So here's my birth story... Tuesday evening, I came home from having dinner with my aunt and I began feeling sick, but as a first time mom, I wasn't sure if it was food poisoning or contractions. Since the contractions were very irregular, I tried to go to sleep and feel better. Since the pain continued, I made a doctors appointment to be checked out because I was 39+3 at this point. After speaking with my doctor, he confirmed that I am most likely in early labor and to continue timing the contractions. Over the next few days, my contractions continued, but remaining irregular. About 4am Friday (9/9) my contractions became more intense and were occurring every 10 minutes. Since they were still far apart, I tried to go back to sleep and get some rest. Once it was about 7:30am, I woke up my husband to tell him what's been happening and that we should probably go to the hospital. We both showered and headed over to the hospital. Once arriving, they now confirmed that I was having contractions every 6-7 minutes. As the doctor could see how much pain I was in, he suggested that I walk around the hospital to get things moving along because I was only 3cm dilated. Some hours had passed and he decided to put me on petocine to speed things along and they gave me an epidural. The epidural made things a lot easier and we waited a few more hours. Since my water bag had not broken yet, he checked my cervix and said I was about 8cm dilated at this point and he broke my bag. I was excited that I should be able to begin pushing soon. At this time, it was about 7pm so the doctors switched shifts. When the new doctor came in, she checked me and said I was barely 6cm dilated. They increased the petocine and at this point my contractions were 2-3 min apart and I was in excruciating pain. The anistesiologist said that the needle may have come out of place because after they gave me a couple more epidurals, the pain was getting worse and I could barely focus on anything. They decided to give me a new epidural which worked again. At this time, it's about 10:30pm and my doctor checked my cervix again and I was still only 6cm and my cervix was now swollen. Essentially what was happening was the baby was trying to come out but my cervix wouldn't expand and was becoming very swollen. My doctor then informed me that although she is a huge fan of vaginal deliveries, she doesn't think it's going to happen for me and that I should consider a cesarean. After discussing with my husband, we decided on the cesarean and they got me prepped and ready quickly. Being terrified as I never had any sort of surgery, I was pretty freaked out. Fortunately, everything went very smoothly and our baby girl, Salma, was born on her due date of September 10th at 12:57am, weighing 8lbs 6oz, 21.5 inches long. She healthy, beautiful, i couldn't have asked for anything more. Hamdallah.