(My best friend is a champ💪🏻)

Oct 18th, Wednesday morning I woke up with a headache and diarrhea. I went to work at my normal time. I had my 37 week prenatal appt with my midwife at 8:45 so after an hour at work I headed over to see Jennifer. At my appointment they said my blood pressure was a little too high. They had me sit and wait for about 15 minutes hoping it would drop and go back down. When they took the second test it was even higher yet, and because I woke up with a headache that day she was concerned and gave me the option to either go home and rest for 4 hours and come back for one more test or go to the hospital and be monitored. Also, since I was feeling kinda crummy with a tummy ache and my everything was swollen she didn’t want me to go back to work. So I go home and I was planing to take a nap but instead I spent most the time on the toilet.

When I got home they got stronger. I spent a lot of time trying to poop thinking there’s no way that I’m in labor. Thinking the nurses would have caught it with all the signs I had given them. My boyfriend thought I was over exaggerating the pain. I started recording my contractions just in case they got closer together. I got home around 6 and was just sitting on my exercise ball trying to relieve the back pain. I decided to draw a hot bath because I knew that would help with me back. And while I was in there it did completely relieve the back pain. But I could see my belly getting hard while laying in the tub. When I got out of the tub I couldn’t sleep so I got comfy in the living room with my ball and extra pillows. I spent a lot of time on my chest and knees swaying my butt back and forth. I was getting contractions all over the place so that made me believe it was false labor. But every once in a while I’d get a streak of constant 5-6 minutes apart lasting 90 seconds-ish. Around 1:30 I feel asleep waking up but not through every contraction just a few here and there. Mick came out and asked me to come to bed. After a few hours in bed I couldn’t sleep anymore. Around 6 I woke up and just couldn’t go back to sleep. Mick went off to his interview. I told my boss I wasn’t coming in and I had at that point really hoped it wasn’t false labor cause I’d feel stupid coming back into work pregnant after calling in that I’m in labor. Mick finished his interview and got the job and asked me if I wanted him to come back home. At this time my contractions were a little more consistent. Rather than 4, 7, 6, 5, 5, 10, 5 it was more like 6, 6, 7, 6, 7, 10, 5, 5, 4 so I had asked home to come home. About 12:30 they started getting a lot closer together but then I’d get one that would be twice as long in length between than all the others. 5, 8, 5, 2, 7, 3, 3, 4, 3, 5, 5, 7, 5. And I was noticing that after each contraction I’d soak a panty liner with pink fluid which made me believe that there was a tear in my sack of waters. At 1:16 PM I was on the floor with my head and shoulders on the couch. And I have one contraction and right at the end of it I feel a ‘pop’ and a gush of warm water down my pants. I yell a choice word and run to the bathroom. I dropped my pants and sure enough it’s clear pinkish fluid. I got my phone and called the number I was suppose to call just to be sure I don’t need to come back in to the hospital cause they tell you they want to know the Color, Odor, Amount, and Time that it happened but she was busy and couldn’t take the call. So I take a hot shower and my first contraction in the shower was very strong and intense. Not that it hurt just that it was really hard to keep breathing when I had the urge to push. I knew that some women get the urge early and it make for a very painful delivery cause it bruises the cervix. I thought about that every contraction. I flattened my palms and breathed in and out my mouth to keep my jaw open. After I got out of the shower I put on an adult diaper and I’m glad I did cause each contraction came with a gush of water. Along with bloody tissue. At 1:50 I called the number again and told her what was going on. She said it would be about an hour to get everyone to the midwife center and to show up at 3 and they’ll be ready for us. While on the phone I went through two strong contractions and I could feel the push even though I was relaxing all those muscles and trying my hardest not to push. My contractions still weren’t constant. They were at 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 2 and lasting only 1 minute-ish. So Mick and I had about 30 minutes before we could leave and head there to make it at 3. Mick grabbed all the bags and switched the car seat over to his car. And started cooking some food thinking we were going to be there for quite some time. Cause that’s what they tell you. To prepare to be there for a long labor with your first child. As 2:30 rolls around my contractions are hard and strong. I’m standing in front of a fan with an ice pack moving it to where ever I could stand for it to be. My neck, forehead, chest, lower back. I was just really concentrating on not pushing but no matter what I did I felt like it was coming out. My last contraction at home I yell to Mick that I can feel her head and what I meant was I can feel her crowning with my hand and he thought it was just pressure. I told him to just lay a towel down and he said, “babe, we can make it, we have time.” I could barely walk because she was so far down. I don’t grab a coat or even shoes. It was pouring outside and I just walked to the car in pj pants, nursing gown and a white robe. In the car I couldn’t sit straight down so I was off to the left with my right foot against the door and left food bracing on the floor. I had stopped tracking my contractions cause I didn’t think it was necessary but they were still sporadic not a consistent some every time. As we were going down Spanaway loop I rolled down the window and I remover trying to concentrate on my hand being outside in the cold rather than the contractions. After a few contractions I just groan and say “stay in there baby!” My boyfriend though I was nuts and he kept saying, “It doesn’t happen like that babe.” We hit traffic and Mick was being so good not to swerve and speed. He did so good at staying calm. As we get closer to the hospital I feel the pressure between my legs and I’m trying my hardest not to open them and let her out cause I can feel a stretch. They say baby does two steps forward one step back so with every contraction I tried so hard to close my legs and make it two steps forward two steps back. We were at Sprague getting ready to turn onto 19th and I can feel my adult diaper being pushed from my body. I lift my gown up and pull down my pants and say her heads out and am trying to show Mick. We can see the top 2 inches of her head. He looks over and starts freaking out and tells me to take my pants off. He starts pulling my pants down cause I can’t really manage to do it. The traffic starts to move so I tell him to drive. We get onto 19th and we’re 4 blocks from the midwife center. At the next light I have one more contraction and her face is out. I knew that there would be one more and I can pull her. Sure enough one more and I pull her out and pick her up. She’s purple and all I know is I need her to breath. I’m holding her on my chest patting her back and she starts fussing. It was the longest 7 seconds of my life waiting for her to make a noise. I unwrap the cord from her shoulders and hold her to my chest. I can’t put her on my skin cause I still have my seatbelt on. As I’m telling Mick to turn left at the very next road and turn right into the parking lot he drives up to the front door like he’s going to run into the building. I tell him to just go in and get them. He comes running back out and they come out with a wheel chair. They ask me if I’m ok and Im sure I looked like a deer in the headlights! My feet are up on the windshield and they help me unbuckle and get her under my gown to get skin to skin. Then they wheel me in with people in the waiting room telling me congratulations.

After that they did an assessment and there was a minor tear that probably would have been more painful to stitch than to just leave alone. She was perfectly healthy. 5 lbs 9 oz 18” long.