I was scheduled to be induced last night because I had slightly high blood pressure. We checked in at the hospital at 8 and got cervadil at 11.

My contractions weren't too bad for most of the night. Around 6 they picked up in intensity and frequency. By 6:45 I was miserable, trying to get comfortable. Hubby was a life saver and spent the next hour rubbing my back with a tennis ball and putting a hot pack on it. The contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes, would last about 30 seconds to a minute, then repeat. Each time they reached a really high level on the monitor. 6:45 is when the shift changed for nurses. My night nurse wanted me to hold out more for the epidural to try to make more progress but when Denise saw me at 645 she called anesthesiology right away. Their doctor for the labor and delivery ward was in a c section at the moment so I tried to wait, but it was seriously bad so she called back and asked for any doctor they had. Dr. Ng came and she and Denise walked me through everything and were so amazing and comforting. Hubby had to leave the room (sterility reasons which was fine because I appreciate them making sure the needle going into my spinal fluid is very clean and safe). Then I got the catheter, fun fun. At this point epidural has kicked in, hubby is back, and I'm ready to leave him to marry Dr. Ng I was so happy 😝

Then we tried to relax for the next few hours. Around 9 they checked my cervadil, turns out it fell out during the night somewhere. I was 5 cm dilated, mostly effaced, but still not low enough. Continue for another hour, they kept shifting me from one side to another because baby's heart rate would slow during contractions which were still coming pretty frequently. OB came at 10 to see how I was doing and I was at 9, then 10 a bit later. Felt some urges to push so we tried once, not much progress so OB says she wants to turn down the epidural so I feel the urge to push more. By turn down she meant turn off. 10 minutes later I'm dying again from these super strong super frequent contractions. I beg to talk to her, she has me push a few times, no progress. She wasn't happy with my blood pressure or baby's heart rate during each contraction, so she decides it's c section time. I happily agree because I am in agony.

Hubby gets sent to change into scrubs, I'm detached from all of my machines (blood pressure, contractions, fetal heart rate, pulse oximeter, saline, oxygen... It was a lot) and it's a madhouse. People coming and going to prep the OR, so many people involved. Finally they wheel me into the OR and start with anesthesia and prepping my belly. I had no meds in me at this point so they had to bring me back up, which takes some time. They gave me a bunch of things to numb me but are also asking if I can feel them prepping the belly (alcohol swabs and such). They also touch you with tweezers to test if you feel it. I could feel it somewhat. Anesthesiologist says if it doesn't kick in soon she's going to have to knock me out completely. That terrified me because I did not want to go under general anesthesia and not be there when he was born. So after a few minutes they ask if I can feel anything and I could feel a teeny tiny bit but... I lied and said I was good. So I kind of felt the beginning 😱 it didn't hurt per se, but it was uncomfortable as hell. Also I could see what they were doing in the reflection of the light above me, which was cool but weird. Finally they let hubby come in, they're working on me to get in my uterus, baby comes out, I hear nooooothing for a good 30 seconds. Terror. Then one little whimper, and then kid lets loose! Hubby and I were so anxious and relieved. I had the shakes and they didn't bring Eli over to me so hubby went to see him. Then the doctor said how much he weighed, everyone was shocked. 10 lbs, 3 ounces. Both my husband and I are talk and were big babies, but they predicted he'd be maybe 9 lbs at most. They kept saying, "he's so big!!" Finally they finish up manhandling me and bring me to recovery. There's my story! Scary but amazing, and I'm really glad that I watched videos and documentaries on YouTube so I felt prepared because they can't explain everything to you, especially in an emergency.

He's worth it 😍