Jessica Lilly born at 34 weeks

On the 17th May this year I attended maternity assessment suspecting that my waters had broken only to be told by the doc that I had wet myself. He was going to send me home and not look into it any further until the midwife suggested that they bring me back in for a scan the next day.

The next morning I went to work believing that everything was ok not knowing that it was going to turn into one of the worst days my life.

At my scan the consultant confirmed that my waters had broken and gave me the grim news that I would most likely deliver within 48 hours and if I didn't my baby would have a 1% chance of survival the lungs wouldn't develop with so little fluid. They advised that I should have a termination due to the risk of infection but there was no way I was giving up on my baby.

They kept me in hospital overnight and gave me a 10 course of antibiotics. The next day they sent me home and told me told to carry on as normal but after a lot of reading up I decided to put myself on home bed rest and drank lots of water. I attended twice weekly for bloods and fortnightly for scans.

Every appointment was full of doom and gloom but reading success stories on here and other pprom sites kept me going. At each scan my baby had fluid in her stomach so she was taking in what little fluid was there and was growing at a normal rate.

Around 24 weeks my leaking stopped and at my 25 week scan I had full waters again. I had resealed but the consultant still insisted my baby only had a 1% chance of survival due to lack of fluid during the crucial period for lung development.

I was given steroid shots at 24 weeks. They planned to induce my little one on the 3rd September as she had been head down for 10 weeks but she had other plans and turned while I was waiting to be induced so on the 4th of September my little miracle Jessica Lilly was born by c-section and guess what she was breathing and crying. She weighed 4lb 8oz. Jessica spent 14 days in hospital (5 days nicu, 2 days high dependency and 2 days special care) she was on Cpap for 3 days, phototherapy for 2 days, antibiotics for 3 days and was tube fed for 10 days. She also suffered bradycardia leading to desaturations for around 9 days. Jessica is now 4 weeks and 2 days old and is absolutely perfect. She is weighing in at 6lb 8 1/2oz.

Where there is life there is hope.