Aidan's Beginning

Our story begins in June 2003. After looking at our 3 beautiful daughters we decided that we wanted to be blessed with another baby and began trying to conceive. Most of our friends and family knew we had only wanted 3 children, so they were surprised to say the least when we announced that we were trying to have another. This was not an attempt to try to have a boy as many people thought. We would have been happy either way. In October 2003 I was on a field trip with my middle daughter Phoebe and our neighbor Nancy and her daughter Noelle. I wasn't feeling very good on the bus and said I was either getting sick or I was pregnant. 2 days later I confirmed I was pregnant. We were so excited. We estimated our due date to be the end of June.

When I went for my 8 week checkup I asked for an ultrasound to confirm everything was okay since it was too soon the hear a heartbeat, as I didn't feel like everything was okay. At 8 1/2 weeks I began spotting but was not concerned since I had spotted during my first and third pregnancies. At 9 weeks I had the ultrasound and everything looked fine, we had a good heartbeat in the 140's. At 10 1/2 weeks I began bleeding heavily and thought I was having a miscarriage. I went to the doctor the next day and they did another ultrasound. No reason for the bleeding could be found. 20% of women bleed for unknown reasons. Again I was reassured everything was okay. I spotted for 6 1/2 weeks. Finally everything seemed to settle down. I was trying to get to the gym when I could. I felt great, no morning sickness, I wasn't tired. A big change from my other pregnancies.

On April 4, 2004, 27 weeks and 6 days, we were shopping for a bunk bed to put in Phoebe's room to prepare to move Rileigh into there with her so the baby could have her room. I started having pains and after about 1/2 hour realized they were coming pretty regularly. After timing them I realized the pains were every 5 minutes. They didn't really feel like contractions, but I called the doctor anyway. He said since they hurt just a little to come in to be checked. We went to the hospital around 1:30pm. I assumed they were braxton hicks and we would be sent home. After they hooked me to the monitor they did begin showing up so they started and IV (#1). That made them worse. They gave me ampicillin thinking maybe I had a small infection. My cervix was not dilated but after 3 hours it did dilate to 1cm. They gave me indocin which is an arthritis medication but helps to relax the uterus. Nothing was helping, finally they were going to give me breathine, but due to having PVC's I was not able to have that medication. They finally had to give me magnesium sulfate. They said it would make me feel like I had the flu. That is some wicked stuff. The next morning after being on it for about 12 hours, I couldn't pick up my arms, legs or head. I felt like a truck ran me over, it was horrible. The contractions finally stopped around 6:00am on 4/5/04. I asked that since they stopped if they could take me off the medicine. They had to taper it down and was not able to take me off completely until late that evening. I was 2cm dilated and 90% effaced when all was said and done. I also had 2 shots of steroids for the baby's lung in the event they couldn't stop the labor. Finally, on 4/6/04 I was able to be sent upstairs to antepartum to be admitted. I wasn't sure how long I would be there. On 4/5/04 I did have an ultrasound where they couldn't find any reason for the pre-term labor, and the baby weighed 2lbs. 12ozs. On 4/9/04 I began bleeding in the evening and was taken back down to labor and delivery and started IV (#2). I spent the night and half of the next day there on a monitor. The bleeding subsided and they sent me back upstairs. I was pretty uneventful after that but was advised I would spend at least 6 weeks in the hospital as they wanted me there until I reached 34 weeks. I had episodes of contractions on several occasions, and at one point needed an IV (#3), and had dilated to 3 cm. During my stay I was on indocin to prevent contractions. There are 2 possible side effects, lowering the amniotic fluid and closing a duct in the heart. I was scheduled for weekly ultrasounds. At the 2nd one, everything was fine. At the 3rd the amniotic fluid was getting low, they reduced the medication. The 4th the amniotic fluid was even lower so they switched meds. I was now on procardia 2x per day. The 5th ultrasound everything looked good, and the tech wrote the sex of the baby on a thank you card I gave her. I then gave it to my husband that night, my gift to him for all the stress of being home taking care of our other children, working, and trying to be there for me as often as he could. So he knew the sex of our baby from about 30 weeks on. My 6th ultrasound showed him to be 3lbs 14ozs. Nothing much happened until 5/14/04 I began having contractions around 4pm. They were about every 3-6 minutes. They were not going to stop labor if it began. But after almost 24 hours they subsided after I had my 4th IV. During my stay I learned to crochet and cross stitch, I completed my sisters wedding albums, began a scrapbook, wrote in my childrens journals, and watched way more TV than I cared to. Finally on 5/18/04 after ultrasound #7 (everything looked great and baby weighed 5lbs 13ozs.) I was able to go home with my cervix being 50% effaced and 4-5 cms dilated. But I was 10-15 minutes from the hospital so they felt comfortable sending me home.