By Stacey Lane, Port Charlotte, Florida United States
PROM at 27 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 27 weeks + 6 days.
Story added: 2004-08-11

I walked out of a store at night when I was 27 wks, 2 days pregnant with my second son (my full-term son was then 8 1/2), and I felt a gush that I hoped was urine, but I kind of knew in my heart it wasn't. I went home and lay down and stood up to go to the bathroom, and my water broke completely.

I went to the ER and was put on magnesium sulfate and kept overnight in l&d. The next day they put me on the perinatal floor. I was not allowed to sit up and was to use the bedpan. I liked the peri who came to see me and felt confident in him, but I was so terrified and miserable. They gave me two rounds of steroid shots to mature his lungs.

One of the neonatologists from the nearby Children's Hospital came to talk to me, and he presented me with some very good odds, but the possibilities for the things that could go wrong were very scary. I tried not to focus on those things.

My third full day in the hospital, they put in a main IV line, because they thought I would be there for awhile, but it wasn't so. My labor started that night, and at 3:37 am on Saturday, July 25, 1998, my precious son, Rory Alec was born weighing 2 pounds, 3 ounces.

I had been given pain meds in my IV line, and kept going in and out of conciousness. My husband was a wreck while the team from Children's was checking him. Finally, they brought him out in their transport unit and rushed him to the NICU.

I remember the nurse who took me back to my room saying that I should sleep because it was all I could do. She said, "you're a brave lady, Stacey".

I slept due to the drugs, and we went to see him in the NICU the next day. He was already off the vent, and I know the steroids helped with that. He had an ng tube, and IV, and leads from monitors all over him. He had to go through a round of light treatment for Jaundace, and when he had the brain ultrasound for possible bleeds, I was scared to death. No brain bleeds, thank God!

I couldn't function except to go to the NICU in the morning, come home at dinner time, and some kind person would bring us a meal, and then I would go back after dinner. I slept from pure exhaustion and set the alarm to pump my breast milk.

After one week, he was put on CPAP and had that for one full month. He was on medication to help with his bowel movements and another medication which was a stimulant for his lungs, I believe.

He was in the NICU 9 full weeks. He gained weight very slowly, had days with apnea episodes and oxygen desats. He was slowly weened off his meds, and we went back and forth with the ng tube and the amount of milk they gave him. When he was learning to suck, swallow and breathe, it wore him out, and he had to have the tube put back in for awhile.

Finally, after 9 weeks, he came home with an apnea monitor, and he wasn't quite 5 pounds yet. He had reflux and was put on Pepcid for it. He could still only eat a little at a time. I would breast feed him some, but most of his milk was pumped and put into a bottle, and mixed with a special preemie formula.

Those first months at home were hard. I was worn out from everything, and then he didn't sleep much. I was still worried about him, and we weren't allowed to take him out, and he was going for monthly RSV shots.

By the time we were allowed out in public, we'd been housebound for about 6-7 months.

But, we were blessed. As hard as it was, he only had the typical preemie problems and nothing more severe.

He was beautiful, and healthy and strong. He had some gross motor skill delays and was even a little behind his corrected age for motor skills such as sitting, walking etc. Physical therapy really seemed to help. Once he walked and then ran, I think I let out a huge sigh of relief, and his pediatrician kept reminding me he was a normal kid because I was still nervous.

He talked early and is very bright. He just turned 6 and started kindergarten. He is 57 pounds and 46 1/2 inches and he knows all there is to know about dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. He has a great smile and sense of humor, an amazing vocabulary, and he is the love of my life!