By Dana, Gaithersburg, MD USAWhen my husband & I decided to try for a baby, things couldn't have been easier or more uneventful... and within 2 months of our decsion I found out I was pregnant. Our due date was April 29, 2002 - the birthdate of my dear friend who we immediately asked to be the beby's godparent.
PROM at 23 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 25 weeks + 6 days.
Story added: 2007-05-04
I was 31 years old at the time. This was my fist pregnancy. I had no health or chronic medical issues beyond mild and coltrolled asthma. My weight was fine. My diet was good. I didn't exercise as often as i should - but who does? Oh - I had uterine surgery in 1999 - a myomectomy for a fibroid that measured the size of a softball and weighed close to 2 lbs - a full C-section cut. And 8 years earlier had LEEP due to warts ( courtesy of an EX-fiance and his wandering.) Fortunately they never returned ( nor did he! )
I worked full time, as a technology trainer and database consultant for an accounting firm - a desk job where the most physically strenous thing I did was walk to the coffee machine or open a compueter manual. I travelled up to the week before our "event."
While this was uneventful, it wasn't comfortable. I had miserable morning sickness through 20 weeks. I discovered I have a tilted uterus - not problematic for conception or delivery, but the fetus was leaning on my sciatic nerve, causing back pain and occasional numbness in my legs. I had a lot of "round ligiment stretching pain." I STILL don't believe that is all it was, but absent any other symptoms or trouble, that is waht I was told...!
I had a few days of braxton-hicks type contractions - never lasting more than 2 or 3 seconds at a time, where it felt like someone was pulling my belly- button back into my body from the inside - not painful, but an annoying tugging feeling. My OB told me it was entirely possible that the baby ( at 22 weeks ) was PLAYING with the cord and that is what I felt.
Well, then the b-h got more frequent and the baby was wigglign less. My OB said I was probably just tired and dehydrated. So I went to bed earlier and I drowned myslef in fluids.
This went on for a few more days. then one afternoon at work I started to feel "funny." I chalked it up to being tired. Then, on the commute home ( I worked in downtown DC and live out in the burbs at the end of the metro line ) while in the train, underground, I suddenly started h aving contractions. Not slowly - all at once it went from painless b-h of a few seconds to 30 second long, double- me-over pain 4 minutes apart. I MUST have looked bad because someone actually GAVE UP A SEAT FOR ME on the metro in rush hour. There was nothing we ( I coummted with my DH who worked 7 blocks from me )could do while in the tunnel. When we came above ground, where there is reception I called my OB who said I sounded dehydrated - to go immeidatley home, lay down, elevate my feet, and drink more.
So I did. Of course, being 23wk and a few days pg, you chug 32oz of juice and IMMEDIATLEY have to pee ;-) but when I went I saw I was bleeding. We called my OB from the car on the way to the ER who agreed thtat was wise. We literally got into the triage room in time for my water to break - well, BURST, really - and for the ER doc and my OB to frown and say " we can see the crown. Thgis has to be stopped."
We panicked, of course, as I was rushed to the antepartum wing, put on Magnesium Sulfate, IV fluids, IV antibiotics, steriod shots, Lasic ( for fluid retention ) and oxygen - by now I was so upset my asthma was acting up. The docs inserted a catheter and told me I was in bed as long as they could hold off delivery - no showers, no bathroom - nothing... I was put in the "Trandellenberg" position - with the head of the bed 45 - 50 degrees lower than the foot, so gravity could assist in keeping the baby from slipping into the birth canal.
after 4 days I was taken off the amg sulf and given a Terbutaline pump. it seemed to work, for a while, but on day 13, right after eating dinner, the contractions ( which had slowed and dulled, but never really gone away ) returned full force. I rang the call button for the nurse and when she got to my room, she could see the baby's head.
Penelope Joy was delivered 1 hour later by an emergency C ( I was told at her size and gestational age she would never survive a vaginal delivery - she would have been lterally crushed during contractions. )
She was given Surfactant ( thank you March of Dimes for pioneering this!!! ) and taken to the NICU even before I could see her. $ hours later, when the spinal wore off enough for me to be moved intoa wheelchair, I got to see her - all 1 lb 10 oz of her - jaundiced, purple from bruising ( no fluid and almost 2 weeks of contractions ) covered head to toe in wires and leads and obscured by the respirator and eye mask ( to protect her from the bioli lights and heat lamp )...
She spent 12 weeks in the local NICU. She amazed EVERYONE by getting off the vent after 3 days - though she needed 6 more weeks on a C-Pap machine. She began taking breawst milk my central line into her stomach at 5 days old - .5ml at a feeding. She was tube fed after that up till 2 weeks before her discharge. She had a PDA that fianly repsonded satisfactorilly to the Inodcin literally the day before we were due to schedule her heart surgery. We were told to expect sever brain bleeds - but she had NONE.
She developed level 4 ROP in both eyes - and needed surgery at 5 months to ensure her retinas didn't detatch. She was in glasses at 2 yrs old, and wears a patch every day on her stronger eye to try to force her weaker one to develop better strength while she is still young enough for it to be "tricked" into improving.
She has some lingering sensory issues - though not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of Sensory Integration Disorder / still she is being observed every few months by her pediatrician and a phsychiatrist just in case... more so if she needs accomodations at school there is a record than because they think it will worsen, although we've been told there is a strong link between preemies and SID and ADHD, so we are glad we'r tracking her... She hates crowds - has almost no natural sense of phyical boundaries and body awareness, and does not like to be unexpectedly touched - particularly either from her sides where her peripheral vision is bad, or anywhere on her face or head. Things like crowded school playgrounds or sports like soccer are really toguh for her.
Otherwise, she is in perfect health and is a bright, funny, cheerful, charming, exasperating, energetic NORMAL 5 year old ;-)
We know we are blessed and lucky to have her with us, intact and well now!!!