sorry for the novel. I typed up my birthstory to put in the baby book and thought i would share it!!

May 14, 2019. The Anderbaby due date.

I thought my body had given up on me. Two weeks ago I was told I was starting to dilate. Last week I was told my cervix had closed. This week I felt no contractions.

My husband and I went to lunch before my 2:20 doctors appointment. Our favorite pizza!!! We went and grabbed a drink beforehand and I drank a few sips of my soda. Went into my appointment and blood pressure was a little elevated but nothing out of the ordinary, it usually was the first time and they check again at the end.

Appointment starts pretty quick after that. I barely am undressed sitting in the table before doctor comes in. She tells me she’s sorry I’m still pregnant. But the good news is baby will have a no later than induction date today.

Baby’s heart was strong and she checks my cervix. 1cm, 80%. Progress!! I almost cried. That’s all I wanted to hear, that we were going in the right direction. She tries to do a membrane sweep but baby is sitting in a position it was hard for her to.

She orders my induction for the evening of the 21st and explains the process. Sends me back to get my blood pressure checked.

It’s still elevated.

They decide to have to hooked up to the NonStress test to monitor my blood pressure and see if it comes down.

It does not. After 20 minutes it’s at 152/79.

It’s about 3:30 at this point and my doctor comes back in and says that she’s sending me to be induced because it’s not coming down and keeps climbing. Today’s the day, no reason to keep him in there with BP like this.

So we get in the car and call our parents, it’s time for a baby!! My soda is still mostly untouched which made me a little sad because I bought the largest size thinking I’d have all day to drink it. My heart is racing though- this is the last day I’m gonna be pregnant!

We get to the hospital around 4, get checked in and get into our room really quickly. I thought It would be a long process. Our nurse wasn’t too nice but she was on a 12 hour shift and only had an hour left.

She hooks me up to the monitors, struggles to get my IV in and gets the information to start me on pitocin and insert a foley bulb. She asks my epidural plans and I tell her we’re going to wait it out as long as possible. Our new nurse has come in at this point and I immediately like her so much more.

Pitocin starts at a 4 around 5:00 that evening. Original orders from my doctor were start st a 4 and increase by 4 every hour to 16. The laborist doctor comes in around 5:30 to insert the foley.

The foley experience was the Most. Painful. 20 minutes. Of. My life. And I stand by that AFTER having given birth.

I almost cried while they were inserting it, and shortly after I had a contraction that felt like death. 2 minutes later there was another contraction with some extra pressure this time and the foley came flying out. It was inserted for maybe 10 minutes. Dilated to a 3.5.

Time for the epidural. I made it about an hour. Epidural was in around 6:00, and it wasn’t as bad as a lot of people say it will be. I was told i did great.

Contractions were speeding up at this point, pitocin was at an 8. Got to a 4-4.5 around 7. And stayed there.

For hours. They break my water around 11 hoping to speed things along. We slowly but surely get to a 5 around early morning. Baby’s heart rate is sporadically up and down, so they stopped pitocin to slow my contractions which were around 2-3 minutes apart.

The morning moves along, they have me moving labor positions ever 30-60 minutes to try and shift baby’s head a little as we are contracting but not dilating very much. Baby keeps falling into a sleep pattern so they keep putting this vibration wand on my stomach to wake him up and start sugar water in my IV since we haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday

Slowly but surely we get to about a 6 around 5 or so that morning and we get our nurse who will be with us through the rest of labor. We’ve been dozing off into sleep for the last few hours but no solid rest yet.

She adjusts my pitocin and lets me stay in my most comfortable position (laying on my right side) for as long as baby will tolerate it. We got a little over an hour before he fell asleep and I had to move again. Checked again and were dilated to a 7!

Contractions are getting more intense as I can feel them but they don’t really hurt much so I’m not pushing my pain button yet.

A few hours pass, I talk a lot about being hungry since I haven’t eaten since the pizza yesterday afternoon and my doctor decides to come in and talk to us... we’re ordered to take a nap. Due to the intensity and pressure surrounding the contractions I don’t get much sleep. I’m checked again just before 11:00, we’re about to a 10.

Our nurse is very nice and asks everyone who had been visiting us to leave so that I don’t have to be the one to do it (they all knew it was just going to be me and my husband for the delivery)

We start the real pushing around 11:45 just after the alarm that my epidural syringe is running out. It takes a few tries but I catch on quick. After an hour of pushing baby is crowning and we’re ready for delivery. I decide to get a mirror to watch baby come out as the offered to show me some progress that I’ve made, since I was starting to wear out since the epidural is out and I can feel A LOT of what was happening.

At 12:59PM on May 15, 2019 Milo made his safe and happy entrance into this world. They put him on my chest and wipe him off while my husband cuts his umbilical cord.

We skin to skin immediately for about 15 minutes while they sew my tear up (they said it was 2nd degree straight up. Peeing hurt.) and then they weigh and measure him. 7lbs 10oz, 20.5 inches long. He’s got a strong neck and as they lay him back on me again he’s already trying to lift his head up. He’s got a cute little cry and is absolutely perfection.