By Aimee Niblack, McGuire AFB, NJ USAMy husband and I were excited and shocked to find out I was carrying twins for my 2nd pregnancy. I had some spotting off and on for the 1st trimester. My husband is in the Air Force, and at the beginning of my pregnancy we were in Mississippi. I was to accompany my husband for 3 months to Oklahoma while he did some training and then come back to MS for about a month before heading to New Jersey as our next permanent base. After moving to OK, I noticed occasional leaking that I thought was stress incontinence. The day that I was 18w6d it became much worse, and I knew that it had to be amniotic fluid. I went to the ER and then was admitted to labor and delivery. It was confirmed that I was leaking amniotic fluid, and I was told about the high risk of infection and probability of delivery in the near future. I was given IV antibiotics for a couple days, and had 2 ultrasounds which showed both babies had around 4-5cm of amniotic fluid. I was discharged from the hospital and sent home on bedrest.
PROM at 18 weeks + 6 days. Delivery at 28 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2006-10-15
The Air Force allowed my husband to stop his training and be off to take care of me and our then 10 month old daughter. They also decided to send us ahead to our next permanent base in New Jersey when I was close to 23 weeks and then hospitalize me there. In the meantime I had weekly OB checks with an ultrasound and blood checks. My fluid remained very low. At 22w5d I was flown by medical airplane to NJ and taken straight to the hospital. At 23w5d I was transferred to another hospital about an hour from base, but with a great NICU. I was to remain there until I delivered.
Each new week I passed gave me a hope that my baby girls would be ok. I received steroid shots at 24 weeks, and had ultrasounds weekly with twice daily fetal monitoring. At each ultrasound, my fluid remained below 2cm, but the babies were looking good with movement and "breathing" motions. The perinatologists were great and gave me as much optimism as they could. They couldn't figure out, though, why both babies had low fluid because usually only one sac ruptures with twins and both mine had. Both babies were growing within the normal limits and each baby was making urine.
As I got farther along, I began to have more and more braxton hicks contractions. Usually I could drink more water and they would go away. I had been leaking the whole time, but my leaking also began to increase. At 28w1d my amniotic fluid turned almost red, then pink, and then back to clear in a 36hr. time period. An ultrasound found that I was not dilating, so I thought all was well again.
At 1am, September 17 (I was 28w4d) I woke with some different pain low in my abdomen. At first it didn't seem to coincide with my braxton hicks contractions, but I was placed on the monitor anyway. It wasn't long until the pain was intensifying and corresponded with the tightening of my uterus. I was given fluids to try to stop the contractions, but that didn't work. I was then checked and found to be 3cm dilated, so I was told to call my husband to come in.
At 3:22 and 3:23am I delivered Gabrielle Rose and Michelle Dawn via C- section. My husband didn't arrive until they were already born. Gabrielle gave a cry when she came out, but Michelle didn't. I was so frustrated to not be able to see my babies when they were born and know how they were doing as they stitched me back up.
As soon as I spent some time in recovery, I was taken to the NICU. We were told that Michelle was really not doing very well, but Gabrielle was doing a little better. I spent time holding little Michelle's hand as they worked on her. Her little lungs just weren't developed. About 3 hrs. after she was born, they took her off the ventilator and let me hold her as she died in my arms. It was heartbreaking, and I only prayed that I wouldn't have to go through it again with Gabrielle.
We then went over to where Gabrielle was and we were told she was doing fairly well and only on a small percentage of oxygen on the ventilator. We went back to my room to call family and then rest for a couple hours. We received updates from the NICU on Gabrielle and while she did ok for awhile, she slowly began to deteriorate. We went back to the NICU then to spend time with her. Later that afternoon Gabrielle kept getting worse. They tried a different ventilator and replaced her chest tube. They did all they could, but slowly her oxygen level began to drop. They told us she would not make it. About 13 hours after she was born, they took her off the ventilator and placed her in my arms to take her last breaths. This time was even harder as my husband and I realized that we were left with no babies.
As hard as this has been for us, we are comforted in knowing that our beautiful baby girls are in heaven waiting for us. We are grateful for the short time we did have to hold and love our girls. As hard as fighting for our babies was, I would not trade it for anything. I know that I did everything I could for our babies, but God wanted them to be with Him.