> Jennifer F's Story (Due Date: July 2008)

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Marina Elise Franzia was born on Friday, July 11th at almost 1:00AM. I was 38w and 1d pregnant. She weighed 7lbs,15oz, and was 20in long. I was "induced" on Thursday night...and I use that term loosely. At my doc visit I was 4 cm dilated, 80% effaced and my bag of water was bulging. Because of my history of lightning fast births, my doc thought the safest way to go was induction...and as it turns out, it was! I was "laboring" before they even touched me...the nurse said, "Wow, you have moderate contractions every 3-5 minutes and then a whopper every 8," and my response was that this had been my normal routine for the last 3 months! The weird thing was the small contractions I didn't even feel, it was the "whopper" ones that I did. I have to admit that since I had been off of procardia since 36 weeks, my contractions did increase in intensity, but not frequency. My story with IU began during my first trimester with this pregnancy, meaning I was having contractions very early, but I wasn't put on modified bedrest and procardia until 26 weeks, when I was averaging about 20+ contractions per day, and had dilated to 2cm. We got help from family, and also hired someone to come in and do "my job" as I have a 4 yr old and 2 yr old. It was costly...but that is was our savings is for. I kept reminding myself that this was about bringing a healthy baby into this world and no amount of risk was worth it. I am SO GLAD I didn't risk it.

I also had IU with my last 2 pregnancies. I had alot of contractions with my first, but just thought it was normal. I ended up breaking my foot at 26 weeks, and was non-weight-bearing for 6 weeks, which in hindsight was a blessing in disguise. After I was on my feet, my contractions progressed. I ended up going to L/D at 34 weeks...they gave me a shot of terb, and did a fFN test which came up negative. I was sent home to take it easy until 36 wks. Our daughter was born at 38 wks when my water broke.

With my son...the IU was more intense...but I had a toddler to care for and ignored the symptoms. My instructions from my doc were to take procardia only if I had more than 4 cntxs in an hour...well, I never reached that, but was having at least 20 per day. At 33 weeks I was 1cm dilated and instructed to limit my activity as much as I could. I didn't put myself on bedrest. As a result, by 36 weeks, I was 4 1/2 cm dilated, 80% effaced and his head was so low that my doc didn't think I would make it to the hosptial if my water broke. Not to mention the constant "labor" activity. So she admitted me, broke my water at 36w 6d, and I dilated from a 4 to a 10 in 20 minutes...without pain meds!!! It was scarey...I was frantic and in agony. To top it off...because my son came too fast his lungs retained some amniotic fluid, so he had to go to the NICU for some oxygen to help him burn off the fluid. He was 7lbs 7oz and fully developed...just the fluid in the lungs was the issue. Nevertheless, having a baby in the NICU for a week SUCKS!!! I just had to keep reminding myself of that while I struggled emotionally and physically thru these last 3 months of bedrest with my most recent baby.

I feel so blessed to have been able to carry our sweet girl to term and then some. She is healthy, gorgeous and so sweet! I just want to encourage all moms out there that are going crazy on bedrest that is worth the wait. Keep your mind busy by reading books...the days will go by much faster!

Best of luck!

Jennifer F.