(Sorry this is so late and long)
I was getting ready for work on May 30th around 7 a.m. (33 weeks, 6 days pregnant) and I heard a pop and felt a trickle down my leg. I freaked out and went to the toilet and tried to calm myself down, when I went to wipe I saw blood. I totally freaked out and yelled at DH to put stuff in our hospital bag (nothing was ready since we were 6 weeks from our due date). DH starts slowly walking around the room, holding up various pieces of clothes and asking my opinion. I (freaking out) said "I don't care, just put something in the bag." So, we get in the car and call the doctor and she tells me that she thinks my water didn't break and if I wanted to I could just wait and come into the office when it opened in 2 hours. We thought about it but were about halfway to the hospital so we kept going. We went to the hospital, checked in and I got hooked up to the monitors. The nurse comes in and asks me if I have had any contractions. I had no idea what a contraction felt like, so I said no. She looks at my monitor and goes, "your are having one now." I looked at her and go "really, huh, I had no idea." My doctor shows up and he tells me that most likely this is nothing and I'll be going home but he just wants to check. So, he first does the test to check and see if my water has broken, and it was negative. So then he says we will do a quick ultrasound and make sure there is still enough amnio fluid for the baby. He does the ultrasound and he says "um, your water has broken and there is very little amnio fluid, you need to stay in the hospital until you have had this baby. We will try and keep you a week but if you start labor we won't stop you." At this point, I'm freaking out. Before I leave triage, I'm given a shot to stop labor and a steroid shot for LO's lungs. So, they put me in L&D (around 10 a.m.) so they can closely monitor before moving me up to the high risk pregnancy section. The woman in the next room is on pitocin and I can hear here screaming through the walls. I told DH, I've changed my mind and this baby is staying in forever. So, I get hooked up to the monitors and I'm given a shot to stop contractions. My contractions stop and after a few hours I'm allowed to eat. After I eat lunch, the contractions come back and I'm given another shot to stop contractions. The contractions never fully go away, so 4 hours later they give me another shot to stop contractions. Again, the contractions don't stop. DH goes to sleep and he tells me I need to sleep too, which is impossible because I'm having contractions every 5 - 7 minutes. After about 4 hours (May 31st around 6 a.m), I call the nurse and ask for another shot to stop contractions. The nurse calls my doctor to see if I can have another shot. Th'e doctor asks the nurse to check how dilated I am. The nurse checks and starts whispering on the phone to the doctor. She gets off the phone and she looks at me and goes "you aren't getting the shot, you are dilated to 9, your doctor is on the way, do you want an epidural?" I'm in such shock, I just shake my head and say "yes." So, they run down the dr to get the epidural and have to rush to get it in since my labor has gone so fast. The nurse then tells me, no matter what, don't push, the doctor will be there soon. I get the epidural and not much later the doctor shows up an it's time to push. After 4 sets of pushes, our son Brennan is born weighling 4 lbs 8 ozs, 21 inches long on May 31st at 6:29 a.m.. The NICU team is there and they rush Brennan over and check him out. I can hear Brennan crying the entire time which is very reassuring. The nurse comes over and gives us our Apgar score, which is 7. One of the doctors or nurses from the NICU team then comes over and tells me to give Brennan a kiss. So, I do and then he is rushed out of the room and down to the NICU. DH has to go to the NICU and sign all the papers and I'm left in L&D to get stitched up and recover. DH comes back 30 mins later and is totally overwhelmed. I'm still in shock. So they move me to recovery and I'm told I can't see my son in the NICU until I can get up from the bed and walk to the bathroom by myself. I look at the nurse and say "can I go now?" She laughed and said, no you have to wait 2 hours. So exactly 2 hours later, I call her and show her I can walk to the bathroom. We then get a wheelchair and I'm finally allowed to go see my son. We go down to the NICU and he is on a CPAP, which helps assist his lungs filling with air. We aren't allowed to hold him but I can touch him while he's in his isolette. I visited him several times during the day. DH went to check on him that night and he was off the CPAP. Less than 6 hours! I was in the hospital 2 days and every day we went to visit him and he made great progress. After I was discharged I would visit him every day and was able to start breastfeeding him and give him bottles. After spending 10 days
in the NICU we received the best news ever, we could take our son home. Brennan has now been home for over 2 weeks and currently weighs 5 lbs 8 ozs.