Royce Monroe is here! 8/31/17 @ 39 +2 weeks!

A FTM birth story.

After 39 weeks and 2 days, plus 14 hours of labor, my baby girl, Royce Monroe, is finally in the world!! ❤️❤️❤️

Wednesday, Aug. 30th, I went to my 39 week appt. and got a membrane sweep since I was already 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced. I was skeptical it would do much of anything, and headed to work as normal. At 8pm I decided to do some last minute grocery shopping to prep for my due date. I noticed something different about my contractions when I was walking around the store. They were coming pretty regularly, and they were radiating across my uterus, rather than the normal tightening feeling I had had with BH contractions. I was so distracted, at checkout I mindlessly unloaded and completed my transaction of over 75 items at the 15 item or less line. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I didn't realize what I had done until I was leaving the store.

I went home and started food prepping for the weekend. I had a lot of nervous energy, and busy work kept me calm. Finally at 11pm I sat down and started timing my contractions. They were about 7 min apart, 40 seconds long, and getting more painful each time. I informed my boyfriend that he better get prepped because tonight we might be going to the hospital! He had some doubts since I was a FTM and the whole thing seemed surreal. He even started trying to reason with me. "Just sit down, you just need to watch a movie, I'm not ready for this yet!" Lol. We rented Baywatch, but 45 minutes into the movie I could no longer concentrate and got in the bath.

I called L&D; and told them my stats and that I thought I might be going into labor. They recommended that I stay home and call back once my contractions were 3 minutes apart. By 3:30 am my still very doubtful boyfriend and I were on our way to the hospital. I think he was scared. I know I was!

When we arrived the nurse said I was still at 3 cm dilated, but recommended walking to help get things going since she could see I was in fact contracting pretty strongly every 2 min. Within an hour I was dilated to 5 cm, and we were admitted. Around 8 am my contractions were insanely painful and well over a minute long. I couldn't even catch a breath, and I was sobbing through them. I knew it was epidural time! That epidural was heaven sent! I was finally able to nap a bit, blissfully ignorant to the ever strengthening contractions taking place in my body. By noon, I was dilated to 10 cm! The doctor recommended we wait one more hour, or until my body felt the urge to push naturally to reduce the risk of ripping. At this point I was shaking uncontrollably and getting scared of what was to come! Predictably, due to the epi, the hour came first. My OBGYN came in, prepped me and instructed me to push on the contractions. 16 short minutes later, at exactly 1:36 pm, my beautiful daughter was being placed on my chest. Despite the epi, the pushing came relatively easy for me, and to my disbelief, delivery was, dare I say, easy! I didn't even break a sweat! I did, however, break my vagina! Just a minor tear, no biggie.

I could never predict the rush of love and happiness that flooded my heart the second I laid eyes on her. The beauty, mystery, and awe of pregnancy was lost on me until that moment. We made her! She's real! And she's perfect! I've slept a total of 3 hours since Tuesday night, I'm bleeding and cramping and insanely exhausted, but love is keeping me going. I can't wait to share my life with this little doll. She is my everything, and she deserves the world! ❤️

Royce Monroe. 6 lbs. 15 oz. 18 inches long.