Hi, I'm Amber, This is my story of my precious baby. On April 1, 2004, I went to a clinic, I was having a lower back ache and wanted to see what was going on. I took my son with me that day his "Mimi" usually kept him but she was at doctors appointments herself taht day. He was nearly 8 months old at the time, so we were playing a game in the waiting room of the clinic. Finally, I was called back. The doctor checked my back & didn't seem to find anything wrong. She was doing regular vital signs & said she heard something abnormal. She asked if there was any possiblity that I could be pregnant. Well I have a genetic thing, I got this abnormality from my dad's mother. I said well considering I have a double uterus / double cervix anything is possible. The doctor looked at me (I think she thought I was nuts), & said why don't we do a pregnancy test. I complied. I bought the sample back to the exam room I was in & gave it to her. She stepped out for a few minutes & came back, looked at my son & said young man you are going to be a big brother. I was a little stunned, for the rest of the day.
I went about my regular things that I needed to be doing over the weekend & started my week on Monday like all the rest, at my desk at work. Everything went along Monday, Tuesday night I was sitting on the couch giving Cason his nightly milk before bed. He was laying with his head on my tummy, & rubbing it lightly (kind of like petting a puppy), when we got up off the couch I had a pain in my lower back again. Once I got him in bed I went & relaxed in a nice hot bubble bath to help relax my back some.
Wednesday started like normal, get up, go to work, pick up Cason & go home to make dinner. Once we got home, I said before I can start dinner I need to use the restroom. I went in & sat down, went to wipe myself & screamed I was holding a huge ball in my hand. Just as Craig & Cason got to the door of the restroom it burst, water went spraying everywhere, it sounded like a bomb going off. I told Craig to get Cason in the car & get me to the nearest hospital.
I walked into the ER while Craig parked the car, bleeding prefusly. When he walked in with Cason he was shocked that I wasn't already in a room. They left me sitting in a pool of blood in the waiting room for an hour then finally called me to go back into an ER room. An hour after being in the ER room a tech came in & did an ultrasound & left. I didn't see anyone else for 2 more hours, when another tech came in & did another ultrasound. I asked that tech a question & only got a smile not a word, still no doctor. I couldn't even stop anyone in the hall noone ever acknowledged me. After I'd been in the ER room for 4 hours a doctor finally came in & examined me, shrugged & said "I guess we'll take you to L & D". I said what is going on, that doctor wouldn't acknowledge I'd said a word. When I got to L & D the nurses & doctors were swarming to get information from me. By this time it was well after midnight, I'd been there for over 6 hours & I was finally somewhere where I was getting a little recognition, they asked me "Did you just arrive at the hospital? What is going on? Are you in pain?" I said "No" I didn't just get here I've been in the ER room since 6:10 pm, I don't have a clue what's going on, noone has said a word to me, yes I am in pain. The doctor in L & D did an exam & was very gentle explaining everything she was doing & why. She said your water has broken, I started crying I said I know that's what brought me to the hospital in the first place for more than 6 hours ago. She was astonished. Saying why weren't you brought to L & D immediately? I told her I had no idea. I told her of my ordeal in the ER. She was floored, she in turn told the nurses who tried making me as comfortable as possible. At 3 AM the contractions started, very hard, they kept giving me something to stop the contractions with no luck. The nurses & doctor came in & checked on me every 30 minutes. Not letting anything get past them. Each one coming in & asking if I was comfortable or needed anything (the only thing I really needed was food I hadn't eaten in 12 hours by this time).
In the morning the very nice doctor came in & gave me a preference on which hospital she would rather me be transferred to saying if I had my baby she wanted to know I was taken care of. She requested me to authorize Baylor - Dallas. I said if that means I may not encounter the horrible people of the ER like here last night please don't give me an option I want Baylor definately. She told the EMS team where to take me called the doctor so that I could ask questions before I left there & arrived at Baylor. I was met at Baylor by the doctor that the tranfering doctor had spoken to & his team of nurses. The doctors & the L & D nurses at Baylor knew of the situation from the other hospital. The doctor that had taken such good care of me once I gotten to L & D at midnight had already spoken to the head of the L & D doctors at Baylor while I was in route. They were all very supportive, but they all had 1 question why would the hospital leave me in ER for more than 6 hours & not have me seen by a doctor or taken to where I would be cared for. The were all telling me that if I had been taken immediately to L & D when I first got to the hospital, they would have taken the precautions necessary to try to keep me from going into full blown labor & having my baby early. They could have put me on bed rest & prolonged the delivery. Due to the fact that I sat in a ER room bed for more than 6 hours after arriving at the hospital they couldn't take the necessary measures needed to.
When I arrived at Baylor the doctor did numerous ultrasounds on my baby. I didn't even know yet whether my baby was a boy or a girl because they weren't ever able to determine at the other hospital, from the position in which the baby was. The doctor told me that it was a baby girl & she was small he was determining I was 21 1/2 weeks along. In Texas the doctors can not hook up any baby prior to 23 weeks. He was crying when he told me this because he knew I was too close to having her now to even try to stop the contraction. He told me that he wished they'd have airflighted me the night before to them so that they could have helped more. He told me he couldn't legally hook her up to machines, but he did tell me I could have her with me for as long as her life was. I took that for something. I was in so much pain that they finally gave me something to help me relax & get a quick nap. Craig, said later that he was worried I was going to sleep through the birth. I said never could I was in too much pain even with the meds.
Once I was at Baylor for 3 1/2 hours I had a beautiful baby girl, she only lived for 140 minutes, (not due to anything Baylor did wrong) she was early 18 1/2 weeks early. I got to hold her & the nurses took pictures of us with her & the little church ladies gave us a keepsake box with a baby bible, a lamb, a baby ring & a dress & bonnet in it. The chaplain came & held a naming ceremony with us where we got to name her & she was baptized all before she was called home to be with Jesus.