots at 24 weeks, then
at 25 weeks began bleeding again. This
time they let me stay in the hospital.
Although I had almost no fluid this
whole time, my baby hung on until 27
weeks 1 day. He weighed 2 pounds 5
ounces and was 14 ½ inches long.
He was very, very sick and they had a
lot of difficulty getting him
ventilated, but after an hour they
were finally able to get his lungs to
open up. He was critically ill for the
first 2 months of his life and ended
up being in the NICU for 115 days, but
he’s been home for 4 months now and is
doing amazingly well.
Please feel free to email me if you
have any questions about pprom or
being in the NICU – I know how
terrifying it is:
misty.bott@gmail.com. Don’t give up on
your baby. We’re so thankful we didn’t
listen to the doctor when he told us
to terminate. Miracles happen… we’ve
been blessed to be able to bring our
miracle home.
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