My husband and I were told, essentially, that we would not be able to conceive on our own. We went through a grueling year or fertility treatments and procedures, only to come out fruitless. We decided to switch doctors and in doing so, we were forced to take a break from treatments over the holiday season of 2010. We began acupuncture around Thanksgiving of 2010 thinking this would maximize our chances of a successful cycle in the new year. Lo and behold, we conceived on our own in January! From that point on, we knew that this baby was meant to be.

I had a really easy pregnancy. I worked out 6x a week, I had no morning sickness, no real discomfort, and I loved every minute of pregnancy- all of it. I had my 34 week checkup at 33w4d. We saw that the baby was head down, his heartbeat was perfect, I was in great shape, and we were excited to discuss our birth plan at the next appointment. That night, I got into bed, happy as ever, and felt a gush of fluid. I felt no pain or discomfort, I saw no blood, so I went to sleep, writing it off as pregnancy incontinence. The same thing happened around 4am that night, and I knew something was weird. However, since things had been problem free for the past 7 months, I didn't panic. I went to work and called the doctors office when they opened. They wanted to see me right away.

Turns out, my water had broken. I was sent to the hospital and told that they'd try to keep me pregnant for at least 2 days, until I hit 34 weeks, or best case, another week, to make it to 35 weeks. I checked into Hotel Hospital, dazed and confused. I was monitored all day for infection, contractions and heartbeat. All day, I had no contractions, presented no sign of infection and the baby's heartbeat was galloping. They checked for lung maturity, which was borderline, thus I was given steroids to aid lung maturity. I was moved to an antenatal room on the high risk floor around 6pm. I ordered dinner, got comfy and was hooked up to the monitors again. This time, baby's heart rate was lower, and I was showing contractions on the monitor though I could not feel them. I went to the bathroom, and we found meconium leakage. The baby would have to come today.

We went back down to L&D, I was started on pitocin and we waited. And waited. Each time I had a contraction, I didn't feel it, but the baby did. His heart rate would decel with each one. Eventually, at about 10pm, his heart rate had stabilized with the contractions, so they increased my pitocin. I was begging my husband to go and eat, thinking we had a long night ahead of us. He refused to leave my side. At about 10:45, I had a contraction. I asked my husband if I was having one, because I felt a cramp, and he looked at the monitor and said yes. Shortly after that, I had another, and at that moment, what seemed like 30 people came in the room. The baby's heart rate had completely fallen and was lost. I was positioned on all fours, I had a shot of terbutaline in my arm to stop contractions, I was given oxygen, I was being told to sign something for anesthesiology... I saw my husband putting on OR coveralls. I was so calm. I just wanted to stay calm so my poor terrified baby would stay calm too.

I was prepped and numb by 11:20, and the first cut was made at 11:25, my husband was there and at 11:40 we heard our little early bird cry. Jonah spent 25 days in the hospital, with only 3 days on CPAP. We were really lucky that he was so healthy. He weighed in at 4 lbs 4 oz and was 17 inches long.

From conception, Jonah has been pretty clear about what he wants. He wanted to exist, and he wanted to come early. Maybe that's not true, but when we look at our little early bird's gorgeous face, with his eyes full of love, studying my face... it seems true.

Jonah is now 14 weeks old, 8 weeks adjusted. He is almost 12 lbs and quite the bruiser. He is laughing, cooing and smiling. We are so blessed.