Birth story time...

I’ll start by saying my due date was January 30 and January 18th I planned on going to a dentist appointment and then a growth ultrasound, so my ob could see about how big baby was and we could determine what we thought would be the best option for his birth. But, January 17th I was having a very hard time getting to sleep, as was usual since third trimester hit, so I stayed up on my phone. By 1am I’m finally ready to go to sleep, I roll over to put my phone on my nightstand and I feel a small gush. At first I thought it was just a bit of discharge or pee, but I’m wearing a pad so I’m not really worried about it. When I rolled back to my other side I felt a larger gush that’s when I started thinking maybe it was my water, so I got up and felt more, when I went to the bathroom I pee, but when I stopped peeing the leaking didn’t stop. I yelled for my husband to wake up and at first he didn’t believe me, but I told him I soaked through a pad and was still leaking. We called my mom at 1:30am and started making our way to the hospital. Once we got there we were given confirmation almost immediately that my water had broke and I had officially started labor at 1:10 in the morning. They checked my cervix and I was still only 1cm dilated. I remained that way for the first couple of hours until they told me that I would need Pitocin to encourage dilation. When asked what my birth plan was as far as pain relievers, I had originally wanted to go completely natural with the option of an epidural if I felt I needed it. Well, after my first dose of Pitocin kicked in my contraction got stronger. My contraction up until this point had caused me tolerable pain(like a really bad period cramp(extra side note: I grew up having horrible periods and it felt similar to my periods), but once that first dose kicked in I knew I wanted the epidural. I knew the contractions would only get worse and birth would be a whole other thing. The epidural was the best decision I made. My labor went for just under 18hrs, luckily I only pushed for under 40mins. Due to my epidural I was able to sleep through some of Labor. The only times I woke up was for the contractions that were really bad and when people were coming and going from the room/checking on me. By the time my cervix was last checked I knew I was ready to start pushing. They told me i was at 10cm and completely effaced and I told them I wanted to try pushing. They didn’t think I was ready, but let me try any way. I got 1 or 2 good pushes in and the asked me if I wanted to Labor it out and try again in 15mins, I had no idea what they said but said yes. I was really confused when the adjusted my bed and left, but was later told what they asked and I agreed to. Anyways, by the time they came back 15mins later I felt like baby’s head was trying to push out on its own. I could actually feel the monitor they attached to his head wiggling inside me as he moved. I pushed as hard as I could when they came in and got me ready. By the last push I was really worn out and the Dr could tell. She asked if I’d like to continue trying to push for a while or if I’d like her to do an episiotomy, so he come out with a couple more good pushes. I literally told her, “Do it, I just want this baby out!” So, as I began my final pushes she made her incisions. He came with only 3 more good pushes and boy was I happy momma. Patrick Glen Featherston IV was born at 7:04pm weighing 9lbs 7.4oz and was 20in long. He was 12 days early and I could not imagine if he had gone any longer. My Drs, Nurses, and family said that I handled my first time labor and deliver better than anyone they had seen before. I was just happy to breathe through most of my contractions and not cuss anyone out. 😂😂