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Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	Camden's Birth StoryBy LMSWRITE       Camden was due in June, but one March afternoon I awoke from a nap to discover I was having contractions. I called the doctor and was told to go to the hospital immediately. The doctors tried everything to stop labor -- two medications, even inverting the bed so my head was lower than my feet to lessen the effect of gravity, but nothing worked.      About 5 1/2 hours after I arrived at the hospital, Camden was born . . .15 weeks early, weighing 2 pounds 1 ounce. On her way out the door of the delivery room, the nurse stopped to give me a peek at Camden, then whisked him away to the NICU. The hospital staff told me he was a giant, that 25-week gestation babies normally weight 1 to 1 1/2 pounds. Even the neonatologist didn't believe he was as "big" as he was and made the nurse weigh him twice to confirm it. Still, looking at my tiny baby, it was hard to consider him a giant . . . his entire forearm was the size of my pinkie finger!       My doctor's associate, whom I had never met, was on call that night and she had told me while I was in labor that "the baby really doesn't have much of a chance." Fortunately, the doctors and nurses in the NICU were a lot more hopeful, although they were always completely straight with me, telling me the bad along with the good, such as the fact that girl preemies usually do better than boys, and that babies born this early have a very high chance of suffering many medical maladies such as bleeding on the brain, serious respiratory problems and eye damage.       Well, Camden surprised them all!!! He was in the hospital for a very long time (about 14 weeks), but finally came home 6 days before his original due date and is a perfectly healthy little boy, suffering no permanent ill effects from his very early birth. He was a little fighter and he is still a very plucky little boy. Needless to say, we adore him!       Search the Birth Stories Match All Terms Any Term and show results in Standard Form in Compact Form Hint! Enclose phrases in quotes. For example "home birth" [ Return to Section Ten Birth Stories Index ]