By Carol, Houston, TX USAI had a normal pregnancy, except for noticing abdominal cramps throughout. I was under some stress (I'm a classic Type A personality), but didn't think it was a problem. My husband was traveling on business every week until I was 38 weeks, so he was just home on the weekends. His brother got married the day before my PROM, so we were pretty busy with the rehearsal, ceremony, reception, and entertaining out of town guests. I felt fine, just a little tired. Oh, I also had a Basset Hound puppy that had grown to over 40 pounds and required daily walks, so I was definitely getting a workout (mostly pulling him back when he constantly got into trouble).
PROM at 36 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 36 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 1998-03-31
Anyway, on Sunday (the day after the wedding, which was also my 6th wedding anniversary), I felt tired. I was out running errands with my husband when at 3:00 I felt my water break. We went to the hospital and confirmed my PPROM. I was 36 weeks and 2 days, which until then I had thought was considered full term. I had not yet been tested for Group B strep, so they put me on antibiotics just in case (it ended up that I did NOT have it). I was not dilated or effaced AT ALL, and had not had any "productive" contractions (I had Braxton-Hicks ones from 29 weeks)! They said I had a "gross rupture of the membranes" - GROSS was right!!! I was leaking everywhere. They put me on Cervadil to loosen my cervix because they said that Pitocin would be awful if I hadn't made any progress.
I was on Cervadil for about 12 hours and, although I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, had only dilated a "tight" 1 cm (the good news was I was 80% effaced). They began Pitocin at 8:00 am. I was on Pitocin for a long time, and was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart but was hardly dilating at all. It seems that even though my water broke, my cervix was planning to stay tight for 4 more weeks. I got an epidural about 10 am. After 9 hours of Pitocin, I was about 5 cm. I was starting to think about a c-section, since it had been over 24 hours, but my prayers were answered when at 5:30 they said I was fully dilated and ready to push.
I pushed about 2 1/2 hours - I think it took so long because I had so much Pitocin I had quite an epidural going - I was completely numb which made it so hard to push. When my baby boy was born, he was fine. He was also huge, at 7 lbs 10 oz. Everyone says I miscalculated my due date, but I didn't. I know for a fact, since we'd been trying over a year and I have temperature charts and ultrasounds to prove it. Anyway, my boy was healthy, but had to get a spinal tap, have IV antibiotics through a vein in his head and stay in the NICU. He was the biggest baby there. He ended up being totally healthy and got to go home after 4 nights. We were very blessed and thank the Lord for this! What really gets me though is why this happened. I have absolutely no idea why, and wonder if it could happen again. I'm glad to have found this page and look forward to keeping up to date to see if anyone else had a similar experience.