FTM here and my doctor wouldn’t allow me to go past 41 weeks. A little background, my son was diagnosed with a two vessel cord which could affect his ability to grow normally in utero. Thankfully, we didn’t have this problem and he was measuring to be about 7.5lbs at birth.

My husband and I get to the hospital on Super Bowl Sunday and they start my pitocin drip increasing it every half hour. I was only 1cm dilated and maybe 50% effaced when I got there so they wanted to move things along slowly but effectively. I’m slowly dilating from there and not having much pain other than moderate cramping. Fast forward to about 1am and I’m having the hardest and most intense contractions every 2 minutes lasting about 45 seconds to a minute each. I’m bouncing on my ball, trying to walk around the room, go to the bathroom to relieve pressure on my bladder. Nothing worked. I eventually start vomiting from the pain. The nurse comes in and she tells me the anesthesiologist is in another room and doing an epidural and if I want one, she can send him in my room next. I talk to my husband and we decide it’s going to be best to get the epidural so I can rest. I really didn’t want one but the relief was almost instant.

The next morning, I hadn’t progressed much so my doctor came in at 8am and broke my water. I could feel the contractions start up and become more intense again but didn’t have any pain. By around 12:30, I start feeling an immense amount of pressure on my catheter. I noticed it was with contractions and it became unbearable by 1:00. I then start feeling my body push. My nurse checks me and I’m at 9cm. I tell her I can’t hold him in any longer and she tells me to do some practice pushes. Apparently I do well because she calls my doctor. When she comes back in, she has me practice once more and I see the worried look on her face. The monitor is no longer registering baby’s heart beat and my blood pressure drops significantly. They put oxygen on me and I’m searching my husband’s face for some type of answer as to what’s going on. He reassures me everything is ok, which I later find out, that wasn’t true. They finally find his heart beat and my doctor gets there. Three sets of three pushes and baby is out.

Lucas James is born at 1:39pm weighing 8lbs 1oz and 21 inches long.

Unfortunately my placenta didn’t want to detach so my doctor had to basically dig it out. Ouch.

So happy my baby boy is finally here! I never understood what my life was missing until I had him. Hubs is still adjusting to sharing me with our son but he is such an incredible dad. I couldn’t be happier.

If you read this whole thing, thank you! I’d love to hear all of your birth stories 😊