Today marks day 71 since I became a mom.

Sunday December 18, 2016, 4:03pm – my perfect baby girl, Raaya Nooreen Ehsan, made her entrance into the world. Coming in 2.5, almost 3 weeks early – every step of the journey surprised me and was nothing I could prepare for.

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So I made it to week 37 – feeling how a woman who has been pregnant for 9 months should feel. There was nothing out of the ordinary except my low blood count – which was alarming for my midwife team but I wasn’t ready to do anything about it because the risk of a blood transfusion (solution to low blood count and something I had declined due to previous bad experience) was only real if I had a c-section and lost an enormous amount of blood. But I wasn’t going to have one and all would be well. I felt great, I was ready, the house was ready, my husband’s work week from hell was about to end – it was going to be smooth sailing from here.

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9 days before delivery

Monday December 12, 2016 – my weekly check up – the baby had slightly dropped and she was in the right position making her way down the canal. Midwife was content.

Wednesday December 14, 2016- Got dressed up and went out with hubby to a fundraising dinner. Looked good – felt even better. A lot of pressure (you know where), swollen feet, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

Nilo, Faryal, and I at the fundraiser.

Thursday December 15, 2016 – Heavy snow storm in Toronto – spent the day home alone relaxing, nothing eventful. Husband was out all day and night – he got home at 6am the next day from a work thing and I spent that evening watching an Indian movie. =)

Friday December 16, 2016 – 9am. I wake up. Stand up to head for the bathroom to get my day started. A slight but aggressive gush of water comes pushing down my leg. In that moment, I actually remember thinking that I peed myself. Thats okay. Thats normal. Lots of my pregnant friends went through that. I’m lucky it happened to me, in the comfort of my home and this far along in my pregnancy. I’ll just shower. I walk into the bathroom, and HELLO, another gush. Hmm. This was absurd, sure, but no biggie. This is just what bladder issues feel like I told myself. As I was about to jump in the shower, gush # 3 occurs right as I’m about to step in. Finally my nogin started thinking in the right direction so I got dressed, threw on an adult diaper (life saver) and called my midwife.As the phone is ringing, I scream out to my husband that my water broke. His response? “Say Wallahi…” =/ Midwife finally picks up and tells me to come in so we can confirm if its truly my amniotic fluid but surprised considering its still so early. She was pretty doubtful that its an actual broken sac.

I wait a few hours before I drive to the clinic and within that time frame, I continued to experience gush upon gush upon gush upon gush. FUN FACT: Amniotic fluid replenishes itself. So you feel like your “water” is breaking over and over again.  Anyways – midwife confirms that yes, I did rupture and should be going into labour within 24 hours (80% of women do). So after monitoring the baby, me rejecting any form of induction, I head home – anxious, nervous, excited… the works. Allison (my midwife) advised I rest, rub a little oil on my belly to potentially kick start labour but not to sweat it, because it’ll happen on its own. At this point, I’m feeling light cramping (very early labour) but nothing rhythmic or painful enough. What did I do in response? I cleaned my entire house! Got on the floor, scrubbed it all, did laundry, organized the kitchen, literally made my house spotless to bring my guddi home to. I spent the rest of the evening with my family, eating dinner, laughing (changing my diaper a million times), and really just enjoying my last few hours of bubba in my belly time. 1/2am, I happily get into bed (still in discomfort but nothing I couldn’t manage) thinking it would be a long night and that baby would probably be here by afternoon time.

I was sooooo wrong.