Erin’s Birth of Miss H

When I first found out I was pregnant with Miss H, I poured over "What to Expect" type books about being pregnant. I wanted to know every step of the way what was normal and healthy. Was I gaining the right amount of weight? What did those twinges mean?

Over the course of the next few months, I would have a routine pregnancy. I had all the normal pregnancy symptoms: mild to moderate morning sickness, cravings and food aversions, intense sense of smell. I lost a little weight at first and then started gaining as I was supposed to be.

At the time, I was driving 75 miles one way to work to a job that I loved. As my pregnancy progressed, I began to worry about the driving back and forth. My back was killing me from sitting so much (and from being pregnant!), so I managed to work a couple of days from home. Finally, I told my boss that I would be resigning at the end of my 28th week. I could not risk going into labor on the drive on my way home, or in the city I worked in which was over an hour away from where my husband worked.

After I stopped working, I filled my days with watching "A Baby Story" on TLC and what seemed like incessant cleaning. My husband would come home from work and find all the cabinets organized. I think he even said something along the lines of, "Are you nesting or something?" Who me? I'm only 32 weeks pregnant! This is not nesting. Nesting comes at the end.

A few days later, I headed to my 32-week prenatal appointment. There was an unusually long wait that day, and I remember being irritated that things were so behind. When I was finally called back, my blood pressure registered 135/100 (I actually have that number committed to memory.) My normal blood pressure is 100/70. The midwife who met with me for that appointment noticed my increased blood pressure and sudden weight gain of 15 lbs in four weeks and looked at me with concern. She told me to take it easy and to come back in two weeks instead of four.

Oh, how I wish I could relive that appointment! How I yearn to remember to tell her how badly my back was hurting! How much do I want to go back to that exam room and beg her to check my cervix for dilation.

Hindsight is 20/20 friends.

After that appointment, I went to the grocery store. I drove home, unpacked the groceries, and made a snack. I lay on the couch for a while before I went to meet my husband at our childbirth preparation class. I remember feeling like I had to pee, and attempted to several times, but couldn't.

I drove to the hospital for our childbirth education class. And that is where my water broke. Right in the middle of practicing our relaxation techniques, I felt liquid running down my legs. At first I thought that I must have peed my pants, but it just kept coming and coming and coming.

At 32 weeks and 4 days, I was admitted to labor and delivery with preterm rupture of membranes. I measured 2 cm dilated and was told that I was not having contractions. The doctors decided to monitor me overnight and then keep me in the hospital until my baby was born which they told me would be no longer than two weeks.

I lay on the examination table and tears ran down my cheeks. I was not prepared for this. At all. We didn’t have a car seat yet. We didn’t even have her name picked out.

We called our families. Everyone sounded concerned. We were concerned. Neither of us knew what was happening, why this was happening, or how this had happened. We were going to have a preemie.

All night long I was having stronger and stronger cramps, but nothing was registering on my contractions monitor. I was being monitored by a nurse and an Obstetrical Resident and neither seemed completely convinced that I knew what I was talking about. When I threw up, they offered me anti-nausea medicine. When I told them that I was having cramps, they offered me pain medicine. I took both and later regretted it.

What was happening here is that neither of them was listening to me and realizing that I was actually in labor. I asked repeatedly to have my cervix checked, but they were afraid of introducing bacteria because my water had broken. Because I was so out of it from the drugs that I had accepted, I could not fully advocate for myself and demand another nurse and or doctor if need be.

The next morning after being told all night long that I was NOT having contractions, I pleaded with my new nurse (thank you shift change!) to have someone check me. One peek under the sheet and that doctor said, “Yup, there’s the head.” I was 10 cm dilated, +1 station, and ready to push. I also still had not peed all day the day before and all night. They drained 500 cc of urine from my bladder.

Because of the pressure my bladder had been putting on my uterus, I had what is called a boggy uterus. That means that I could no longer feel my contractions in order to push effectively and they had a hard time getting my uterus to contract down after my baby was born which led to a lot of bleeding.

Once I was able to push with coaching, we discovered why my contractions were not able to be picked up by the monitor. My baby was in the face-up position (occipital presentation or OP) which causes back labor. Helloooo!!

A few minutes later Miss H entered the world as a big 4lb-13oz 32-week preemie. She was wisked off to the NICU where she spent her first 25 days learning how to eat and growing.

Thank you for reading my story. Preterm labor can happen to anyone, and if I can help one person recognize the signs and help prevent them to experience what I experienced, then this all will have been worth it. Also, do NOT be afraid to advocate for yourself. Only YOU know your body and what is normal and what is not. Only YOU can tell your husband, your nurse, and your doctor exactly what is going on with your body. If the medical staff you are assigned is not listening to you, find someone who will.

{In case you were wondering, the low back pain I had been experiencing for weeks before my water broke was actually preterm labor. The increased blood pressure and sudden weight gain all should have been red flags. In my opinion, I probably should have been on bed rest, but failed to mention all of my concerns to my health care provider.}

Erin blogs at Cultivating Rosebuds, where she writes about the sometimes thorny, but mostly sweet adventure of raising her children. Her daughter read about in this story is now a happy and healthy 4-year-old princess. Her second daughter, Lil’ B was also born early at 35 weeks, spent one week in the NICU, and is now a firecracker of a 20 month old.

 Read Erin's Journey as a NICU mom here:

http://cultivatingrosebuds.blogspot.com/2011/03/adventures-of-nicu-mommy.html

Erin blogs at Cultivating Rosebuds, where she writes about the sometimes thorny, but mostly sweet adventure of raising her children. Her daughter read about in this story is now a happy and healthy 4-year-old princess. Her second daughter, Lil’ B was also born early at 35 weeks, spent one week in the NICU, and is now a firecracker of a 20 month old.