AJ's Story   — April Jones, NY, USA

Our son AJ was born early due to my pre-eclampsia at 36 weeks via c-section. I had tested negative for GBS and I have never had any complications with any of my other 4 children outside of my pre-eclampsia in pregnancy. Prior to this I knew nothing about GBS except that it was a test I had taken and tested negative for. My husband and I had not noticed anything wrong with our son until we had came home from a family 4th of July celebration and noticed that AJ had a bit of the sniffles. Three nights later in the middle of the night AJ didn't wake up for his 1:00 AM feeding. He had always been an excellent eater; I jumped out of my sleep and felt him. He was burning up. We took his temperature using a temp dot and the temp was 100. My husband knew I had a scheduled appointment for him the following day so he suggested we bathe him off in lukewarm water to cool him. This calmed him down and he tolerated his feeding and went back to sleep. The next morning he woke up with a fever as well. I took him directly to his doctor who is inside of a large hospital in NYC. His temp was 103 upon arriving. The doctor said we had two choices: do a lumbar and go home to await the results or admit him to the hospital and they would do the lumbar and treat him there. Because of the high fever we chose for them to admit him. The lumbar (spinal tap) came back positive for GBS. AJ had a fever of 103-103.4 for three nights. I have never been so scared in my life. My mother-in-law is a minister. We prayed. My friends and family all prayed. My mother was on standby to fly from California. I told her to hold on and wait--he would get better. It took a week for the fever to eventually subside. Then he started to improve. He came off IV fluids. He was tolerating feedings again. Then he began interacting with us all. He would coo. It was the most beautiful sound! AJ was treated with Penicillin G for 2 and a half weeks and for three of the last days he had a shot of Ceftriaxone because his veins collapsed and he couldn't tolerate an IV. However, to our surprise his doctors said he could come home a day earlier than expected and he has been home now for 5 days - doing well. We are elated. We have never been so blessed. Have hope! Late onset-GBS is devastating, but have hope and PRAY. AJ is now 5 months old and showing no signs of future complictions. He is being closely monitored, but it is such a blessing to have him with us every day. Today he started pulling up! His coo's are so loud I can hear him all over our house.