Thought I would finally share my story with people other my family. My little guy is now 3 weeks and 3 days!

Sorry for the long post but it’s a long story!

To make it short; preterm labor scare at 29 weeks. Elective induction at 39 weeks. 23 hours of labor total. 45 minutes of hard labor. And 6 minutes of pushing!

Baby boy Perseus John born at 11:30 am on July 28 8 lbs 1 oz 21.5 inches long

We’ll start from the beginning of all hell!

29 weeks along I had just gotten back from a weekend at the beach with my family, gotten our dog from the babysitter and was at home eating dinner. When I started to notice that I was having contractions that were different than the braxton hicks I had been having for a couple weeks already. These were lasting about 45 seconds and were only 2-3 minutes apart for an hour. I got in the bathtub and called my mom to see what she thought as I didn’t want to panic my husband. She urged me to call L&D and not wait any longer. Big surprise they wanted me to come in and get checked with how early I was. So we go in assuming they’re going to tell me I hadn’t taken care of myself that weekend as I should have and go home and get some rest. Nope! I was already 3 cm and still having contractions. So they admitted me and got me on potassium right away to develop his brain a little more and steroids to develop his lungs. They were able to stop them got me to a place where they were comfortable with me going home (5 days later). Nobody expected me to get to full term and I mean nobody!

Fast forward to 39 weeks. I had been having contractions and multiple splits of false labor since 29 weeks. Frustrated and beyond over the constant contractions I opted to be induced at 39 weeks. After being told by both my midwife and OB that my cervix was primed and ready to roll we had our families basically follow us to the hospital that Saturday morning. Boy were we wrong!

They got me checked in and all of the monitors started. Doctors checked my cervix and decided that they wanted to prep my cervix. Gave me a pill (don’t remember what it was) and said they will continue this every 4 hours until the contractions either get painful or my cervix is to a point that they feel comfortable to move me onto pitocin.

12 annoying, frustrating, boring hours later they finally decide to ease me into the pitocin. Start me on 2 and move me up 2 more units every half hour to an hour. After probably 9 hours of this I was at about 14 units of pitocin when I decided that I wanted to get in the tub since my contractions were picking up and I couldn’t get comfortable in bed. Dozed off in the tub for about an hour when they wanted to check me again. And I was still at a 6 but could stretch to 8 so she decided to break my water. I was warned that with my desire for a non medicated delivery that breaking my water might not be something I wanted to do. Annoyed by how long it had been taking I decided to just go for it.

They were most definitely right about the intensity picking up! And I mean right away! Tried to get back in the tub. Lasted about 2 contractions when I wanted back out and to try the nitrous oxide. Got moved back to bed (by choice) and got my mask. Doc comes back in and I am now at a 9! They warned me that I will feel the pressure and need to push and to let them know when that happens. Lasted about another 2 contractions when that urge was coming hot and heavy! I’m already on all fours trying to deal with these contractions and my nurse is trying to tell me to wait until she can get the doctors back in. I looked her dead in the eye and said “that’s too bad!” And start to push with the following contraction thinking in my head in all reality these nurses know how to deliver a baby! The doctors are just there to finish!

My husband still says the next 30 seconds were something out of a cartoon! A whole group of doctors and students (teaching hospital) come running in throwing their gowns and masks on and are at the end of my bed. They now have to roll me to my side so they can get a good read on baby’s heart rate since they couldn’t find it in the position I was in. Now I really know it’s go time and if I wasn’t really pushing already I could really push! I grab the pillow I was resting on, stuff it in my face and scream bloody murder with each contraction while pushing with all of my might so I could get this god awful burning to go away! Assuming that like most first time deliveries this would take a while I try and breathe and rest between each one. Next thing I know my doctor is cheering me on and telling that with this next one I need to use every ounce of energy in me, so I follow orders and continue pushing even after the contraction stopped. I gear up for another to come and to push again when I realize everyone is cheering and telling me to look at my beautiful boy! I couldn’t believe it! I had my boy already and he was the most beautiful, perfect baby I had ever seen!

I was lucky enough to not tear... my perineum. However lil man couldn’t keep his hands away from his face long enough to come out and gave me a nice little tear along my clitoris and gave me a catheter for the next week to make sure the scar tissue didn’t go too far!

All in all one of the best labor and deliveries they had seen and were extremely proud of how well I had handled the whole thing.