So I’m a bit late writing my birth story as my son was born March 21st of this year buuuut better late then never 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

I had an OB appointment on March 20th, the day before my due date, and I was very thankful to be dilated enough to get a membrane sweep. My appointment was around 1pm; afterwards my husband and went and walked around hobby lobby and got some lunch and then made our way home and proceeded like normal in our afternoon. I woke up around 2 am, I was waking up for every contraction (they were between 2-7 minutes apart) I got out of bed went to the bathroom, climbed back in to try and get a little more sleep when a fish of fluid comes out. I immediately wake up my husband and ask if he thinks it was my water (I had a scare the week before and was sent home so I wasn’t sure). I decided to try and wait a few hours before rushing to the hospital because I didn’t want to be sent home again; around 4 am I called the on call nurse and asked if they thought I should go in which they suggested I should, so off we went to the hospital. The hospital was just over an hour away so we arrived around 5:30am and were taken back (at this point I was able to walk back to l&d). I was in a pretty good amount of pain, they ran a test to see if my water broke.. again negative 😫 I was only dilated to 3 cm but having consistent contractions 2-5 minutes apart. The dr asked if I wanted to go home, I explained that we lived an hour away so they offered to give me a shot of morphine to see if it would help me progress (my husbands biggest fear was me giving birth at home lol). I tried to get some rest but even with the morphine I was still waking every 2 or so minutes with each contraction. Well by 10 am I still had not progressed past 3 cm so they sent us home. We got home around 1130 and I took a nice long shower, then laid in bed and continued to try and sleep but the contractions kept waking me up and after an hour we were back in the car and heading for the hospital. We stopped and got lunch (although I couldn’t eat because I was in so much pain) and then arrived back at the hospital around 2pm (this time I accepted the wheelchair lol). They check me and I’m only at about 3 1/2 cm dilated so they tell me to go walk around and see if that will help, well I couldn’t even make it the 30 minutes, I stopped in an empty waiting room and just cried to my husband I was in sooo much pain. We get back to the room and no progress... lucky they admitted me around 4 and I got an epidural around 5:30 (LIFE SAVER)! My husband still laughs at how happy I became after I got it 😂 they continued to monitor me and around 9:30pm I felt a pressure and asked the nurse to check me, I was 9 1/2 cm dilated!!! The dr came in and had to use his finger to help me stretch to 10 cm because there was some skin stuck, and then around this time I start shaking profusely, it started to happen every couple minutes and gradually started to happen closer together until I was shaking almost consistently, I just remember looking at my husband and telling him I felt like I was going to pass out, I was freezing cold and just kept looking at the dr. 10 pm comes and I was ready to push and I had a slight fever around 99, which quickly jumped to 103! The dr called in NICU specialist and next thing I know there is 10 drs in the room; I am very thankful my son came after only 30 mins of pushing, at 10:33pm because I truly believe I would have had to have an emergency c-section had it taken any longer. My son was born with a fever of 102, and immediately taken to be monitored, after they insured he was stable I was able to hold him for just 10 minutes before they took him to the NICU; there was no golden hour of skin to skin, and honestly I do wish we could have had that time to bond together. After they took him I remember the dr stitching me up (He preformed an episiotomy to prevent tearing and help my son come out) and then next thing I know I’m waking up at 1 am and the nurse rushes to go get him so I can start breastfeeding. He would not latch at first, so his first few meals I pumped and then given through a syringe. The nurses said how odd it was that I had a fever like that, but I fully believe my water did break (at least partly) and that’s why I got a fever even though the tests came back negative.

Sorry for the super long post, just felt it was time to share my story, here’s some pictures of my sweet man