The day my life changed

This is a little overdue but I just wanted to share before I forget the details. Warning, this is a LONG read.

The day before my due date, I had what I hoped would be my final OB appointment. I had been losing my mucus plug slowly for the whole week before. I had a cervical sweep that day and I went for an ultrasound on the Friday. They said that the baby was healthy and approximately 8 lbs. He didn't seem to want to come out.

The following Tuesday, I had my final doctors appointment and my baby was already 6 days late. At this appointment, the doctor seemed pretty sure that I would need to be induced on Saturday. We discussed the induction process and set up a nonstress test for Thursday to make sure the baby was doing well. Finally, the doctor went to do a physical exam and exclaimed "wow, you're already dilated to 4 cm and about 75% effaced". She asked if my partner was close by and if he was easy to reach and told me that I would most likely be having this baby within the next 48 hours. We did another cervical sweep and I went on my way.

My mom had driven me to the appointment and on the way home, I had my first contraction but I didn't know that's what I was experiencing. As soon as I got out and stood up, it went away. I went inside and hung out for the next few hours and experienced more irregular contractions but I still did not know that's what I was experiencing. My stomach didn't tighten like I was told it would. At 3 pm, my boyfriend came home from work, the contractions had been slowly getting stronger. At 6:00pm, I decided we should go to the mall to walk around to help progress the labour. Walked for about an hour and a half and we got home at about 8:30pm. Contractions were slowly getting stronger and closer together but we're still inconsistent.

At around 10pm, I decided we should go to bed in case my boyfriend had to go to work and since I had been up since 5am. I washed off my makeup, put on my giant t-shirt and climbed into bed. The second I laid down, the contraction got intense and were about 4 minutes apart. I laid there for about a half hour and decided that we needed to go to the hospital. We grabbed the bags, gave the dogs some water and headed out. It was raining and cold out so we slowly drove to the hospital. We stopped for some candy and ginger ale on the way.

We got to the hospital at around midnight and made our way up to the maternity triage. The nice thing about going to the hospital so late was that parking was empty. We got up to the triage, I explained I was in labour and that I had been 4cm dilated and 75% effaced earlier in the day. They brought me into a triage room, gave me a gown, and hooked up the monitors to my belly. The nurse said the baby wasn't moving enough so she made me eat my skittles and drink my ginger ale and he started moving. I could see my contractions on the monitor. Finally the resident doctor came to examine me with the nurse. I was at 6cm and about 90% effaced. The nurse was amazed by the fact that I was laughing and asked me if I was going to have a natural birth. HELL NO!

I was admitted and met my first labour and delivery nurse. She got my IV hooked up and my monitors and made sure I was comfortable. At this point, it was around 2 am and we told my mom and best friend to join us at the hospital, it was time! The nurses kept asking if I wanted my epidural but the contractions were still bearable. I finally agreed at around 4 am when I was 8cm dilated. The epidural went in without a problem and was no where near as bad as I thought it would be. They couldn't break my waters as the baby was not in the right station. They started oxytocin since my labour seemed to have stalled. I was finally comfortable and we all took a 3 hour nap.

I was woken up at 7:30am by my contractions, I could feel them again. At this point I had a new nurse and she gave me another dose and it was better but I could still feel them more than before. After that, they just kept getting worse and worse. My bf and bff were going to go get coffees in the lobby and I got upset at them because I didn't want them to leave. As soon as they reached the door of my room, my water broke. A BIG gush! It felt like an elastic band snapping and woosh! My contractions became unbearable, the epidural was only working on one side. I started having a break down, balling my eyes out. My boyfriend comforted me as I cried. They gave me everything they could to help ease the pain but nothing was working. It was too late to redo the epidural.

At around 11am, I sent my mom to check on the dogs and that is when the urge to start pushing began. I held on and didn't push until she came back. She never made it home to the dogs because the traffic was really bad. I started pushing. I did 4 pushes for every contraction. My boyfriend held my leg but needed to take a break at one point, my best friend took over and said that she couldn't hold on so my boyfriend took over again. They tried to turn the baby since he was sunny side up and on an angle but no luck. I kept pushing, I was screaming and grunting through the pain and bearing down as much as I could. It felt like my butt was going to fall off. Eventually both the baby's and my heart rates started to slow and they needed to get him out so they told me I would need an episiotomy. I said no but the doctor said it was necessary so I agreed. They told me I might need a c section if the baby didn't start to move so I pushed even harder. I could tell by my moms face that she was scared. Her labour experience was not the greatest.

An hour and twenty minutes later, at 12:50pm, my beautiful baby boy arrived. 8 pounds 1 ounces of pure love had encompassed my world. They put him on my chest and the first thing I said was "he's so squishy", all the nursed and doctors laughed. I held my baby as the doctors stitched me back together. I was so in love with this tiny human. He had the most pouty face I'd ever seen and he cried like a little billy goat. He looked like my dad which is crazy since we aren't blood related (I'm adopted). My best friend thought the same thing. My life was now complete, I had my baby, the love of my life, my sweet boy!