My due date was officially August 5th. But as has always happened with the women in my family, I was kind of expecting to go two weeks early. I even made a bet with my dad that I would go by Friday, July 25th. My last day of work was slated to be the following Saturday, and I really didn't expect to be there that day!
On the evening of Wednesday, July 23, I went to do my usual grocery shopping. And I noticed that not only was I buying more than I usually did, I was practically stocking up, which I didn't really think anything of, because I was doing it "just in case." Just in case I would go into labor and we would need a twelve-pack of Brawny paper towels...
I went to bed that at about 11:00 that night, not feeling anything unusual. I woke up at 3:00 for one of my usual bathroom runs. I noticed when I used the bathroom that fluid was coming out and I really wasn't having to relax my bladder muscles. I went back to bed, and woke up at 3:30 to go to the bathroom again. As soon as I stood up and started walking, I felt a gush of fluid, enough to startle me and make me wonder if this was my water breaking. So I called the hospital and told one of the nurses on the maternity floor what had happened, and she told me that it might have indeed been what I thought, and to go ahead and get my things together and come in within the hour. So I woke my very sleep-deprived and cranky husband up, got dressed (my bags I had packed just the evening before), and ate some toast. I remember at our prenatal classes that if you are very early in labor, it doesn't hurt to eat something light because you might not be able to for a while. So then we headed to the hospital, which is about two minutes from our house. I had pre-registered, so we checked in and headed upstairs. After donning my lovely pink gown that revealed my entire butt (and throwing my modesty out the window), they had me lie down on the table, strapped the fetal monitor and the monitor that measures the contractions, and did a paper strip test to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid. To my dismay, the nurse said that it "didn't look like the bag of waters broke yet." But they kept me on the monitors while they paged my doctor. I still wasn't having any contractions or even mild pain, just the occasional very strong Braxton Hicks. So my husband and I watched "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" on TV while dozing off. I kept feeling little gushes of fluid every once in a while, and once the nurse came back in with the go-ahead from the doctor to send me home, I told her about these gushes and she said she would check me again. And, behold! I was truly leaking amniotic fluid this time! Yay! So I was told that I would be kept on the monitors while my doctor was paged again, and if I didn't have any real contractions for a while that I would probably be given Pitocin and be induced that day. So I thought to myself, "Today, July 24th, will be my daughter's birthday." I was growing really excited. It was now about a quarter til six in the morning, and I went ahead and called my mom, just to let her know that she would become a grandmother (or Grammy) later that day!
