⚠️ Warning Long!

My little man was due 11/1/18. Ended up being born on 11/4/18. At around 39 weeks I was just so uncomfortable and just done being pregnant. I did everything I could to try to get him to come early and nothing worked! I walked literally 5 miles a day everyday for my last week and 2 days of pregnancy. Bounced on the ball multiple times a day. Drank red raspberry leaf tea, used evening primrose rose oil. Had sex every day! Nipple stimulation. Ugh. 😩 At 39 weeks I was 1cm and 50% effaced. Every time I would walk I started having lots of contractions that were just all over the place. At 39&4 I had insanely painful contractions that lasted for 2 hours, we thought I was in labor! Drove the hour to the hospital and the whole way they slowly started to go away. Of course when we get there they have completely stopped. My midwife checks me and no progress. Still the same 1cm 50% from 4 days prior. Discouraged we go home. 3 days later at my 40 week appointment we had decided that no matter what I was getting my membranes stripped. They check me and I had progressed to 3cm and 70%!! We stripped my membranes and scheduled inductions for 11/8/18 just incase the membrane strip didn’t work. I had done a lot of reading up on the process and for most people if it was gonna work it happened within 24 hours of it being done. Well it was done at 9am Friday. We walked laps around our neighborhood all night Friday, I bounced on the ball for hours that day and still nothing. Saturday same thing bounced and walked and bounced and walked all day. 6pm rolls around and we decided that it obviously didn’t work and decided to have some friends over as this would for sure be our last weekend without our son. When our company finally left at about 11pm I had just started having contractions. Very uncomfortable I decided to take a shower before bed. Had two very strong contractions while I was in the shower, laid down and started timing. Had two contractions that lasted a minute and were 7 minutes apart. Before the next contraction could start I fell asleep. Woke up at 5:45 Sunday morning decided to give the nipple stimulation one last go round, it freaking worked! After about 5 minutes I started having contractions. 1 minute each about 5 minutes apart, I had 3. The next one lasted 2 minutes and 35 seconds!! Then I heard a POP! I get up and waddle to the bathroom check my underwear and they are pretty wet. I’m thinking there is no way I peed myself?! I yell for my husband to wake up and come into the bathroom I told him I think my water may have broke but I’m not sure. Well you know how they say your water shouldn’t smell?.... well I smelled my damn underwear and..... nothing! So he took a super quick shower and we head to the hospital again! As soon as my water broke everything just started moving along contractions 1 minute long 3 minutes apart the whole hour drive. By the time we got to the hospital I’m in so much pain the contractions are so strong im in tears. They get me up to L&D and run tests to find out if my water had indeed broken and check me im only 4cm 70%. (My hospital won’t admit unless you are at least 5cm or if your water has broken). After 2 more hours of impossible pain they come back with my results and I earned myself a room!! We took the last room on the L&D floor. At this point its 10am I’ve officially been admitted and I can finally have some pain medicine. They got my IV set up and give me a dose of I don’t even know what I didn’t even care. About 5 minutes later I felt like I was dreaming, I could still feel the pain but the medicine relaxed me enough to the point I could take them without screaming/crying. At noon they ask me if I want an epidural so I decided to go ahead and do it as my pain meds were wearing off. My nurse was absolutely AMAZING, she helped me through the contractions earlier in the morning and helped me get through the epidural. It wasn’t to bad but sitting completely still for 15 minutes when your going through contractions every 3 minutes or so is pretty difficult. Fast forward the epidural kicks in and I feel absolutely amazing! No pain at all can’t even feel my contractions at all. Couldn’t move my legs either but hey I’ll take it! 😂. From then on we all just hung out me my husband my nurse his mom my mom sister in law and a good friend of ours. We watched the Ravens game and periodically got checked everything was moving along nicely. At 4 they check and say I’m fully dilated and ready to go! I sent everyone out except my husband he’s the only one I felt comfortable having in the room when my lady parts are about to be on display for the world to see. They sit me up as straight as possible for about 30 minutes to help my son drop as far as possible without me having to push and exhaust energy. So finally we start pushing! I feel absolutely nothing! No pressure no contractions nothing at all. 30 minutes in they tell me WE SEE THE HEAD COME ON PUSH HARDER!!! Finally at 6:25pm our sweet boy is born! After crowning for an hour and 15 minutes I was finally able to get him out. I spiked a fever with 30 minutes left and they had to give me meds to bring it down, he wasn’t inside long enough for them to hit him. When he finally came out the cord was wrapped around his neck and he had a fever thanks to me. They rushed him to the table got the cord off and had to give oxygen. The emotions hit me like a ton a bricks the second he came out I just started bawling. I swear it took 5 minutes before he cried and I just bawled and bawled until he finally did and then I bawled some more! 😂. Throughout the whole experience I had the best nurse and my husband was absolutely amazing. He did anything he could to help, held my head, held my leg to give the nurses a break, held the oxygen on my face and just talked me through my pushes. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthing experience. Finally after all the waiting and frustration Joshua Kyler Compton was born 11/4/18 at 6:25pm after 12 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing. 7pounds 9oz 21.5in long. 💙