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Paul Elliot's Birth

My first pregnancy was quite unevenful until during my 28th week I started having incredible back pain. I went to work anyway and They sent me home a few hours later because I started crying from the pain. That night I tossed and turned trying to remember everything I could possibly have done to hurt my back, never thinking that this was premature labor. The next morning I thought that I would meet my doctor at his office as soon as it opened. My husband didn't want to go with me (neither of us thought there was anything wrong-at this point I thought that I had the flu!) because he had a huge college exam to take but decided to go after all because I couldn't drive. On the way over we started to discuss the possability of my being in labor but dismissed as our being anxious first timers. I finally got to my doctor's office and before the doctor could even take his jacket off and come greet me, my water broke. That was probably the most scared I've ever been. I didn't know babies that early survived and was getting quite hysterical. My doctor called an ambulance and gave me an internal. He determined that I was completely effaced and 2 cm dilated. Once at the mearest hospital they stopeed my labor only long enough to give me steroids and than sent me an hour away to the states biggest neonatal center. If things weren't bad enough, my doctor couldn't practice at that hospital and I ended up having too many after admission to count. Well, once I got to 3cm dilated my body decided to stop. I was put on heavy doses of pitocin and an IV. they wouldn't allow me to have any form of pain relief because of the effects it would have on my baby. After 30 more hours and not much progress, they decided that they had enough hearing loss for one day and gave me an epidural. It didn't take and they wouldn't try again because as luck would have it, I finally made it to 10cm. After forty hours of labor (not counting when I didn't know I was in labor) and two pushes later my 3lb. 5oz. son Paul was born. He spent six weeks in the NICU and was taken care of by some great people. Lucky for us, he was a feeder and grower, meaning he had no health problems excpet for being small. My son is now two years old and is way ahead of his peers. I have since given birth to yet another boy and his was a much more positive and upbeat birth.

Kim Elliott