There were so many things about pregnancy that no one warned me about. I didn’t know where to turn for resources often until it was months too late. One of those things I was surprised to learn was that your water does not necessarily need to break for you to be in labor, despite what movies and TV would have you believe. I was told by multiple nurses that only about 20% of women have their water break prior to being admitted to the hospital. This is also know as PROM (premature rupture of membranes) and is considered by many a reason to rush to the hospital to begin labor to avoid the baby getting an infection.

I was told that PROM was not likely, and to instead look out for contractions that were close together and getting stronger.

I had false labor (also known as Braxton Hicks) contractions for weeks leading up to the birth of my son. I would be on one of my long long walks that I did for my mental health and also in hopes it would get baby’s head into a good position, and I would feel the tightness and wonder, Wow is this it? Will I need to call my husband to come pick me up? What if I don’t make it home before these contractions get more intense? Do I have the number to the hospital saved in my phone?

Days passed. Weeks passed. All these myths about foods and activities that “induce labor” are absolutely fake news. Babies arrive whenever the hell they want to. I did it all. I ate pineapple, eggplant, mexican food, spicy food in general, chinese food, you name it i tried it. I bounced on my yoga ball, went on super long walks, and I even did the viral “baby mama” dance. I was losing hope. Strangers would ask if I was expecting twins. My belly was huge and my son was comfortable. He was in no hurry to head out. I was swollen and exhausted. I listened to meditations and tried to just relax. I had to accept that this was one situation I truly had no control over.

Then one morning I woke up craving Wendy’s breakfast. My blog is a hobby and I don’t have any sponsors, just to clarify, but I’ll let all of you know that Wendy’s breakfast absolutely slaps. Especially the little potato wedges. It’s 11 pm right now and I would give anything for them. I honestly might run out in the morning to get some. You should try them. Anyway, I was 40 weeks and 3 days.

I got out of bed and had full intentions of jumping in my car and heading out for my Wendy’s run, but as soon as I made it down the stairs and turned a corner, a gush of water spilled all over the wood floor on our entrance hallway. Not a trickle, not an amount that had me guessing whether or not it was maybe just pee. It felt like someone squeezed a sports water bottle out of me. And it wouldn’t stop. I threw two towels down on the floor that I pulled fresh out of the dryer. Then more water gushed out. I couldn’t keep up. I went upstairs to start the shower and called the doctor.

The doctor said I could wait a bit and labor at home if I wanted to, because my pregnancy up until this point had luckily been uncomplicated. So instead of sleeping or resting like I freaking should have, I decided to do all the household chores and continue bouncing on my ball. I drank a ton of water and ate some oreos with peanut butter. Then I called the doctor again around 2pm and was redirected mysteriously to some other doctor within the network, who told me I probably should have just gone in at 7am when I called the first time. So then we hit the gas and headed over.

I checked in and was escorted to triage. I think with first time mothers, nurses are probably used to women who are just over being pregnant and try to get admitted before it is time. They won’t let you in unless you meet certain requirements – depending on the hospital you must be dilated to a certain amount, having a scheduled induction or c section, or experienced PROM like I did. They tested me for protein presence in my fluid to see if my water had indeed broken, and I of course passed. If that much water was piss that would be an entire other medical issue that I would need to head to the ER for. It was like an olympic swimming pool amount of water. And it would not stop breaking even into early labor. They had to cover the bed with towels.

So my son was just swimming in there up until the end, which I actually really enjoy because my favorite exercise in my early pregnancy was swimming. He was swimming with mom the whole time. And when he arrived I understood completely. He was so beautiful. He just needed a little extra time in his there to work on his organs, and to get perfectly soft skin and beautiful hair. While those last few weeks were torture for me, I would do them all over again for him.