My son was due Wednesday, January 16th, 2019.

That day, I went to my 40 week appointment praying my doctor would tell me I started to dilate so that he could strip my membrane. No such luck though, I had no dilation and my cervix was still really high up. He decided to put me on the schedule for induction the following Wednesday (which would have been today) at 6 pm. I had a feeling he wasn’t coming until that day. Boy was I wrong!

You guys might have seen that Sunday night there was a blood/full moon. At this point I was already 40 weeks & 4 days pregnant, so it might have been a coincidence OR the old wives tale is true. Full moons send you into labor! It was a busy night. At 11 pm after looking at the moon with my husband a couple times, I started having contractions. My husband thought I was faking them and that I was just trying to get him out of bed hahaha. I told him “This time it’s for real!” I waited an hour where my contractions were about 6-7 minutes apart. I was nervous but I knew it was time. When we got there, they checked me and I was about 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I walked around the halls for a while so they could check again in a few hours and make sure I was in active labor and was dilating. I was just praying they didn’t send me home because my contractions were already so painful at this point!

About 2 hours later they checked and I was still only at a 2 but I begged them not to send me home because the pain was so bad I knew he was coming.

An hour later they checked again and I went from a 2 to a 4! They moved us to a delivery room. I labored without pain medication for a few more hours and made it 7 hours in total without pain meds before it got too painful and I ended up getting the epidural. Which they had to insert 3 times! Once it kicked in it was totally worth it though.

Doctor checked again at about 7:30 in the morning to see where I was with dilation. Baby was still super high up, but I went from a 4 to a 5. Halfway there!

But then....

THIS IS WHERE IT STARTED TO GET SCARY!

I started to finally fall asleep and get some rest. 4 nurses came running in to make me switch positions because baby’s heart rate was dropping fast. I switched then he stabilized for a while.... but then after a few minutes of being in one position it would drop again. They talked about the possibility of a c section, but put me on an internal fetal monitor first before deciding. He was stable once again for a while so I kept laboring on my own.

Doctor kept checking my cervix and there was no progress. I was stuck dilated at a 5 for 6 hours. One last time, baby’s heart rate dropped. But this time it wouldn’t stabilize again. They rushed me to emergency c section, pumped me full of drugs and took him out. It was terrifying! 15 hours of labor just to end up having a c section. My husband was scared too. I know. But he’s been my rock this whole time. It’s day 3 of having my son and I’m in so much pain. But I can’t say it wasn’t worth it. We love him so much. And he’s so handsome!

Jovani Andres Reyes. Born January 21st, 2019 at 4:23 pm. Weighs 8 lbs 14 ozs. 21 1/2 inches long 💗