Jack's birth story - Early arrival

iristony · November 2011

My birth story- Labor began at 24 weeks ? delivered at 29 weeks

The moral of my story is do not take anything lightly and blame problems on just being pregnant. Go see your doctor! Also, when I was having contractions at 23.5 weeks I had no clue they were contractions. First time having a baby plus it was too early to be suspecting them!

Chapter 1- I had some spotting when I was around 6 weeks pregnant. I came into my doctor and baby looked okay so they sent me to prenatal testing. After doing an ultrasound, they told me it was old blood making its way out and everything looked fine.

Chapter 2- At my 20 week ultrasound we found out we were having a boy for certain. I cried out of fear since I only have experience with my nieces and other friend?s daughters, along with I had a sister. Ha ha. I am so excited to have a boy but was shocked. My husband cried with joy for finding out we were having a boy. The tech asked me if I was having any pain or discomfort. I asked why and he said I had a rather large fibroid but if it was not causing me problems I was fine. I did not think about this again since I assumed this was normal.

Chapter 3 ? At around 23.5 weeks I started feeling a lot of pressure. I thought this was all normal stuff from being pregnant. Come to think of it I had increased discharge for past few weeks. I convinced myself that the pressure and pain that came and went was constipation- a normalcy with pregnancies. I was going to the bathroom, but not as much as normal. I called my doctor and it sounded normal to him. I really should have gone in to see him! My appointment for every 4 weeks was scheduled just a few days later so I thought I could wait.

Chapter 4 ? A few nights later, at 24 weeks, I started spotting and was scared. We went to Labor and Delivery and they saw my fibroid and told me that was causing spotting. Hooked me up to the monitors and did not see my contractions, although I am pretty certain I was having them. They sent me home and told me to go see my doctor during the week. I was in a lot of pain on and off and barely slept.

Chapter 5- The next morning the pains (which I still thought may be constipation or fibroid pressure) were more frequent! By early afternoon, I was crying every three minutes and it hit me they were contractions ? despite what they told me night before that they were not and just fibroid discomfort. My husband was at work and I walked outside, saw my neighbor and had her take me to Labor and Delivery where my sister met me immediately and my husband arrived an hour later. I was in labor with contractions coming every 2-3 minutes, fully effaced and 1 cm dialated. Through the miraclulous medicine called Procardia, the contractions promptly stopped.

Chapter 6- They kept me on hospital bed rest for 26 LONG days. I was then sent home on bedrest for another 10 days.

Chapter 7 ? At 29 weeks and 2 days, my contractions began again. We went to L&D and they tried a bunch of things to make these stop and they kept getting more frequent. My baby was breech so they told me they had to set up an operating room just in case. Around 5 hours later ? of me crying with intense pain and no relief, they checked me again and I was now 8 cm and they had to get me in OR immediately. The baby was coming. My husband was getting dressed when they rolled me in to start epidural. As they rolled me over for epidural on my side, my water broke and the cord dropped. My cord had prolapsed and next thing I know they are sticking a mask on my face of anesthesia.

Chapter 8 ? A few hours later I was awake and my husband informed me our son had arrived. He was all scrubbed in and ready to go in and the doctor came out to tell him they had to get my son out within a minute or he could have died. Neither of us got to witness his birth! He was rushed up to the NICU and doing miraculously good.

Chapter 9 ? My son spent a LONG 74 days in the NICU and came home on his due date! I visited with him at least twice a day for those 10+ weeks and actually had to go back to work for 7 of those weeks in order to be able to take more time off with him when he got home. The days I would work I would go in to work early- take a two hour lunch break at the NICU, go back to work then head right back to NICU for a few hours before heading home. It was hard! I also pumped every 3 hours for my son.

Chapter 10- Today my son is 18 months old, walking, starting to speak in sentences and just doing amazing. He is a real miracle. I look back at everything we all went through and it was ALL worth it!

jcsntms06 · November 2011

Thank you for sharing!

December192009 · November 2011

What an incredible story!! He is one handsome little man, thank you for sharing your experience!!

Snorkel30 · November 2011

wow, that's such an amazing story.

I am going through that all right now, so it helped to read your story.

Our baby was born at 33 weeks and he is still in the NICU but they said should be out within a week.

Good luck to you and your family! It's great you and your husband stuck together and were as strong as you were to get through the rough part, and now you have a perfect baby at home with you!

Wishing you all the best!!!