The clock starts

When your water breaks the clock starts. Many OB doctors want the baby born within 12 hours. I didn't feel contractions when my water broke. Only 10 percent of women start labor by their waters breaking. The best part about my water breaking to start labor is that we knew I was in labor. The worst part was that we had to go to the hospital right away. I could not labor at home or take a bath to relax like I had planned. I even scrubbed the tub while nesting on Wednesday evening.

I called my OB to let her know. She instructed us to head to the hospital right away. I called my birth instructor. We made it to the hospital within one hour. I got hooked up the machine for a 20 minute strip. My nurse said I did have contractions about 4 minutes apart. She wanted to put me on Pit right away to get stuff started. We said that we preferred to walk the halls a while to start contractions. Andy and I walked for a few hours in between being hooked up the machine and getting checked. At about 4:20am, I was progressing slowly. My OB and nurse agreed to put me on Pit at that time because I was up against the clock. Being hooked to the Pit included an IV and me to stay in bed. Pit contractions were not fun. At one point, I asked the nurse to turn off the Pit because I didn't know my body. Andy said that I acted totally different once the Pit contractions started. My body wanted to push at 8cm. The nurse didn't let me push. I finally got fully dilated at 7:45am and was able to push.

I pushed for 20 minutes and he was here. My nurse did call my OB once I got to 10 cm. She did not arrive in time for the delivery. The nurse had to call in a resident to deliver our son because I was going so fast. Pushing was the easiest part of the labor.

Andy did a wonderful job as a coach. It was an amazing experience that I was so happy to share this with him.

Now we have a terrific son to start our family.