A couple of days before the big event, I did experience a couple of strong contractions. Ones that were strong enough that I grabbed Eric’s arm while they happened. But once the one contraction was over, I wouldn’t experience another for an entire day or more. I carried on my days as usual – full of back pain and a TON of pelvic pressure.

Then, on Monday, August 20th, I got up from sitting in a hot board room for a meeting and noticed my underwear felt pretty wet. I had been losing my mucus plug for a week prior to this day, so I didn’t think much of it. I also thought it was sweat from being hot throughout the meeting. I changed when I got home and nothing happened that evening or through the night.

The next day, I went to work with no painful contractions, but fairly strong (what I thought were) Braxton Hicks contractions. I sit at a desk throughout most of my day, and that day I noticed a slight leaking feeling when I would get up from my chair. I brushed it off the first couple of times but then started to wonder if it was my water that broke. It was always described to me as a gush or slow trickle, and what was happening was neither. So, (naturally) I Googled, “Can your water break without you knowing.” One of the first things that made me quickly decide that my water could be broken was an article that said it was really possible for this to happen, especially if the baby was sitting really low. Eva had been sitting really low for months. Babies can actually cut off the flow of the water if they are sitting that low. Water may not flow out until the baby shifts in the right directions.

Luckily, I had my scheduled doctor’s appointment that day, but called them to see if they wanted me to come in earlier. I described what was going on and they said I could wait the couple of hours until my appointment. Once we got to the doctor’s office, she swabbed me for amniotic fluid. It tested positive and we were sent directly up to the hospital. My doctor told us that it could have been a high tear in my water bag, which explained the occasional trickle. Thankfully, we went home to grab our bags before we went to the appointment.

It was weird walking into the hospital with no painful or strong contractions. I kept looking at Eric and telling him that it was bizarre and he kept telling me he was glad that we were going in relaxed. With Lydia, I labored all morning before we went in and I was in a lot of pain before I was admitted.

Once we were admitted, I got all hooked up with an IV answered the 100,000 questions the nurses had for me and started walking the halls. I did get a dose of antibiotics as there was a chance that I had been ruptured for over 24 hours. At this point the also mentioned that pitocin might be needed to get things moving. To avoid that, I started doing squats while I walked the halls. I did this for a couple of hours, talked to the nurses about the timing of an epidural and waited for the doctor to tell us what her plan was going to be. She mentioned to a nurse that she was going to try and break the rest of my water to see if that would put me more into labor. I asked if I decided to get an epidural, if I should get it before or after she broke my water. I was told there was not guarantee that breaking my water would speed up labor. Because of that I waited on an epidural because I wanted to be able to walk around if it didn’t work.

Around 10:00 pm, the doctor came in and broke the rest of my water. I went from being dilated to 6 centimeters to 10 in about 20 minutes and the pain was terrible. The nurse called the anesthesiologist and he made it to our room relatively fast. With Lydia, I was dilated to a 5 when I got my epidural. From what I can remember, these contractions were so much more painful. I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to hold still while the placed the epidural. So thankful for Eric during that process. He talked me through all the contractions while they were working on my back. The last contraction I had before they finished I felt like I had to push. Once I told them that, they laid me back immediately after the epidural was complete. My contractions got less and less painful within five minutes.

Five minutes was all I had before the doctor came in and told me to start pushing. Eva’s head was so low already that after my first round of pushes, they gave me a break and told me I only need to push once or twice more before she would officially join the world. Everyone told me the second one would come a lot faster, and she did. I pushed for about two minutes and a total of five times before the delivery was complete. If I would have know I only had about 30-40 minutes longer, I may have skipped the epidural. One of the nurses told me that if I would have skipped it, I would have only had to push once or twice before the delivery was complete.

Despite the incredible pain, it is truly breathtaking how quickly it all goes. I still look at Eva today – three weeks later – and can’t believe she is actually here. Eric and I have been blessed with two easy going pregnancies and two safe deliveries and we couldn’t be more thankful. I am so grateful for my husband who always tries to make me laugh, even when the pain was intolerable. He does whatever it takes to make me smile and thank goodness I have that in my life to help me face any challenge I have. This birth story may seem uneventful to some, but we are happy about that!

Ask me, or tell me anything about this story or yours in the comments!