On 7/6/2018, I had my 39 week appointment, I was 39 weeks 2 days. The midwife and I had previously planned to induce on my due date, July 11, because she had worry that baby was getting too big and did not want me to go past my due date. During that week, I had also had decreased movement of my baby, which hearing this, she immediately sent me to have fetal monitoring. I went up to Labor and Delivery, was monitored for about 45 minutes and everything turned out to be ok. Baby was moving fine, I just couldn’t feel his movements. The nurse said I was having contractions and asked if I could feel them, but I could not. Before they discharged me, they asked if I just wanted to stay that night and be induced since I was already going to be induced in 5 days. I said no because I was not prepared at all, but was able to schedule the induction for the next day, 7/7/2018 for 8pm. I was told if I still wasn’t feeling baby move or if I started feeling the contractions to come in in the morning. I get home and go about the rest of my day as normal, but come time I get ready for bed I start to feel what feels like period cramps. This being my first pregnancy I didn’t know they were contractions at first. I eventually fall asleep, but wake up multiple times in the night because of these cramps. I google to see what contractions feel like and it turns out that they do feel like period cramps, so I tell myself I guess I’m going to the hospital in the morning. I wake up the next morning still having the contractions, never timed them for whatever reason, though. I text my mom to tell her, I meet her at her house, and we drive to the hospital together. I tell my boyfriend that I’m at the hospital and he gets upset because he’s worried he won’t make it there in time because he was still 5 hours away (He’s a truck driver and was in Ohio and still driving home at the time) I reassure him that inductions can take a long time and to not worry. I get checked in, they set me up in a delivery room, and they hook me up to a bunch of monitors and IVs. I don’t really remember much from this time to when they started the Pitocin, just paperwork and I think they did check my cervix and I was at 2cm. Maybe an hour and a half from the time I got into my delivery room, they finally started the Pitocin. I was started at a very very low dose because my body was already starting to labor on its own. I start feeling really sick and end up throwing up, so they turned off the Pitocin. The nurse said I more than likely threw up because my body is ready to go into labor and is doing it on its own without the Pitocin and its very common to throw up when this happens. After I threw up I felt fine, my contractions weren’t bad, and I was able to get up and move around to get things going. I started feeling my contractions in my back, so the nurse had me move into some positions to help get baby flipped around, so I didn’t end up having back labor. Eventually, after a while, the contractions moved back to the front. My boyfriend finally gets there and I feel so much happier... until my contractions start to hurt more, they were still bearable, but had to stop and focus on breathing when they came. When the doctor comes back in to check my cervix again I was at 5cm. She asked if I wanted my water broken to make things progress faster and I say yes. It hurt. They really shove their hands way up in there lol It was nothing compared to what was going to come, but I didn’t know that at the time. They get everything cleaned up and leave the room. That’s when the contractions start coming on very strong and painful. I get through a few, but then decide to get the epidural going now. The epidural was really not that painful at all, the most painful part (more strange feeling than painful) was that you could feel the needle wiggle in your spine a little bit. At first, the epidural wasn’t working at all, so he gave me a higher dose and it starts working only on one side. He had me lay on my side to help the medicine circulate through and that helped. Everything was going good, the most I could feel from the contractions was just pressure in my butt, and I could lay and relax for a little bit. About an hour later, baby’s heart rate kept dipping when I had a contraction, so the nurse had me roll back over onto my back, it helped the baby, but the epidural stopped working again. Contractions are very painful at this point, so we call the anesthesiologist back in to figure something out. He tries to give me another dose of it, but that didn’t work and we tried laying on my side again, but that also didn’t help. He just said to stay on my side again as long as baby’s heart rate is fine and press the button if I need more, if that doesn’t work in a little while he will take it out and redo it. So now I am feeling every contraction, when they come all I could do was close my eyes, squeeze the rail of the bed, and breath, they hurt so bad. I just power on through, epidural not working, then all of a sudden I feel like I have to push. The nurse calls the doctor in and she checks my cervix, I’m at a 9.5cm and they really asked me now if I want to get my epidural redone. I say no because I do not want to sit up to redo it, the pressure in my butt was unbearable, I just wanted to push. We wait a little longer, and I mean just a little longer, and the doctor lets me do some practice pushes because the feeling that I had to push was immense. I pushed hard on every contraction, my mom held one leg and my boyfriend held the other. I. could. feel. every. thing. When I pushed I could feel my vagina stretching and with every push the pain got worse and worse, but also felt relief at the same time? I pushed for over an hour before baby’s head came out. Getting his head out was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, so they had me stop pushing for a minute so they could unwrap it. Let me tell you, it’s very hard to stop pushing when all your body wants to do is push. So I’m yelling that I have to push, which actually helped me not push. The doctor let’s me push again and one or two pushes later baby comes sliding out. Greatest relief I’ve ever felt, all the pain instantly stopped. But baby wasn’t making any sound, so they cut his umbilical cord really fast. He made a little sound, so they threw him onto my stomach for a second. It was amazing seeing him and just thinking that just came out of me lol He didn’t make another sound, so they took him and the NICU nurses came rushing in to assess him. They got him breathing good and my boyfriend was able to cut the rest of the umbilical cord. Baby had a stiff arm because he hyper extended it during delivery, but other than that he was perfectly fine. I had no major tearing, just a lot of little tears that took over an hour to stitch up. I felt every stitch they put in and that was painful as well. After everything was all said and done, I looked back on everything that had just happened and thought that really wasn’t that bad. Painful in the moment, but once it was over I felt fine just very sore. Got to the hospital around 10:30am on 7/7/2018 and baby was born at 12:46am on 7/8/2018. Born at 39 weeks 4 days, weighing 7lbs 5oz. (Baby wasn’t big like midwife thought which I am grateful for since epidural decided not to work 😑)

Now here we are almost 3 weeks later already. It’s crazy how fast they change from when they’re first born.