Finally getting around to posting this 😊

We were scheduled to be induced on 5/23 once I was 41 weeks. On Wed 5/15 (our due date), I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. My doctor did a membrane sweep. I really wasn’t having any signs of labor whatsoever. My back was in terrible pain for the week leading up delivery. I did notice that the day before I delivered, it oddly felt pretty good. I wasn’t really doing anything to induce labor naturally because of the pain, other than eating a lot of pineapple but mostly because I was craving it lol.

On Saturday 5/18 at 3:00 am, a little pop woke me up followed by a huge gush of water. Contractions followed after that. We stayed home until about 5-5:30, but the contractions were about 4-5 min apart and we live 30 min from the hospital so we decided to go in. After a couple of morphine shots, lots of birthing ball bouncing, an epidural, 17 hours of labor, and 30 minutes of pushing, we had our baby boy! Tanner Paul was born on 5/18 at 40 weeks & 3 days, 8 lbs 4 oz, and 20 inches long.

We ended up spending a stressful extra 2 days in the hospital due to Tanner’s bilirubin levels spiking the morning that we were supposed to be released. He had to spend two days under phototherapy, which was so stressful and threw a wrench in my breastfeeding plan. He couldn’t be out from under the phototherapy light for more than 30-45 minutes, but the jaundice was making him so sleepy and difficult to wake up so we would try breastfeeding, but ended up needing to supplement with bottles of donor breastmilk. I had to start pumping 2 days postpartum to make sure he was getting at least some of my milk AND so that my milk would come in. Luckily, my milk supply has been really strong and he’s doing pretty great with taking both my breast and bottles at night. SO THANKFUL for the lactation consultants at the hospital for helping with my supply. We’re still breastfeeding at night but he gets too sleepy and a little 1 oz. bottle to supplement has really been helping.

Momma’s not feeling too bad. Sore only if I overdo it, bleeding has slowed down, still don’t have great bladder control occasionally and pooping is still an event, but all in all, pretty good. Just getting a little stir crazy. But so so so in love. I’ve wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember, and I feel so lucky to have such an amazing first experience with this little boy.