By Danielle, Columbus, Ohio U.S.A.
PROM at 21 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 25 weeks + 3 days.
Story added: 2008-02-11

I PROMed right after I woke up on the morning of 21 weeks, 3 days. I thought I had had an accident urinating in my underpants. My pregnancy had already been complicated- -I had a large blood clot near the baby and this contributed to many instances before 21 weeks, 3 days where I was not sleeping, was experiencing heavy bleeding and at one point, thought I had miscarried in the bathroom at my work. I even fished what I thought was the fetus out of the toilet and called my husband. We went to the hospital immediately and discovered that I was still pregnant. Anyways, on the morning I PROMed, I didn't think anything of it until two days later at the ultrasound where I was expecting to report the sex of the baby to my sister-in-law...she had to know, my husband and I didn't want to know. The doctors were with us for an hour, so I knew something was wrong. I was immediately admitted to the hospital for two days to be administered antibiotics to keep the fetus uninfected...I didn't know that 50% of women go into labor within 48 hours of PROMing. We went home on my birthday and I was put on bed rest for two weeks...with the promise of returning at 24 weeks to begin steroid treatment for the baby's lungs. The baby was moving very little the week I PROMed, but I noticed a little more movement the week after. Granted, no where near the activity before PROMing. After 24 weeks and two steroid shots, I was tested for diabetes and preclampsia, both negative. My blood pressure was high, but I believe it was the salt in the food I was eating in the hospital--my husband does the cooking in the household and he never uses salt--in fact, he even leaves it out when a recipe calls for it. I was put on a low sodium diet and my blood pressure returned to normal. At 25 weeks, 1 day, I was lying flat on the bed hooked up to a baby monitor and everything seemed great--I felt kicking for the first time in that position...reason to believe that the baby was getting bigger (when the amniotic fluid ruptures, it is difficult to get a fix on how truly big the baby is--that fluid is a window into where the baby is..no fluid, no window. I started feeling cramps that afternoon around 2 p.m. They continued on and off for th next day and I was monitored closely, but the contraction monitor didn't pick anything up. Just because there was no pick-up didn't mean there we'ren't any. The pain subsided a little late the next night at 25 weeks, 2 days. About 2 hours later, it was back with a vengance. I called my husband at 1:45 a.m. and told him it was back. He rushed to me and he wasn't there 5 minutes when they took me to the operating room. I had a c-section and it went very fast. I was prepped for surgery and my husband wasn't in the room for three minutes when the baby was delivered. He weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces. You don't know about the lungs and their development until the baby is actually born and tries to breath on his own. My husband was immediately called to the corner of the operating room to where the baby was when he was given the news--the oxygen level was 19% and it was supposed to be at 100%. The doctor was candid with my husband and told him the baby was not going to survive because he wasn't breathing on his own. I know they did everything they could, but he lived a full hour after he was born and he died while he was wrapped in a blanket on my chest. He looked so beautiful and so perfect-- like nothing was wrong with him. We gave him the boy's name we picked out and that helped to make the experience more personal (as if it needed to be made any more personal).