My water broke at 21 weeks- Skyler 2

Chris and I on Jan. 1, 2012

Christmas break-- Jan 4th
For Christmas, we went to Lubbock Texas to visit the fam. It was a really nice trip. Chris got to play lots of basketball with my Dad and brothers and I was going to Zumba classes with my mom and sister-in-laws (Jill and Jamie).

 It was the first time I had worked out since I was 5 or 6 weeks pregnant; I started bleeding when I was 5 weeks pregnant and it lasted for about three weeks. The doctor told me to wait a while before exercising again. A month later, he made a rule that if I started spotting I should wait seven days before exercising again. But I never got back into it after that; I had work and finals so exercising took the back burner. A couple days before we got to Texas, I had my 19-week ultra sound.

Everything looked great. Our baby was measuring just right and there were no abnormalities.

Well, us girls had a lot of fun doing classes, but then I started bleeding again. I didn't worry too much about it since I had just had my ultrasound and everything seemed fine. I started to get concerned when I stopped exercising for a few days and  the bleeding didn't taper off like it should. I also started to notice that I was leaking some sort of fluid.

Right before we went to Texas, Chris and I decided to move in with his family in Bountiful for our last semester of school, to help save money for the baby, due May 11, and prepare for Chris' JDMBA program. I still hadn't switched doctors to someone in Bountiful.

  So as soon as we got back to Bountiful we went to the Emergency Room.

The nurse at the ER assured me that I wasn't leaking amniotic fluid, but that the doctor on call was old school so he wanted me in for an ultra sound the next day just to make sure. I still felt uneasy and definitely wanted the ultrasound to find out what was going on.

The next day, Jan 4th, 2012, my new doctor told me that I had ruptured and that I would most likely give birth in 3 to 5 days. I was about 21 weeks and 5 days.

 I started to cry but every time my stomach muscles clenched I was afraid it would put me into labor or that I would lose more amniotic fluid. So I stopped crying as best I could; I called Chris as they wheeled me over from the clinic to the hospital.

Even though I had thought it could be amniotic fluid, I didn't actually believe it was at the same time. I had noticed the fluid since at least Dec. 31st. It could have been going on for longer. Although I wasn't working out the few days after I started bleeding, I still had ran up the stairs and carried boxes, all the while being ruptured. I had walked fast up three flights of stairs just to get to the doctor's office that day.

It was truly a miracle that Skyler still had as much amniotic fluid in there as he did and that I wasn't dilated.

Chris got to the hospital in a matter of minutes and the nurses gave me antibiotics through an IV for 24 hours. The nurses were extremely nice but they told me that the doctor wasn't hopeful that I would make it. They always said, "Well we don't like to give you false hope..." When you are PPROM, you are extremely susceptible to infection. One of our friends started leaking fluid when she was full term and they told her they would have to induce her in the next couple days because the risk of infection was so dangerous it could kill her or the baby. It was actually this friend's story that made me think I could be leaking amniotic fluid in the first place.

The doctor told me that if I showed the signs of infection that I would have to deliver no matter what. He explained that when women deliver that early, the doctor hands the parents their baby and they say goodbye as the baby dies in their arms. He let me know that that was my most likely outcome. Also, if I started going into labor then they couldn't stop it because it's usually the body's way of saying their is an infection even if the signs aren't outwardly evident.

While this is all going on, I prayed that I wouldn't be so stressed. I knew that the more stressed and upset I was, the worse the baby would do and might put me into labor. The thought came to me that I would have plenty time to mourn Skyler if he did die. Now wasn't the time. He was inside me right now doing great for his gestational age. He had no clue he was in danger. Chris was so reassuring and stayed with me the whole time. He said he didn't feel like Skyler was going to come out right now. He felt like he would be fine. We played off each other's confidence: If I was going to go into labor in 3 to 5 days, then wouldn't it have already happened? I had been leaking for at least 4 or 5 days already. We could be fine. Doctors just have to give you the cold hard facts...