Premature Birth Support Group
Premature birth is defined medically as childbirth occurring earlier than 37 completed weeks of gestation. About 12 percent of babies in the United States are born prematurely each year. The shorter the term of pregnancy is, the greater the risks of complications. Infants born prematurely are at a greater risk for developing serious health problems such as cerebral palsy,...
Hello everyone,
I wanted to share the story of the newest addition to my family. 1st let me tell you that I have 2 boys ages 7 & 8 that were both full term & I went natural with both so the birth of my 3rd son was a whole new experience for me.
In November, the day that we were moving into the house that we just bought, I found out that surprise, I'm pregnant. I'm 38 & 5 years ago I had taken a very bad fall herniating 3 disks in my low back which have now clasped & are laying on my sciatic nerve & on top of that I learned a few months prior to finding out that I was pregnant that I also now have scoliosis in my low back. Between then & now I had suffered from 2 miscarriages & assumed it was my bodies was of saying that it couldn't handle carrying another baby.
Well, I was wrong. Although, with this pregnancy it was completely different from my others as we had issues from day 1 & it seemed like anything that could go wrong did. At my 1st ultrasound to see how far along I was, they couldn't find a heartbeat which scared the crap out of me because I'd been there 3 times before & lost all 3. They repeated the ultrasound 2 weeks later & finally...a heartbeat! We were very scared also because of the fact of my bad back I was on numerous non-narcotic meds but some were NOT good if you're pregnant & what made things a bit scarier was that fact that I've been on blood thinners for over a year due to a blood clot in my leg.
Due to my age & all the meds that I had been on, my OB decided to send me to a high risk fetal specialist who closely followed my pregnancy right till the end. With their help we manged to change my meds around & get rid of the ones that were not good & thankfully I had stopped them during the time where there was no heartbeat yet so non of them had any effect on my little man.
At about 2 months into the pregnancy I started bleeding pretty bad & the hubby rushed me to the ER. Thankfully there was still a heartbeat & I was told bed rest till I followed up with my OB. Luckily that issue resolved itself & we were good to go. From then on out though my sciatic acted up really bad & I had a very hard time staying on my feet for more then 30 mins at a time. Which cause more stress because it cause many a fights with the hubby. He felt he works 2 jobs & I'm a stay at home Mom & that I should be able to keep the house spotless & there was just no way I could do it all. Him & I had already been having serious issues for the past year or so & divorce was discussed many times. So needless to say he wasn't very supportive through out this pregnancy.
Moving on. Around the beginning of May (I was about 28-30 weeks) I had to do the 3 hr glucose test since the 1 hr turned out bad & they decided that I had gestational diabetes so now I'm keeping a close eye on my sugar levels. Then the high risk doctor was concerned because the placenta was way too low which after a couple months of keeping a close eye on this it finally moved up & all was good once again. Then a week later my blood pressure started going up & there was no controlling it so we were keeping a close eye on that. Then it gets even better as the last visit I had with the high risk doctor he determined that the amniotic fluid was too low & he wanted me back in 10 days to recheck it. Needless to say I never did make it back for that appointment. The day after that visit my OB after my usual check up decided that I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored because my blood pressure was getting to the danger point & she said that till the end of the pregnancy I needed to go to the hospital every Monday & Thursday for monitoring.
My 1st visit was ok & everything looked good. Then the following Monday I went in & they did an ultrasound & found that my fluid dropped a bit more & was now at 10. Low but still ok. Then that Wednesday night I ended up going in to be monitored because I had been having some contractions all day & I was only 33 weeks. By midnight they stopped & baby looked good so they sent me home but was told that my OB wanted me back in the following am to be monitored yet again & she also wanted yet another ultrasound to see the fluid levels. When they finally release me, I was told to head straight to my OB as she wanted to talk to me & she said that my fluid levels were getting dangerously low (now down to 5.5) & to go back to the hospital because I now needed steroid shots in case they had to deliver me early. Did that & was told to return Friday at 2 so they could monitor me some more, do more blood work & yet another ultrasound. I asked the tech what the fluid levels were & when she said 1.2 I knew that we were in trouble. My OB had already told me that if there were anymore issues she was transferring me to Vasser Hospital about 30 mins away because they had a NICU & chances were, we would need it.
Now starts the real adventure, around midnight on that Friday they transferred me to Vasser & the OB that took over my care decided that since I had gone natural with both of my other boys & the baby was showing no signs of distress that they would try to induce me. They started early Saturday morning & finally stopped around 5 to give me a break & let me eat & then started back up around 8 that night straight through till 5 pm Sunday night. Again they let me take a break to eat (they wouldn't let me eat or drink ANYTHING during the induction in case they needed to do an emergency c-section. At this point still nothing. They decided to give me a breather & wait till Monday & have me see their high risk specialist. After yet another ultrasound they decided that yes the fluid has come back a little but at 5 it was still way to low & baby needed to come out. That night they figured they would try a different type of induction & now they started giving me a pill every 4 hours & was told that by the 2-3 pill (which would have been between 12-4 am) I should be in active labor & by the am the baby s/b here. NOT!!! They had also decided that night that my blood pressure was rising & not stopping & now I had protein in my urine & that I had preclampsia so now they need to start me on Magnesium. Wow, this stuff is really bad. I felt like I was on fire from the inside out & I became really nasty. They finally stopped it around 12 the following day because I started having a very hard time breathing. Around 8 am on Tuesday the doctor came in & said baby need out that day & at 2 we'd go for the c-section.
So my 3rd little angel that was originally due on 7/24/13 was brought into this world by c-section on 6/11/13...6 weeks early. My little Richard James was born at 4lbs 9 ozs & 17 inches long. They held him up so I could see him for a few seconds then rushed him to the NICU for evaluation. After getting me back to my room I was told that due to the preclampsia I need to go back on the Magnesium for 24 hours & that as long as I was on it I was not allowed out of bed & could NOT go see my son. Considering my pain levels between my back & the c-section they had me on some pretty serious meds so I dosed off & off till the following day & was told that by 3 pm they would get me up & take me to the NICU. By 1 the Magnesium was once again kicking my butt & I couldn't breathe yet again so the doctors said that I had had enough & to stop it & I was told within the hour I'd be able to see my son. Well 2pm came & went, 3pm came & went & they still wouldn't let me up. By 4pm I was hysterical & told them if they didn't help me to the NICU I would go by myself. Finally at 5:30 that night I got to see my son for the 1st time.
How bittersweet. I'm used to having them in the room with me after birth till we would be released & I was stuck in one room & him at the other end of the hospital. He was doing great though, he needed no assistance breathing or anything. His main issues have been his weight & his body temp. He had gone from 4 lbs 9 ozs down to 3 lbs 15 ozs over 3 day period but since then he is now on the rise & as of last night he is back up to 4 lbs 2 ozs. Our next goal is to get him out of the isolate & into an open air crib. Right now the isolate as of this am is finally down to 26.5 & it needs to be at 26 before they can move him. The nurses are hoping to achieve this by 11 this am & if not then by 2. Then he needs to maintain his temp for the next two feedings & he can be moved to the open air crib. At that point he needs 48 hours in that, maintaining his body temp & continuing to gain weight. At that point they need to do a car seat test to make sure he can handle it & then he'll be ready to come home. The doctors are saying their goal is this weekend. By my calculations, I am figuring by Sunday if not then Monday he will be home.
This has been such a rough ride but I am so thankful that he has done as well as he has. We've seen other little ones in the NICU that have been there for months & it just breaks my heart. I know I am going absolutely crazy with him in the NICU & he's only been there 9 days so far. I had been released on Saturday & I cannot drive yet so hubby & I can only make it there once a day with his work schedule which is very depressing but knowing in 3-4 days he should be home & the fact that I have a 7 & 8 year old here that also need me is the only thing that's keeping me going at this point.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to get the whole story out there. There's a lot more I could have added but I figured this was too long already...
I wanted to share the story of the newest addition to my family. 1st let me tell you that I have 2 boys ages 7 & 8 that were both full term & I went natural with both so the birth of my 3rd son was a whole new experience for me.
In November, the day that we were moving into the house that we just bought, I found out that surprise, I'm pregnant. I'm 38 & 5 years ago I had taken a very bad fall herniating 3 disks in my low back which have now clasped & are laying on my sciatic nerve & on top of that I learned a few months prior to finding out that I was pregnant that I also now have scoliosis in my low back. Between then & now I had suffered from 2 miscarriages & assumed it was my bodies was of saying that it couldn't handle carrying another baby.
Well, I was wrong. Although, with this pregnancy it was completely different from my others as we had issues from day 1 & it seemed like anything that could go wrong did. At my 1st ultrasound to see how far along I was, they couldn't find a heartbeat which scared the crap out of me because I'd been there 3 times before & lost all 3. They repeated the ultrasound 2 weeks later & finally...a heartbeat! We were very scared also because of the fact of my bad back I was on numerous non-narcotic meds but some were NOT good if you're pregnant & what made things a bit scarier was that fact that I've been on blood thinners for over a year due to a blood clot in my leg.
Due to my age & all the meds that I had been on, my OB decided to send me to a high risk fetal specialist who closely followed my pregnancy right till the end. With their help we manged to change my meds around & get rid of the ones that were not good & thankfully I had stopped them during the time where there was no heartbeat yet so non of them had any effect on my little man.
At about 2 months into the pregnancy I started bleeding pretty bad & the hubby rushed me to the ER. Thankfully there was still a heartbeat & I was told bed rest till I followed up with my OB. Luckily that issue resolved itself & we were good to go. From then on out though my sciatic acted up really bad & I had a very hard time staying on my feet for more then 30 mins at a time. Which cause more stress because it cause many a fights with the hubby. He felt he works 2 jobs & I'm a stay at home Mom & that I should be able to keep the house spotless & there was just no way I could do it all. Him & I had already been having serious issues for the past year or so & divorce was discussed many times. So needless to say he wasn't very supportive through out this pregnancy.
Moving on. Around the beginning of May (I was about 28-30 weeks) I had to do the 3 hr glucose test since the 1 hr turned out bad & they decided that I had gestational diabetes so now I'm keeping a close eye on my sugar levels. Then the high risk doctor was concerned because the placenta was way too low which after a couple months of keeping a close eye on this it finally moved up & all was good once again. Then a week later my blood pressure started going up & there was no controlling it so we were keeping a close eye on that. Then it gets even better as the last visit I had with the high risk doctor he determined that the amniotic fluid was too low & he wanted me back in 10 days to recheck it. Needless to say I never did make it back for that appointment. The day after that visit my OB after my usual check up decided that I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored because my blood pressure was getting to the danger point & she said that till the end of the pregnancy I needed to go to the hospital every Monday & Thursday for monitoring.
My 1st visit was ok & everything looked good. Then the following Monday I went in & they did an ultrasound & found that my fluid dropped a bit more & was now at 10. Low but still ok. Then that Wednesday night I ended up going in to be monitored because I had been having some contractions all day & I was only 33 weeks. By midnight they stopped & baby looked good so they sent me home but was told that my OB wanted me back in the following am to be monitored yet again & she also wanted yet another ultrasound to see the fluid levels. When they finally release me, I was told to head straight to my OB as she wanted to talk to me & she said that my fluid levels were getting dangerously low (now down to 5.5) & to go back to the hospital because I now needed steroid shots in case they had to deliver me early. Did that & was told to return Friday at 2 so they could monitor me some more, do more blood work & yet another ultrasound. I asked the tech what the fluid levels were & when she said 1.2 I knew that we were in trouble. My OB had already told me that if there were anymore issues she was transferring me to Vasser Hospital about 30 mins away because they had a NICU & chances were, we would need it.
Now starts the real adventure, around midnight on that Friday they transferred me to Vasser & the OB that took over my care decided that since I had gone natural with both of my other boys & the baby was showing no signs of distress that they would try to induce me. They started early Saturday morning & finally stopped around 5 to give me a break & let me eat & then started back up around 8 that night straight through till 5 pm Sunday night. Again they let me take a break to eat (they wouldn't let me eat or drink ANYTHING during the induction in case they needed to do an emergency c-section. At this point still nothing. They decided to give me a breather & wait till Monday & have me see their high risk specialist. After yet another ultrasound they decided that yes the fluid has come back a little but at 5 it was still way to low & baby needed to come out. That night they figured they would try a different type of induction & now they started giving me a pill every 4 hours & was told that by the 2-3 pill (which would have been between 12-4 am) I should be in active labor & by the am the baby s/b here. NOT!!! They had also decided that night that my blood pressure was rising & not stopping & now I had protein in my urine & that I had preclampsia so now they need to start me on Magnesium. Wow, this stuff is really bad. I felt like I was on fire from the inside out & I became really nasty. They finally stopped it around 12 the following day because I started having a very hard time breathing. Around 8 am on Tuesday the doctor came in & said baby need out that day & at 2 we'd go for the c-section.
So my 3rd little angel that was originally due on 7/24/13 was brought into this world by c-section on 6/11/13...6 weeks early. My little Richard James was born at 4lbs 9 ozs & 17 inches long. They held him up so I could see him for a few seconds then rushed him to the NICU for evaluation. After getting me back to my room I was told that due to the preclampsia I need to go back on the Magnesium for 24 hours & that as long as I was on it I was not allowed out of bed & could NOT go see my son. Considering my pain levels between my back & the c-section they had me on some pretty serious meds so I dosed off & off till the following day & was told that by 3 pm they would get me up & take me to the NICU. By 1 the Magnesium was once again kicking my butt & I couldn't breathe yet again so the doctors said that I had had enough & to stop it & I was told within the hour I'd be able to see my son. Well 2pm came & went, 3pm came & went & they still wouldn't let me up. By 4pm I was hysterical & told them if they didn't help me to the NICU I would go by myself. Finally at 5:30 that night I got to see my son for the 1st time.
How bittersweet. I'm used to having them in the room with me after birth till we would be released & I was stuck in one room & him at the other end of the hospital. He was doing great though, he needed no assistance breathing or anything. His main issues have been his weight & his body temp. He had gone from 4 lbs 9 ozs down to 3 lbs 15 ozs over 3 day period but since then he is now on the rise & as of last night he is back up to 4 lbs 2 ozs. Our next goal is to get him out of the isolate & into an open air crib. Right now the isolate as of this am is finally down to 26.5 & it needs to be at 26 before they can move him. The nurses are hoping to achieve this by 11 this am & if not then by 2. Then he needs to maintain his temp for the next two feedings & he can be moved to the open air crib. At that point he needs 48 hours in that, maintaining his body temp & continuing to gain weight. At that point they need to do a car seat test to make sure he can handle it & then he'll be ready to come home. The doctors are saying their goal is this weekend. By my calculations, I am figuring by Sunday if not then Monday he will be home.
This has been such a rough ride but I am so thankful that he has done as well as he has. We've seen other little ones in the NICU that have been there for months & it just breaks my heart. I know I am going absolutely crazy with him in the NICU & he's only been there 9 days so far. I had been released on Saturday & I cannot drive yet so hubby & I can only make it there once a day with his work schedule which is very depressing but knowing in 3-4 days he should be home & the fact that I have a 7 & 8 year old here that also need me is the only thing that's keeping me going at this point.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to get the whole story out there. There's a lot more I could have added but I figured this was too long already...
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