XP: My 34.5 week birth story (very long)
Not a frequent poster, but the bump helped me through several months at the end so I thought I'd share my story.
After a completely uncomplicated 8 months of pregnancy, Friday January 31st at 34 weeks I started feeling a bit crampy after running some errands. I decided to rest for the evening and put my feet up and drank plenty of water. The crampiness stopped so I didn't think too much of it. Around 9:30 pm I got up to use the bathroom and discovered some brown spotting. I was a bit worried since I hadn't had any of that the whole time. I posted to the bump and several people suggested calling the on-call doctor (thanks!). The doctor thought it would be best for me to come to L & D and get a quick eval.
Once we got there they hooked me up to the monitors and did an internal and a sonogram. They couldn't find anything wrong that would have caused the bleeding (which had stopped) and reported that I was not dilated and that my cervix was long and hard still. The on-call doctor did ask me skeptically if I was sure I was only 34 weeks as my baby was "enormous" for that stage! I wasn't too surprised as we'd been measuring a week or two ahead since 28 weeks but she seemed embarrassed she'd said anything!
The monitors discovered that I was having contractions that were coming every 2 minutes or so. I wasn't sure I was feeling them and they didn't seem to be making any progress, but they wanted to get them stopped. They gave me 3 oral doses of a med I can't recall, but that didn't seem to help. Next they gave me a shot of terbutaline. It helped stopped the contractions, but made me feel jittery. They only gave me the one shot because they were worried that it made the babies heart rate drop a bit when it should have had the opposite effect.
After a miserable night of being hooked up to an IV, several monitors, and not being able to eat or drink anything, the doctor came in and re-examined me and said that she thought I'd be able to go home later that morning. As we were preparing for that, the baby's heart-rate dropped severely. They were able to get it back up by moving me around, but the doctors were very concerned. The same thing happened again about an hour later. At that point the doctors let us know that we would not be leaving and could potentially be delivering soon. We were shocked and scared. NICU doctors came to talk to us about what that would mean at 34 weeks.
Saturday was touch and go for us with everything seeming to calm down until around 7-8pm when the contractions started again. I could feel them this time as they were quite strong. His heart-rate decreased slightly then came back up. They started 3 rounds of terbutaline which helped stop the contractions and again tried to mentally prepare us for the possibility of a c-section. At this point (around midnight) I was exhausted and they gave me something to help me sleep.
At 2:30am I woke up to a room full of people. They baby's heart-rate had again dropped (though they got it to come back up) and they decided they weren't taking anymore chances. They attempted a spinal tap but it didn't work so they gave me an epidural. I was so out of it from the sleep aid that I don't remember much of this except for hanging my head in the nurse?s chest. Next they wheeled me to the OR and my husband sat down by my head. I don't really remember much of the c-section and birth unfortunately. Not sure if it was because of all the trauma or the sleep aid. My husband said I was crying the whole time but wasn't really in pain.
Eli was born at 2:50am weighing 5lbs and 13 oz and 18.75 inches long. The nurses were surprised at how big he was for 34.5 weeks. Daddy got to take lots of pictures and bring him over to me. There are a few shots of me with him (crying, of course) but again, I don't remember much.
Two hours later I was rolled down to the NICU to see him. This I remember clearly. He was hooked up to a CPAP to help him breathe as well as to an IV and other monitors but we got to touch and kiss him.
It's been a rough week, but he's doing great. He needed two shots of surfactant, spent a few days needing extra oxygen, and a day on the billy blanket. Today he still has an IV but they are slowly reducing the dose as he's drinking breast milk from a bottle like a champ. We've tried introducing the breast twice, but he's just not quite ready. They are hoping we'll be able to take him home next weekend after 2 weeks in the NICU.
My recovery has been mixed. I was able to get up and move around quickly, bleeding hasn't been too bad and even had a BM on day 2 or 3. The downside is that I got a spinal headache and had to have an epidural blood patch performed. So I was in pain for several days and now have some leftover back pain. My DH has been wonderfully taking care of me at home.
Sorry this is so long! This was not at all the birth experience that I had hoped for, but in the end I think things will be fine. I hope this story is helpful to some of you! We can't wait to bring baby Eli home! As a side note, Eli was born on Superbowl Sunday. Guess he just didn't want to miss the big game :-)
Re: XP: My 34.5 week birth story (very long)
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