My little man was born at 30w 5d, Nov 9th. I was on hospital bed rest from Oct 15, at 27 weeks gestation, because my cervix had shortened dramatically in a week. From 3.1cm on Oct 8 to 3mm on Oct 15.

Around 9:45pm on Nov 8, I had my first contraction. Five minutes later, I had another. Baby’s heart rate began to dip a bit with each one, as they continued to come every few minutes until they wheeled me to labor and delivery at 10:30pm.

When they checked me around 11pm, I was 3cm dilated. They told me I couldn’t have an epidural because I’d been on lovenox while on bed rest. I breathed through the contractions, which were coming about 4 minutes apart.

By 1am, I was 6 cm dilated.

Anesthesiology then informed us that we could in fact have an epidural, since it had been more than 12 hours since my last Lovenox injection. It was amazing, I would never give birth without one if I don’t have to!

By 3am, I was about 8cm.

Then by 5:45 am I was pushing. I couldn’t feel a thing - the epidural made me COMPLETELY numb. At 6:09am, he was born.

The moment I’d anticipated with sadness and cried about for weeks, birthing my baby and him having to be whisked away to nicu instead of holding and loving him, had come.

But he came out pink, screaming, and healthy!

They told me I could hold him for one minute while my husband cut the cord. I’ll never forget kissing his perfect little head for the first time.

The last five weeks in the nicu have been long and exhausting, but he’s been beating expectations all along the way. I am so beyond thrilled to have the greatest Christmas gift of my life this year - my baby finally home with me ❤️🎄