XP: My extremely fast birth story

On the night of June 25, 2009 I began having sporadic contractions beginning at around 10 pm. I assumed the contractions were Braxton hicks contractions since they were not painful and did not come in any pattern.  I began timing them and the contractions got closer together every single time I had a contraction. I had one contraction, another 20 minutes later, another 16 minutes later, another 10 minutes later, and then 5 minutes later. The contractions were not painful at all, but I couldn?t sleep so I just sat up in bed and read for a little while. At 1:50 AM, I got up from bed intending to empty my bladder hoping that it would stop what I thought were Braxton hicks contractions. Once I stood up from bed, I felt a pop and my water broke.

                I told Shaun that my water had broken and we called the doctor, grabbed our hospital bag, and left for the hospital. We rushed to the hospital because I tested positive for Group B strep and was instructed to get antibiotics within an hour of my water breaking. During the car ride to the hospital, my contractions were coming every 3 minutes. They were painful, but I was able to breathe through them at this point.

                We arrived at the hospital and I was admitted into the labor and delivery at around 2:30 am. I was worried because they hadn?t started giving me antibiotics yet, but the nurse assured me that I shouldn?t worry because I probably had a long way to go. Nobody checked me for dilation, but I had the feeling I was going to have the baby very soon. I started experiencing extremely painful contractions and back labor and asked the nurse for an epidural. The doctor soon came in and performed an internal and told me I was already 10 cm dilated, couldn?t have an epidural, and had to push now. I pushed for about 15 minutes, and David Owen came into the world at 4:09 AM on June 26^th, 2009 weighing 6 Pounds, 8 ounces and 18 ? in length. I had to get stitches for a 3^rd degree tear, but was able to hold him and breastfeed him soon after birth. He is absolutely wonderful and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing little boy.

                Unfortunately, because I only received about half of the antibiotic for group b strep by the time David was born, they had to put him in the intensive care unit for the duration of our hospital stay to run tests and observe him. Luckily, he is fine and came home with us on June 29^th, 2009.

 First Family Photo:

 Little David: