Week 37 and 4days, at 2:30 AM I though I heard glass breaking so I went downstairs (after justin and the dogs checked it out first). I saw the problem, the cat had knocked her bowl down. I bent down to clean it up and when I stood up a gush of water came out! I was positive my water had broken. I continued to leak for about 12 hours. Tanya and Bess (my midwives) came to check on me And bring my birth tub. The next morning I still hadn’t had contractions. I talked to my midwives and we decided I needed to have An ultrasound. The ultrasound place opened at 9 AM. I headed there after going by Bess’s house in the morning to hear the baby’s heart beat. No one was at ultrasona at 9 AM. I called and left a message on their voicemail and I sat in the parking about 20 minutes. My mom and I went and got some breakfast then we went back because the Facebook page said they opened at 10. No one was there by 10:30 so I went home. I had a chiropractor appointment at 11 got adjusted and at 11:25 Tanya called me and said she wanted to come check me out. At 11:35 I got a call from ultrasonic that said that they were now there now and that they start opening at 11 30 on Thursdays (by thus point I was nearly hysterical because I was worry the baby was going to get an infection). Tanya and Bess came out checked on me, listened to the baby-everything looked good- Tanya left and Bess and I went and got the ultrasound. I didn’t even look at the ultrasound screen because I was afraid that it would reveal too much of something. I didn’t find out how much the baby weighed or anything; I actually had them turn off the screen. Everything was good with the baby, here there was plenty of amniotic fluid left and I immediately calmed down. I went home with the idea that I can going to labor that weekend or sometime in the next month. Three days later my little brother was leaving to start a big adventure, so my mom asked him if he would help her slaughter her two turkeys. I was so excited about this because I’d never slaughtered turkeys, so I helped! (Also I had been loosing my mucus plug all day). I helped my mom build a table, I cooked one of the turkeys and I made green bean casserole and mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and rolls. (Apparently my burst of energy was to single handedly make thanksgiving dinner). The next morning I got up with the intention to go visit my grandpa in Cleveland (he was in the hospital). Johnny was leaving so I decided to go to my parents house to say goodbye. He was supposed to leave at 10, but didn’t end up leaving till 11 so we all hung out together until 11 o’clock. I left my parents house and went and bought my grandpa couple books from target and some Pringles and I got on the road. I drove 25 min and stopped for gas. I started to pump gas and immediately my water broke and it wasn’t like a tiny gush it was like a super huge gush of water and makes the first time feel like silliness. This water just kept coming out and I was standing there at the gas station getting soaking wet. I called Justin because he just text messaged me so I was hoping he still had his phone and I told him that I was 100% sure my water just broke and that he should keep his phone close but don’t worry about coming home from work right away (he works an hour away). I called Tanya and my mom. (My mom she said she thought that was my burst of energy she didn’t even know I lost my mucous plug she was pretty sure that I was gonna going to labor on Monday). So I drove home, sitting on a towel and sweatshirt that I got out of the back of the car- by the time I got home I was so soaking wet, my pants were soaked all the way down to my knees the towel and jacket were both pretty wet also but my seat didn’t get wet. I came in the house and called my mom and I had her bring me some things for the weddings that I had to work on for the weekend (I’m a florist and I need hundred tiny terrariums). Around 230p I started to feel cramping nothing serious but I called Justin to let him know and told them not to hang out after work, that he should come straight home. Around 730 or 800p I started to have actual contractions they were mild but I had never experienced anything like this, so I was a little bit stressed out. I should’ve gotten more sleep than I did that night. My contractions were never regular, I’d have one that lasted 30 seconds and have a minute break and then I have one that lasted five minutes and I have two minute break, etc. my longest contraction was 12 minutes long (it varied between really strong and not as strong). My mom got here at midnight. She said she didn’t want to miss anything but she didn’t let us know she was coming so she got locked out of the house and she couldn’t get in because we turn our cell phones off. Justin just happened to look outside and see that she was here, because the dogs were barking. She slept on the couch. At 6a Justin called the midwives to let them know I felt like it was getting really hard and they said if I was still talking between contractions then I wasn’t ready yet. I thought that was ridiculous but they were definitely right we called about an hour after that and I told Kelly I needed her to come. She got there around 830a and checked my dilation, I was 7cm. Some point between 830 and 1030 Bess and Tanya came. My contractions were consistently irregular to make it feel better I moved from the tub, to the couch, to the shower, I sat on the toilet, I walked around. I did everything that was suggested to me- I kept my face as relaxed as possible, I kept my sounds really low pitched. It was really hard. I had very, very bad heartburn even water was hard for me to take down water. The midwives thought that I was getting dehydrated which was slowing my labor, so I drink as much as I could, ate some applesauce and a Popsicle around noon they checked me again and said I was almost complete. there was a little lip of cervix left. They gave me some kind of Root something to help the contractions and I walked around quite a bit to keep them coming. After another hour I felt like I just couldn’t do it for one more second so they checked me again they said that I could try pushing the baby past the lip of cervix. I sat on the birthing stool to start. every time I would have a contraction I would be pushing. they checked the baby’s heart rate in between each contraction and eventually they said I couldn’t be on the stool, I had to lay on my left side. Justin was by my head, he helped hold my leg and encouraged me. I pushed for 58 minutes and I thought labor was the hardest thing ever- turns out that it was pushing out a tiny human. Finally she came out! She was posterior, and Tanya said “oh no wonder you had such a hard labor”. It’s amazing though, I was so exhausted, I was sleeping in between pushing and as soon as she came out they set her on my chest and I was Wide awake. I asked why she was the color she was. Kelley said that was normal. Justin said “it’s a little girl?” we didn’t realize we were both thinking we were having a boy until a little girl came out. We held her for about an hour I decided to take a shower. Justin cut the umbilical cord. Justin took Elliott and laid on the couch and fell asleep while I took a shower. After my shower they checked her over, five fingers, five toes and she had the reflexes she needed. They said they were shocked that my water broke because of how strong my Bag still was. After all that, we took a family nap. The next day we picked her name:: Elliott Francis
