After YEARS of trying to get pregnant and, after a devastating loss, we finally got pregnant again with our rainbow baby. Everything went great. I was technically a "high risk" due to my age but my doctor had said everything was great. At 18w I got up to go to the bathroom and tripped over my own feet and fell. After an ER visit, ultrasound and check up they sent me home. I only gained 9lbs at my 25w appointment. Next thing you know I start swelling and retaining water and my limbs are going numb and I am PACKING on the lbs. Hurricane Irma hits, we were without power for 14days and I was retaining so much fluid that I couldn't feel my feet.. And I fell HARD like I was sliding head first into second base.. Off to the ER, again, at 33.5 weeks.. Everything was good and home. Next was bed rest starting at 34w because of the fluid retention and weight gain and at 34w I was 5cm dilated.

36 weeks baby was so low I was peeing myself, or so I thought, all the time.. Trickle trickle trickle.

36w 4d I went to the Dr because I had a bad feeling.. Not physical feeling.. But a weird "intuition"... Something wasn't right...

I get there, my BP was 175/89, I hadn't been peeing myself.. My water ruptured.. As she checked me, my water broke, I was a little over 7 cm dilated. She sends me straight to the hospital. I wasn't in any pain so I drove to get my husband from work and then we went to the hospital. It took us 45min to get there, they take us up and I was a little over 8cm. They get the anesthesiologist in for my epidural, which was the worst part of my entire birth. It doesn't work and they want to "try again" but I was scared and said no, take it away. My BP hits 198/115, I am having contractions, according to the nurses, but I didn't feel any.. Just some back aches.. Nothing major.

I hit 9.5 cm an hour later and then BAM... I felt the contractions. They were strong and hard but manageable. Deep breathing was my very best friend. I hit 10cm and my Dr said to wait, she would be there. 45min later, I am having contractions every 35seconds for a min each and my Dr is stuck in traffic. I wait... I hold her in.. I wait for the Dr. My husband is having a small heart attack... Lol.. 35min later, they tell me she is in the parking lot and they want to put me in the stirrups.. I tell them that if I open my legs baby is coming out... So they let me wait for the Dr.

Dr comes in, gowns up, sits down like Johnny Bench and tells me to push...

3 pushes.. A total of 45 seconds... And our baby girl was here. I didn't "wait" when Dr said to, so they could turn her, so I tore.. A Lot.. In a few places including my urethra. I didn't care.. As soon as I heard my baby girl cry.. I was done for. I was crying and I just wanted to feel her on me. Come to find out, her cord was so short my husband had to go down to the "war zone" to cut her cord and then they put her on me and I felt whole for the very first time in my life.

Alison Elizabeth was born on Oct 3rd at 431pm. She weighed 6lbs and 7oz and was 19 inches long even.

In a few days she will be 11 months old... I didn't realize, even though everyone told me, that it would go by so fast. She is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. After all those years of "unexplained infertility" I finally had what Drs told me would probably never happened. God had his plan and had his time and he sent her at the best time for us.

PS... Between 25w and 36.4 w I had gained 75lbs 😮 hahaha