Four Births

My four children were all born after, to varying degrees, difficult and high-risk pregnancies.

Nicole Naomi was born on 2/26/90 two days before her due date, which was 9 months to the date after my wedding! In my fifth month, I was involved in a minor car accident in which my abdomen ended up wedged beneath the steering wheel. Although at the immediate time I felt fine, by the next day I was having back pain and cramping, so I went to the doctor's office. They sent me straight to the hospital to be evaluated and there I was put on IV hydration which did stop the contractions that I had apparently developed.

Unfortunately, although the doctor could find no specific injuries, I continued to have preterm contractions throughout the pregnancy. I was put on bedrest (obviously had to quit my job) HUAM (home contraction monitoring service) , and betamethosone shots (to mature the lungs in case of early delivery) for 4 months They tried ritodrine on me, but I went into convulsions due to a mild heart condition ("SVT") which acts up only when I am given stimulants. Fortunately, I made it to my 40th week without any serious problems (I did have one panicky episode when something wet and gross "blorped" out of me onto the floor and I thought my water had broken (at about 30 weeks) but at the hospital it was determined to be only one of those other gacky but harmless substances that leak out during pregnancy). Because I was so miserable by my 40th week, my kind Dr. (on whom I developed a major adolescent crush ) induced me and my beautiful daughter was born at 7lbs.(pitocin, epidural, episiotomy, you name it, I had it!)

My second child, Mark Jacob, was born on 12/28/91 three weeks early. My pregnancy was less eventful this time, although I did have early contractions and was dilated to 3 cm by 32 weeks. At 37 weeks I went into the hospital for a non-stress test because of decreased fetal movement and was found to have low amniotic fluid levels. Because low fluid can harm the baby, the decision was made to induce me, however, as I remained on the contraction monitor it became apparent that I was contracting regularly and was actually already in labor! They did give me pitocin to speed things up, and my dh fell asleep (!!) so I was so bored that I opted for an epidural so I could sleep through my labor. Mark was born at 6 1/2 lbs and no episiotomy, no tearing!

My third, Samantha Renee, was born on 10/18/94 after a very difficult pregnancy. I started experiencing contractions at about 20 weeks, and my ob decided he would be much more comfortable if I were to be followed by the local perinatologists (high risk specialists) for the remainder of my pregnancy. This turned out to be a good decision. I was in and out of the hospital throughtout my pregnancy, told to quit my job and go on bed rest (I told the doctor I would quit my job when he started contributing toward my mortgage, looking back now I realize what a very difficult, STUPID patient I was) and was put once again on HUAM and oral medications (procardia - didnt help). At about 32 weeks, my contractions really heated up (to about every 5 minutes) and I had started to dilate. Thus began my first (of many) introductions to the "drug from hell", magnesium sulfate.

Let me digress a bit here and tell you about this lovely medication. It is administered IV in the hospital. First they give you what is known as the dreaded "bolus" (large initial dose) to knock out the contractions. Unfortunately, mag also knocks out virtually all other voluntary muscle tone as well. You begin to immediatley feel as if you are being microwaved (boiled from the inside out) and once they reduce the dosage, you get naseous, barfy, headachy, sweaty, clammy, dizzy, weak, confused, lethargic and generally wish you were dead. Muscles get so weak that you feel like you cant breath and most "mag moms" cant focus both eyes at once, so are forced to keep one eye closed at all times to minimize double vision. Oh yes, and the stuff is so caustic that your veins literally burn (I ended up with phlebitis at least twice from mag IVs)

Anyway, at 36 weeks they did an amnio to test for lung maturity. Since baby's lungs were mature and I was having recurrent infections they decided to induce so baby would be born between infections thus avoiding risk to baby/need for c section. Once again, as I was being prepped for induction, it turned out I was in labor anyways! More pit, another epidural, and my 5 1/2 lb baby girl was born, again without episiotomy!

Baby number 4, Daniel James, was born just 14 months later (1/22/95) at 36 weeks again. This pregnancy was by far the worst. Once again, I was followed by the perinatologists, Phoenix Perinatal Associates, this time from the get-go. Again, bedrest was prescribed (and ignored), HUAM was set up and I was put on procardia. And again, I was in and out of the hospital on mag. Unfortunately, this time because I was so idiotic and kept working and running around after my other three kids, at 31 weeks I was found to be almost 4 cm dilated and the doctors insisted on hospitalizing me as a last ditch effort to get me off my feet for the rest of my pregnancy. I was stuck in the hospital on mag sulfate for 1 month, and because the hospital was under a quarantine for a respiratory virus (RSV) I couldnt even see my other 3 children at all for nearly the entire time. Also, the residents tried to kill me several times during my stay. A number of times they came in wielding syringes full of terbutaline (to which I would likely have had a severe if not fatal negative reaction - HELLO, ever heard of reading the patient's chart!?!?). And once, they accidentally doubled my medication dosage and as a result, my blood pressure dropped to about 40 over Zip and they had to bring in the crash cart.

At 35 weeks, they released me to go home with orders for strict bedrest for 1 more week. I followed their instructions that time, for exactly 1 week, and 7 days later, jumped out of bed, went straight into work for the day, got a haircut, did my Hanukka shopping, visited a friend in the hospital, distributed gifts to the nurses on the floor where I had been "incarcerated", went out to dinner, and, surprise surprise, went straight into labor that night at 8 PM. Unfortunately, because I also was in the middle of another infection outbreak, I ended up having to have c section. (That, ladies, was NOT fun to recuperate from, compared to my easy recuperations after no episiotomies!) Danny was born at 5 1/2 lbs, and required recussitation and oxygen therapy so was kept in the NICU for about a week. He's fine now. Oh yes, my doctor practically begged me to have my tubes tied (a simple procedure since they were already inside me for the c section) but cooperative patient that I am, I refused.

Well, you guessed it, at 36, I'm preggers again with number 5. I am now almost 27 weeks and have been in the hospital 6 times on hydration therapy and mag IVs to stop pre-term contractions. The great thing is they have a new test, fetal fibronectin, which apparently can predict with great accuracy whether a mom will deliver preterm within the next two weeks. So far, test has been negative. I had an amnio and found out that this one will be a girl, due Sept 16, 3 days after my 37th birthday. Keeping my fingers crossed for a healthy TERM baby, and since it's a girl, if she's born early, her odds are significantly better than a boy's of survival and good outcome. Oh, yes, and this time I'm listening to my doctor. I quit my job and am staying off my tootsies. My marvelous ob (new doctor, I decided to see if I can get through without the high-risk specialists this time) assures me that there is no reason that I shouldn't be able to deliver vaginally (VBAC) as long as I'm infection-free at the time. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Thanks,
Lana
lanzie@hotmail.com

AmyEisme@aol.com