By Marianne Mariniello, maywood, New Jersey USA
PROM at 13 weeksDelivery at 31 weeks.
Story added: 2002-11-11

On September 11, 2001 at 1:45 am I awoke to find my pajama pants were wet. I went to the bathroom and there was a gush of fluid. I called my OB who told me that I probably peed myself. I knew that I hadn't. I was only 13 weeks pregnant. I went in to the doctor's office the next morning and was given an internal. My OB said that she didn't think that I ruptured since there was nothing to see, but she would send me for an ultrasound anyway. I was pregnant with twins. I knew that as of the 7th week or so. As the tech was doing the ultrasound, I could tell the difference between the two sacs. Baby A had plenty of fluid, but Baby B had little if any at all. The doctor came in and told me that I have a bicornuate uterus and that baby B had ruptured. My cervix was closed though. I was admitted to the hospital for 4 days and was given IV fluids. I was sent home on bedrest with bathroom privileges with weekly appointments for ultrasounds. Every week we prayed that the fluid would reaccumulate, but it never did. The most that there ever was, was 6 cm. The perinatologist recommended that they do an AFP test--I refused it, because I had heard of too many false positives and I had enough stress. We had already decided that we were going through with the pregnancy. I leaked small amounts until week 19 when I started gushing pink fluid. I was then admitted to the hospital until I delivered. I was monitored for contractions 3 times a day. I never had any consistent contractions though. I received some IV fluids at the beginning and antibiotics throughout my whole stay in the hospital. I had ultrasounds weekly. The fluid always remained very low, but there ws always a little. I had steroid injections around week 28. The doctors were optimistic. My family was very optimistic also. There was no other way to be to get through it. I spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in the hospital and I would just keep reminding myself that next year the holidays would be that much better. At 31 weeks I started bleeding heavily and started having contractions . I was taken into the OR and delivered a set of boy/girl twins via c-section. They were both breathing on there own, but were taken to the NICU. My daughter (the non-ruptured twin) came home in 2 weeks. She was 3lbs 9oz at birth and 4 lbs when we took her home. My son was 2 lbs 11oz at birth and stayed in the NICU for 3 1/2 months. He had a lot of respiratory problems. He came home on oxygen and had a feeding tube placed in his belly. When he came home at 3 1/2 months he weighed 5 lbs 10 oz. Today he is 10 months old and weighs 14 lbs. 4 oz. His sister weighs 17 lbs 13oz. They both keep me busy, but I wold do it all again if I had to. Although my son has some breathing problems, he is fine in all other respects. His pulmonologist is optimistic that he will grow out of his respiratory problems. He will most likely always have asthma. I hope that this can help someone. I remember looking on this web site when I was on bedrest and some of the stories did give me some hope.