Introduction with Pre-E birth story

EBelle80

Hello, everyone! I wanted to introduce myself and share my birth story. While I have three children now, this is my first experience with pre-eclampsia and a premature baby and I know I could benefit from the wisdom on this board. 

Tuesday April 24 at 34 weeks, I checked into the hospital due to pregnancy induced hypertension. Tests ran showed that I had mild pre-eclampsia due to proteins in my urine. I had to take blood pressure medicine and stay in the hospital on bedrest until that Sunday. Sunday, they let me go home. But, after a few hours at home, my blood pressure started to climb again. I called the doctor and he advised me to come back to the hospital that evening to induce labor. A couple days prior, I received steroid shots to help develop baby?s lungs in time for delivery.

 Due to a busy schedule at the hospital, we started inducing labor on Tuesday evening at 8:00. The doctor placed a Cook balloon catheter to help manually dilate my cervix. It took him 4 tries that were very painful, but after it was in it wasn?t so bad.  I had regular contractions for several hours that were 3-5 minutes apart, lasting a minute long. But these contractions petered out around 3:00 am. In the morning at 7:30, the doctor checked me and I was almost 6 cm. After a few tries, he broke my water. Contractions came and went for several hours but did not fall into a regular pattern although they were strong.

At this time, my midwife Galyn came up to the hospital to help me labor. I should mention that up until the point of checking into the hospital, I was planning a homebirth! She was invaluable, along with my husband. Galyn applied acupressure to help with contractions, and both she and my husband applied counterpressure since I couldn?t really move from the bed to deal with contractions. They also started me on a magnesium sulfate drip to control my blood pressure. The magnesium made me feel groggy and sort of tired for most of labor. I also had to be on continuous external fetal monitoring, but I did not have to get a catheter which was awesome. At 11:30-12:00, I was checked again and was still at a 6 almost a 7. After another 45 minutes or so, my nurse started 1 mg of pitocin, a very small dose. I had a good thirty minutes of STRONG contractions, with a lot of pressure in my back and bottom. I then asked her to check me again, and she said I was still a 7.

I began to get very discouraged at this point, about 1:30, because I felt I had hours and hours of pitocin contractions ahead of me. I went through two to three more really strong contractions, and began to tell DH and my midwife Galyn that I couldn?t do it anymore, I really really couldn?t. They reassured me I could do it without pain medication. I felt like I had to urinate, so with the next contraction, I ?pushed? the pee out and told the nurse so she could change my pad. Then with the next contraction, I felt the same thing happen again and I remember saying, ?I?m sorry, I peed again!? Then I said, ?SOMETHING?S HAPPENING!? At this point the only hospital staff in the room was the nurse. The ?something? was Davis crowning rapidly. I felt his head shoot out and then the nurse told me to gently push and deliver his body. I looked down and his tiny little body was between my legs! I was in shock! I had dilated the last 3 cm and delivered within a few minutes. Meanwhile, the nurse told Galyn to push the call button and the doctor, neonatologist, and several nurses rushed in to care for him. He was able to be on my chest after the cord stopped pulsating and was clamped. At that point, DH saw that he was a boy and told me just at the same moment I saw for myself. He was breathing on his own right away.

Davis had a little amniotic fluid in his lungs but that resolved within a few hours. He has no other issues besides being small (4 pounds 9 oz now) and learning to eat on his own. I have been in the hospital with him for 9 days now. There really hasn't been much progress with either breast or bottle feeding. Now the plan is to try to bottle feed him breastmilk if he shows cues every three hours, but that rarely happens on time. So almost all of his feeding is through the NG tube.

If anyone has any experience / advice I'd greatly welcome it! I never dreamed I'd have a preemie, and at first got my hopes way up that he'd come home soon. But now I know it could take awhile.

JuliaJAG

Hi and welcome! I also had pre-eclampsia although I had to deliver at 29 weeks. We had a 9-week NICU stay, but 34-weekers do so much better than 29-weekers, and at his gest. age he will pick up the feeding thing in no time. I know you think he's small, but he is actually huge for a preemie and should do very well! Congratulations on your sweet son!

Babygurlkt

Congratulations on the birth of your son! My son was also born at 34 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. I also had the steroid shots so Athan did not need any help with oxygen. Athan was in the nicu for 7 days and a continued care nursery for 9. We were finally able to bring him home after 16 days. Breastfeeding was a little bit of a challenge. The nicu lactation consult was wonderful. It does take some time. I actually started out with a nipple shield to help him latch. He is now almost 3 months and is breastfeeding wonderfully. Athan had a lot of Brady's which is what was holding him back otherwise I think he may have been home a little sooner. Soon the nicu will be a distant memory!

EBelle80

Thank you for the encouraging words! The one blessing with my pre-e is that it did develop later than most right at 34 weeks. I think it caused him to stop growing as well, because he was measuring a little behind and the neonatalogist says he looked like a 34-weeker when he was born.

I have noticed I am going to have to be the aggressive one when it comes to his feedings. While sometimes he will do it, other times he will just sit there with the bottle or nipple in his mouth and nothing happens. But I think it's important to try! Some nurses just whisk him from the room and I know they just gavage feed him without trying.  

When he was born if someone had told me he could spend upwards of 20 days in the hospital I wouldn't have believed it! But now, we have been here 10 days and it seems like a real possibility. Sometimes I don't think he'll ever learn to eat!

I am lucky that I can board with him for free. But I also have two kids at home who miss me very much. I miss them when I'm here and miss the baby when I'm home to visit. It sucks.

I am totally thankful that he does not have any other issues, but at the same time that makes it frustrating because I think why can't he just come home?

urbanflowerpot

Hello and welcome! None of us thought we'd wind up on the preemie board but it's a great group of ladies and while I'm sorry you've had to join us we'll help get you through. 

NICU seems to have its own timezone. I'm sorry you're stuck in it. Not sure if they've told you to think along the lines of your due date but I've found that to be a fair assessment. Sometimes much sooner - others much later. DS got himself in for a much longer haul because he was a gulper/choker/brady-master. Every day sucked but the nurses were great as was this board. 

DrRx

Congratulations on your son!  As far as the feeding goes, I wholeheartedly agree that the longer you spend in the hospital and do the feedings, the sooner he will come home.  Nurses don't have the patience and give up, or not try at all, to bottle feed.  The same thing happened to me, and I really think that it made a difference in our ability to bring Adalyn home.

We started being there for all her feeds--around the clock, when they were telling us that she wasn't eating for them but they were eating for us.  We had a couple of good days where the nurses were able to feed her, but then we didn't have that nurse again and the "problems" began.  Well, once we started feeding her for all her feeds, she took everything by bottle, and came home a week later. Once she took all her feeds for 2 days they took her NG tube out.  Once that comes out, the nurses don't have the easy out of just feeding her thru the tube.

And, for our daughter, we didn't wait for the cues every 3 hours.  We would change her diaper and would attempt to feed her.  I don't know why they don't want you to try.  She would eat the whole bottle even without showing the cues.  

flutepharm87

Congratulations (well, not on having a preemie). My boys were born at 34 weeks exactly and your LO sounds a lot like Ian. He came out screaming (although I had a c-section) with Apgars of 9 and 9 weighing 4lbs 10.57oz. He was also only a feeder/grower and was home after a short 8 day NICU stay. He's happy and healthy now (a little be delayed, but nothing too severe). There's a lot to be positive about!