Ember Reign is here! So in love, my heart is so completely full of love! 😍

Born 7/14/2019 at 12:18 am. 6lbs, 11oz. 39w + 6d. Due date 7/15.

16 + hours of labor, plus 8+ hrs of prelabor.

Birth Story/experience (sorry its very long, had a very tough and long labor 😅):

So last Wednesday I went in for my first membrane sweep. As soon as I got home I lost what looked like part of my bloody show. All day I had on and off contractions that were stronger than any of braxton hicks or prodromal contractions I had in previous weeks but they were too far apart to time. But I was very optimistic as I was 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. They continued on for the rest of the night but tapered off the next day. I felt defeated and was convinced that my sweep had failed but tried to hold on to some hope.

Later that evening (Thursday) me and SO decided to DTD. Didnt feel anything immediately after and decided to take a relaxing bath. Nothing. Just a stronger contraction here and there. Around 11pm that night started getting some very intense contractions that were 10 min apart and lasted about 3 hours before tapering off again. Sweep had definitely failed in my mind. That day (Friday) didnt feel a thing, not any type of convincing contraction, just some stronger, very far apart b/h's. That night me and SO stayed up late til 5 am Saturday watching Netflix and movies to distract us. It had almost been 72 hours since the sweep and wasnt anticipating anything exciting for the next day.

Around 7am Saturday started feeling those same stronger contractions and they were coming every 10 min again. Didnt pay them any attention at first because I knew it was just a repeat of the night before and they would taper off... well they didnt. Felt they were getting stronger so decided to time them. Had a few that were 10 min apart and then all of sudden they were 6 min apart! I was getting a bit excited but was sleep deprived and still a bit in denial because of all the false labor I had had. But i decided to time them a bit a longer. I had about three 6 min apart contractions before suddenly without warning they were 2-3 min apart! And significantly stronger. I was still a bit in denial but they kept coming and were so strong and intense and even painful that I had to stop and hold myself up by leaning on something. Figured I'd better wake SO and head to L&D because they were so close and so so painful.

On the ride to the hospital they had gotten so strong and hurt so so bad! By the time I got to my room I couldn't stand during one. I couldn't move. And I couldn't believe how strong and painful they had become in such a very short time! The L&D nurse checked me and said I was still only a 4, maybe a 5 and 100% effaced. She was not a very good nurse btw. 😐 It was like she didnt believe I was in pain. And she was very aggressive and hard and forcefull during cervical checks, it was excruciating. She would not allow me to get an epidural until I had shown more progression. But she did give me fetynol in my IV for the pain. It. Did. Not. Help. At all! The medication and lack of sleep had made me delirious. I didnt like how it was making me act and feel (angry, lashing out). The nurse kept telling me to go to sleep, but she didnt get that even though the medication made me feel super sleepy and f**ked up I could not sleep through the painful contractions. She said in a very condescending tone that I was getting a 2 min break in between contractions and that we weren't even sure it was active labor yet so that I should just rest... 😐🙄. Finally I begged her to take the medication out of my IV, I'd rather be in pain and alert than in pain and feel messed up in the head. She said she couldn't and I would have to wait the 6 hours it took the medication to exit my system. I was so distraught and out of it and not how I wanted my labor and delivery experience to be.

Finally the doctor came in and checked me, I was at 6cm dilated. She asked that nurse why I hadnt received my epidural yet, which she replied that I was still at a 4 when she checked just a little while ago. Something was just off with this nurse. At this point I didnt trust her, I think she had lied about several things including my dilation and progress. Why, I have no idea... but something just wasn't adding up with her. Also the OB said that once they took the medication that was making me loopy out of my IV that I would feel lot better within the hour not 6 hours! And I did.

So anesthesia came and gave me my epidural and it was amazing. But it did start to wear off a bit after awhile. We were told during the tour that we would have a button to be able to push to administer the epidural when needed. When I asked sketch nurse about this she said she had no idea what I was talking about. I just couldn't believe it.

Finally it was shift change and I was so so happy to get a different nurse. Once she came in I asked about the epidural button and she reaches up and says its right here honey, dont know why you werent given it sooner... are you kidding me?!?! How did sketch nurse not know this? Again, things just not adding up with her but she was gone and that was great.

Around 8pm they come check me again and I'm 8cm dilated! I was so excited and nervous. It was getting so close, it felt so surreal! They said they would check again around 10pm and that I should be good to go and be ready to push. 10 comes and they check me, I'm still a 8. I hadnt known because of the epidural but my contractions had completely stopped. No contractions, no progression. I just couldn't believe it. It had been such a long day and all my other pregnancies and birth experiences had been pleasant and very very fast! Nice nurse said she would come back in an hour to break my waters and if that didnt get anything going they would give me pitocin to restart things.

So they come back to break my water... I had little to no amniotic fluid left... my water had broken sometime earlier already and leaked out ( I think when sketch nurse was roughly checking me she broke my water and hadnt said anything to anyone. ) So they hook me up to pitocin and seriously within 30 seconds to a min my contractions were back full force. They had me push 3 times I guess to get baby lower and I finally dilated to 10! Finally, finally at midnight it was go time!

I pushed 4 rounds of 3 pushes and my beautiful Ember was welcomed into the world. As soon as they put her on me I was sobbing in tears. I loved her so much already it was incredible and overwhelming. That moment definitely overpowered all of the negative and horrific experiences I had had earlier. It was all worth it. All the pains of pregnancy, the long labor, even evil sketch nurse. Nothing could take away the happiness I felt when I met my beautiful daughter.

She is very healthy and we both are doing great (besides some expected soreness from labor lol.) I am so extremely happy and so so in love! 🤗

(And I guess the sweep had worked after all lol)

Here is my beautiful Ember 💗💗💗