*Salina*

Story of a preemie birth

I had a basically normal pregnancy up until my labor began.
I took the AFP test at 16 weeks
gestation and it came back abnormally low.
At this time, I had no idea that this test is
unreliable and has frequent cases of false positives.
So, we went and spoke with a genetic
counselor and agreed to have an amnio performed.
When the test results came back we
found that everything was fine and that we
were expecting a girl.

After that, nothing out of the ordinary occured
and we began our Lamaze classes at 30 weeks.
I planned for my maternity leave from work which would begin
after the Thanksgiving holiday.

The day of November 19th began with our fifth
Lamaze class. After we finished that we decided
to go out to the new outlet mall and shop for the afternoon.
We walked all over the mall just window shopping.
I was having bad back pain all day, but just attributed
it to normal third trimester troubles. While at the mall,
we purchased a back massage item to help in labor
and with the frequent pain I'd been having. Then we drove
back to town. We went to dinner at a local
chinese restuarant. We were sitting in our booth waiting
for our food to arrive and talking, when suddenly I felt
as if I were wetting my pants, although it was just a few drops!
This not being an uncommen dilemma for pregnant women,
I was not alarmed. However, I told Stuart
that I wasn't sure why it had happened as I hadn't just sneezed or laughed.
So, I left to go to the bathroom.
I made it halfway down the hallway when a gush of water came
streaming down my legs and I had no doubt
that my water had broke.

At that point in time I knew nothing about preemies
or 34 weekers and how they did. All I
knew was that my baby was coming early, and I was terrified.
I went out to the car while Stuart quickly
paid for the food and had it boxed up.

We arrived at the hospital and were quickly checked in.
I remember little about what was told to me
except that it was mentioned that the baby might have to be
in the hospital until the time of her original due
date of December 29th.

We called the family, and my mother and
Stuart's mom came down to the hosptial. My water
had broke around 7:00 pm. The nurses expected
me to be in labor at least 24 hours. I was put
on an IV to keep me hydrated and to hopefully slow labor down.
I was told that sometimes, if given 24 hours or more
from the onset of preterm labor, the baby's
lungs would mature on their own, as, at 34 weeks, they
were not matured yet. With this in mind, I accepted Nubain
for the pain, and later on, an epidural, both of which
will often slow labor. This was not the
case for me and in the end I dialated from 3-10 cms.
in one hour. After 40 minutes of pushing,
Salina Drew was born at 3:38 am Sunday, November 20th.
This was approximatly 8 and a half
hours from the time my water broke.

Salina weighed in at 5 lbs. 6 ozs. and was
18 inches long. She had apgars of 8 and 9. According
to the Dr.'s summary that I have, she rapidly
developed respiratory distress and was intubated
shortly after birth.

Salina was in the hospital for a total of 9 days
and we were truly blessed that she was as
healthy as she was. She was on the
respirator for 5 days and taken off after
being slowly weaned to room air. When she was
3 days old, tube feedings of expressed breastmilk were
begun. The day after she was taken off
the respirator, we were able to begin putting her to breast.
She had some initial trouble with latching on,
but got better over the next few days. As it turned
out, her biggest problem was keeping her awake
long enough to eat. She tended to latch on
and then fall right to sleep. This continued
to be a problem for the first few weeks.
We ended up doing a variety of things
to wake her up including feeding her in just a diaper
and using wet cloths to wake her up. Eventually,
she got better. She lost weight every day
she was in the hospital, but began to
gain weight as soon as she came home. She gained
almost an ounce and a half a day for
the first two months.

Salina also developed jaundice by the time
she was 2 days old. She was treated with
phototherapy the entire hospital stay. She
was still jaundiced when she came home.
It continured to be a concern at each Dr. visit.
When she was two months old, she was
hospitalized with RSV and required oxygen
for her stay of one week. At the onset of her stay
it was determined that she had "breastmilk jaundice".
The doctors asked me to feed her formlua
for 24 hours and then resume breastfeeding.
I did this for 12 hours at the hospital,
pumping instead during this time. Salina,
however, did not want the formula, so we resumed
breastfeedings. This seemed to help enough though,
and brought her bilirubin count down quickly.

Salina was discharged from NICU at 9 days old
weighing 4 lbs. 14.9 ozs..

She is now 3 years old. The first year and a half
were difficult for her and us. She quickly
gained weight, although she is still on the
petite side. She reached all her milestones at the
appropriate time with no need for adjustment.
However, she had problems with episodes of asthma
and frequent ear infections till she was 18 months
old. Since that time, she has been
doing great and is extremely healthy,
barely ever even getting colds.

I have done much reading since Salina's birth
about preterm labor and birth. There are things
that I wish I knew then and that I might have changed.
I feel that we were truly blessed to
have her as healthy as she was and is. Salina's
story is not an uncommon or unusual one. It is
just that, Salina's story. I hope that in sharing
it I'm able to let go of it a little bit and
hopefully help someone else out there
in similar circumstances.

Visit Susan's World to find out more on Premature Labor and Birth.

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