I delivered my daughter 1/22/17. I was working as an RN in the cardiac catheterization lab at the time, and I was due to go out on leave 1/20/17. My due date was 1/29/17, but with all the physical and emotional stress of my job, I'm honestly surprised I didn't go into early labor. I had an irritable uterus and was on light duty from the beginning of my third trimester. It didn't stop me from working 14 hour shifts on the regular, plus call until December. If you don't know what call is, it's exactly what it sounds like. They call when someone is having a heart attack and you go in, be it once a night, twice, three times etc and show up to work the next day. It was brutal, but my co workers did a great job trying to lighten my load. I honestly don't know how I made it to and through my last shift. That night, I had some more painless contractions, but lower down and I honestly didn't think anything of it because I had been having noticable BH since about 26 weeks. My mom had happened to come by and we went shopping in the morning, to the container store for some last minute nesting mission. The contractions were getting progressively more intense and, closer together, but I didn't believe they were labor until I couldn't talk from the pain and I was practically climbing out of the car. Literally every breathing technique and relaxation method I had learned was instantly forgotten. My mom drove us home and got out of the car so my husband could take us to the hospital. I wasn't even out of the hospital 24 hours before I went back in labor 😂. I remember being annoyed we weren't in my car because my bag, my badge, and the car seat. So now we have to go though the front instead of the side entrance. Literally nothing was going according to anything I planned. Luckily, I ran into the nursing supervisor in the hallway, and she was able to badge me through to get to L and D ASAP. Of course, I was only half a CM dialated. Maybe they were slow that day, maybe it was professional courtesy, maybe I just looked so miserable they offered to let me have some IV medication and sleep that off and get checked. My husband was more nervous than I was while we were in triage and he was giving the nurses a hard time, until I finally told him to leave them alone and not to worry unless they wouldn't leave, otherwise me and baby were fine. Lo and behold, after medication, I dialated to four, where walking and swaying only opened me to 1 CM. So, I felt pretty comfortable getting an epidural. My favorite Anesthesiologist was off, but the one on call was great and I got the best night sleep of my life. At 0500 I was fully dialated and they broke my water and it was meconium stained so OB gave me pit and I started pushing. I don't remember much. I was really concerned about labor and delivery because I'm a sexual abuse survivor, my old coping mechanism kicked in because stuff was honestly so intense. I checked out and most of pushing and delivery was a blur. I asked for the vacuum, and she was delivered at 0918. She, fortunately was healthy and there was no evidence of meconium aspiration. The worst part was having to help hold her arm straight for the blood cultures the following day. I stood up and was walking within an hour of delivery. My daughter and I were both born that day and she has changed our lives for the better.