It all started on Sunday morning, May 1.
But I think I need to start with the night before.

On Saturday, my family drove a couple hours to meet up with family for the day. During the drive home, Jonathan and I were talking about a bunch of random things. I was telling him about one of the workshops I went to during the ladies’ retreat about building a strong marriage. The speaker was explaining how intense storms will cause you to see a building’s true strength – as well as any cracks from either poor building or the intensity of the storm. She stressed the importance of building a strong marriage so that when life-storms come, our marriages will be strong in Christ. Jonathan and I talked about how true that is – both for our personal walks with the Lord and in our marriage.

Enter Sunday morning.

I woke up and went for a slow 2 mile run. (Nothing unusual there as I typically run throughout all my pregnancies, even up to the night before in some cases.) As I came home and started getting ready for church, I noticed a growing pain in my lower back. With my last pregnancy, I began having round ligament pain, so I assumed that was what it was and went on with my morning. As the pain increased, I thought about taking tylenol, but decided to try to massage it out instead. I didn’t think anything was up at this point, but I did happen to talk with my kids about my back hurting and even texted Jonathan (who was already at church) just to tell him I was in pain.

There were a couple big “wait a minute” moments that made me think this was something other than back pain. The first was when I was moving so much through my back pain and thought, “Wow, this reminds me of labor!” Of course, I quickly discounted that thought since I was only 20 weeks pregnant.

The second was when I felt a small gush of fluid leaking. “Wait. Did my water just break?”
Back pain still very present. It’s time to leave for church. I’m about to miss a music practice.
Is this just normal back pain? Was that really my water breaking? Do I need to go to the hospital?

I call Jonathan. No answer because he’s in the same practice I’m supposed to be in. Unless I’m supposed to be going to the hospital. Which I DON’T KNOW because I’m only 20 weeks along and this isn’t supposed to happen! I realize that if I were full term, I’d be heading for the hospital because this I’m 70% sure this feels like labor.

I decide to call the nurse and tell her what’s going on. I begin my conversation with “This is my 4th baby and I think my water just broke.” I figured she’d be more likely to believe me once she knew this wasn’t my first rodeo. Towards the end of the conversation, my pain was increasing. The nurse put me on hold to talk with Labor & Delivery, then came back on the line to tell me to head to the hospital where they were expecting me. When she started giving me the address of where to go, I was in so much pain and said in a very irritated voice that I could just figure it out. That was my third “wait a minute” moment.

By now it was around 10:15. Jonathan was in the middle of teaching Sunday School. Anna Grace was organizing a card-making-party with Nate since Mommy was in so much pain. Miles was throwing a couple temper tantrums in rapid succession. I’m debating whether this is worth pulling Jonathan from the middle of his class.

Then I get the urge to push. Twice.
I text Jonathan: “I think my water might have broken. I just got off the phone with the nurse and think I should go to the hospital to get checked out just in case. I need you to come home…”
He texts back: “On my way”

He told me later that he filled out the rest of the blanks in his handout, gave it to one of the guys in class, and said “Christa needs my help. Will you finish this lesson for me?” Bless him.

Some sweet friends from church came to watch our 3 littles and we headed to the hospital.

[find part 2 here]