Sadie Jeanne born May 17, 2019 at 5:01pm, 7lbs 3oz 20in of absolute perfection. I never knew I could love someone as much as I love her. You hear it all the time, but nothing compares to the moment you finally realize it yourself.

My labor was a scheduled induction, we went to the hospital at 5am and we started pitocin around 5:40. Immediately I began to feel twinges if contractions, starting maybe 20min. after my IV went in. It was nothing too crazy, so we watched some shows and even walked the birthing floor for about an hour. Our parents came to hang out around 8:30-9am and I was still steadily feeling twinges, that would gradually get more and more intense. Around 12:30pm I decided to go for another walk to help ease the contraction pain, since that seemed to help the first time. Every time I got a contraction I’d have to stop and grip the wall and let the contraction pass before continuing on. We didn’t even make a full lap before I said we needed to go back to the room. As soon as I got back in the bed, the contractions amplified. Every contraction I got brought me to tears. They checked me and I was only at 4cm. It was my wish to go as far as I could without getting the epidural, and I felt like I was at that point. I wont lie and say I felt defeated, I wanted to be strong and do it without the meds, but not all moms can do that. My nurse made me feel a lot better, “you don’t need to be a hero”. She was right. Either way, my baby was coming into the world and I spent 9mo. perfecting her. I got the epidural shortly after, and I immediately felt relief. I felt no pain associated with getting the epidural, quite literally it felt like a bee sting. I couldn’t feel the contractions at all after it was in. I could still feel my stomach getting hard with each contraction, and I could still feel my legs, but the intense pain was gone. To any mamas questioning whether or not to get the epidural, you will know what is best for you and your baby in that moment - I can say at least for myself that I still had no problems when it came to pushing. I could still feel the pressure and I think I did pretty damn good finding “the right way to push”. My family had come back into the room after my epidural was in and we chatted for a few hours, but in the last hour and a half or so, I was getting more and more dialated. I went from a 7 to 9.5 in a matter of a half hour. My family was kicked out of my room around 4:30pm. She was coming quick. My nurse called my doctor and she was there by 4:45, and we started pushing. The pain you feel while pushing i would describe more so as just lots and lots of pressure. I also won’t lie and say the epidural took away all of the pain associated with that, it was by far the most intense pain I felt in my life. I’m glad I had the epidural to help calm it down compared to what it could have been. My husband held my right leg and my nurse held the other, and I pushed for maybe 15min. My doctor needed to use the forceps to help her out, because of how fast she was coming. She was here by 5:01pm. The moment they put that babies gunky warm little body on your chest, you are in love. It sounds so cliche but it is absolutely true.

Thank you for listening to my birth story, I’m not here to be judged or critiqued on how I decided to give birth to my girl, just to share with other mamas that are in the same boat I was, impatiently awaiting the arrival of their little one with more than a handful of fears about the labor/delivery process and even with getting the epidural, which I was quite honestly terrified to do. So please leave any negative comments to yourself. If any mamas have any questions about the labor/delivery process, or just general questions, please feel free to reach out to me. 💗