Catherine’s Story
On
our eighteenth week of pregnancy, Christine was diagnosed with Low Amniotic
Fluid. She has been leaking so we were
thinking that she had ruptured. However,
this was not verified since the tests did not detect the presence of amniotic
fluid. So Christine was advised to take
things easy and drink plenty of water.
We were scheduled for a level 2 ultrasound and a meeting with the
genetics counselor. This meeting gave us
no information. All we got was the
feeling from them that the baby would not survive and that termination was the
best option. But this was not an option
for us.
On
the 26th week, Christine had some more bleeding but this time it was
bright red. So we rushed to the
hospital. And as it turned out,
Christine was also having some small contractions. So we were admitted to Labor and Delivery.
That
night they connected IV’s to each arm and started to give Christine Magnesium
to stop the contractions. The
contractions stopped, but then they would start again a couple days later. We would continue to go through this for the
next 2 weeks.
Then,
on August 9th, when she started having contractions again, she had
also dilated 2 cm. So delivery was
eminent.
On
August 10th at
The
next night, the Head Neonatal Doctor talked to us and said Catherine’s chances
were not good because her lungs are severely underdeveloped. He also told us there may likely be a day
that the Doctors feel that her suffering outweighs her chances of survival, and
that we may be asked to consider turning off life support.
A
week and a half later, Catherine seems to be doing well. The nurses say she is
doing well and the other Doctors say she is doing well. But it wasn’t until the Head Neonatal Doctor
came to us and said, “We are very optimistic that she will survive…”, that it
really sunk in and that we can start to feel good about our chances.
Catherine
is now over 6 pounds and is off the ventilator.
She is given Christine’s breast to feed a 1-2 times a day and a bottle
once every working shift. She is
beginning to learn how to swallow. And
when she does, we will finally be able to take our baby home!
More
information on Oligohydramnios
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