My birth story🌷 I’m so in love 😍

After 9 months of reading everyone’s birth stories on here, it’s surreal that it’s finally my turn. My daughter will be three weeks on Saturday and though I’m over the moon she’s here in my arms, I really do miss her in my belly, even though pregnancy was hell for me for half of it, it was still an amazing journey that part of me is sad is over.

Let me start by saying that this was my first pregnancy, and I’ve always heard of morning sickness, but oh Lord when I hit 6 weeks, nothing could have prepared me for how much I was going to suffer. My pregnancy pretty much revolved around Hyperemesis. Eventually, around 20 weeks I started to feel human again. From then on I didn’t have many complaints. Sure, I felt heavy and uncomfortable, but everyone does. I always assumed I would go into labor early. Not sure why I thought that, but I just had a feeling. Welp, I was wrong. My due date came and went, and I was starting to get really frustrated and overall just tired of waiting for her arrival. I had a membrane sweep, didn’t work. I was scheduled for an induction on Monday, August 6th at 41+3. Thursday, August 2nd, I went to my appointment to check fluids and have a non stress test. My midwife checked me and I was still only 2cm, but she was surprised by how much lower the baby was than a few days ago. As I was driving home the song “Daughters” by John Mayer came on. I thought “I bet that’s a sign!”.

When I got home I napped until my fiancé got off of work. He was playing video games while I bounced on my yoga ball when I had my first real contraction. I had another about 15 minutes later. We went for a long walk to keep them going. They stayed at 10 min apart for hours. I cleaned the house to keep moving. It was around 10pm, they were getting more painful but I tried to go to sleep. Wasn’t possible. Around 1am they were coming every 5 minutes lasting a minute long. We got everything in the car, including our dog and dropped him off at my MILs. I was in serious pain the entire drive up to the hospital which was 50 minutes away. We got there around 2am and I was still only 2cm. They needed me to make cervical changes in order to admit me. I walked around for an hour, but still wasn’t dilating. Since I was overdue they didn’t want to send me home, they also said it wouldn’t be morally right to send me home in that much pain. They gave me morphine which honestly didn’t even help the pain much, but I was able to breathe through the contractions more. I tried to sleep but the pain kept me up. Meanwhile my fiancé was sleeping on the floor 🙄 snoring and all.

Finally I was at 3cm around 6am and I was admitted. Contractions were absolutely excruciating for me. They were mostly in my back but wrapped all the way around. They still came every 5 minutes and that minute they lasted for felt like an eternity. I was moaning and nearly crying through every single one. I squeezed my fiancé’s hands so tight through each one I’m surprised I didn’t break them. I sat on the birthing ball, was on my hands and knees and took a hot shower trying to ease the pain. I was only at 4cm when I screamed for the epidural in the shower. I had this nurse that kept trying to talk me out of getting it, basically told me it was too early and if she gave me the epidural now that it would stall my labor and I’d most likely end up with a c-section. I said I didn’t care and to give it to me. That took another hour. I cried through the contractions at that point. The epidural was absolutely heaven sent. I was so comfortable. I got it at 5pm, still labored slowly, but was making progress since I wasn’t tensing up through contractions anymore.

They ended up breaking my water and giving me pitocin. Finally, around 2am I was 10cm. Did a couple practice pushes and her head was right there. The midwife came in and I pushed 3 times and she was out.

Elise Violet was born at 2:26am, August 4th weighing 6lb 3oz, 18 inches long. Absolutely beautiful. Worth every second of my 24 hour labor.