My daughter was born on Sunday, May 2nd, around 4:30 a.m. At the time, I was a little over 38 weeks and never thought I would get that far. In fact, my doctor had kept telling me he would be very surprised if I didn’t go into labor a week earlier.

It wasn’t until Sunday morning at 3:00 a.m., when I went to get my 4 year-old daughter from bed, that the contractions began.  I called my parents to come get my other daughter, because I didn’t want her to see me in a lot of discomfort and get scared. While waiting for my parents, I took a shower to ease the pain and avoid my daughter having to watch me endure the contractions. In the shower the contractions were coming on sporadically.  Sometimes they were really close together but not consistent.

By the time my parents got to the house, the contractions were coming very close together, but since I was trying to get my daughter ready to go with my parents, we hadn’t been able to time them. So we had no idea exactly how close they really were. My doctor had told me to wait till the contractions were about 5 minutes apart for a few hours to make sure it was the real deal. Since my first delivery was 33 hours long, I figured I would definitely have a couple of hours.

Ready, set, go!

As soon as my oldest daughter was gone we timed a couple of contractions and they were 2 minutes apart.  That’s when my husband called the doctor’s answering service so they could page him and tell him we were leaving for the hospital. We live 45 minutes from the hospital and I wasn’t looking forward to the drive, which is why I stopped to go to the bathroom before we headed out. Just then, as I was going to the bathroom, I felt a large release and then a very strong urge to push. I called out to my husband and told him I was worried that I needed to push and that I thought our daughter was coming now and wasn’t going to wait for the hospital.

After hearing this, my husband called 911 and the very nice dispatcher told my husband to get some towels and a shoe string. At this point I was squatting, feeling my body changing to make way for Madelyn.  And after just one contraction, the head was out.

My husband was trying to get me to lay down on the floor so he could help me. But just like that — with the 911 dispatcher on the phone and another contraction on its way — our daughter was born. We cleaned off her eyes and her head and all I could do was hold her and just smile. Thankfully, we live very close to the rescue squad. The ambulance arrived very quickly and was at our house just a few minutes after the baby arrived. Once there, the rescue squad members cut the cord and helped me deliver the placenta. The baby arrived just an hour and half after my contractions started.

Luckily, everything went smoothly and there were no complications. And after the placenta was delivered we all made our way to the hospital to be checked out. The baby was perfect and I only required a few stitches.

I had fully intended on a birth in the hospital and with drugs but I wouldn’t change a thing about how things went. My husband did an amazing job and helped me bring our beautiful daughter into the world.