By Shannon, Portsmouth, Ri Us
PROM at 21 weeksDelivery at 27 weeks + 3 days.
Story added: 2008-06-09

Aedan was a surprise.... we were not expecting to get pregnant but we were so happy when we found out. I took all the neccesary precautions. I went to all my Dr appointments, I ate healthy,...etc. I had horrible morning sickness. It was all day. I had dizzy spells and even blacked out a few times. We went to a 16 weeks u/s and saw our beautiful baby was a very healthy active little boy.
At 20 weeks we went to the midwife and she said everything was going great. She did a scan and we got to see him again. I asked her why he had not lifted up, he was still very low in my belly. She said it was fine he was just comfy there. 3 days later I was with my hubby and afterwards I went to the bAthroom and GUSH! My water broke. At first I thought it had something to do with our morning activities so I ignored it. The next time I got up I gushed again. I looked it up in my book, what to expect when you are expecting, and it said to go to the hospital immediatly. so I called the maternity ward and the Dr on call said get here now. So we went. When I got there, they put me on the monitor and made me wait for 2 hours before the OB came up. Then the he had the nerve to tell me "we have a lottery going for how many women pee'd themselves and thought their water broke" and he said that in front of my husband! Then he put the u/s over my belly and his whole demeanor changed. He order the nurse to get him a PROM kit and I knew that my water had broken! He did a pelvic exam and then ordered blood work and left. My husband smiled down holding my hand and said, "this might be the day" I looked up at him and said "if it is, it's not good." the OB came in and said "it looks like your water DID break. So you are experiencing a late miscarriage and we are not going to do anything to stop labor. and we cannot intervene when the baby is born but you can hold him until he dies."
We were devestated. He took my husband into the hall and told him there was no hope.
My husband called all our friends and famiy and told them the devestating news. My mom nad Grandmother booked the first flight to RI. I don't remember much about the next few days. I was put on the strictest bedrest and given ampicillin and gentamiacin to prevent infection. The nurses kept asking me if my husband abused me. I guess they were trying to find an explanation. I was in a daze. I just stared at the wall basically. I cried and prayed.
One day I woke up to my mom telling me "hey you made it 24 hours!"
We started to feel hopeful.
The OB came in and told me that if I couold make it to 23 weeks he was going to transfer me to a hospital with a LEVEL 3 NICU. We got pretty excited. I did not see my Dr again until the day I made it to 23 weeks. He came in just to tell me that an ambulance was on its way to take me.
When I got to the new hospital, they told me I could get out of bed and they took me off the meds. I was there for a month when I went into labor.
I called the nurse in when it first started. she told me that it was probably just tendons stretching. she put me on the monitor but my belly was so small, it did not pick up the contractions. it did pick up his heart rate though, which dropped everytime I had a contraction. They did blood work and found that we were sick. so they rushed me into labor and delivery and put me on pitocin. I had to labor the whole time laying completely flat. and with an infection in my uterus that made every contraction excrutiating! the pitocin didn't help. I labored for 17 hours. finally he came. 2 lbs 3oz 14 ins. I did not even get to see him they rushed him away into the back.
He had such immature lungs they had to intubate him right away. He was on a ventilator for a month and a half, then on C-PAP, finally a canula. which he came home on. He came home on his due date. 96 days after he was born. he was on oxygen until he was 6 months old, and in Early Intervention for Physical therapy for 3 years. Aedan is now a healthy, smart, wonderful 4 1/2 year old boy. He has surpassed all our expectations for him. He is my miracle!
and BTW I had a wonderful, full term healthy pregnancy 2 years later. I even went a week over due and the nurse had to break my water for me!