By Molly Nier, Rochester, NY US
. Delivery at 34 weeks + 5 days.
Story added: 2002-10-01

This is finally my happy ending. I had 3 PROM losses that devasted me but I wanted a baby so bad I had to continue trying. This time we had a plan. I would have a cerclage at 12w and go out on modified bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. On Feb 11 I had my cerclage placed. The doctor actually did 2 stitches because she didn't like the first one and wanted to be sure that she got the stitch up as high as she could. For the first 2 1/2 to 3 months I really didn't do much of anything. I stayed in bed or on the couch all day/night. I really wanted to get past 20w. That is the longest I had gone in my pregnancies. I was having regular ultrasounds to check my cervix and all was going great. At 18w they were going to stop doing the u/s and I asked my peri if I could continue to get them until I was 24w and he said that would be fine. Thank God I did. I know now that is what saved my baby's life. I went in at 20w thinking that my cervix was the only thing I had to hope was ok. Well, that was fine but the ultrasound showed that my baby's bladder was quite enlarged. He had what is called Posterior Urethral Valves. Basically his bladder was blocked. I was floored and didn't know how to process this. I was told that because I was 35 that I should have an amnio done to see if there was a reason why he had this. I had it done the next day and then waited for 16 long, agonizing days for the results. They finally came back and it was normal. That was such a relief but we still had to do something because of his bladder. The plan was to place a fetal stent into his abdomen to the bladder to release the fluid into the amniotic sac. Well, at the next u/s it showed his bladder was back to normal size but that all the fluid was now in his abdomen. So the stent was placed into his abdomen and it was working perfectly. I was going in every 3-4 days for u/s and 6 days after the first stent was placed in him, his bladder was distended again. So they did another stent, this one went into his bladder. All was going really well but the docs did not know the extent, if any, of the damage to his kidneys for the time his bladder was blocked up. So we would have to wait until he was born. When I was just over 34w I was going in for my regular weekly u/s and we found that there was no amniotic fluid. I was totally amazed. I had PROMed 3 times and knew it everytime. This time--I had no idea. So I went in the next day to have my cerclage removed and be induced. It took the whole day to have the cerclage out so I wasn't acutally induced until the next day. They put me on pitocin then had to shut me off after just 4 hours. They were short staffed and had alot of patients already in labor so noone was able to watch my vitals. So I waited until the next day. They started the pitocin about 8:30am and I went all day with just little contractions but they weren't doing anything. I couldn't believe that my cervix didn't dilate fully right after the cerclage was taken out. They were going to shut me off at 7pm. Finally at 6:15 I was starting. I went for an hour and asked for the epidural but had to wait so they gave me nubane and I felt a little better. Once I finally got the epidural I felt like I could have stayed that way forever. I was finally relaxed. When I was checked at 7:15 I was 3cm and 70% effaced. At 9:15 the peri came in and got the resident to check me again. I was fully dilated and 100% effaced. They asked me to wait for the peri to get his scrubs on. Sure no problem. I pushed for 12 minutes and my precious baby boy came out screaming. That was music to my ears. I did it. On July 18th I had my miralce. He weighed 5#10oz and was 17 1/4in. The NICU staff was there and told me he was doing fine. They cleaned him up and I was able to hold him right away. I thought they would have to take him but he was really healthy and had great lungs for being 5 1/2 weeks early. I did get steroid shots while I was there. He had surgery the next morning to correct his bladder problem and that went really well. He was in the NICU for 10 days but most of those days they were just waiting for him to gain weight. He was 4#13oz when we brought him home. He is now just over 2 months old and is weighing in at 10#10 1/2 oz and is doing wonderful. He has kidney reflux but we are hoping that will correct itself over time. I couldn't have asked for more.
I hope anyone who reads this will get some inspiration from my stories. There is always hope. I am so glad that I never gave up. There were many times I asked myself how I could put myself through this again and now I have my answer in my little boy.