My first child I was in labor for three weeks, my due date was on March 1 and he just had to come out on the 18 of January. I first had small contractions at home for a week without telling anyone, I had no idea what it was, and thought nothing of the situation. I had made an appointment a week later to come in early and get checked. When I did get there, of course, I had many doctors come in after the first one had looked at me. They wheeled me up right away to the maternity ward, I was really scared and had no idea what was really going on. Finally they told me that I was dilated at 3 centimeters and that I would have to stay in the hospital until my due date.

They came in and started the procedure of trying to keep the baby in. First, I had a medicine that made me get sick right away, and a catheter and on top of it, I had to sleep tilted a little upside down, and was for no reason allowed out of bed. There I sat for the next two weeks. I was very depressed about the whole situation, my mom had stayed with me as much as she could, which was a lot, and that I am grateful for. The dad had come up when he could in between working and trying to sleep in between. There I laid halfway upside down for the next two weeks, with nurses in and out all the time taking blood or doing whatever they had to do.

Finally, here he comes (so we thought). I called my family, everyone was there, here comes the nurses to give my epidural and prep me and then the doctors came in and said, No, we're going to give her more medicine and do what we can to keep the baby inside longer. Everyone stayed for a little bit and then went home, there I sat or should I say laid upside down again for another week. Finally, they could not stop him anymore, he was coming out whether the doctors wanted him to or not, they were afraid his lungs wouldn't be strong enough and that is why they tried so hard to keep him in.

The dad had just left the hospital and my water broke, they tried to run downstairs and catch him, but he was gone. I was alone this time, finally they got him at home and he got there in the nick of time. He was the only one there waiting, it was around 1 a.m., so we didn't call anyone else.

They put him in an incubator after they got done checking him out. He was a healthy 5.9 pounds, and was 18 inches long. He was healthy and beautiful, they graded him with a 10. For being so early, he was a normal sized baby. They had placed him in an incubator and was released to me a week later.

He is now almost 14 and I can't believe that I'm pregnant now with my second child. Oh God, please let this one be a normal pregnancy.