By Claire Tyson, Cape Canaveral, FL USI had an uneventful and easy pregnancy up until around 28 weeks. At that point I started to cramp and have a little bit of spotting. I went to L&D to be checked and was hooked up the monitor a few hours. After being told I was not having contractions and that I was not dilated I was sent home. Over the nest 2-3 days I started to lose chunks of mucus - what I beleive was my plus. First thing monday morning I went and saw my doctor. All she did was check me again - and I was still not dilated. I knew the truth though..I had already started to pack my hospital bag "just in case"
PROM at 29 weeksDelivery at 31 weeks.
Story added: 2006-02-22
The next day I stood up after using the restroom and my water broke. It was a HUGE gush...totally scared me. I called my husband at work to come get me and then attempted to change my clothes and put on a pad. I might as well not have bothered b/c I was leaking so bad I immediatly soaked through the new pants as well. I was so scared of having a proclapsed cord...I got on my hands and knees and waited the 30 minutes for my husband to get home. When he got there I walked to the car and literally let a trail of fluid..I brought a towel to ride on.
When we got to the hospital I made my husband get a wheel-chair for me. I could tell the people in the ER were not that concerned..I'm sure they thought it was another false alarm. They sent me to talk to the insurance lady and luckily she was great and said "we'll do the paperwork later...let's get you upstairs"
When I got up to Labor and Delivery I'm not sure they believed me at first...they were like "well...do you have a wet pad or something?" Then one of them said "woah..she's sitting in a puddle" I don't even think they tested the fluid - it was that obvious. I was immediatly hooked up the monitor and was thrilled to hear Beth's heartbeat since I had not felt her kick since the rupture. They called the on-call doctor and she was awesome. She didn't waste and time at all..she immediatly gave me a steroid shot for the baby's lungs and magnesium sulfade to stop any contractions I might be having.
After that I had to be transfered to a hospital with a NICU. They did an ultrasound to see if the baby was big enough to just go to a level 2 hospital and thankfully she was...the bigger hospital was way further from our home. I waited about an hour and then was sent my ambulance to the new hospital. I was admited into their special care maternity unit where I would stay for about the next 10 days. Thankfully I was very well cared for and the nurses were awesome..and my dh was able to come visit everyday. I missed my home though...and my cats, lol. Luckily this was our first child so I didn't have any others at home.
My stay was pretty boring really...I got one more steroid shot and after that we just waited. Every 3 hours I had my temperture checked for infection and the baby was monitored pretty often. The first day I was on a catheter, the next 2 they let me use a bed-side comode, and after that I was allowed up to use the bathroom and take showers. I was also on antibiotics this whole time. The worse part of that was that I got a horrible yeast infection. It couldn't be treated with a creme b/c I was ruptured and they said pregnany woman couldn't take the oral medication..so I could have no treatment at all. And laying in bed all day there was nothing to distract me. I did eat yogurt all day in hopes that would help.
Finally after 10 or 11 days they took me off antibiotics. I went into labor the next day. So my suggestion is - if you are not ready to have your baby ask to stay on the antibiotics are long as possible. It was a pretty bad early labor...maybe 24-30 hours of painful contractions and I only dilated 2 cm. Finally I spiked a small fever and so they gave me pitocin. I also got an epidural at the same time which was great. This was about 10am and by daughter was born at 2:20. I only pushed 3 times and she let out a big cry when she was born. Her scores were 8 and 9 and she weighed 3 pounds 13 ounces and was 17 1/4 inches long. She never required any oxygen and they let me hold her briefly before taking her away to the NICU. She spent 3 weeks there in all and then we brought our angel home. A few weeks later she suffered a scary apnea episode and we had to take her back in. She was diagnosed with reflux then and put on an apnea monitor which she used for about 7 months. She is one now though and doing awesome..no one would ever know she was a preemie