Two weeks before our baby shower was scheduled, I was painting the nursery. I bent down to stir the paint and all of a sudden my pants were wet. I went to the bathroom thinking I had an accident but I didn't have to urinate. I went back to painting and again I found my self soaked. This time I called my husband, who just arrived at work, and told him that I thought my water just broke. I called my doctor's office and the nurses told me to go to the hospital and meet the doctor there. The nurse made me nervous by telling me not to wait for my husband to come home before I left for the hospital. I quickly got dressed, hopped into the car and started on my way. I didn't bother calling an ambulance knowing it would take me less time to take myself to the hospital. I wasn't in any pain and I was deluding myself that I didn't break my water.

It was raining very hard on my way there and I got caught behind a funeral procession. When I got to the hospital, there wasn't any parking near the emergency entrance so I had to park near the main entrance and walk all the way across the hospital to the emergency room. I walked myself up to the maternity ward. My water certainly broke and I was admitted right away. My husband made it to the hospital about five minutes after I was settled in a hospital bed (he had to take three trains and a taxi and it only took him 45 minutes). I never had any contractions that day. My doctors waited a day to see if I would go into labor on my own.

The next morning my doctors started me on a Pitocin drip at approximately 9 a.m. I didn't have any pain or contractions, but I was dilating just fine. By 4 p.m., I went from no pain to such excruciating pain that I was crying and screaming. I got an epidural. Thank goodness for the epidural. Four hours later, my doctor was concerned about the baby and said that if I wasn't fully dilated when she checked, I would have a Cesarean Section. To our surprise, I was ready for pushing.

In 10 minutes and 15 pushes, my little Jacob Daniel was born. He was 5 pounds, 2 ounces and 19 inches long. He spent five days in the NICU. Instead of having a shower, two weeks later we had a Brit Milah (circumcision).

Now Jacob is 7 months and is 19 pounds and about 30 inches tall. He caught up very quickly with his peers.