I sit here at the hospital on Friday, June 7th at 6:43 AM in an extremely tired haze but willing to share my birthing journey to the Glow community with the extra adrenaline pumping through my veins. I want to sleep so bad but it’s hard when you’re being constantly bothered by the staff and it also doesn’t help that my mind won’t stop spinning as I recall the past 24-48 hours of my life, in both unexpected awe and complete surprise that my sweet angel is finally here. I was in my 37th week (and approaching my 38th this Friday) when I started to feel weird/off Wednesday afternoon. I was cleaning my place like a mad woman (nesting is real y’all lol) when all of a sudden I felt a whoosh of milky discharge come out my vagina. Shortly after, I started to experience period-like cramps in my abdomen. My pains felt like this all through the night but with frequent irregularity. There was relief as I sleeped into the next morning. I woke up on Thursday with the same pains and intermittent diarrhea but luckily, I had an appointment scheduled for the OB/GYN practice that day at 9:30 am. The gyno checked my pelvis, found my cervix to be soft.. 1 cm dilated and the baby to be 50% effaced. The amniotic sac was still intact. However, because of my current term week, she felt that I should carry on normally until I naturally broke on my own (despite the pains I felt). That meant working my scheduled shift the next day 12 hours on my feet as a nurse on a busy floor!!! I was disappointed but ultimately accepted my fate. As I went home though, my period-like cramps transformed to regular contractions that were definitely uncomfortable. I have a feeling my gyno doctor unintentionally facilitated my delivery with the physical prodding to my cervix yesterday! I talked to my mother-in-law and she convinced me to travel to the hospital after dealing with the intense contractions for over two hours at home with no relief. When I arrived, I felt like the staff were also diminishing my claims) just like the gyno doctor earlier) because they checked and I still hadn’t broken my sac, I was 3 cm dilated though (within a two hour timespan). They also get that the contractions were cramps caused by dehydration as my urine was concentrated. (Of course I was dehydrated! Who has the patience to guzzle tons of water during such a hectic experience???) They decided to keep me for a two-hour evaluation, however. As I was in the OB triage area for evaluation, my contractions felt even more unbearable!!! When I stood up during one contraction, my water finally broke and the pains felt 10x worse!!!! They saw firsthand I was right about my body 😒