He Saved Me

I still remember the day I found out I was pregnant with my son. I had been sick for a few weeks and thought I had a stomach bug. I finally decided to take a home pregnancy test and was beyond nervous waiting for the result. I was only 18 at the time, unemployed, and my boyfriend at the time was also unemployed and irresponsible. When the test processed and said I was pregnant my first thought was not a good one.

The first few months were a constant rollercoaster of morning sickness, mood swings, and little to no motivation to do anything. During that time my ex-boyfriend was attentive and supportive and found a job. I finally got over my morning sickness at four and a half months into the term of my pregnancy, however I was extremely unprepared for the much larger problems that would arise with my health and personal situations. I reached the lowest depression I had ever felt. I had no personal want to live my life anymore, but I had this little life that kept me going.

At five months pregnant I suddenly experienced the most intense pain I had ever felt. The pain began on my left side in my ribs and radiated through my entire upper back and abdomen. I was terrified and rushed to the hospital, who could not pinpoint what was causing the pain. Only after I got sick and voided all the contents of my stomach did the pain stop. The retching was extremely violent and painful as well.

Throughout the next three months these flare ups only got more frequent. I would go from feeling perfectly fine to writhing in pain. My ex-boyfriend only made this worse by getting angry and screaming and cursing at me repeatedly. I was having flare ups on an average of every two to three days. The stress on top of whatever was going on with my body was terrifying and made it incredibly hard to enjoy the good things during my pregnancy.

I loved feeling my son kick and feeling him jump when he had the hiccups, however I couldn’t wait to have him and figure out what was causing these painful episodes. I went to the hospital two nights in a row because I went into preterm labor from the stress on my body. I finally got put on bed rest for a week at eight months pregnant. I was also prescribed a medication to help prevent contractions until it was time to go into labor.

I had decided to stay with my parents so that they could help care for me the way I needed while on bedrest. My mom helped me manage my diet and was very diligent to help prevent any more flare ups from occurring. I managed to get through a week without having one of these painful episodes. Unfortunately, a week was all I got before I had another episode that we had been trying so hard to keep from happening.

The day before I had my son my mom and I were sitting on her bed watching our favorite tv show, like we did every day, when I started to feel the same dull pain that told me one of the flare ups was coming on. Normally this didn’t happen until after I ate, and I hadn’t eaten at all yet that morning. I was retching with nothing in my stomach and feeling incredibly weak due to not being able to eat. We kept trying to do everything we could, such as getting in a warm shower to relax the muscles and pressing a pillow to my ribs to ease the pain, but nothing was working.

At seven that evening my mom took me to the hospital, where I was admitted to labor and delivery. They drew blood and discovered that the levels of all my gastrointestinal organs were dangerously elevated to the point that my doctor told me that I was lucky that I hadn’t lost my sons or my own life. They attached monitors to my stomach to observe how my son was doing and had an ultrasound done. When they did the ultrasound, they discovered that my amniotic fluid was very low, so my doctor decided to induce labor the next morning. They let me take a shower and started the Pitocin drip at nine in the morning. At half past six that evening my son had been delivered and was completely healthy, and I haven’t had an episode since.

I love my son more than anything in this world and would not change having him for anything. I do wish I could change how my pregnancy went, but despite how difficult my pregnancy with him was I still want more kids. I just hope that the next time will be better and that I never have to feel that pain again. I still miss the good things about my pregnancy though, like feeling his hiccups and kicks. It was a truly amazing experience. I will forever thank my son for saving my life.