4 1/2 hours from first contraction to baby!

I’m 39+3 today and kind of had a feeling that something was going to happen soon. I had my last doctors appointment on Tuesday and was 3 1/2 cm + 70% effaced. She swept my membranes then which led to some contractions but they went away after an hour. Spent the rest of the week going for a walk every day hoping to start something. Yesterday I went all in and ate a ton of dates, pineapple and walked for about 45 mins. I had a lot of BH throughout the day and a somewhat upset stomach but felt nothing close to a contraction.

I woke up around 4am as my 13-month old woke up hungry and went back to bed around 4:30. Then suddenly I woke around 5:10am to a contraction. It was pretty mild but I could feel it all around my hips. I stayed awake to see if another one would come and sure enough it did around 5 mins later. At this point I just kind of felt that this was the real thing and decided to go eat some food. The contractions kept coming every 5 mins and varied in length and strength. I took a shower and woke up my husband telling him that I was going to call my sister so she could come watch our daughter. He was not stressing at this point as I’ve only had contractions for about 30 mins and they didn’t seem that bad. My sister lives about 45 mins away and 20 mins after I called her I knew that we couldn’t wait for her. The contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart and strong enough where I had to lay down on the ground to get through them. So we woke our daughter and we went to the hospital around 6:40am.

The car ride was only 7-8 mins but it was awful. I threw up and was sweating like a pig! I couldn’t sit still and was just sobbing. When we got to hospital I had another contraction in the lobby so the nurses admitted me immediately. I had an epidural with my first daughter after a sloooow labor for about 2 days, and I was set on having one again as my pain tolerance is awful. I asked the nurses to give me an epidural but then one of them checked me and said that I was fully dilated and if my water broke the baby was going to come immediately. I think I had a panic attack at this point cause I just remember crying uncontrollably and freaking out about having to give birth naturally. She said that she was going to try and get me a small dose and thankfully the anesthesiologist was there super fast. I was somehow able to sit still enough to get a big dose and the relief was immediate. After this I just felt a lot of pressure every time a contraction would come. They told me that they would break my water since I had a bulging bag and that I should start pushing within an hour after that. The nurse told me to push a little bit through every contraction before that and then the official pushing started around 9:30am. I pushed three times through a contraction with the nurse and my husband holding my legs and the nurse said that we better get the doctor cause she could tell that the baby was super low. When the doctor came, I did another three pushes but halfway through the third one the nurse and doctor started yelling telling me to stop because the head was halfway out and the doctor hadn’t finished putting her gloves on! It was so hard to not push as I could feel her being halfway out. Then the doctor was ready and I finished the push, and there she was!! She was born about 4 1/2 hours after that first contraction. She was so calm and only cried a little, and has been an angel all day. I had to have a couple of stitches but I honestly feel great now and not having much pain down there.

Feel free to ask any questions, I have been reading birth stories every night for the past month or so, so I’m excited to share mine and hope it will be valuable or helpful for someone out there. :-)