Our beautiful baby girl is here and we are officially a family of four! As I’m writing this post, she is almost one month old. Today I’m sharing our birth story.

On Tuesday, February 5th I reluctantly got out of bed and ready for work. I had to be at the office early for a two hour seminar. By the time I got to the office, I was exhausted and it wasn’t even 7:30 am. Not only was I tired, but my lower back was hurting. More than anything I just wanted to be at home in bed. At this point, I was 38 weeks and 6 days pregnant. As my due date approached, I found myself becoming more even more emotional and anxious.

Prior to the start of the work seminar, people kept commenting about my pregnancy and asking how I was feeling. Every time someone acknowledged me and the pregnancy, I was literally on the verge of tears. It was so hard to hold myself together. I was tired and overwhelmed.

I left that seminar a few minutes early and as I was walking back to my desk I broke down in tears. The fatigue, emotions, and back pain were all too much. I just wanted to go home. I called my husband and then my doctor. I talked to a nurse and she mentioned I should try laying down and monitoring the back pain, looking for signs of any consistent contractions.

I needed to get home, but my manager did not feel comfortable with me driving myself so she and another coworker took me home. On the way to my house, I started having some contractions, but they weren’t painful. By the time I got home, the contractions were happening every 3 to 4 minutes. I called the doctor again and was told to come to the hospital for a labor check. I thought this it. We were getting closer to meeting our baby girl.

Once we arrived in labor and delivery triage, I was hooked up to monitors and vitals were taken. The nurse checked me and I was only 1 cm dilated. I was monitored in triage for about an hour. Nothing happened. The contractions didn’t get stronger, in fact they stopped. We were sent home. To say I was disappointed was an understatement, especially since I had been having contractions off and on for a few days.

The next day, I woke up feeling normal (or as normal as you can feel being 39 weeks pregnant). I worked from home and had a productive day. Later that afternoon, I had an OB appointment.

At my appointment, my doctor checked me and I was 2, almost 3 cm dilated. After she left the room, I started getting dressed and then I felt a trickle of fluid run down my leg. I looked down and there were two very small puddles on the floor. My husband saw it too. Did my water just break???

We called the doctor back in. She checked me, but couldn’t tell it my water actually broke. She said if I continued to feel like I was leaking fluid that I needed to go to labor and delivery to get checked.

In the hour following my appointment, I continued to feel as if I was leaking fluid. I knew it was best to head to the hospital to get checked.

In the hour or so it took for us to leave the house, drop our son off at my parents house and get to the hospital, I started having contractions. Again, they weren’t very painful, but they felt consistent. Once I got to labor and delivery triage and hooked up to the monitors, it was clear that I was having contractions every 3 to 4 minutes, but they weren’t strong enough because I was able to talk right through them as the nurses asked me questions. A test was done to see if my water broke and then we had to wait about an hour for the results. If my water did break, we would be staying and having a baby. If it didn’t, we would be going back home.

As we waited in triage, I prayed that my water did in fact break and for stronger contractions…really anything to indicate that I was in labor. I was ready to have my baby.

The nurse returned with the test results. My water broke! On top of that, my contractions were getting stronger. We would soon be meeting our baby girl. My first labor and delivery experience was so fast, so I wasn’t sure what to expect this time around.

As labor progressed, my contractions started to get more painful, but I remained at about 3 cm dilated for a while. The only thing I wanted to do was lay in the bed and try to breathe through the contractions.

A couple of hours into labor, baby girl’s heartbeat began to decline and it was difficult for the nurse to monitor her. I was given fluid and oxygen while a nurse tried to place a fetal monitor on baby girl’s head. During that process, my water broke even more. I remember feeling a huge gush of fluid. The nurse wasn’t able to place the monitor, but eventually baby girl was stabilized.

After my water broke, I started to experience labor shakes, uncontrollable shivering and trembling. It literally felt like I was having a seizure and I had no control over my body. The nurse assured me this was normal and just the result of a fluctuation in hormones as I was transitioning through labor. On top of that, the contractions were coming one after the other and were getting more and more painful.

I could no longer endure the pain and my body was exhausted so I opted for an epidural. With my son, I didn’t have time for an epidural so I didn’t know what to expect. The epidural process went smooth and my pain quickly subsided. I was finally able to rest, but not for long.

I quickly progressed to 10 cm and was ready to push. When the doctor arrived, we could see the top of baby girl’s head. I only pushed about two times and she was born.

Skylar Rae made her debut at 12:22 am on February 7th, weighing 8 lbs 6 oz and measuring 19.5 inches long.