I write this at 4am with a baby cluster feeding and permanently attached to my nipple. She’s one week old today.

Last Saturday I had a scheduled induction after being dilated at a 2 for almost a month, got to the hospital around 8pm and then got my first dose around 10:30. (Oral medication to see if it could kickstart natural labor). I took the medication twice in 8 hours, and unfortunately my natural labor didn’t start, so I started receiving pitocin.

I already knew that I would need distractions during labor, and I memorize movies/tb really well and absolutely adore Harry Potter. I also knew that as a FTM that my labor would be pretty long, so I had my husband bring his laptop and all the Harry Potter movies to play during labor!

I started having light contractions around 4am, and in the early morning I started getting up and pretty much sat on the ball, stood, or walked for the next 9 hours as my pitocin was slowly increased and the contractions started getting stronger.

As the nurses came in and out of my room, they stopped to watch Harry Potter. The majority of the nurses had zero idea why I would want It on....but my last nurse was a huge fan and thought it was great!

Around 4:30pm my water broke naturally, and active labor began! I immediately knew I wanted drugs. Unfortunately I had only increased to a 3, so I wanted to wait and let my body progress.

An hour and a half later I was at a 7 and absolutely dying! I asked for an epidural but unfortunately the anesthesiologist was in a c-section and couldn’t come. I about cried! He showed up a little more than an hour later, and I finally got my epidural! At that point I was a 9 1/2, and my nurse left me for about 20 minutes so I could progress a little farther and she would go get the doctor.

I definitely could feel the urge to push, and when the doctor came in, it took me a bit but I got the hang of it. Well I proceeded to push for 2 1/2 hours! My baby was OP, and the doctor kept trying to turn her head but she would turn it right back! Only the top of her head was in the canal and she wouldn’t go any farther.

She would have been born to the sound of the half blood prince...

At this point it’s about 11:30pm, and they decided to go for an emergency c-section.

Baby was born successfully at 12:21, and we are both healthy! My labor was about 25 hours, and I’m so in love with my baby Samantha. I can’t wait to introduce her to Harry, and tell her stories about her labor.