Tuesday, March 12, I went in for my 40 week check-up at 7:20 a.m. (I was 40 weeks the following day.) I hadn’t been checked for dilation, effacement, etc. yet & I wasn’t sure that I would request it that day, as I didn’t feel like I was making any progression thus far & I didn’t want to stress myself with those numbers in the back of my head, especially if my body hadn’t actually progressed. Plus, I knew that we’d be setting an induction date for just past 41 weeks if I made it that far.

When I stepped on the scale, I noticed that I had gained 5 pounds in the past week. The week before, I had also gained 5 pounds. In two weeks, I had gained ten pounds, but I hadn’t been eating or exercising any differently & my weight gain had been slow & steady (for the most part) throughout my pregnancy, so I was really shocked to see this. When they checked my blood pressure, it was pretty high. Again, my blood pressure readings had been beautiful throughout my entire pregnancy. I honestly had a textbook pregnancy, so I was a little worried when I saw this, as well. The nurse told me not to be shocked if they sent me to the hospital to be induced that day.

When the midwife came in to chat with me, she checked baby & saw that everything was good with him. However, when she checked my blood pressure again, it was still high. She said she wanted to go ahead & check to see if I was dilated at all. When she checked, I was 4 cm & 50% effaced. I can’t even remember what station I was at, but I think he was still kind of high up. She told me that my body was progressing really well on its own & she didn’t think I’d make it through the next couple of days without going into labor on my own. Since my blood pressure was still high, she went ahead & made a phone call to the hospital to let them know I was on my way. She told me to call my husband, go home & get any last minute things done, get some food & head to the hospital because I was going to be induced that day!

I picked my husband up from work at about 8:15 a.m. & we made it to the hospital by 10:45 a.m. We were taken back to triage pretty quickly & were in our room by 1 p.m. Things went pretty slowly for a while after that, as I tested positive for GBS & I also have a rare blood deficiency, so I needed the antibiotics & plasma before they’d start me on Pitocin. It turns out it was a really good thing that I went in to be induced rather than waiting to go into labor myself, as it allowed them to get plenty of antibiotics & all of the plasma required into me in plenty of time.

I can’t even remember what time I ended up starting the Pitocin, but it was later in the evening. I was contracting regularly & hardly felt the contractions, and I had dilated to 5 cm on my own without the Pitocin. They started me on a very low amount of Pitocin & I dilated to 6 cm pretty quickly. They wanted to break my water at that point, but I wanted my epidural first. (Because I was hardly feeling my contractions, the nurse told me I totally could’ve done it without the epidural, but I was NOT trying to be anyone’s hero. 😂) Once the epidural was in & my water was broken, I was dilated to 9.5 cm by about 5 a.m. I got sick a few times during that time, which was honestly probably the worst part of my entire labor & delivery experience.

Unfortunately, I stalled for about an hour & a half at 9.5 cm. But as soon as the L&D shifts changed, my new nurse came in & checked me again. She asked me to do a few practice pushes & then she called the rest of the team in & told us it was time to have our baby! What felt like a lifetime of pushing (only 40 minutes, which is apparently really good for first time moms) later & we had our baby boy in our arms!

My husband was the most amazing support person throughout the entire process. Maybe it’s the hormones talking, but having him by my side & cheering me on, paired with seeing him with our son for the first time, made me fall so much more in love with him. I couldn’t have asked for a better, more positive labor & delivery experience!

Plus, look at this beautiful little human we created! Cameron James came right on time (at 40 weeks exactly) on Wednesday, March 13 at 8:17 a.m. He weighed 8 lb 8 oz & was 21 inches long. We just love him so much! ❤️