I was induced at 37w4d due to medical reasons. FTM and I was so nervous for the whole process! I went in at 7 pm to start cytotek (or something like that). I was only 1cm and 60% effaced. The first pill insertion hurt! Then contractions started and were pretty regular but tolerable. Overnight and early the next morning they administered the other 2 pills. By 10:15 the next morning I was only 2-3 cm dilated, and contractions were still fairly regular and tolerable.

At 10:15 my doctor came in to break my water, which was also pretty painful. The plan was to start pitocin within 30 min - 1 hour after breaking my water. The contractions were instantly more intense after my water broke. I only lasted 2-3 of them before asking (almost crying) for the epidural.

When the epidural was administered my BP dropped to 80/40 and my baby’s heartbeat started to go into deceleration. After a few minutes things mostly stabilized, baby was ok and I was on oxygen. But that epidural was gold! After about 15 minutes I felt nothing! I was able to relax and felt so calm. They decided to wait longer to start pitocin since we didn’t have a great reaction to the epidural and they didn’t want to stress the baby.

Well I went into deceleration a couple more times throughout so they never started pitocin. The last time it lasted so long we almost had an emergency Csection, but they got his heartrate back up. But at this time I was 10cm (this was now 3 pm) but he hadn’t come down low enough just yet. So we waited a bit before starting to push. When I did start, every time I pushed he went back into deceleration. My nurse told me we had to get him out fairly quick we were headed to the OR. So I somehow pushed harder.

He was almost out when one of his shoulders got stuck. All the nurses and my doctor jumped into action so fast. Two of them jumped on my bed and we had no idea what was happening. But they were all so chill about it, just like they were doing something they do all the time, just very quickly. They were able to get him unstuck and he was quickly with NICU to be evaluated. And he was totally fine! ❤️

He was born at 4:09pm, 7lbs 3oz, 21.5 in long and perfect. I was only in active labor for just under 6 hours. Looking back there were some scary moments during the labor/delivery but the nurses and doctors were amazing! They made us feel so safe and we knew we were in great hands! Added bonus, the epidural worked wonders and I felt nothing.

The last picture was taken on his due date. ❤️