Birth Stories: Hockey Fan Before Birth

It was Valentines Day 2007. I was in my 38th week of pregnancy and had been one centimeter dilated for over a week. I was having false contractions on and off for about 4 days and felt absolutely terrible. None the less my husband and I had plans for Valentines day and I thought it would do me some good to get out of the house a bit, so that's just what we did! My husband is a huge hockey fan. He also plays recreational hockey when he can and needed some new hockey skates. I wanted to get him some for his Valentines gift and we had planned to go around to local hockey shops to find the ones that he wanted and to get the best price. We went to three different big chain type stores before realizing that they either didn't have the ones he wanted or were way over priced. So he told me about this small shop about an hour away. I guess this place was pretty popular with the local hockey players to get their gear. So I said what the hey! It was still a bit early and we had just ate so I was okay with it. When we arrived at the ma and pa shop for hockey, my husband held the door open for me. The moment I crossed the thresh hold I felt a trickle of... I guess you could say wetness in my underwear. I was alarmed for a second but I really thought it couldn't be my water breaking cause there was only a tiny bit and all the stories I heard about water breaking were about huge gushes. I just chalked it up to be more nasty pregnancy stuff! So we continued to shop. Well actually I sat while my husband shopped. He found the skates he was looking for and they had this machine that would conform them to your feet so they would fit perfectly. I don't recall exactly how long this machine thing took but it felt like forever! I was super tired by this point and was ready to go home. I also wasn't feeling right. When we got in the car it was around five 'o' clock. As we were heading home I began to feel what I thought were more Braxton hicks. As soon as I got home I tried to lay on the couch when I felt more trickling. So I went to the bathroom, and again, more trickling. I told my husband and he suggested taking me to the hospital just to make sure. I called my doctor and they told me to go. We arrived at the hospital by seven thirty. Sure enough my water had broke!We welcomed our son into the world at one in the morning on February fifteenth. He is now three years old and plays hockey every day! He watches the hockey games with his dad and also knows how to ice skate! The little joke in the family is that when we went to that hockey store he wanted to come out and shop around too! That's why my water broke the second we got there!