So on Tuesday night we went to our first ante-natal class. Got home about 10pm and my wife said she was having some cramps. Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought, and to my shame carried on watching TV while absent-mindedly stroking her back. Fast forward a couple of hours and although I’m about to fall asleep on the spot I think it might be an idea to go into hospital for some reassurance, all OK, nothing to worry about, back home to bed. After all we’d just had a scan the day before and all was fine and dandy.
Fast forward another 24 hours and I’ve just driven home crying tears of joy, fear and a jumble of other emotions. I’m a dad. She was 9 and a half weeks early but still weighed a fraction over 5lb. She’s in an incubator and she’s perfect. My wife is (hopefully) asleep in the postnatal ward. I haven’t slept in 42 hours and I intend to remedy that very soon, but I had to share.
No real reason that they can tell. My wife has Type I diabetes which does tend to make fetuses grow faster. But the only measurement that was out of the percentiles on the last scan was abdominal circumference. I guess she just outgrew her space. I must admit I was wondering how the bump was going to carry on growing for another 8-10 weeks, it was pretty huge already!
Thanks. I’m off to get some sleep in a minute but to answer your Qs, she seems to be breathing fine with no tubes (sorry for lack of technical detail but it was all a bit of a blur!). My wife was able to hold her for a minute or two before she was taken to the special care unit, and she was crying nicely (we were all crying!). After a little while we went to see her in the incubator and were able to touch her through the windows in the sides. The birth was natural, about 22 hours after the contractions started but it seemed like 22 years, and I wasn’t even the one doing the pushing.
Wowzers! Sorry they couldn’t delay things a bit until they had a chance to administer steroids at least, but congrats on the new little one. 5 pounds is huge for a 30-weeker (Moon Unit was 5.5 at 34 weeks and was high up in the percentiles). Any chance she might have been a bit further along than you thought?
Thank goodness you went to the hospital when you did. An accidental homebirth is terrifying enough, without it being a preemie!
