I was due August 3rd and she arrived July 1st!

Friday 6/30 was pretty uneventful, I didn't work that day and although I had plans on working on the nursery I kept coming back to nesting cleaning projects. My husband got home from work at midnight, and around 1 a.m. we were sitting at the table just talking and I "peed" myself without any warning, so I rushed to the bathroom. My heart instantly sunk because I couldn't stop going and had no control and just instantly knew it was my water breaking. I told my husband and saw him go as white as a ghost lol. I padded myself up and tried moving around but continued to gush, so I called my OB and they told me to go to the hospital since I was 5 weeks early. We didn't have a single thing packed yet... no hospital bag... no diaper bag... and none of her clothes were even washed. Luckily I had started making lists of everything we needed earlier that week so we rushed around the house and grabbed what we could. My husband was so panicked because I was going so slow, but I knew it was my water breaking and wanted to take the time to pack right considering we already had nothing ready. We made it to the hospital around 3:30 a.m. and they sent me to triage to test the fluid. It came back positive and they admitted me to a labor room. My OB came in around 5 a.m., I was 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced and not having contractions. We talked about options and decided to proceed with inducing. My husband and I hadn't slept yet so she told us to sleep, we started steroids and antibiotics and we would start pitocin that evening. My husband slept well but my contractions started around 7 a.m. so I slept very little. My contractions were very irregular, I would have them every 5 minutes for maybe 20-30 minutes then maybe a 45 minute break with nothing. They checked me again at 5 p.m. and I was already 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced, everyone was shocked considering I had literally laid in bed all day with irregular contractions. The OB still wanted pitocin started tho to get my contractions regular. So they started that around 6 p.m. By 8:00 p.m. the pain was getting uncontrollable and around 8:30 I couldn't do it anymore and asked for the epidural. My nurse agreed and said my contractions were only moderate and said it would only get worse for me. She left to call the anesthesiologist and get consent. Minutes later the pain was so intense that I was starting to moan and yell through contractions... my nurse came back immediately and told me I shouldn't be acting like that and she needed to check me. I was 9.5 cm and 100% effaced. My nurse was amazing and advocated for me so much so I could still get an epidural. They turned off my pitocin and basically did an emergent epidural, it was hard to stay still for it but it was then best decision I ever made. By 9:30 I had the epidural in and could finally relax and talk again. They let me labor down for an hour and I caught a cat nap. We tried pushing at 11:00 p.m. but I was now too numb to do anything lol. They turned down my epidural but it didn't change much. So at midnight they shut my epidural off completely and it took 1.5 hours before I could feel enough to push correctly. I started pushing at 1:30 and she arrived at 2:10 a.m.! Claire Nicole was 6 lbs 4 oz, 19" long. My OB was amazing at stretching me out as I pushed, and luckily I only had a small tear that required no stitches.

Everyone prepared us well that she could require NICU for several different issues. She ended up having blood sugar issues initially but those quickly resolved. She never had respiratory issues and maintained her temperature from the beginning. She was able to suck from a bottle well and with pumping I was getting my supply started well. Because she's 5 weeks early she developmentally cannot breast feed because she cannot latch yet. She then started having bilirubin issues and was put on a biliblanket. Finally on July 3rd we got the okay to discharge and we went home with a biliblanket for her until her levels get better. She went home 5 lbs 12 oz.

We are so blessed our preemie is doing so well and that we got to take her home with us. We are so in love with our little Claire Nicole 💕