By Craig Davis, St. Louis, MO USA
PROM at 19 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 27 weeks + 3 days.
Story added: 2004-07-21

Our story began much like mos tof the others. My wife had a very normal pregnancy until one morning she awoke in the middle of the night spotting a very light pink liquid. It was not a gush, but just a small leak. We immediatly went to the hospital and eventually discovered that her water had indead broken. We had less than 2 cm of fluid remaining. We were painted a very grim picture. We were told that we had less than a 5% chance of being able to continue the pregnancy until a viable gestation. And even if we did get to 24 weeks, his chance of survival would be very slim due to the lack of fluid that promotes lung development. Well, the were right. After 8 long weeks of hospitalized bed rest, my wife delivered our baby boy. He was 2 pounds and 8 ounces (1130 grams) and was very very very sick. The doctors asked us to say good by to him almost immediatly because his little lungs were just not any good. Within 2 hours of birth he had holes in both lungs and needed tubes put in to drain the air and prevent collaps. Things did not look good. After lots of difficulty the first week things slowly started to improve. We were told 3 times that our son would not live within the first 7 days.

The battle has been very long and still continues. Little Aiden is now 2 months old and just about to come off the ventilator. His lungs are improving at a snails pace, but improving none the less. Outside of the respitory issues, he has had a small heart issue that has been corrected and some gastro-instestinal issues. The prognosis at this point is very good. He is now 4 pounds and 6 ounces (2001 grams) and growing daily. Once he is requiring no respitory assitance, we will begin teaching him to bottle feed. We are told that he will not be home by his due date, but probably about a month later. But the good news is, that he will come home. So far there are no developmental issues to speak of, but it is very difficult to tell at such a young age.

AIDEN ALEXANDER DAVIS
Born MAY 30 2004
2 POUNDS 8 OUNCES
14 INCHES LONG

Now JULY 21 2004
4 POUNDS 6 OUNCES
18 INCHES LONG