By Lori, WPB,Florida USA
PROM at 23 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 26 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2001-08-02

Here is my story. I had been off the birth control pill for about a year and had been taking my prenatal vitamins every day. Two days after Christmas 1998 I found out I was pregnant. I was having a great pregnancy, working out no morning sickness, felt just great. At 16 weeks I had my first ultrasound and guess what, I found out I was having twins, the perfect pregnancy a boy and a girl. I live in a community with some of the best doctors and the group of OB's I go to just happens to have one of the two high risk OB's in their practice. My doctor sat down with me and told me that having multiple births is very high risk and that I really needed to take it easy. He said that everything looks great but no running or real high activity and no traveling far from home. So I did just what he told me, I did continue to work and I am in Medical Sales and I am on my feet alot but he said that it was ok (now I wish I would have stopped working. So four weeks later at 20 weeks I had another ultra sound, with twins they do every month and then every two weeks. I looked great, cervix was fine, feeling fine no problem, but the Dr wanted to start seeing me every two weeks just because of twins. At 22 weeks I had another apt and I still looked great, cervix fine, no bleeding nothing. I did start to feel some heavy pressure and I told the Dr that and he said that I had vaginal hemroids and that is what happens when your carring so much weight and I only weigh 115 pounds before babies. I look back on it now and I should have listend to my body because I should have stopped working and put myself on bedrest but this was my first pregnancy and I felt great other than that pain. My doctors were really great but I think they made a bad call and at that point should have known that was a bad sign. So at 23 week and 5 days I woke at 3:00 in the morning and went to the bathroom to dicover that I had some reddish mucos (it was my mucus plug,but I didn't know that)I called the Dr and he said that it might not be a big deal but to come in the office at 8:30 . I started a little tiny bleeding but then it went away. I went to the Dr.at 8:30 and they checked my cervix and it looked fine, but then because my Dr is high risk she just wanted to make sure and did a cervical ultra sound and found out that I was 1 cenimeter dialeted and was having contractions but did not know it. So this is when the days from hell begin. They rushed me to the hospital and started me on mag sulfate and breathin. I was very scared, the babies would not have made it and I was not prepared for that. I made it thru the night(I am not sure how)and they transferred me to anti-partum and I was still on mag and I had a pump in my leg that gave me breathin I had to lay with my feet very elevated to keep my water from breaking and I had no bathroom or shower privledges, but at that point I did not care what I had to do to keep my babies inside, I knew that every hour counted for them to be born healthy. Within that three week (all of them in the hospital, I never got up to walk, they had a theripist come in and do exercise on my legs)we had many ups and downs,good nights and bad nights. My Dr said that I really need to keep them in until 32 weeks to assure lungs, brain etc. I knew deep in my heart that there was no way I would be able to keep them in, my body could not physically take it. My son was on the bottom and he was very low, three nights before they were born my son's water broke. I could not believe it, I was almost laying upside down and never got up once how could this happen. I had no infection, no high blood pressure, but I was having about 8 contractions a day the entire time in the hospital. I lasted almost three days and on Saturday morning at 1:30, they rushed me in for an emergency C- Section. I can recall that minute like it is happening right now, I was screaming for them not to come out because I was so scared that they would die or that they would be born with disabilities. They were both born alive 26 weeks, 5 days my girl weighed 1.12 and my boy weighed 1.10. I did not see them for two days because I had a fever of 103.5 and they would not let me go into the nursery. I felt like a failure,like I could not even give my babies what a mother was suppose to 40 weeks inside. I felt so alone and scared, only the feeling that the mother could feel.My babies stayed in NICU for 2 and a half months, they had good and bad days but both were born very healthy for how small they were(I forgot to mention that I received about 8 shots for their lungs, which I believe is why they are so healthy)they never had any problems just so scares that always turned out to be nothing. My babies Finley and Ricky just turned two years old and are so big, strong, smart and healthy. They have no problems from their pre-maturity and they both weigh almost 30 pounds. We are so lucky and I thank god for them and for the strength he gave me and my family to get thru the tough times. I hope this story gives any body out there who reads it hope.....miracles do happen because my children are living proof. I think if I learned one thing from this, that is to listen to your body and ask questions and demand everything from your Dr...God Bless all of us who have lived this or are living it right now......have faith and don't give up.