By Heather, Toronto Canada
PROM at 36 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 36 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2010-02-04

Following a work Christmas party, during which I had an enourmous amount of energy and decided to stay late, my husband and I settled into bed excited to sleep in on the first day of holidays. I got up to empty my bladder one last time before bed and felt a huge gush of water @ about 1:30am.

We proceeded to go to the hospital, where I was admitted, given antibiotics (due to unknown GBS status) and told that I was in active labour. At this point, I was tired, worried and not ready to have this baby who was not due until the new year.

My doctor was hoping that all would be well as I was 36 weeks and had a very healthy and uneventful pregnancy thus far. By 7am, I was 5cm dilated, and at 2:30pm I gave birth to a baby boy, Jake Mackenzie, 6lbs, 13oz. The pediatrics team were on hand and whisked my son away to the NICU as he was grunting and showing signs of respiratory distress. They put him on CPAP, hoping he would only need it for a day or so. One day turned into three, he developed a pneumothorax and pnemomediastinum (lung infections). At this point they wanted to transfer him to a level 3 NICU as he was not doing well. I begged for him to stay with me, and by evening he was still on CPAP, but they were able to lower his oxygen levels. 12 days later, after a few apnea episodes and a bad case of jaundice, we brought our little boy home. Quite a scare for a late preterm birth, but the NICU staff were amazing and we are so happy to have our little boy home.

He is now a healthy one year old, 19lbs, a little on the small side, but absolutely the joy of our lives.