On July 2nd, at around 7:30am, I woke up to what felt like a slight pop in my stomach. I wasn't sure if my water had broken or not. I got up and went to the bathroom. I sat there for a couple minutes after I had peed and noticed that I kept dripping. I had heard this could happen when your water breaks and that it's not always like the movies. So I put a pad on and went back to bed. As I'm shifting in the bed I feel a gush down there. I go back to the bathroom and the pad is completely soaked. So I put on another one, go back to bed and told my husband that my water broke. No way either of us were going back to sleep now. This was our first baby. I text my midwife and she tells me to keep her updated. I feel another gush and so instead of going through 59,000 pads, I decided to lay some towels and pillows down in the bathtub and make a little bed in there. I laid in there for a while, unable to sleep, but trying to rest up for what was to come. Mild contractions started around 11:30, about 20-30 min apart. My midwife asked me to come to the birth center at 6:00pm. When we got there, contractions were still 20-30 min apart so she had me start taking cotton root bark to get contractions picking up. She wanted me to take half a dropper every 15 min for at least 3 hours. We went to a restaurant and got something to eat and got back to the birth center around 8:00pm. Continued taking the cotton root bark and contractions got REALLY strong around 11:30pm. So strong that an epidural did cross my mind. I never said anything out loud though as I was determined to go natural. It was probably too late to get one at that point anyway. I got in and out of the tub a couple times and then started feeling like I needed to push, (which didn't feel like what I expected). Fast forward, I'm back in the tub and after pushing for 21 min, my little girl was in my arms. A med-free water birth, THE hardest thing I've ever done, but also the most amazing experience of my life. Literally a dream come true. Ever since I was a little girl, all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a Mommy. She was born July 3rd, 3:24am. 8 lbs. 8oz. 21". My precious little Vivian Joy. Baby girl, I love you more than you will ever know. <3
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