3.7 Alexandra The day I became a Mom

The morning of December 5th, 2018, started uneventfully while heading to work. The thought of having my daughter the very next day wasn't something I would have expected.

I worked till mid-afternoon to go home and further prepare myself and home for a baby girl that wasn't due for another three weeks at least. I had continuous back pain throughout the day but thought nothing of it. It wasn't until five pm that night that I worried perhaps something was wrong with the baby as I couldn't feel her anymore.

In a panic, I called the hospital struggling to keep myself sane and telling myself "She's fine, she's okay.". When they finally transferred me to a nurse she calmed me down and said I probably wasn't able to feel her because of whatever was going on with my back.

"It's better to be safe than sorry, come and get checked out." The nurse informed me over the phone.

I called my mom to meet me about half an hour later to carpool to the hospital. When I arrived the nurses checked my daughter's heartbeat and watched my contractions for about an hour. They told me everything was good and prepared me to be released back home.

I was surprised I was having any sort of contractions that would even show up on the machine but the way the nurses seemed to dismiss it made me feel like that was normal and probably meant nothing as far as productive labor goes.

 I started planning dinner for that night and talking with my mom about what stores we should stop at the next day when we were to go shopping at the mall of America. I had planned out my Christmas shopping list for several different stores so I could finish wrapping all the gifts before the baby was to come.

The midwife stopped in just to check how I was doing before she signed off on the release form.

It was at that moment when the look of shock crossed my midwife's face that I knew my night probably would not be going the way I planned.

"You are over halfway through labor! Call anyone you want with you to get here now." The midwife than started to ask what my delivery plan was.

I thought back at that moment in denial that I could be in labor, my only symptom was back pain. Which then I realized that the back pain was actually contractions this whole time.

I panicked, I had a load of laundry in the dryer, a car seat sitting on my dining room table that I was going to install, and tons of food I wanted to prepare and cook sitting in the fridge. I grabbed my phone and called my boyfriend to leave work and join me in my disbelief.

The shock didn't wear off for almost a week. The process of labor was long but the shock and unpreparedness made it feel like the snap of a finger. I pushed for under an hour before I was to be a mom.

Aeriella was born at ten in the morning weighing just under six pounds, the intense, overwhelming desire to protect her has never faltered since the moment she was laid on my chest.