Talia's Birth Story (Part 1)

Wed, 5/11/2011 – 40w2d

I noticed that “Waffle” was more active than usual as we watched TV and got ready for bed. I started having a sharp stabbing pain that felt like if I didn't go to the bathroom RIGHT THEN that my bladder would explode. Off to the bathroom I went, but as usual, not much happened. Then, as I got ready to stand up, I felt a small pop and a little leaking. At first, I thought it had just been a gas bubble because when it popped I had a huge relief of pressure in my lower abdomen. And I thought the leaking was just me needing to pee more because “Waffle” had moved (also thinking this had changed the pressure feeling). I sat there for a minute and felt some more leaking, but just a trickle. I also noticed it had a warm sensation. All of a sudden I had a flashback to when my water had broken in my first birth, and it occurred to me that maybe that's what had happened. It was 10:15 PM. Since amniotic fluid has a distinct smell (or lack there-of), I checked for it. The fluid on the toilet paper had no color, and it had that musky, sterile smell. I was pretty sure what it was, but I was still in denial that it was happening again.

I ran to the computer, hoping one of my doulas was still online and that I could check in with her there instead of having to call or text message since it was so late in the evening. I was SO happy to discover that Nichole was on Facebook. I quickly messaged her and we discussed the situation. I told her I thought my water had broken, but that I just didn't feel sure because if it did it was a slow leak (as opposed to the dramatic gush I experienced with my first birth). She had me check and see if I could tell where the fluid was coming from. While I was following her suggestion I felt a small gush (like my bladder releasing, but without the sensation) and my hand was suddenly covered in fluid. Once again, I smelled it. Yep, it had that “smell”. I ran back to the computer to report my findings. We talked about whether I wanted to tell anyone (including Joel) about what was going on. I decided not to call the midwives (because I already knew they had a pretty generous 48 hour PROM policy, so I had plenty of time to do things on my own before they needed to be involved), but decided to talk to Joel about making other calls.

I went back to the bedroom and woke up Joel (who had fallen asleep waiting for me), and told him what happened. At first, he got really excited, but then he quickly calmed down and remembered how long our experience was with our first birth. We discussed calling my parents, since they were going to come stay with Eli. We decided to call them and tell them to leave in the morning, since they had a 7 hour drive. I called two of my back-up babysitters to try to give them a heads-up in case we needed them in the middle of the night, but neither one answered their phone. I figured I would deal with that if it became necessary, which it never did.

We went to bed, and of course, my husband was asleep within 30 seconds. He always is. I turned on my Hypnobabies nightly tracks – starting with “Baby Come Out” (which I had been listening to for two days) and did my best to get some sleep. I knew we had a long road ahead of us.