Johnathan's Story
by Mary Jo Burgess

My husband and I had been trying for several months to get pregnant. Every month we were disappointed. After seven months, which I know now is not a long time, I started throwing up. It didn't even occur to me that I could be pregnant. I NEVER threw up for anything and I guess I just didn't want to get my hopes up. But the doctor confirmed that I was indeed pregnant but that my blood pressure was up probably due to some small infection and I was dehydrated. So I was hooked up to fluids and after awhile I was let go. 

The first few months were fine, boring almost. Except that I lost 15 pounds because I couldn't eat ANYTHING! I prayed every day over and over again that God would let this be a boring, non-eventful pregnancy. That was not to be. They had noticed that my blood pressure was up but they weren't too worried about it. It fluctuated a lot and I was overweight to begin with so for a long time they thought it was just normal for me. It wasn't until I started dropping protein in my urine that they got worried. I was moved to a different doctor, one more experienced because I was in a military hospital and there you basically get what you get unless something happens. 

After a few visits the protein kept going up so he sent me upstairs to L & D (Labor & Delivery) for a sonogram. They said the baby was fine but they were going to start me on a 24 hour urine collection and test me for diabetes again. After this first urine collection they put me in the hospital for observation for 3 days. My mother came out to California from Florida and she stayed with me for a month! After this first 3 day stay they sent me home with another urine collection and orders for strict bed rest. 

After this time they decided things were bad enough that I needed to go to the Navy hospital in San Diego because they have the equipment needed for babies that early. They also started me on steroid shots to mature his lungs. Whoever made this decision I will be forever grateful. A lot of doctors don't think to start them that soon but thanks to that my son was never on oxygen.  

Anyway, I was started on Heparin for blood clots and they took blood samples everyday if not twice a day. I have the great luck of having very bad veins. I had a lot of operations when I was young and because of that my veins are scarred. They roll and my blood clots very quickly. They soon found out after trial and error that the ONLY place they could get blood was the back of my hands. I was put on a special maternity ward where I was the only one there. But I was glad not to have to see all the mothers come and go with their new, healthy babies. 

They decided that I needed to plan on having this baby early and told me a good idea would be a tour of the NICU. I didn't want to go but they put me in a wheelchair and I didn't have much of a choice. What I saw scared me to death at the time. But afterwards I was very glad I did it. I would not have wanted that shock after my son was born. It was good to be a little familiar with it. After that I took a shower and they said they would move me back to labor and delivery to start inducing me. 

I got the lovely MAG and settled in. The first day was very uneventful. Monday came and most of it was no big deal. They were still letting me eat so they were pretty sure he wasn't coming any time soon. I didn't know it then but most babies that early aren't born vaginally. They gave me the stuff to induce first, every 12 hours, then every six hours and then they decided to change medicine because we were going nowhere, even with Pitocin. 

Pretty much all day Monday the contractions were coming every 5 minutes all day. That evening my water broke on its own. They tested it 3 times because they thought I had just peed on myself!! I felt it pop so I knew but they never believe the person who knows best. They told my mother to go back to her room and get some sleep, that this baby was not coming that night. I was having severe contractions by this point. And since they take your blood pressure so often with the Mag, every time my blood pressure cuff went off, so did my contractions. My nurse found that very funny. 

The contractions were now coming right on top of each other but I was told I was not in active labor, that when the medicine wore off the contractions would stop. HA HA HA HA HA!!! I swore I was going to do this all naturally and I think if it had not been for all the medicine to induce I could have. But it got to the point where I couldn't breath or think any longer and screamed for an Epidural. 

At first they would give me one but I was adamant in the way only a woman in labor can be. I got my epidural but was still complaining about pain. They upped the Epi but still, I was in pain. I know they thought I was just a big wimp but to make me feel better the nurse checked me out anyway. She bolted from the room and the next thing I knew the room was packed with doctors, nurses and NICU staff. This room, I might add, was about as big as a walk in closet! 

The next thing I knew I was being told to start pushing at the next contraction and that is all it took. One push and my son came flying out like greased lighting!! The doctor literally had to catch him!! My "pain" was because he was already in the birth canal. And up to that point they were still telling me I was NOT in active labor!! I heard them say it was a boy and I heard him cry! Music to my ears!!! My husband got to cut the cord and they bundled him up and held him to me. I didn't get to hold him but at least I got to see him which most mothers of preemies don't. 

Because of the Epi and the Mag I couldn't get up to go see him but my husband and mother got to go and they took a video and brought it back to me. I didn't get to see him for 4 hours. He had the normal wires for heart rate, pulse, temp, blood oxygen.  A day or two later he was moved to an isolette. He had major problems with his billirubin they said was due to all the Mag they had given me.

 He started eating at two days. I had started pumping almost immediately after his birth so I had a little milk for him. Not that it mattered with as little as he was eating. But then my milk came in like a flood and I could have fed a small country!!!! I had to stay another 3 days before they let me leave not that I was in a hurry. They made us go to one of those new parents classes which broke my heart. There was only one other mother there who didn't have her baby with her. Luckily we got a room at the Fisher House, right next to the hospital and it is kind of like the Ronald McDonald House but for military hospitals. 

I was up there all I could be. The nurses all fell in love with him. I never knew where he would be because the nurses were usually walking him around and fighting over who got to take care of him, which was nice but it cut into my holding time because, as you all know, they are only allowed out of their "box" for a certain amount of time. WE only had a problem with one nurse who told all the other nurses that I was a nervous mother just because when we had shown up the night before she was sitting on a stool reading a book and I watched her with the other babies and she just kind of tossed them around. And she never even asked us if we wanted to hold him or even tried to update us on him. 

After a few days he was eating like a small horse. No one could believe how much he was eating. Until he had enough and quit eating for about 2 days. They wanted to put a feeding tube in but I refused. I knew they had given him too much too fast in their excitement about how well he was doing. He was just full!! They said he was tired and would need a feeding tube and this was normal for all preemies, but a mother knows. 

I held them off for 2 days as we had conversations with all the doctors and nurses. After we made them all mad we asked for one more day. The very next day he started eating back at his normal pace. A Mother Knows!!!!!!!  He did have one apnea episode so they put him on something like caffeine, but he was never on oxygen except for the first few minutes after he was born. He got the bad fortune of inheriting my bad veins. His kept blowing and every time we came in his IV's were in a different place. I felt sick when they had to put them in his head. 

After 2 weeks they sent us back to Camp Pendleton where we had started this adventure out. Within a few days he was in an open bed. And then they told me to move in so we could "room in". The nurses told us to expect to go home within a day or so. After 3 days we were still rooming in. They didn't want to let him go. I watched as babies born smaller than him and sicker than him go home. No one could explain to us why he couldn't leave except that he wasn't gaining weight. Personally, I think they were just observing him because all we heard for those 3 weeks was that they had never seen a white male born that early and that small do that well.  

We had to beg to take him home!!! There was no fan fare. It was just me, my husband and our small baby. I think we have a little video of it and that is all. We were in shock! I had to take him back the next Monday and they told me if he lost weight they would re-admit him. I wasn't going to let them take him away from me again. I shoved food into him every time he opened his mouth!! He gained over a pound! Since then it has been a miracle. I guess we kept waiting for the bomb to drop and it never came. He is now almost two.

 Besides problems with colic, constipation, and projectile vomiting due to his underdeveloped digestive system, there really hasn't been any problems. EXCEPT, with weight gain! LOL! He is about 26-27 pounds right now and we fight for every one. And as soon as he gets the slightest bit sick, he loses at least 2 pounds. But he is healthy, happy, smart, and beautiful! He is my little lamb, my miracle, my joy, my heart!! I would go through it all again 100 times over if I had to. 

My kidneys have started to show signs of failing, I had a severe UTI after he was born because of all the caths, and they thought my pre-eclampsia might come back. But we are both fine and I am having baby blues because he is growing up so fast! To all the mother's of preemies and your sweet babies, I think of you daily. Take care and if anyone needs to talk or needs encouragement or has questions, please feel free to e-mail me at preemiebabyboy@hotmail.com

Take care all,

Mary Jo Burgess