It's a boy!

It was my 34th birthday.  I was so excited.  Jim had been working a lot and I had been out of town training for my new job.  We were finally going to have some time together.  We were going out to lunch after my doctor appointment.  I was excited about that, too.  It was the day we were going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl-although I already knew it was a boy.

We got the kids off to school and headed to the doctor's office.  I was disappointed at first because they didn't send me straight to ultrasound.  I was only 17 weeks and 4 days, not the 18 weeks I was supposed to be for the "big" ultrasound.  So we went in to see the doctor first.  The downside to the day was that I had to see my least favorite doctor in the practice.  She decided to do a vaginal exam because I had been having some sporadic contractions.  She thought my cervix might be a little short, but we'd double check with the ultrasound.  Yes!  I finally talked her into doing it, even though I wasn't exactly 18 weeks.   We went to wait for the ultrasound, and, of course, I had to pee while we were waiting.  I barely made it to the bathroom before I peed all over myself-may pants were soaked!  I'd never done that before.  I cleaned up as best I could and went back to wait to be called into the ultrasound room.  I told Jim about the whole peeing episode and didn't think much more of it.  We went in for the US and my cervix was fine.  Then she did the gender check and...It is a boy!  "Ha, I told you so!"  Jim was sure it was a girl.  We named him Alexander Samuel-we had picked out the name several weeks before.  Everything looked good and we were all set to go with pics of our sweet little boy.  Then I stood up to get dressed and it happened again.  This time I knew that something wasn't quite right.  I hadn't had much to drink that morning and I had already "peed" a ton.  On the way out I stopped the nurse and told her what had happened.  Off she went to find the doctor and back we went into a room and undressed, again.  "It is probably just the KY from the examination", she said as she started to examine me again.  I knew what KY felt like and that wasn't it.  Then she told us she saw a lot of fluid and suddenly the tone for the day changed.  She told us she was "very concerned" and left the room to verify it was amniotic fluid.  I kept thinking it was no big deal because there are things they can do to fix this.  I was concerned, but not that worried.  Still I made Jim find Libby (my regular Dr's nurse), just so she could make me feel better.  When the doctor returned the look on her face was even colder than usual.  I was leaking amniotic fluid and there was nothing that could be done.  They said that I would probably go into labor in a few days or I would develop an infection and they'd have to induce labor.  If, by chance I made it to 23 weeks there wouldn't be enough fluid for Alex's lungs to develop properly.  There was a rare chance that the sac would reseal, but it wasn't likely.  And just like that our happy day turned into the beginning of our worst fears.  I think I was in shock when we left, but I still refused to accept the fate they gave us.  As soon as we got home I began searching for anything that could save our baby.