My Water Broke and Baby Boy Came Early

Friday, August 23rd 2024

In the afternoon I was extremely tired and was just trying to keep Teddi busy, so I let her play in the shallow end of the pool. I was lifting her in and out of the pool a lot and it was 105* degrees in Austin so I was melting after 45 minutes in the pool. I had to pee so I went to the bathroom with Teddi. After peeing I take two or three steps out of the front bathroom and then… at 4:00pm my water broke. It gushed all over the floor like a waterfall and I knew it wasn’t pee, because it was clear and I just used the bathroom. I was kind of in disbelief, but every step I slowly took gush after gush of water poured out of me like little cups of water being spilled all over my floor.

I texted Nick “my water just broke” and he rushed home from downtown.

I was watching Teddi and laughing, because I realized I was a week early from my planned C-section and I hadn’t packed a hospital bag! I call my OBGYN and asked if I have 20 min or an hour before I needed to head to the hospital? She said I have like 15-20 minutes, but I wasn’t in pain so I just took that as a guideline – plus I needed to wait for Nick to come home anyway.

My dad was down the street and luckily came over to watch Teddi as I packed my hospital bag. I randomly threw in necessities  I’m so ill prepared, but I did pick out a cute going home outfit for baby boy, his name sign, and laid out an outfit for Teddi to meet her brother.

I hopped into the shower to shave my legs and just freshed up after my water breaking and sweating outside. Then Nick got home and we headed to the hospital! It’s 5:30 and in the car we listened to All Time Low and a bunch of Warped Tour bands which made me laugh and was a favorite. I told Nick I was bummed he wasn’t born on the 30th of August, because then he and Teddi would both be born on the 30th of their month – so it’s easier for me to remember since I’m forgetful  Nick’s response “I love that he is going to be born on a 23 – it’s Michael Jordan’s number.” Then contractions start in the car and I feel like I’m about to poop from the pressure. That is probably too much information, but last time I had a baby I was induced so I didn’t get to feel my water break or natural contractions, so this was pretty cool.

Got checked into the hospital by 6pm and by that time my contractions were painful and 5 minutes apart. I was crying in the elevator up in pain and had to hold Nick’s hand. I think I was a little in shock that labor happened so quickly so when the nurses came in with the paperwork to check me in for my c-section it was hard to catch my breath between tears. The nurse checked and confirmed my water did break and then checked how dilated I was and could feel baby boys feet.

The doctors moved quickly to get me prepped, I got a spinal epidural, and was whisked away into the operating room! Our little man was born within 30 minutes and Nick was so sweet holding my hand on the top half of the blue surgical curtain.

Born 7:08 pm, when the doctor pulled him out – he was already peeing everywhere from the moment he took his first breath. Since he was breached, he didn’t cry at first which the doctor warned me about. They let Nick cut the umbilical cord and all Nick kept saying was, “ he is SO big!” And he was right! Little man weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz – and he was technically 2 weeks early from full term at 40 weeks (which would have been Sept 7th). The doctor said that he literally pushed all of the water out of me & that there was none left – which makes sense because I had been leaking on the floor and leaving a trail like a snail for the past hour and a half. But baby boy was here! A full head of hair, ten fingers, and ten toes. I was shivering in the O.R. and was just happy that Nick said he was doing great. They sewed me up and took care of my keloid from the last c-section, then we were rolled away to this temporary monitoring room where they keep mama’s after a c-section before taking them to their longer term overnight hospital room.

Monday – Discharge day

Christian was getting his bath before heading home in the hospital nursery. Nick and I had a sweet quiet moment just us two in the hospital room before Teddi comes up to meet her brother and we started playing music. And on comes on “Little Boy Blue and the Man on the moon” and we just teared up singing the lyrics to each other in calm of the morning. We had a little Mickey stuffed animal and Mickey Mouse book waiting for Teddi to help making the first time she met her brother smoother and it really helped! She is scared of hospitals and was crying when she entered the room to meet Christian, but the second she saw Mickey Mouse and we started reading to her, she calmed down and smiled as she met her brother. We left the hospital by 11am on that Monday as a happy family of four.