I was 2 days past due date and went to sleep with no signs I was about to go into labor. I had had irregular contractions the night before, but nothing during the day. I woke up at 2am to a strong contraction - so strong that I had to moan through it and woke my husband. Immediately after I felt a warm gush and knew it had to be my waters breaking. I went to the toilet and had another very strong contraction and more water leaked out. I started timing them and they were already 3 min apart!

My husband started rushing to get everything in the car while I got ready. I cleaned up and packed some last minute toiletries but contractions were so strong I had to sit on my birth ball and breathe and moan through them. Since I had to stop so many times we didn’t get to the hospital until 3:45am. By then I was already 7cm and was begging for an epidural. With my first pregnancy I arrived at the hospital also at 7cm and decided not to get an epidural because I didn’t think the contractions could get much worse 😂 Even though I had planned to go without pain meds again, I assumed it could still be another couple hours and the pain would only get worse. In my mind I knew there wouldn’t be time for one, but being in such pain I was irrationally reaching out for any stop to the pain.

Well, the nurses in triage seemed to have no concern whatsoever and were taking their sweet time as I laid there in agony screaming as each contraction got stronger and stronger. So, I yelled, “I feel like I have to push!” and they finally got me into a delivery room. That was probably about 4:15am. When I got into the bed she checked me and I was at 10cm and they went into panic mode telling me not to push yet. Obviously I had no control over it. The next contraction pushed her into birth canal. They pulled in the in-house midwife and after pushing for less than 5 min my baby was in my arms by 4:30am. 😄

It was scary at the time because my mind really wasn’t prepared for it all to happen so quickly. But the relief when it was over coupled with the quick recovery made it worth it.

Apparently I had a precipitous labor which is any labor lasting less than 3 hours. I’m so grateful everything went smoothly and quickly. During the peak of pain I just tried breathing as slowly as I could, relaxing my face and remembering the pain is temporary and each contraction is bringing my baby closer to me. I reminded myself that my body is meant to do this and the pain is opening my body up more and more.

Best wishes to all of you who haven’t delivered yet. Whatever type of delivery you have, it’s all so worth it in the end. 💖