By Moriah, Charleston, SC USAOur story starts like a lot of the others; I woke in the middle of the night to a gush of fluid. It was clear, so I assumed it was incontinence, something I had heard to expect. It happened again as soon as I woke up so I called my doctor. I had excellent doctors who always listened to my concerns and acted on them. I can’t emphasize how much I think their care and concern helped our PROM story end on a happy note.
PROM at 19 weeksDelivery at 34 weeks + 1 days.
Story added: 2005-02-27
I went in, and they found no signs of ferning or leaking so they didn’t think my water was broken. I felt much better until I went in one week later for our 20 week ultrasound and they found very little fluid. I wasn’t yet aware that according to the statistics, I should have already lost the baby. I was referred to the high risk clinic where we had an incredibly emotional 40 minute ultrasound showing a perfectly healthy baby but very little fluid. They brought up termination and statistics…all pretty disheartening topics in these scenarios, as you all know. We didn’t have a choice; we already loved this baby; our only option was to wait and try bed rest and increased fluids.
I took bed rest very seriously. I worked myself up to 10 thirty ounce cups of water a day and only got out of bed to use the bathroom (once an hour), take a quick shower, or go to our weekly doctors appointment. At each appointment we had an ultrasound to check fluid levels, but we decided not to do any vaginal exams (very important, in my opinion), as that could increase the likelihood of infection. This was the hardest time in our lives. Hour after hour in bed I thought about losing this baby we had tried so hard to conceive (Two years of trying and major surgery for level 4 endometriosis) The fluid levels stayed low for a couple of weeks but then much to everyone’s surprise they started to slowly climb. We were actually in the “normal” level for a couple of weeks. The doctors seemed surprised to see us walk through the door each week for our ultrasound. We were fortunate to have our moms stay with me to prepare meals and keep me sane. This long stage lasted for 11 ½ weeks, until Christmas day. As my husband was preparing a holiday meal for us, I started bleeding.
Scared, we rushed to the hospital, where they monitored the baby for several hours and gave us the option of staying at the hospital or going home. We stayed for our peace of mind. I was 31 2/7 weeks at that point. My hospital bed rest lasted for about 3 weeks. My fluid levels began to drop again and the doctors decided we should induce at 34 weeks. On January 14, 2005, they induced labor. After 6 hours of pitocin, I received my epidural and they checked my cervix. I was only dilated to 1 ½ centimeters and the baby was experiencing some heart decelerations so we all decided to go ahead with a c section. When they pulled out our baby girl, she let out three short but incredibly beautiful cries. My husband saw her briefly as they took her to evaluate her, and I held on to those cries, praying she was ok. Her Apgars were an awesome 8 and 9! She weighed in at 4 pounds, 1 ounce, and never needed oxygen. She stayed in the hospital for a long 12 days but miraculously only needed help with temperature control, weight gain, and jaundice.
Elizabeth is 6 weeks old now, and today on her due date, she weighs about 6 ½ pounds and has recently even gotten the hang of nursing. We are amazed by her every day. She was worth every second of the miserable bed rest! I was comforted by the success stories on this page with every passing week. I hope you can relate to some aspect of our story so you can continue to hope and pray for a great outcome in your case. Hang in there. A healthy baby is worth it all!