My waters broke at 1pm, almost on the dot, on my husbands birthday. I was sitting on a stool to rearrange the contents of our freezer, when I stood up and *pop*! Thank goodness I was at home and on hard flooring. Every time I moved more water was released, so I sat still, called my husband who was thankfully working nearby, and waited for him to come home and bring me a stash of towels. I called my midwife to let her know, and as there were no contractions or other signs of labour progressing, I stayed at home, and my husband went back to work.
I called my parents, who were in Auckland, and they jumped in the car to come down. It was Friday afternoon after all, such good timing!
I don't really remember much else happening until around 7pm when I was on the phone to my midwife. I hadn't felt the baby move in a while, and while I wasn't feeling alarmed about it, we decided it was best to head to the hospital to check that baby was still fine. No birthday dinner for my husband this year!
At the hospital, the monitors showed lots of movement, and my husband could feel it, but I just couldn't. We stayed at the hospital under the instruction of the Obstetrician, and contractions picked up around 9.30pm. I started recording them on an app on my phone. I must have transitioned in to active labour around 10.30-11pm as that's when I stopped recording, and around when we moved to the delivery suite. None of the medical staff had expected my birth to move that quickly, even though we'd told them that my family history is of quick births. I was a first time birther, so medically, there was no real precedent to go by.
Turns out, I was just like the rest of my family, and baby was born vaginally, with no complications, no time for pain relief (except for an offering of the gas, which I did not enjoy), at 27minutes past midnight on the 29th Feb 🙂
