My water broke with no warning the day
before I was to be 21 weeks. The
doctors never did figure out why this
happened but we assume that a bout of
blood a month prior had something to
do with it.
All subsequent tests showed everything
fine with the baby, just that her
water was broken. I went on to full
bed rest. (I had been on bed rest
prior with the blood but had come off
of it and onto limited activity before
my water breaking so when it broke, I
was already taking it easy.)
I know at first that the doctors were
not hopeful. I had been transferred
from my regular OBGYN to a group of 4
specialists. My main new doctor did
offer the possibility of terminating
the pregnancy but when my husband and
I refused, nothing more was said.
However, up until the time I entered
the hospital, I think none of the
doctors really had a good outlook on
the whole thing, I think they expected
that we would loses the baby. I had
weekly ultrasounds from then on out
and they showed the baby was
breech.
I was to enter the hospital at 26 and
a half weeks due to some confusion
about dates and how weekends fell,
etc., originally I was to enter at 24
weeks. The day I went in, I went for
another ultrasound first. The tech
was very surprised - the baby they all
said probably couldn't turn because
there was no fluid - she turned! She
was vertex. Over the next few weeks,
she would turn another TWO times! She
would be transverse and then vertex
again, the day of her birth. I
received the steroid shots the first
and second days of my hospital
stay.
I was in the hospital just shy of 3
weeks when I spontaneously went into
labor and the baby was born just a few
short hours later after a total of 8
weeks and 1 day with her water
broken. During the labor, they put a
tube up to the uterus to give her some
extra fluid. As long as she tolerated
it, they planned to let me progress
naturally. Her heartbeat would drop
with every contraction but we made it
in the end without a c-section. The
baby may have even come sooner had
they not had me sitting up for a full
half an hour getting the epidural.
The first guy took two tries before
they sent someone else in who
did "something different" and got it
first try. Just a few seconds after
they laid me back down, before they
could even hook me up to medicine, the
baby was born without any medical
personnel nearby. I was actually
trying to HOLD her in! I was yelling
that she was coming NOW and she did.
I see it now all in slow motion. The
sole nurse in the room turned and ran
towards me and five billion people
(ok, more like 20) poured into the
room. The doctor was first, he must
have been running down the hall while
I was yelling!
Immediately NICU personnel took the
baby and got her breathing tube in.
Her initial apgar score was 3 and that
was followed by a 6. But those scores
mean nothing! As I write this, she is
now 11 weeks old and considered to be
40 weeks' gestation. She is still in
the NICU but is doing well. Because
her water was broken for 8 weeks, her
lungs are even more premature than the
rest of her body but she is making her
way and I can already see a feisty
spirit in her.
Hopefully she will come home very
soon. She needs to learn to take all
of her feedings via mouth and, I
believe, she's good to go!
No matter your situation -- do not
give up hope! Miracles can and do
happen!
And always try to see the brighter
side of things, know that everything
happens for a reason. Our daughter
also has some kidney problems namely
reflux (grade 3 and 5) and lowered
function (in the grade 5 kidney).
These problems are NOT in any way
related to her water being broken or
her prematurity. They are just
something that happened and we got to
find out about them before they caused
her problems BECAUSE of my numerous
ultrasounds. It's amazing how things
work out. :)
My blog: http://spoken-for.org
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