I was due in May and my daughter was born in March. I started labor on a Monday but because of modern medicine she wasnt born until Friday. On March 18, I went into preterm labor with my first child. I didn't know what was going on because I had been hearing so much about Braxton Hicks contractions, I thought thats what I was experiencing until the following day. When I got out of bed and my partner saw me on Tuesday, he told me to call the doctor because I looked white as a ghost. I had been contracting since 10pm the night before and hadnt slept well. The doctors had us come in, the first doctor I saw told me I was on 1cm dilated and had a very bad UTI turns out I was actually 4cm dialated. They had to transport me in a hospital to the regions NICU hospital after putting me on a muscle relaxant to slow down my labor. I was in so much pain that first day, but they didnt want to give me an epidural because they were trying to keep her in as long as possible since my water hadn't broken yet. When I got to the other hospital at 7pm on Tuesday, I was 5cm and they were preparing the room for me to have her that night. Thankfully, the medication they gave me worked and slowed down my labor, but they couldn’t have me on it too long and I was taken off it on Thursday morning. After being bed-ridden in the labor bed for a day and a half, I was ready to walk around, but i couldn’t yet because the ambiotic sac was bulging from my cervix and could rupture any minute if I wasn't careful. By that night I was contracting again, and by 2am I was 8 or 9cm and they gave me an epidural. I was able to get some sleep before pushing time which I was very grateful for. At 6:30am when the attending nurse came to check on me, I was still sleeping and my water had broken. According to my mom, who was in the room with me, I moaned when my water broke but hadn't woken up. They woke me up at 6:38am and told me it was time to start pushing. By 6:56am, my daughter was born, 6 weeks and 5 days early. It wasn't how me and my partner had planned it at all. The Sunday before this happened he and I had been talking about the possibility of me getting induced so that he could be there since he works night shift. She was 4lbs 5ozs and 16.9in when she was born, but she had a set of lungs on her from the beginning. I say that because the doctors had told me not to worry if I didn't hear her crying, but that girl screamed like there was no tomorrow. She ended up at the NICU for 39 days, and I know that doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but to me it felt like forever. I was going through post-partum depression because she wasn't at home with me and I was torn between being wuth her at the hospital and being at home with her dad, my partner. She was on and off Oxygen and her feeding tube, and when she finally did come home it was amazing. We weren't ready by any means, but she was home. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to share my experience. Thank you for reading if you've gotten to the end.