I always came on here throughout pregnancy to read all of you wonderful Mama’s birth stories as a way to prepare myself for what to expect as a first time Mom. So here I am now finally sharing mine to maybe give some peace of mind or help to someone else.

I had a relatively easy pregnancy, had slight SPD on one side and gestational diabetes that was controlled by diet, it was so mild and I still able to eat sugary/carby foods lol.

At the end of pregnancy I declined all cervical checks and had no membrane sweeps and was able to work right up until I had my baby boy. I had no symptoms labor was near other than the fact I “dropped” at 35 weeks which was when my feet/ankles/legs had some swelling, due to the pressure of his head from dropping. Now fast forward to the middle of the night of the starting day of 39w2d. I woke up a couple of times feeling some lower back pain and pressure like I had to pee. However, it wasn’t that bad and it kind of just felt like it was bc my knees weren’t between my pregnancy pillow that night which is the only thing that helped my slight SPD and I didn’t feel like getting out of bed to pee. I woke up at 630 AM still feeling like that and then noticed my lower back pain was coming in waves coming every couple minutes. I finally got up to pee and had my bloody show. I woke up my husband to let him know he better get up and get to work and sort everything out with tax season and his coworkers and bosses (he’s a tax accountant) because baby was probably coming within a couple days. He got up and got ready for work and I realized I was truly having contractions because they moved around to the front of my lower stomach and were coming consistently 3-7 minutes and lasting for about a minute. So I decided I should shower. The time was now 745 AM and as I was getting ready to shower my water broke. I texted my husband he needed to come back home because baby was going to be coming today. My contractions continued to come closer and closer together and I had to close my eyes and breathe through them and were truly the worst period cramps ever. When my husband came back home I had him call my midwife and she said if you want stay home for another 30 min since I wanted a natural birth or head to the hospital when contractions were 3 minutes apart. Well within 30 minutes my contractions were now 2 min and 30 seconds apart and we headed to the hospital at 930 AM. At 10 AM we arrived at the hospital and I was somehow able to walk into the hospital and do my admission with breathing through the contractions and keeping my eyes closed. I finally got my cervix checked and I was 100% effaced and 9 cm dilated!!! The nurse couldn’t believe I was that calm being that far in labor and immediately called for my midwife to come and told me to press the call button if I felt like I had to push. Shortly I felt like I had to push and at 11 AM I began pushing. At 11:59 AM on 3/30/19 my little boy was here 5 days early of his due date (originally due 4/4/19) weighing 7 lb 9 oz and 20.5 inches tall. I had the natural, unmedicated, quick labor and birth I had hoped for! I had 4 stitches for some side lacerations due to my baby’s arm coming out across his neck/face that stretched me a tad too far but other than that I remained intact!

Unfortunately 1 hour after birth both me and my little guy had complications and he suddenly stopped breathing and had an episode of apnea. Luckily the NICU team rushed in and he began breathing with stimulation and oxygen right away. They monitored him for 2 hr in the NICU and all of his tests came back normal and he had no more episodes. The doctors have no medical reason for why it happened other than maybe he had trouble acclimating to life outside my uterus. He is still perfectly healthy and doing great! And while that was happening I began to hemorrhage and had to have a shot of pitocin, another shot of methergine, an IV of pitocin, 4 tabs of cytotoxic inserted, countless fundal massages about every 30 minutes or less for 2 hours, was straight cathed to see if a full bladder was the cause (it wasn’t) and my midwife had to reach inside twice to try and see if there were any clots (all of which hurt worse than labor and delivery). But within two hours my hemorrhaging stopped, my uterus finally was able to maintain being toned, and luckily I didn’t need a blood transfusion. My midwife was surprised that my hemoglobin only fell to an 8 so I was given iron to take for being anemic and I only had slight symptoms.

My baby is now 2 weeks old and we are both doing great!! I am able to exclusively breast feed him and he’s a great eater/sleeper. And has gained almost a whole pound since birth!! I feel so blessed and thankful for my little guy and my amazing husband who is the best Daddy. Here’s some pictures over the past two weeks of loving baby Ethan. 🥰