The Day Before the Real Countdown Began

I always imagined my labor starting in a dramatic movie moment—water breaking in public, a mad dash to the hospital, all that. But real life? It had other plans.

The day before I got induced wasn’t what I expected, but it taught me a lot about listening to my body—even when I didn’t know it was speaking.

If I had things my way, I would’ve had as close to a natural birth as possible—well, that was the plan until I watched a YouTube video of a woman in labor with the baby’s head stuck. After that, I realized an epidural might end up being in my cards after all.

Toward the end of my pregnancy, I had to start taking full days off work for my prenatal appointments (we’ll save that story for another post).

I did it to protect my peace—no last-minute emails or unexpected work stress. Just me, my baby, and the care I needed.

My boyfriend (yes, boyfriend at the time—we weren’t engaged just yet) came with me to what was supposed to be a routine visit. We got to see our daughter during the sonogram, which was amazing because they used that 3D imaging.

Did you know that doesn’t always happen? 

We had to remind them, and the tech mentioned that you can't always get a good image since babies move around so much. Anyway, I was loving the shots—and slightly annoyed because our daughter looked exactly like her father.

Already… should I be surprised? Not really. But still, I had hope.

Then the nurse came in to check my vitals and made a funny face. She asked if I was stressed, which caught me off guard because, honestly, I was the least stressed I had been in weeks. I was excited. Weekly checkups meant we were getting closer and closer to meeting our baby girl.

But my blood pressure was high! 

She waited about five minutes and checked again. Still high. The top number went down slightly, but the bottom number went up. She asked again if I felt calm, and I genuinely did—but next thing I knew, I was being walked over to labor and delivery for observation.

Long story short: I was kept overnight. I’d also had a migraine for two days, which didn’t help. My pain tolerance is pretty high, and the nurses were shocked I hadn’t taken anything for it.

But after months of avoiding medications during pregnancy, I’d gotten used to thugging it out—so to speak.

Oh—and apparently, I was having full-blown contractions. Not active labor, which is why I kind of just ignored them and left them un-timed.

I thought they were just the usual Braxton Hicks, but according to the monitor they strapped me to, they were the real thing.

In hindsight, that might explain the high blood pressure too.

Eventually, my numbers stabilized. I think it’s because I finally got some rest while waiting to be discharged. Around 11:30 PM on June 28th, we took the express bus home.

I told myself I’d just reset the countdown again and enjoy a few more quiet days.

Or so I thought.

LOL.