**Originally due October 24th**

I had a pretty good pregnancy. Me and baby girl were always very healthy. I did have hyperemesis in the beginning but found a medication that worked and got that under control.

At around 38 weeks, I began to go into prodromal labor. It was a Sunday night, I had just walked around a huge pumpkin patch all day and when I got home, I began to have contractions. They weren’t super close so I figured I would just wait it out and see. Well two days later and my contractions were still about 6-8 minutes apart and mostly happening in my back. That Tuesday I went to see my midwife and she recommended I go in that Thursday (39 weeks exactly) for therapeutic rest and an NST because my blood pressure was high and my girl’s heart rate wasn’t cooperating. So that’s what I did. Thursday, October 17th at 8:00 PM, I went into the hospital to begin therapeutic rest and an NST. I got the medication administered at around 10 PM and passed out for some very needed rest. I ended up waking up at around 12:30 with VERY regular contractions. They were coming every 2 mins apart and were moderately painful. When I came into the hospital I was a fingertip dilated, by 12:30 I was 2 cm dilated and my cervix was softening but still long. This gave me hope because I thought my body was doing exactly what it was supposed to finally! So I continued contracting every 2-4 mins for the next 6 hours. Around 7:00 the midwife came and checked me again and I was still the same, my cervix hadn’t changed at all. So they put in for an augmentation of labor which just means they decided to try and help my cervix along. So at around 9 I got the foley bulb put in. OH MY GOD. The contractions that followed the foley bulb were sooooo much worse than anything I’ve ever experienced and they were right on top of each other. At around 11, I tapped out and opted for the epidural. So this is when things got rough. I ended up having to sit still for 45 mins, contracting while a resident anesthesiologist put in my epidural and had to keep pulling it out and redoing it like 4 times. I should’ve known something was not right. After the epidural I felt pretty good and was able to nap for an hour. At 12:00 the foley bulb fell out which meant I was at 4 cm! Then things started picking up even more. At this point I was contracting every 2-3 mins but it was okay because I didn’t feel a thing! At 2:00 they realized the epidural had slowed down my contractions and they started red. I had no issue with this because again I was on the epidural. At 5;00 my water broke on its own! I was checked at 6:30 and found out I was between 6-7 cm! Then... things got real. The contractions picked up and all of a sudden I was able to feel them. The epidural was not working anymore. I progressed to 8 cm and started to feel a ton of pressure at around 10 pm. I just remember screaming my head off because the pain was unreal. I quickly realized that I was in transition. At around 11 I was checked again and was still an 8 but was 100% effaced and baby was at a +2. It was the most intense hour ever. I was just trying to focus on breathing through each contraction but it was easier said than done!! Finally at 12:00 I was 10 cm and ready to push. I do not know how I even got through that. I remember I kept telling the doctor that I couldn’t do it. It literally felt like I was pooping out a bowling ball. Between each contraction I was literally passing out. I forgot where I was and had no concept of time. Finally after choking the shit out of my husband and screaming my head off, my beautiful girl was born at 1:11 AM on Saturday October 19th. She is the absolute best thing to ever happen to me. I totally didn’t think this kind of love was even possible.

Ashlynn Rayne

born 7 lbs 13 oz

21 and a half inches long