By Jane,
PROM at 25 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 27 weeks.
Story added: 1998-10-22

I had a too busy weekend, not feeling well but decided to take my two children to a hilly zoo. Too much walking for someone carrying twins and feeling the way I was feeling.. Tuesday night, I fell asleep with the TV on. My husband was far out of town. I awoke to a feeling of being alittle wet. I thought incontance had set in. Then maybe not. I had never heard of PROM. I was not feeling any labor pain, my fluid was not gushing out, I didn't know what to think. I called my ob, and was instructed to come to the hospital. Thank goodness for good neighbors and friends. I wept all the way to the hospital 35 miles away. My ob checked me and said I wasn't in labor and only one of the sacks had ruptured.

Well I didn't understand. If I wasn't in labor what was going on? I was kept in L&D all that night. My husband arrived the next day in time for the level 3 ultra-sound I needed to have to determine the weight of the babies. If they were smaller than 800 gms I would need to be moved to a University hospital. The boys looked fine , so they sent me to a room to wait. My Dr. started an antibotic IV that he kept up until the beta-strep test came back. I recived the first of several betamethsone shots. My Dr. told me if we could last 72 hour the babies chances would greatly improve, even better everyday after that. I prayed. I asked my church to pray for my babies. Other churches put me on their prayer lists. I read books, maybe not a great idea since the ones that were avalible to me were so out-dated and scary.

After 1 week they took me off anti-biotics, no beta-strep. My white blood cell count started to rise, not a good sign. My hope that the tear would heal was fading. I discussed the possibility of delivering just the baby whose sack was broken with my Dr.. He did not feel this was a medically prudent thing to do, not an option here. On the 10th day my white blood cell count rose steadly. Labor finally started. Both babies were head down. Baby 1, whose sack had broken was delivered first. He came fairly quickly, and sounded great! He cried. I saw him for a second before they whisked him away to the NICU. Baby 2, whose sack had not broken and had no interest in rushing out, turned transverse! My labor stopped. The ob doing the delivery 'the one on call' seemed to consider leaving him in place, but she went ahead. She tried to ease him out but he only went higher. Finally after a long 45 minutes my husband and I and the other 12 people in the room went to the OR for a C section.

Even then it was tough getting him out. The babies almost had different birthdays! Burton was great, better than great. He was intibated for only 3 days and skipped c-pap altogether. George did well, but alittle more normally. 4 days on the vent and 3 days c-pap. They spent 60 days in the NICU. We had more ups than downs. I pumped more milk than Elsie, but George needed the calorie boosted formula. George had some breathing prolbems at 3.5 months and again at 5 months. A wonderful OTL did a bronc. and saw a little damage to his windpipe from when he was intubated. A little laser surgery and no prolbems.

The boys are now 2.5 years old. They are a little on the small side, but other than that they show no signs of their premature birth. We go to see the Developmentalist next week I think for the last time, because there will be no need to anymore. I still sometimes remember how terribly scared and frightened I was for their very survival. I feel truely blessed for the gift of their health..