I had written this out shortly after my first son was born so that I wouldn't forget all the details but never had a chance to share it, so here it is!

Due Date: July 25th, 2016

Birthday : July 18th @ 0347

Name : Caleb Alexander

Stats : 8lbs 5oz 21 1/4"

Background: After suffering from unexplained infertility and 3 years of fertility treatments and TTC my husband and I finally conceived on our 3rd round of Femera, trigger shot and <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IUI</a>. I was overjoyed to finally be pregnant and had a very smooth and easy pregnancy. He measured 2 weeks ahead my entire pregnancy but our midwife stuck with my lmp due date because we knew exactly when I conceived.

Story :

I was feeling a little off on the 16th and even told my mom that I was feeling kind of weird but thought that it might just be the heat wave we were having. At 0130 the morning of the 17th I got up to use the bathroom and passed a huge glob of blood tinged mucus. I started feeling crampy right then too but tried not to get too excited because I knew labor could be days/weeks away still. I tried going back to sleep but was way too anxious/excited. (Advice to other moms, GO BACK TO BED lol if you can) I cramped on and off for most of the morning and afternoon, it didn't really feel like they were timeable (I also had pinkish mucus all day). My husband and I tried to stay busy with chores and grocery shopping but around 6pm they started to get a little more uncomfortable and I started timing them. They were about 7-10 mins apart but I was still unsure if it was true labor because they didn't hurt as much as I'd been expecting. Around 8pm I called Judi my midwife just to give her a heads up that something was maybe starting and to ask what I should do. She ended up meeting me at the midwifery at 945pm to check me and get a listen to our little guy. I was 3/80/0 and he sounded great so we chose to go back home to labor for a while. I laid down from 1030-1130pm but by midnight things had picked up and we headed back to the midwifery. The car ride over was horrible!! I was contracting every 2-3 mins and was 6/100/1 when we got there. I spent most of my labor in the tub and by 230am my water broke (clear fluid) and I was 9.5/100/1. That little bit of cervix took almost an hour to go away but by 330am I was ready to push. That was definitely the scariest most intense thing I have ever done but 5 contractions/17 mins later I got to meet the most beautiful baby boy! He came out with a compound hand presentation and gave me a nice 2nd degree tear that needed a couple of stitches. He latched on and breastfed for the first hour! His daddy and I fell instantly in love with him and have not stopped staring at him since he was born 😍 We got to go home 3 hours later and have been soaking up all the sweet baby snuggles! Bonus: he shares his birthday with his daddy ❤️