a not-so-perfect pregnancy

We found out we were pregnant and were so excited! Things didn't go exactly well; during the first trimester I had started spotting, not knowing what else to do we visited the emergency room. The ER doctor was instantly on my bad list when all he said was, "Well either you'll miscarry this week, or you won't". I knew that was the reality of the situation but the way he said it made me want to punch him in the face (let's not forget how hormonal a pregnant woman can be!). I didn't wind up miscarrying but at 19 weeks (about half way through) my water bag had a rupture and a slow leak! I was put on bed rest and had to go in to my dr.'s office about twice a week to have my hormone and water levels checked, they also periodically checked to see if I was still leaking or if the rupture had sealed over. Months later I was finally taken off bed rest, only to have another incident occur! I was about 8 months along when I got sick with a very high fever that wouldn't break. I had heard that fevers could be very dangerous for the baby so I called labor and delivery, and they had us come into the hospital. It was a Sunday and they wanted me to stay overnight so they could keep watch on me and the baby. Well Monday morning had come and by the afternoon my fever had broke so they sent me home, YAY! I was exhausted so when I got home I just collapsed on the bed and took a nap! When I woke up I had a fever again -thinking it was no big deal I figured I'd take some tylenol and be done with it. My husband advised me to call the doctor just in case, so I did. Their reply was basically GET YOUR BUTT BACK IN HERE! So back to the hospital we went. Along with the fever, both the baby and my heart rates were too high and they were worried that I might have an infection in my uterus! Heather Johnson (my N.P.) gave me the run-down she said, "best case scenario we run some tests, everything looks good and you can go home worst case scenario you have an infection and we do a c-section" My Dr. and N.P. were so supportive and helpful, I was so scared. Well they hooked me up to monitors and an I.V. and did lots of tests! Tuesday rolled around and they had to do an amniocentisis (stick a large needle into my belly through my uterus and take a sample of amniotic fluid). Wednesday all the test results were in they were split right down the middle 50% +infected 50% -fine! Dr. Young explained that the 50% negative could be because they put me on antibiotics that could alter the results of those tests, so it was still more likely that I did have an infection. From the amniocentisis they could also tell that the baby's lungs had not yet fully matured. We had a serious decision to make! Do a c-section and risk having the baby stuck in the NICU in a completely different hospital? or leave him in and risk the infetion giving him brain-damage within a couple hours and potentially kill us both? We opted for a c-section -which I was scared to death! I was so grateful for my friend Shari, she came to the hospital right before I was going into the O.R. (she had been through a c-section before) she told me all about how it goes and what they do I felt so much better after talking to her about it. I was preped in the O.R. and the nurses brought in my husband Dr. Young and Heather Johnson did an amazing job and my little Law Daniel Newman was born at 8:24PM on Wednesday March 7th 2007! He's our little miracle!