Warning graphic images of labor ⚠️

Note: this is a long one with lots of pictures!

I read birth stories throughout my whole pregnancy and I really enjoyed reading others experiences. As this was my first I wanted to know what to expect, but it still didn’t prepare me. No textbook in the world can properly describe what labor feels like, and now with my sweet son snuggling in my arms I will finally write my own birth story.

On August 29th at 10am I went in for a membrane sweep at 38+3. I went to my mom in laws house to spend the afternoon as my husband was at work and I didn’t want to be alone or know what to expect if my waters were to break. I was cramping a bit but my doctor had told me that was to be expected after the sweep so I didn’t pay any attention to it as nothing was regular. Later in the evening my husband got off work and picked me up to go home. The cramping had stopped at I was feeling impatient and defeated. I wanted that baby OUT. so I finally tried a bunch of things I had heard would help. I took a hot bath, then I bounced on the medicine ball for a good 40 minutes, my husband and I had sex and I was getting so frustrated nothing was working. Well 10pm rolls around and hubby has to work at 5am the next day so we go to bed. While I was falling asleep I felt unusually wet but I blew it off as discharge or something. Minutes go by and I feel a tiny trickle. I wake hubby up and told his what was happening but I didn’t believe it could possibly be my water. I think deep down I knew it was but I just couldn’t believe it was happening. I walked around the house for about an hour while my small leak turned into a gush & my husband finally convinced me at 11:20pm to go to the hospital. So we packed up and got into a room right away. The nurse hooked me up to monitor baby, and she sampled the fluid to make sure it was actually amniotic fluid.

So now the show was on the road, I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced and we settled in for the night. I was not yet feeling contractions, so hubby tried to get a little more sleep. I unfortunately had to much adrenaline to fall asleep so I stayed up listening to my peanuts heartbeat and watching HGTV. We had the most gorgeous view from our room so I stayed up and watched the sunrise trying to imagine what life would be like with this new addition.

Thursday morning came around and I called my mom and asked her to come to the hospital as my second support person. My contractions had started to pick up so I focused on breathing though them, which I found to be a lot simpler than I thought. I got offered laughing gas but it just made my face feel numb and dizzy so I didn’t use it. I found bouncing on the ball to be my favourite way to work through the contractions. So by 10am I was 5cm dilated and 80% effaced, my contractions had picked up a bit the doctors now offered me morphine but I declined. I didn’t feel I was in that much pain yet and I wanted to try and do it alone. So we continued to sit around while I laboured. By 6pm the nurse checked me and I was still only at a 5, they started to talk about induction cause I had been steadily loosing fluids the whole time and they didn’t want the baby to stay in much longer as it had already been 19 hours and I was not progressing and the contractions were still steady but not unbearable. At 7pm the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural, here is my handsome husband sitting while I get it.

I had been told and read that the epidural hurt but honestly for me personally I would not say I felt any pain. Not even the numbing needle hurt. It was by far the strangest sensation I’ve ever felt though that’s for sure. It felt like a snake or something slithering up in between my spinal cord. Right after they gave me the epidural they also induced me. So I was finally completely pain free for a couple hours and I attempted some sleep. I woke up at 11 and I got checked again I was still only at a 5 so they upped my dose and told my mom if she needed to go home and rest she could as they figured it would be hours before I was fully dilated. So my mom left and they turn the lights low and I tried to rest some more. Almost as soon as I shut my eyes it felt like my epidural stopped working and my contractions got really intense. They were back to back and over lapping and I told the nurse I felt like I was going to poop so she checked me and I had gone from a 5- 10cm dilated in a matter of 40 minutes. The nurse woke my husband up and I told him to call my mom and get her to come back here. While I waited for her to get back I got hit with the overwhelming urge to push, he was ready to come out but I didn’t want him to come before my mom got here so I tried not to push to hard. My mom finally showed up so I started pushing full force, and 40 minutes later on August 31st at 1:28 in the morning weighing 9.1lbs and 20.5inches long our sweet Jackson Alexander was born!

Meeting my baby for the first time had me so I love.

I thought the placenta was so cool!

My poor baby was in there engaged for so long that he developed a large lump on his head full of fluid and he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice so he was quite purple and bruised from the fast active labor.

Bruising ⬇️

Lump of fluid on his head⬇️

Now my baby is almost 5 weeks old and motherhood has been the most incredible experience for me. My sweet Jackson is so far such a good baby. He sleeps so well at night waking up only once or twice and he east so good that he was back to his birth weight at 4 days old! At his 2.5 week checkup he was weighing in at 11lbs 5oz my little chunker! Now I’m guessing he weighs 13-14lbs.

Now here’s some photos to show off my baby!

Thanks for reading my labor journey!! 💙