By Tracey Boone, Maryland U.S.
. Delivery at 35 weeks + 5 days.
Story added: 2006-08-15

I had been having contractions for a few months and they slowly increased, but had no pattern. On Wednesday, July 5 (34 w6d) I woke up feeling exhausted and run down. I thought it was from not sleeping well the night before and prayed that it did not mean I would go into labor soon. I laid around and slept all day. The next day I woke up and was feeling much better, but still tired. I had very little contractions all day. By Friday, I was feeling back to myself and having the regular amount of contractions or Braxton hicks that I had been feeling for a while. However, on Saturday I started having some back pain and increased contractions. I called the doctor on call and she told me to lie down and drink even more water, which seemed impossible. If I did not feel better after an hour I was to go to the hospital, but the pain subsided and the contractions decreased. Saturday night I was very restless and got very little sleep. I was planning to go to the hospital if I felt that bad again, but after some sleep on Sunday morning, I felt wonderful. Monday also went along great. Around 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I started feeling restless again, having back pain and cramps. I waited until my doctor’s office opened and called them. They had me go in for a urine check to make sure I did not have another UTI. It came back negative. My doctor just happened to be in the office that morning (was not scheduled to be there) and told me to go to the hospital to be monitored because he was worried with me having a cerclage. I went to the hospital and had to sit in the waiting room because they were cleaning the beds in triage. Well, my doctor walked in five minutes after me and was mad. I was taken back about five minutes later. They had me lie down, hooked me up to IVs, and monitored my contractions for an hour. I was feeling more contractions then I felt before. I had a scary moment where I got really hot, sweaty and felt like I was going to pass out. Of course, no one was in there and it took me what seemed like forever to find the nurses button. When a nurse finally came in she let me sit up and I felt much better. She thought I had a panic attack, but I did not think so. Another nurse came in and said it was completely normal that my blood pressure probably dropped because I was lying on my back. Well, to get to the point I was having really strong contractions about 20 minutes apart with small ones in between and down to 10 minutes apart. The nurse gave me a shot and told me they were going to try to stop my contractions. Little did she realize the doctor was going to take my cerclage out. She should have waiting until they saw how dilated I was. When he took it out I was 5 cm dilated and he said, “You’re not going home today.” They prepped a room for me and I of course had contractions, but had to wait for the drug to wear off for them to kick in. After an hour it had wore off and they were getting much stronger. About another hour later, I was 7 cm and they asked me if I wanted an epidural and I refused. I knew I could do it unmedicated. Before I knew it I was feeling ready to push. I kept telling my husband and the nurse that I needed to push. They were frantically looking for the doctor and my husband was getting mad that he was not there. Thankfully, he came in and told me to hold on that they needed to prep me. I told him I would try. Kaitlyn Grace was born at 2:26 p.m. on July 11 after two pushes and she came out crying. It was the most wonderful sound I ever heard! She was born at 35 weeks 5 days and was 5 lbs., 11.5 oz. and 19 inches long. Due to her being early, she was taken to the Special Care Nursery/Level II NICU. They put her under the hood to assist her breathing. She was grunting while breathing. She was also put on antibiotics right away because they were unsure of my GBS status. About 7 hours later, they put her on CPAP because she needed the airflow to assist her breathing, but not the oxygen. She had an x-ray and there was some haze in the lungs. She continued to grunt and the CPAP machine was alarming for no reason so they put her on the canulla (1 liter of oxygen) about 7 hours after that. She looked much better and was not fighting the canulla as she did the CPAP. She had another x-ray to see if the haze subsided and it had a little. After 48 hours, they were not feeding her so Dennis and I inquired about it. They finally started feeding her through the tube. A heart murmur was heard so an echocardiogram was done. When it came back, it was determined that it was an innocent murmur that she should grow out of. After 72 hours, she was taken off the antibiotics and her stats improved so we were then able to bottle-feed her. They barely had the oxygen on and by the next morning, she was completely off the oxygen. She was put in an isolette to help her maintain her body heat, but that was only for a day or so. The premature babies kept coming and Kaitlyn was the most stable in the SCN so they moved her to pediatrics. She was in a bassinet and off the IV by then. The only thing that kept her from coming home was that she was not gaining weight consistently. On her 8th day in the hospital, she was finally able to come home at 5 lbs, 4 oz. She is beautiful and looks a lot like her big sister.