My baby knew he needed to be born early

by Stephanie K.

My name is Stephanie. I'm currently 24 years of age. I live in a small town in Ohio. I have an average job and have a boyfriend of almost 5 years. We are totally the opposite of one another.

I've never really wanted kids until just the last year or so. Although I was curious about them. I'd been on birth control pills for 7 years because I was told that if I ever got pregnant I would be a disgrace to our family. My main goal in life was to go to college and be a good person.

Over the last 3 years I've done some soul searching. I decided it was my time to quit being selfish and try to have a child. I got off of my birth control pills in Janurary of 2005. I thought it was going to be easy like everyone said to get pregnant. I was wrong. I tried and when it didn't happen right away I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. I tried to have sex every other night which was alot of pressure on myself and my boyfriend. We felt like it was a job after a while. Still no luck.

I got a kit from the local Walgreens to make sure it wasn't him that was the problem and sure enough it wasn't. Then I knew it was me. My periods starting coming 57 or more days apart.

After 8 months of nothing and feeling completly helpless I saw my OBGYN doctor. He then diagnosed me with PCOS. I was shocked, but then again it felt good to know that there was a chance I could still have a child. I was then put on Metformin 500 mg once a day to get me to ovulate. This all took place in August of 2005.

I gave up on trying to conceive that month. I had lost all hope on ever being a mother. My period then came late again for September and I didn't rush out to get a test. In my heart I knew something was different but so many times I was wrong so I waited. I ended up finding out that I was indeed pregnant on September 27th 2005.

A rush of excitment flowed over me then it quickly turned to a panic. I wasn't sure how my family was going to take it or my boyfriend. I wanted to surprise him but my eagerness got the best of me and I woke him up at 6am on a Sunday and showed him the test. Of course he didn't believe me and after 3 more tests we found out I was pregnant. He was thrilled that he was going to be a dad.

Of course that was only half of the battle. Trying to keep the pregnancy was the hard part. With having PCOS there's alot of risks of miscarrying. I stayed on the metformin until after 12weeks. During that time I was very sick. Morning sickness kicked my butt. I only lost 3 lbs though.

Everything was going great in my pregnancy until 28 weeks. I started to gain large amounts of weight at a time. I believe it was 8lbs or so every visit. My ankles started to swell and no one seemed to think it was a problem. After a few more visits to the doctor's I was then diagnosed with pregnancy induced hypertension and possible pre-eclampsia.

At 30 weeks I was written off of work and put on bed rest. Still the swelling didn't stop and I developed a condion of pitting edema. It was pretty bad. I had no toes, ankles or knees anymore. By the end of the pregnancy I had lost feeling in my feet. Still the doctors wouldn't do anything for me.

I was admitted into the hospital 3 or 4 times. Each time sent home. I went into labor twice and both times the doctor at the hospital stopped it by the shot. My obgyn doctor okayed me to deliver if I went into labor again. I started to dialate at 30 weeks. My blood pressure started to go up as high as 156/97 before I went into labor the day I had him. My son's heart-rate was as high at 188 and still my doctor wouldn't do anything. Each time I would walk out of my doctor's office feeling helpless and frustrated.

Finally after weeks of going into labor, being 4 cm dialated and 100% effaced, elavated blood pressure and now my liver was failing I went into labor again for the 4th time. I waited a few hours to make sure it was the real thing and it was because the contractions were coming every 3 minutes apart. On May 10th 2006 I went back to the same hospital I'd been going to and being sent home from. My blood pressure that morning was 172/118, the doctors had to admit me this time.

I was then at 5 cm and was swollen badly. The doctors weren't even going to admit that morning but I threw such a fit and demanded to speak to the head doctor on call that he actually felt sorry for me and broke my water. I was put on medication for my blood pressure and something else becuase I also developed a blood clotting disorder. They weighed me right before they broke my water and heard I had gained 44 lbs in 10 weeks!

It went by very quickly after that. My water was broken around 10 am and I was fully dialated at 2 pm. I pushed my son out at 2:25 pm. He actually came out fine. He scored a perfect ten on his tests. I didn't tear or have any complications during my delivery. I got to go home 2 days later with him in my arms.

Two weeks later at a routine doctor appointment checkup for me, I found out that after further tests that my placenta was half dead. Due to my clotting disease it was clogged and never reached full size. My son must've known it was time to come out because if that doctor would've sent me home that day I would've lost him and something could've happend to me. I consider myself lucky and him to be a miracle. Each day I thank god and my boyfriend for getting me through each day. My son Jacob is now 4 months old and a very happy baby. I couldn't have asked for anything more.