Cooper's Preemie Delivery at 33 weeks

Up until my hospital admission at 33 weeks, I had an uneventful, healthy pregnancy. I had no risk factors for anything, and being a planned pregnancy in my early 20s, everything should have gone fine.  

At 33 weeks, I went into labor having mild contractions on the morning of day 1 at work (but brushed them off as Braxton Hicks). That night, I  was so uncomfortable I couldn't sleep and that's when I could differentiate between one contraction and the next. DH started timing them. This is going to sound stupid, I know, but I went to a birthing class the week before at our hospital and they drilled it in to us not to come in until the contractions are 5 minutes apart otherwise they would send you home. So I waited at home for hours until they were 5 minutes apart. Then we waited on the phone for a health nurse for half an hour upon which she told us to go to the hospital immediately. Looking back, how incredibly naive I feel I was. Sometimes I wonder if I had gone to the hospital right away if they would have been able to hold my labor back a few weeks and Cooper might have been able to come home from the hospital right away. I suppose there's no point in having regrets.

When we got to the hospital, I was 4 cm dilated with contractions up to 3 minutes apart. They gave me Indomethacin and morphine to try to slow the contractions down then took me up to a delivery room just in case. Contractions slowed and I was kept in the hospital to be monitored.

My OB/GYN told me he hoped to keep me from delivering for at least a few days. They wanted to give me 2 steroid injections, which have to be 24 hours apart, in an attempt to rapidly mature the baby's lungs, just in case I did continue with early labor.

From day 1 to day 4, the contractions varied from 20 minutes apart to 7 minutes apart from day 1 to day 4. I have to say, this was the most uncomfortable part of my pregnancy and labor. I wasn't allowed to get out of bed for anything but to go to the washroom, but because I was having conractions, my body wanted to pee every 15 minutes. I would try to hold it because everytime I moved, be it to sit up and have a meal, roll over in bed, or get up to go to the bathroom, the contractions got stronger and closer together. Thankfully, I was able to receive both of the steroid injections, which I firmly believe were the reason DS didn't have to go on any respirators/oxygen upon delivery.

Late on the night of day 4 the contractions were more difficult to differenetiate between one and the next and I became extremely uncomfortable. I told the nurses something was wrong, they brushed it off. Then lying in bed, I thought I peed my pants, but when I got up, I found a lot of blood in the bed. I called the nurse who told me my placenta abrupted. They timed my contractions (I can't remember what they were) and said he had to come right now. They were understaffed at that time, I'm not sure if that was because of the late hour, or maybe too many nurses were on break, but I begged them to call my husband right away as we lived out of town. She said they would, once they got me up to the delivery floor. My DH barely made it there in time. 45 minutes lafter the bleeding started my DS was born.

At the time, I thought I had a terrible delivery. There was some tearing and I wasn't able to move from the bed at all, have my DH rub my back or anything. I felt sick to my stomach. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20. My actual delivery was quick, only a few minutes of actual pushing. My tearing couldn't have been that bad either, because I probably could have been back to work on the Monday (I delivered Friday night), not that I would have gone to work. My recovery was great. But I also had somewhat of a distraction. I never got to hold my little guy for hours. After he came out, he wasn't crying. It took a bit before I got to hear that cry. They cleaned him and wrapped him up, very quickly showed us his face, then rushed him up to the NICU. My DH went with him (for which I am glad).

I was left by meself with the nurses to delivery the placenta and receive the stitches for the tearing. I laid in the delivery bed, dirty, for about a half an hour completely alone before they would let me out to have a shower. Then I was delivered to a recovery room. I was fine to walk. Honestly, I felt exhausted but fine. I could have probably gone home that night. All I wanted was to see my boys. I only saw DH for such a short amount of the delivery and only saw DS's face for a mere second. It was 2 hours before they would let me go up to the NICU. They insisted on pushing me in a wheelchair like some kind of invalid. And they wouldn't take me until there was another nurse on duty. Looking back, I should have just put my foot down and found the NICU myself.

When I did finally get there, it was a bit overwhelming. Seeing the monitor wires, feeding tube, and IV coming off that tiny 4 pound, 10 ounce baby in the incubator was a bit daunting. He wasn't wearing any clothes for the first while, just a receiving blanket. But I did get to hold him. After it took my half an hour of courage to put my hand through the hole in the incubator. I was so afraid to touch him. I shook just putting my finger on his hand. I was terrified to hold him, but when I did, it felt incredible. There has never been a better feeling in my life than holding my son for the first time; looking down and seeing that tiny face that looked just like my husband made all my fears melt away.

Two and a half weeks later, once DS was able to come off of the feeding tubes and finished his phototherapy were were able to come home. And that's when the real fun started.

Docs told me they weren't sure why he came early. I had an uneventful pregnancy until my hospital admission, I'm healthy, and had no risk factors. I had a slightly infected uterus, but after testing, DS had no infection. Maybe it had something to do with the my uterus or my placenta abrupting, but I'm not sure. I'm at a higher risk for having a preemie with my next pregnancy, but we're still going to try for a second sometime next year.