By Laurie, Seward, AK USA
PROM at 31 weeksDelivery at 32 weeks.
Story added: 2003-09-04

I was pregnant with my 3rd child and expected to have another uneventful pregnancy. It wasn't to be... After a day at the swimming pool with my 2 younger children I came home and put them to bed. I took a nap on the couch waiting for my husband to come home. A few hours later I woke up because I heard a pop. I remembered hearing the same thing when my water broke with my first two children (during labor). I lay there thinking, "Surely that wasn't my water." I said to my husband, "I think my water broke." I got up to go to the bathroom and nothing happened. As I stood in the doorway on my way back out a bunch of fluid gushed out. We loaded up the kids and headed to the ER. I live 120 miles away from the nearest L&D and NICU. I was scared to death. I had always been told that the baby must be delivered within 24 hours of your water breaking. I didn't think he had a chance. The doctor in the ER had us drive to a hospital that was capable of dealing with this situation. Upon arrival they tried to get a sample to test, but were unable to. I had a horrible dr. insist on a vag. exam, even after I initially refused.
This was the worst night of my life. I thought my son was going to die and we kept praying that I wouldn't go into labor. Two days later I got my first steroid, then another the next day. We were worried because the monitor was showing signs of cord compression and I wasn't regaining any fluid.
So after 7 days (on my birthday) my doctor recommended inducing me. I was started on Pitocin shortly after lunch and nothing was happening by dinner time. The baby started having decels and I had a nurse that was absolutely clueless. However, she was smart enough to call a nurse who did have a clue. As soon as the nurse was the monitor she knew. So she immediately checked me and yelled,"We have cord!" Immediately 9 people show up in my room. She kept her hand up there holding the baby off his cord. She kept saying,"He's fine, I can feel the cord pulsing." I think that was the only thing that kept me sane at that moment.
Within 30 minutes my son was born by emergency c-section. He weighed 3lbs. 9oz. and was breathing on his own. After about an hour they put him on C- PAP because he was struggling a bit. But by the next day, the first time I saw him, he was off of it.
He stayed in the NICU for 26 days and on a apnea/brady monitor for 5 months. He had hernia surgery at 2 months old and RSV 3 weeks after that. But since then he has been relatively healthy. Looking at him now you would never suspect he was a preemie. He has almost caught up in size and is as smart as can be.