I just wanted to share my very positive, happy labor story because so many people only share the negative and scary experiences.

I gave birth to my very healthy 6lb 3oz baby girl on Saturday, 11 days before her due date. My last day of work was Friday and as the day went on I started having more and more timeable contractions. They were 4 mins apart but I could talk and work through them and they were only lasting about 20 seconds each.

By 3pm I called the doctor who confirmed that I shouldn’t come in yet, so I stuck out the rest of my last day.

As I was leaving the office waiting for the elevator, my water broke! I got on the subway to go home (nobody gave me their seat...) and showered and packed up and off we went to the hospital.

By 9:30 we had been confirmed I was in labor and admitted to labor and delivery. I was contracting every 2 minutes and they were getting very painful but the doctor didn’t want to check my cervix yet since my water had broken and he didn’t want to risk infection.

Around 11, I asked for the epidural and at that point I was 3cm dilated. An hour after my epidural I was already 5cm. I laid down to get some rest and about 5am, the doctor came in to check again and I was fully dilated and the baby had completely dropped. It was time to push!

I pushed through about 5 contractions for 20 mins or so, and out she went at 5:18 am, 12 hours after I walked out of my last day of work.

I wouldn’t say it was easy but it was certainly a special experience. I hope the rest of you have similarly positive experiences when your turn comes!