I made this!

After over six weeks of preterm/early labor, my little guy finally arrived on Tuesday, 5/10. 

After having my membranes stripped at my 38-week appointment, my water broke as I was checking out of the doctor's office. Because I was already dilated to about 5.5cm, I had to go straight to the hospital rather than home to get our bags. My husband met me there.

Once at the hospital, I began antibiotics for GBS and got an epidural (during my first labor, I waited until the pain was unbearable to get an epidural, but it failed and I had zero relief). My contractions were initially very irregular, but they slowly settled into a pattern of 10, 5, and finally 2-3 minutes. After three hours, the midwife checked my cervix and I was at a 10! I had to hold off on pushing for about 30 minutes to complete the antibiotics, but once we got started, it only took about 15 minutes of real pushing. 

All in all, I had an excellent labor experience, and we're so thrilled to finally have our little man!