I tried answering all the questions that were asked in the initial thread I posted when I had the baby. Long, but enjoy...I figured I would post since she is 1 month old today!

I found out I was pregnant on the day my son turned ten months old. It was truly the biggest shock of my life! I was so shocked I didn’t tell my husband for over 24 hours. Once reality set in, I went to my doctor and via sonogram came up with an estimated due date of 3/8. My estimates predicted more like the last week in February, but after a couple months of sonograms they kept coming up with around 3/8.

I had a completely normal and in fact, much easier than my first pregnancy. At my weekly appointment on 2/13, my doctor checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 1, no big deal. With my son, I was dilated to a 1 and 100% effaced at 36 weeks, and I delivered him at 40 weeks. I was pre-registered at the hospital and had the car seat in, but go figure—didn’t have my hospital bag packed. I really thought I would have at least two more weeks.

My co-workers threw me a shower on Wednesday, February 19th. Everyone kept joking that once it was over I could go on maternity leave. I picked up my son from daycare around 5, and then went home and unloaded the car. I made him dinner (spaghetti—dumb choice…extremely pregnant and on the floor cleaning up spaghetti…). I gave him a bath and put him to bed by 7. It was a little ironic, I remember reading him a bedtime story and getting a little teary knowing it would be close to the end of him being my only baby.

I went back in the kitchen and started to organize my gifts from the shower. When I got finished with that, I got on the HB boards, paid some bills, and watched tv. I went to bed around 10 and read a book, and kept tossing and turning in bed. I felt a little crampy, mainly like I had to pass gas, but I was hugely pregnant and didn’t think anything of it.

For some reason I kept getting up to walk around the house. I didn’t think I would actually have the baby that night, and I had a doctor’s appointment at 9 in the morning. If anything was wrong, I would have just mentioned it to my doctor.

Around 11, I downloaded a contraction timer on my phone because I thought…okay, maybe I am having contractions. Truly though, the pain was so minor that I didn’t really think I would have much to time on the app.

I tossed and turned in bed and started casually using the contraction timer. At 11:02 p.m, I timed my first contraction lasting 52 seconds. At 11:12, I had another lasting 1 minute and 7 seconds. When I registered at the hospital, they said to make sure and come if my water broke or I was having 5 contractions in one hour, lasting one minute or more. I didn’t feel like I was at that point and wasn’t really in any pain, so I decided I would be fine since I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning. My next contraction was at 11:21, and lasted 1 minute and 12 seconds. I kept walking around the house, and at 11:26, I had another lasting 43 seconds. They were getting a little stronger in intensity so I decided to text a close friend that lives around the block to come watch my son since I was home alone. Truly, the pain was so minor I did not think I would have a baby that night. And yes…my husband was working 85 miles out of town, and I didn't even alert him.

I sent a text to a close friend saying something like “Are you up? I’m getting nervous. I feel like I’m having real contractions 8-10 minutes apart. If they get closer…like 5 minutes apart I’m going to L & D.” She texted me back less than 5 minutes later saying she would stay up and asking if she’d like me to come over. I texted her back saying no, it’s okay, don’t stay up and that I was afraid it was a false alarm. As soon as I sent that text, I got hit with a tidal wave of a contraction that had my legs completely shaking.

I sent her another text immediately that said to come over.

She came over within 5-10 minutes. By the time she arrived, I was on the floor of the kitchen on my hands and knees having another major contraction. This was probably about 11:40.
I told her we needed to go to the hospital and I ran back to the bedroom to get my barely-packed bag and grabbed a towel in case my water broke on the way. On the way back to the bedroom, I noticed I was bleeding. I ran back to the kitchen and said “Okay, we have to hurry.” She got in my car and called another friend to come watch my son, who fortunately was sleeping. I couldn’t even get in the passenger seat. I was on my hands and knees on the seat facing the rear view window. We pulled out of the neighborhood and about an 1/8th of a mile from the house (less than 2 minutes), in between intense contractions, I told her I didn’t think we would make it to the hospital because I had started that intense, gutteral pushing—where you just can’t stop. We both heard, and I felt my water break and pajama pants became soaked. I told her to pull the car over. She’s so funny—my friend, “I can’t pull the car over! You can’t have her here!” and she asked me what to do. I told her I WAS going to have her and to pull the car over and call 911.

I think I had my eyes closed, but I remember her telling the 911 dispatcher “I can’t hear you, I’m sorry, she’s screaming so loud,” and she got out of the car and came around to the passenger side. All of a sudden I felt the head come out and I threw my friend a towel I just happened to grab on the way out the door and said “CATCH HER!” and I felt my daughter’s whole body slide out onto the towel. Somehow I managed to stand up between the curb and the car, yanked my pants down and out she came! I heard her crying and there I am, on the side of the road, one block off a major interstate in front of someone’s house…standing up with a baby attached to me, pants down, thankfully I had a shirt on that was at least a little bit long. I am so glad it was late at night because it is a pretty busy road during the day.

The ambulance and fire truck arrived about two minutes after I delivered her (yay for an audience). They cut the cord and then loaded us up and took us to the hospital about 5 minutes away. It was just a surreal feeling in the ambulance holding my child who I just delivered on the side of the road. By the time I got up to labor and delivery, they fixed me up and took assessments on her. Her body temperature was 94 degrees, so she had to spend some extra time in the warmer, but was amazingly healthy other than that. I am so glad my instinct told me to grab a towel on the way out. My friend said she would have used her shirt had I not had the towel!

We had to debate her time of birth and sort of take a guess based on the time the 911 call was placed and when the ambulance arrived, and decided to call it at midnight. From the time I was sure I was having contractions until I delivered was only about 20 minutes.

At the hospital, my doctor came and the nurses took care of the baby and weighed and measured her. I delivered the placenta and had far less tearing than my first delivery. I felt amazing, and kept joking with my doctor and nurses about how crazy it was, what had just happened.

My husband didn’t get to the hospital until 4 am and had to drive extremely slow due to a severe dust storm that occurred a few hours later. It was a true blessing when I actually had her the weather was relatively mild, not windy, not extremely cold, no snow on the ground, etc. It’s hard to believe he missed her birth, but even had I called him as soon as I felt contractions, he wouldn’t have made it in town in time anyway.

I delivered my son in a little less than 3 hours, but we had no clue that she would come so incredibly quickly. We are just very blessed that everything turned out okay!

His birth story is here: http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/quickest-birth-story-ever#post-285191

Hilarious that I titled it “Quickest Birth Story Ever,” considering this one was even faster!