Anastasia Elise
Miracle Baby,
25 week preemie
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Summary of Anastasia's Story
Anastasia was born at 25 weeks gestation (15 weeks early), after my water broke at 20 weeks. The doctors all predicted she'd die at birth. If she did manage to live, the doctors said, she'd be severely disabled.
After a great deal of prayer (which many readers of this blog participated in!), Anastasia turned into a miracle.
This is the quick version of her story. Check the archives for details.
From left to right: Anastasia at birth; Anastasia on her first birthday; Anastasia two weeks before her second birthday.
THE PREGNANCY
When I first discovered I was pregnant, I had some mild bleeding, which I've since read may be linked with PROM (Premature Rupture of the Membranes, or "water breaking"). At the time, however, I was told some bleeding was not uncommon in a healthy pregnancy, and the baby would either miscarry or be fine, no matter what I did.
Then, at barely 20 weeks into the pregnancy, I went to the emergency room with what felt like mild contractions, about 5 minutes apart. I was examined and told everything was fine and that what I was feeling might be gastrointestinal (i.e. gas!). The following evening I had a headache, and sat down to watch a DVD with my husband. When I got up from the couch at the end of the movie, liquid gushed out of me. (This wasn't a small amount of fluid!) I'd read that amniotic fluid smells like Comet cleaner, but this liquid had no smell at all. I wondered if maybe I had some sort of infection.
After a rather sleepless night (where the liquid
kept pouring out of me), I called my doctor and met him in the emergency
room. He tested the fluid, but the test was inconclusive. He also looked
at the fluid under a microscope, watching for the "ferning" that
typifies amniotic fluid. The fluid did not fern. (I later learned amniotic fluid often does not
fern when looked at so early
in a pregnancy.) Finally, the doctor did an ultrasound. Even I could see
that the amniotic fluid around our baby was extremely low. I
was sent home and told to stay on
bed rest until I could
consult with a high-risk
pregnancy specialist
(called a perintologist).
The day I saw the perintologist was the worst day of my life. He had
nothing positive to say. He explained how important
amniotic fluid is to the baby at this stage, and told me that our child would
probably not be able to breathe at birth. He also said that if she
somehow managed to breathe, she'd probably have bone malformations,
because there was virtually no amniotic fluid to protect her from being
crushed by my organs. In addition, she was extremely high risk for
cerebral palsy, blindness, and a host of other medical issues. We were in
utter shock.
The specialist advised me to "terminate the pregnancy," which I refused to do. There was no way I was going to abort my baby.
The doctor told me I'd
probably miscarry within two weeks. With that, he sent me home for
more bed rest, and told me to look for signs of infection and see my
obstetrician weekly.
Anastasia didn't miscarry (the stubborn girl!), and I did not develop an
infection, so the plan was to admit me into the hospital at the
beginning of my 25th week, if Anastasia made it that far. At this
time, I'd be on hospital bed rest, and would get steroid shots to
help Anastasia's lungs develop. When I questioned why I couldn't do all
this sooner rather than later, nobody gave me a straight forward answer,
other than to say the baby wasn't "viable" until 25 weeks or so.
This was
upsetting, but the fact that Anastasia hadn't miscarried in two weeks
gave me some confidence. I was going to carry this baby at least until
25 weeks, I decided. (I later discovered that babies as early as 22
weeks can survive outside the womb.)
BIRTH STORY
When the end of week 24 arrived, I once again felt contractions. When I
called my doctor, he sounded glum and said, "Well, at this stage, I
don't think we'd attempt any heroics - no C-section." I mentioned
contraction-reducing drugs, and he said yes we could use those, but they
rarely work well for a woman whose water has already broken.
Once I got to the emergency room that night, the contractions subsided.
Since I was scheduled to check into the hospital the following day, my
doctor decided to admit me that evening instead.
The following day I had one steroid shot. The next day I had another.
And so I settled in for what I thought would be a somewhat long stay in
the hospital. At this point, the doctors said that if Anastasia was born
soon, her chances for survival were 30%.
The day after the nurses told me the steroid shots had done all the good
they were going to do, I started having contractions again. They came
and went, but eventually became pretty strong. My doctor prescribed a
contraction-reducing medicine. This worked well for a day - until I got
up to take a shower...and then the contractions started up again. They
continued getting stronger, until I was in real pain.
My obstetrician came to the hospital at about 5:20 pm, and preparations
began for Anastasia's delivery. The doc did an ultrasound to see if
Anastasia
was breech; she was. He did a physical exam to see if I was
dilated; I was not. I told him I wanted a C-section, because I felt it
would give Anastasia the greatest chance of survival. He didn't like the idea of doing this (because
of what it would mean for future pregnancies), but he consulted my perintologist,
who said he should
go ahead with a C-section, just so that I'd feel everything possible
had been done to save Anastasia. I believe they fully expected her to die.
At 5:57 pm, my doctor pulled Anastasia out from me and handed her to a neonatologist
(a doctor who specializes in treating preemies). He stuck a tube down
Anastasia's throat and tried to resuscitate
her. A nurse later told me they had difficulties getting oxygen into Anastasia's lungs, and felt sure this
baby was not going to make it. But the doctors were (once again!) wrong.
Anastasia was resuscitated. She weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. and had no malformations.
She was born at exactly 25 weeks and 2 days.
HOSPITAL STAY
Initially, Anastasia was in a private room, hooked up
to a ventilator that did all her breathing. The pressure of the
oxygen being pushed into her made one of her lungs pop. She had
emergency surgery to prevent air from escaping through the resulting hole, which
has since healed. Anastasia was also diagnosed
with chronic lung disease (or
BPD) and
PDA (a heart murmur), and was treated for the latter with
medication.
She graduated to a ventilator that only "breathed" when she didn't, and then started breathing with the help of a CPAP machine. Almost immediately, she was transferred to a Vapotherm machine that gave her less oxygen than the CPAP. We were now allowed to hold her on a fairly regular basis. (Vapotherm machines were recalled shortly after Anastasia graduated from hers. At this time, they are no longer in use.)
Anastasia was moved to a "public" part of the NICU, and just sailed along - until she started having a lot of bradys (where she stopped breathing and her heart rate dropped dramatically). She scared the nurses several times, and had to be "bagged" (oxygen hand-pumped into her mouth). The neonatologist tested her for infection, and it came back positive for Staph.
So she went back on the ventilator and was treated with antibiotics.
About ten days later, she quit the medication, and was back to her usual self.
Then we waited while she outgrew apnea of prematurity (periods of "forgetting" to breathe) and learned to breastfeed or suck a bottle. We had to wait a long time for both. It wasn't until she was one month past her due date that she was able to breathe without oxygen (a miracle in and of itself, as the doctors felt she'd need it for months to come). She never learned to breastfeed, and she relied on a NG tube (which ran from her stomach to her nose) for her food until almost the day she came home.
She also had an ROP scare, where the eye doctor felt she might need laser eye surgery or she'd go blind. But just before he made his final decision, the ROP cleared up on its own. Her PDA has resolved itself, too.
Anastasia spent 133 long days in the NICU and came home at about 11 lbs, wearing an apnea monitor.
HOME AT LAST!
Since coming home, Anastasia's main hurdles have been to avoid RSV (a virus that preemies are especially susceptible to, and which would, at the very least, send her back to the hospital), to catch up developmentally, and to eat.
The first problem we battled by being vigilant about hand washing and avoiding public places. Anastasia also received some very painful vaccinations during RSV season (which is generally from October through May).
Developmentally, Anastasia was behind in her gross motor skills. At 14 months corrected age (17 months chronological age), Anastasia learned to crawl, pull up, and stand momentarily without assistance. At 20 months, she cruised and stood up alone. At 21 months, she learned to walk without assistance. To help her along, she saw a physical therapist every other week, and I did therapy exercises with her at home. Anastasia was also diagnosed with torticollis (which, after physical therapy, is gone) and possibly a sort of muscle weakness called ataxia, although that is debatable.
For a long time, Anastasia didn't eat as much as the doctors thought she should, but she's made leaps and bounds in this area. Part of her problem with eating might have been related to reflux, which we currently treated primarily with Prevacid. She's been on Prilosec (which was expensive, since it was not covered by insurance) and Zantac (which she couldn't tolerate taste-wise) also.
Today, Anastasia is a healthy little girl. She is 3 years old and is considered "caught up" developmentally. She still struggles with taking in enough fluids, and therefore takes Miralax for constipation. She is also on the low side of normal for her motor skills. However, we can also now say unequivocally that Anastasia has no side effects from being born 3 1/2 months early.
Click here to watch a video montage of Anastasia's first two years.
Our Anastasia has come a long, long way, proving repeatedly that doctors
can be wrong. Even the most doom-and-gloom doctors who've treated her
now
smile and call her "the miracle baby."
She is our miracle, and a wonderful testament to the love and faithfulness of God.
AND A BROTHER, TOO
In early 2008, we finally decided to try for a second child. For a long time, we struggled with the fear that I'd experience PROM (or worse!) during another pregnancy. No one knew why my water broke early with Anastasia, but the doctors said there was a 30 percent chance of it happening again. Ultimately, we recognized that God doesn't give us a spirit of fear. We were willing to trust him with another pregnancy.
After consulting with my doctor after becoming pregnant, we followed a certain set of guidelines to potentially reduce my risk of experiencing PROM again. This included less exercise, taking progesterone, and consuming probiotics. Happily, I did not experience PROM with my second pregnancy. However, I did develop gestational diabetes, which I controlled with diet and medication.
On October 17, 2008, I gave birth to a healthy, full term son, whom we named Zane ("God's precious gift").
Truly, we are blessed.
Last updated: January 7, 2009.
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters
of the very same story
which is written across the whole world in letters
too large for some of us to see."
C. S. Lewis
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