Monique - born at 33 weeks
Pregnancy and Birth
I had wanted a baby my whole life (especially a little girl) so imagine my happiness when I found out I was pregnant in August 07.
I had it all planned out in my head, a natural birth, my family coming to visit us in hospital, all the normal stuff.
My pregnancy was going great. I was going to all my appointments, all the nurses kept saying was, "What a good strong heartbeat" my baby had. That used to really excite me and make me happy.
When I went for my 19 week ultrasound, my partner, Mark, wanted to know the sex of the baby. I wanted it to be a surprise but I eventually gave in and found out we were having a girl... My dream was coming true and everything was going great. I had no morning sickness, I was walking every day and craving salad. I felt so good about myself. |
I didnt really start showing until I was about 24 weeks, even then my bump was small.
I wanted to confirm the sex of the baby and also get some great shots done in 4D so on Saturday 2nd February (exactly 28 weeks pregnant) we went for the ultrasound. It was confirmed we were having a girl, however a picture of her face was near impossible to get. So I rebooked.
An hour later (while at home), I felt like I had a bit of discharge, but it seemed a little more than normal. I checked it out and there was a very very slight pink colour through it. I rang the Birth Unit at Westmead Hospital. They told me to lay down with a pad for an hour and check how much loss there was and to ring them back. I filled up the pad within that hour, so I headed down to the hospital to get checked.
When I got there, she checked the loss, did a swab and gave me the news that I would be there until my baby was born as my waters had broken. I didnt even know that was possible.
An hour later I was in a bed in the PreNatal ward.
I was given 2 shots of steriods over a 12 hour period to help develope my babies lungs in case I went into labour.
I cried all night, with Mark reassuring me everything would be ok.
When I got booked into my room, thats where I met my wonderful doctor. She came to check me out and do an ultrasound to check where my babies head was. Thank goodness she had engaged when my waters broke and was head down. I thought that maybe I would get my natural birth after all.
During the time I was there, I had 2 false labours, numerous haemorraghes and LOTS of scares. I was on antibiotics for the whole time I was there, except for 6 days where I was pill and IV free.
They kept telling me as long as my baby was "happy" then everything was ok. Every morning during my CTG they would always say, "You have such a happy baby"....It was driving me crazy. I was restricted to the ward and wasnt aloud to go walking anywhere unless someone was with me to push me in the wheelchair. I cried every day. I missed being home and missed curling up in bed with Mark.
After two weeks in hospital, they started letting me go home for 2 hours on weekends which was wonderful.
Then on Saturday 8th March, I went home for a while but by the time I got back to the hospital, I was feeling different. So on Sunday when the Doctors asked me if I wanted a "Gate Pass" to go home, I actually said no! I knew something wasnt right. So I made myself stay in bed ALL day and didnt get out at all.
Then on Monday morning (10th March), I started having slight contractions. They werent bad, so I ate my breakfast and started watching tv. My doctor came in to do her rounds and I told her I was feeling different today so she told me to tell the nurses if I was scared or worried about anything and she would come right back.
When she left, I realised my little girl hadn't of kicked me all morning. Normally after I ate she would get active and end up with the hiccups. I started getting shooting pains around the edges of my uterus and I started getting hot and cold flushes.
My doctor was called back and I was put on the CTG to check my baby. Her heartrate was normally around 130-160bpm, but this morning it was up at 180-190bpm and there was no reactivity. I called Mark and told him to come and I ended up going to birth unit... yet again.
I had a fever of nearly 39 degrees and I was having strong contractions in groups of 3 one after another, for 7 hours. The pain around my uterus was getting so strong and painful (worse than the contractions) and I was in so much pain. Then all of a sudden, the CTG was having trouble picking my little girls heartbeat. It kept dropping really quick and not stabilizing. They ended up putting a wire inside me vaginally to attach to my babies head so they could keep monitoring her heartrate. It ended up dropping down to 60bpm and not picking up again. At first they thought it was my heartrate so I had nurses on both sides of me checking my pulse which was 100. Thats when they started talking about doing a c-section. I signed a consent form and a couple of doctors were with Mark explaining things to him and seeing if he had any questions about the c-section.
They ended up giving him the outfit to wear so he could come in during it, but at 5:15pm when I was wheeled to theatre, they changed there minds and said I needed to go totally under a general as they needed to get the baby out quick.
At 5:33pm my little girl was born.
My doctor (who finished work HOURS earlier) left while I was in birth unit, but when I was wheeled into theatre she had come back saying that she couldnt leave me (after looking after me for 5 weeks). Then at 7.30pm when I came out of the general, she was still there, waiting for me to wake up to tell me that both me and Baby were fine.
Monique Kristi Hayward was born at 33 weeks. She weighed 1995grams, she was 43cm long and her HC was 29.5cm. She was 7 weeks early but came out breathing on her own. She was always a strong baby and was only in Intensive care overnight after I had her.
Two days later, she contracted Meningitis and was back in Intensive care for 3 weeks. She was strong all the way through and the day I got to bring my baby home was the best day of my life. She was almost a month old.
She has now been home for 8 weeks and is doing wonderfully. She now weighs 3.3kilos and still in 5 zero clothes, but they actually fit her now...
My dream may not have happened exactly as I would have liked it too, but the result is still the same. I have my beautiful healthy baby girl and thats all I ever wanted.
©2008 Angie Rodriguez
