The Beginning of the End in Pregnancy Journal

I need to write a conclusion to this pregnancy journal. So why not do it by sharing my birth story.
Full disclosure. It will be long. It will be horrible. Js.

The start of my birth story was very early Sunday morning, February 16. I had gotten up to pee for the upteenth time that night, and while attempting to crawl back into bed, I bumped my belly and felt an enormous relief of pressure, and hot wetness gush down my legs. It was still quite dark and I was more confused than anything. I contemplated just getting a towel, but quickly realized a towel just ‘ain’t gonna cut it’. I needed to assess the damage.
I turned on my bedside lamp and observed the deluge. Liquid continued to pour out of me, and there was water EVERYWHERE. DH was already stirring, so I informed him “My water just broke.” while kicking the nearest clothes together to damn the flood and limping back to the bathroom. “Really?” sleepy and incredulous. “Yep.” It couldn’t have been anything else with that volume.
I sat on the toilet for a good 20 minutes while liquid continued to pour out of me. The volume was truly astonishing. DH txted my midwife, then called and talked briefly. He asked me if the liquid was clear and after a quick check, answered ‘yes’.

Since I was a lot earlier than expected- my water broke on the butt crack of the day I was 39 weeks- my midwife still had to throw her bag for me in the car, and address another birth before coming out. So she sent a couple of her team members out to take my vitals, do a check to make sure my water actually broke (as if there was any doubt). They were here for about 2 hours, and left with instructions to take my temperature every 4 hours to catch any infection. They reported their findings to my midwife, and she called to inform me that she doubted I would go into labor until that night. So she wouldn’t bother coming out until contractions were 5 minutes apart. And the wait began.

I was feeling inconsistent, weak contractions that were not productive and only served to keep me awake and in just enough discomfort to hope that something might be happening but prevented any rest or relaxation. That Sunday, I sat around with a towel between my legs and tried to move as little as possible. Every slight shift it seemed would produce another, albeit smaller, gush of hot liquid. I was changing out towels every hour and had DH on laundry duty.
I called my mom to let her know, since she would be caring for my animals while I was disabled. She rushed right over, full of excitement. I informed her nothing much was happening. Her disappointment was palpable, but I was too distracted and tired already to tell her it’d hopefully be tomorrow. She insisted on doing the chores. I described what to do but I could tell she wasn’t fully listening and was preoccupied. She’d do the morning chores- close the trailer, shovel hay out, make sure kids are eating, chickens, water- and DH would do PM chores. She opened up the wrong gate because she wasn’t listening and the cows got out, lol. Not a big deal because the whole property is fenced, but it was amusing.
I tried several times to rest, but it was impossible. Every time I closed my eyes and dozed, contractions would escalate and get entirely too painful to ignore. I would wake and shuffle around, and they would subside. The worst possible thing. Still I was able to get about an hour of interrupted sleep.

Monday was a blur of trying to sleep, people visiting, having short conversations between contractions which were far more frequent and painful, and worrying about WHEN actual labor would start. Still I was relatively relaxed and in good spirits. I was preoccupied firstly with trying to sleep. My eyes tried to close with every gap in contractions, but an especially painful one would come up and make me regret trying to nap. Secondly I was anxious for true labor to start. Since there is a risk of infection when the water breaks without labor starting for 24 hours, many midwives will not accept the risk and transfer you to a hospital. Since I didn’t want that, I was worried about getting it going as soon as possible.
We went to my last prenatal appointment since it was already scheduled and she wouldn’t have to drive out. After another vitals check and confirming some other baby health stuff, my midwife said she was willing to wait 48 hours. So I decided to start doing all the things. I put on a pair of shorts to hold up my towel while I moved around (haha). I took black cohosh, took showers, walked, did a miles circuit workout, actually helped do the farm chores, did epsom salt baths, and spent all my non upright time on the birth ball doing nipple stimulation.
There were several times contractions would get closer, but they’d always space back out again. Late Monday night I lay down towels on the bed and collapsed, finally falling asleep.