My son is 7 weeks old now and I'm finally able to tell my story.

My birthday was August 24th. My husband asked me how I wanted to spend it. With a very busy 7 year old already and being 34 weeks pregnant, I told him I just wanted to go eat at my favorite restaurant and for him to handle being "mom" that day. I needed a nap. He obliged. It was just like any other day, no issues/pains. About 2 am, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I got up and went, then felt like I was going to be sick. Vomited a couple times. I just couldn't shake the feeling that my body was trying to tell me something. So I called the on call doctor. She told me to drink some water over the next hour and call her back if things didn't resolve. Yeah, super helpful. Screw that, I'm exhausted. I chug a couple bottles of water and went to lay down. I went from having no contractions at all to having them a minute apart and a minute long as well as back labor. GREAT. So I wake up my husband and let him know what is going on. (It takes him a bit to fully wake up, and I just knew we would have to be leaving soon at this rate). Then, it happens. "Babe, my water just broke." I get up and waddle back to the bathroom and turn on the light. Let me tell you, there is nothing in the world that can prepare you for expecting to see clear liquid and instead seeing bright red blood everywhere. I call my husband in and tell him to call his parents so they can come sit with our 7 year old and then I tell him to call my mom (former paramedic), she will know what to do. Obviously, she tells him to call an ambulance. By now, I've been in the bathroom bleeding for 5 minutes and have already bled through 3 night time maxi pads. Called the on call doctor back and told her what was going on. She tells me to go to the nearest hospital and to NOT try and make it to her (an hour away). Okie doke. So the ambulance gets there and they get things moving quickly. (At this point I'm still under the impression that my baby is still in breech position.) I inform them of the baby's position and they move even quicker. We get to the nearest hospital 30 minutes away in under 20. There was a nurse with a badge at every door and another holding the elevator door open. All I can think is "well shit, I've seen this episode of Grey's Anatomy." When I get to my triage room, there are 4 nurses and a doctor waiting with an ultrasound machine. I was dreading this moment, convinced there would be nothing there. He found a heartbeat! He checked my cervix and says "you're dilated to a 4, let's have a baby!" Pulls his hand out, along with a gush of blood..."um, someone get an OR ready NOW." Very reassuring..he says the baby is no longer breach but it seems I was experiencing a placental abruption and have already lost a great deal of blood. I would also be prepared for a transfusion. We get to the OR and my son was born at 5:06am on August 25th. 6 weeks early but healthy as could be at 5lb 10oz 18in. The children's hospital was already on their way as the delivering hospital was not equipped to handle a baby born so prematurely. As soon as the baby was out, I started experiencing excessive vomiting and a panic attack. I was given a cocktail of sedatives and everything was a blur until they brought my baby in so I could see him before he left, even that is a little fuzzy. He was stable, breathing on his own, and already had quite the set of lungs. He was transported downtown while i stayed behind and I experienced his first 2 days of life solely through pictures and facetime. My absolute worst nightmare. My delivering OB released me 48 hours later to be with my son. We were in the NICU for 13 days and he's healthy as he could be. I later learned that I had lost about a liter and a half of blood and that if I had weighed my prepregnancy weight, that alone would have killed me. Much less if I would have tried to get to my hospital I was supposed to deliver at. Thanking the good Lord for all those extra cheeseburgers i didn't skip lol. But for now, i am so grateful that i am in tune with my body enough to know when something is wrong and now I have a beautiful baby boy.

I have had a bout of PPD and PTSD. But overall, no lasting physical damage.

Meet Jackson Gregory❤