At around 12:30am on March 18th, I was sitting in bed watching a little tv and doing a little nipple stimulation to see if it would do anything. All of a sudden my constant Braxton Hicks started to accompany some back pain & then eventually my lower abdomen began to hurt. I started timing these contractions for a half hour & they were between 3-4 minutes already. I walked around to make sure they were intensifying and they most definitely were. I went to tell my husband that tonight was baby night. We packed up our things & headed to the hospital around 1:30am. When we got there I was dilated to a 3.5, 50% effaced. This was amazing seeing as just Tuesday of that same week my cervix was high & completely closed. I was scheduled for an induction on my due date, March 19th. The nurse wanted to make sure I was still progressing before admitting me so my husband and I walked around the department for a half hour, stopping around every 2 minutes. The nurse was so surprised with how frequent the contractions were coming. When she checked me again I was a “good 4” & 75% effaced so I was admitted. Within the next 45 minutes I had progressed to a 5. My nurse told me the doctor would be in shortly to break my water and start up pitocin. At that point I was already struggling to breathe between contractions & they were so so painful. I gave in and asked for the epidural. Doctor came & went, I had progressed to almost a 7. At this point my epidural was starting to wear off on my left side. I could feel the contractions on half my body & it was the weirdest/most painful experience. The doctors came back to fix it & gave me the pitocin. Within an hour I had completed dilation & was ready to push. 23 minutes later, little Hudson Brian was born ❤️ 6lbs 6oz and the most beautiful peanut I have ever laid eyes on. So happy we finally have a little family of our own.

P. S. I am breastfeeding. Because he was born such a nugget we had to keep his blood sugar levels rising & that meant using a little formula as well. But baby is perfectly healthy & that’s what matters ❤️