Logan's Story

Pregnancy
Throughout my pregnancy, for no specific reason, I felt like I would deliver early, I just didn’t know how early. My pregnancy was just that, a typical pregnancy. If there was a pregnancy symptom, you name it, I had it. I went in for my 28 week appointment, (mine was actually at 27 weeks) and glucose test, just a routine visit. When we arrived, the doctor we were supposed to see had an emergency and was at the hospital, and we were pushed back and given to another physician. I tried to reschedule my appointment, to help them out, but they insisted I stay there and wait. We waited quite some time, and the doctor finally came in. She asked a series of questions (I won’t go into detail, if you’ve ever been pregnant, or know someone who’s been pregnant, you get the idea of what was asked…), to which she seemed a little concerned with some of my answers. She stepped out of the room, and returned quite a few minutes later. She proceeded to tell me she felt it best to do an exam. Upon examining, she found that I was 1cm dilated, at only 27 weeks. She immediately told me we had to go for an ultrasound. If my cervix was closed, we were ok, but if it was open, it was bad. At this point, I really did not know what to think, I felt fine and the baby was moving like crazy. l sat down on the ultrasound table, and there it was; an open cervix, a very open cervix. A normal closed cervix measures about 4cm, mine measured 4mm, and was open. I was contracting, and each time I contracted, I could see the baby’s head fall. Cody and I were scared to death. By this time, my mom had arrived at the doctor’s office. Cody had called her and told her something was wrong, really wrong. Within minutes, we were arriving at the nearest hospital (where the doctor I was supposed to see earlier, was already there) and checked once more, only to find I was now 3-4cm dilated, and 70% effaced, and contracting. I never felt any of the contractions, nothing. I had no idea I was in labor. Within an hour, I was on magnesium sulfate (a drug they give to help stop contractions) and packaged up and sent to a larger hospital that could handle a premature baby. When we arrived there, my heart rate was through the roof, (a reaction to the mag sulfate) so they stopped that medication into the night, however, it had controlled the contractions. It was not known when I would deliver my precious baby, only that I would stay at a hospital that could care for a baby her size, because everyone thought she would come within a matter of days. The next few weeks were filled with bed rest, a lot of ultrasounds, a lot of monitoring, a lot of drugs, and a lot of praying. 38 days later, (much too many doctors surprise!) I naturally delivered a beautiful baby girl.

Labor and Delivery
Saturday night I began having contractions. It had already been decided by the Perinatologist that next time labor hit, it was time to let nature take its course. There is only so much medicine your body can handle. The nurse came to check me, and I was 5-6cm dilated, 90% effaced. She also said my water was going to break any minute and we had to go downstairs to Labor and Delivery. When we arrived, I saw a midwife (whom I had met that morning for the first time, and LOVED!) and she checked and said it was time, I was in active labor. She broke my water to speed things along. It was thought that as soon as my water broke, Logan would be here very quickly. They were wrong; she broke my water at 2am, no baby for several hours. Due to a preexisting back condition, I could not have an epidural. I really wanted one; I wanted anything to relieve the pain. I had horrible back labor. Logan was head down, but face up and head turned to the side, thus creating tremendous back labor. After feeling like I needed to push for about an hour – she finally said it was time! I pushed for about 15 minutes, and little Logan was born. She came out and cried about 30 seconds later – it was a beautiful noise. She scored 9/9 on her APGAR scores – amazing for a 32week baby! She breathed for 5 minutes on her own with no assistance. We got to see her for about 15 seconds and then she was rushed to the NICU.

NICU
Logan was immediately taken to the NICU where she was placed on CPAP, a machine that helped keep her lungs open. We were told that she was doing great for her gestational age, but time would tell. Her little body was red, and tiny. She had what looked like “chubby” legs, but I learned that it was just skin that had no fat under it. She also looked pretty big, but that changed when I saw her the next day – she was very swollen the first day. The NICU was intimidating; there were alarms going off, beeping that made you constantly look up to a monitor that you couldn’t decipher, nurses that spoke medical lingo, and no one giving you a real answer on your daughter’s condition. There were tubes and wires everywhere, and you could only see your baby through an incubator. Logan quickly graduated from CPAP to a nasal cannula, and she remained on that off and on for about two weeks. She was fed pumped breast milk through a tube, until she was able to take all of her bottles by mouth. One of the worse things, as a preemie, that can happen is a brain bleed, or an Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). They cannot do an ultrasound to check for this until after a week, so we patiently waited. There are four grades of bleeds, 1-4, and 4 being the most severe. Logan had an ultrasound and it was found that she has a grade 1 bleed on the left side of her brain. A bleed can cause developmental delays, cerebral palsy, and hydrocephalus, among other problems. Usually a grade 1 bleed will resolve and damage to the brain is minimal. Logan also suffered from apnea (forgetting to breath) and bradycardia (low heart rate), A&B’s. She received caffeine as a stimulate to help with the apnea’s. Due to her A&B’s, Logan came home on an apnea monitor and remained on it until she was 8 months old. After we came home, most of her apnea’s were feeding related, caused by reflux often times. Logan was diagnosed with GERD, (reflux) in the hospital and put on Zantac. After discharge, we switched to Prevacid, which works great and she currently still takes it. Our 28 day NICU stay was like a dance; 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Every day was filled with unknowns. We were thankful for boring days.

Logan is a lucky girl; she has no problems with her eyes related to prematurity (ROP), nor does she have any other significant disabilities. She is slightly delayed, and she is monitored closely and is also in therapy to help catch her up. We are so thankful for our little miracle, and we love watching her grow each day.