It was midnight on January 8, 2009. My husband Nathan was, after a nine-hour day at work, already asleep. I was restless and uncomfortable. I had been for a few weeks. At my last doctor's appointment I measured 38 weeks even though I was assured I was only 33 weeks. So I was huge and I felt very often like my skin was going to burst open. Sleep was nearly impossible! I had been telling everyone I didn't think my dates were right because of my size. I could just tell my body wasn't going to give much more.

So after hours of TV to try and sleep I decided to take a warm bath, thinking it might relax me and relieve my back pain. So the bath was great. It did its job.

After a long soak I got out of the tub and started to towel off. I was nearly dry when a trickle of water went running down my leg! I thought no way. Maybe It was just residual bath water, that maybe somehow it had made its way in there.

So I took a step and a little more liquid ran down my leg and onto the tile floor! I was only 34 weeks. I hadn't had any complications with the pregnancy and was healthy.

I decided to go do some research online. I didn't want to wake Nathan and scare him if it was just a false alarm. I was pretty moody and demanding toward the end of my pregnancy (due to my discomfort I'm sure!) and I had noticed it taking a toll on him. Poor baby, but he was so good to me.

OK, sorry, anyway... So I sat down in the dark living room in front of the computer at 12:15 a.m. and started to Google my heart out. I hadn't been there long before I felt another gush onto the chair I was sitting in. I stood up and I knew it was all over!

I started yelling for Nathan. He was incoherent and half asleep for five minutes (not much help). But we grabbed the bags I had packed the night before for the hospital! (Weird, huh! I just packed them on a whim and an idea from a parenting magazine.)

We had a 45-minute ride in front of us to The South Austin Hospital. We hit the road by 12:45 a.m. No one was on the road and it went smoothly. We listened to the radio to calm us down and I was steadily leaking on the car's seat!

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30 a.m. We rushed into the emergency room. I was immediately put in a wheelchair and a tech took me and Nate up to the maternity ward. Things were so quick! I had nurses asking me to change into a gown, sign forms, give urine samples and sit still to get my blood pressure.

Next thing I knew the nurse was checking my cervix and I was 3 centimeters dilated already. They told me that even though she was six weeks early, once the water breaks labor has to be induced because of increased risk of infection.

So after I was hooked up to a million monitors and an IV drip of saline and antibiotics just in case. They induced labor with Pitocin. I had strong contractions for a few hours and was 5 centimeters dilated by 6 a.m. I was given an epidural. It was super scary having the doctor digging around in my spine. But it was totally worth it! I couldn't feel a thing for hours!

By noon I had not progressed at all, still 5 centimeters. My doctor decided that a Cesarean section might be best because I had been laboring so long it was wearing me down and raising the baby's heart rate! I agreed immediately. (Even though I was anti-Cesarean my whole pregnancy, I just wanted us to be healthy.)

We were wheeled into an intimidating, bright, sterile operating room. I was given more Demerol and shaved. Nathan scrubbed up and was at my side in minutes. We cried and were so scared. I felt tugging and pressure on my stomach. Then I heard something that changed my life forever. I heard her cry. My daughter's first cries! Nathan and I looked at each other and just lost it. We cried like babies!

They cleaned her up and said she was healthy and 5 pounds, 5.2 ounces – not too small for a preemie her age! The neonatologist handed her to Nathan, and he brought her over to me. She was beautiful. Perfect! She looked just like me at birth.

I was taken to recovery after a few minutes behind a curtain in a room with two other women, both breastfeeding and holding their babies! I was heartbroken. Chloe was in the NICU. I was very drugged out, and turned out I didn't even get to hold her till the next day!

Nathan was in and out of my room to the nursery. He would come back every few hours and wake me up and tell me what was going on and what she was doing.

She had wet lung and hadn't developed the desire to suck, so feeding was through a tube in her nose. Her veins were so small they had to put her IV in her belly button. When I finally saw her, she had wires and tubes hanging out of her. She looked like a science experiment. It was very unnerving!

By the third day she was off oxygen, and by the sixth she was off the feeding tube. We were at the hospital for eight days. Then finally on Friday the 16th we took her home. We spent an hour getting the car seat in right!

Our first night home was so great. I got no sleep because I wanted to check that she was breathing every 10 minutes. But I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Today she is 3 weeks old. I love my life!