My baby girl Evelyn Arya was born on April 5th at 12:01 pm, 3 days past her due date. Here is my birth story. Sorry it’s long and detailed, but felt like getting it all out!

I was 1cm dilated for over a week and a membrane sweep didn’t do anything. I was nervous for another painful sweep and really really didn’t want to be induced. After reading all of the things that can help labor start naturally, the day after her due date I walked a good 2 hours with my husband and later that night we had some forced intercourse, lol. 2 hours after that I was having little contractions and so I started timing them. Some were close together, and really intense but nothing stayed 3 min apart for an hour straight so I went on for the next day and a half with contractions ranging from 3 min to 15 min apart. It was exhausting and I couldn’t sleep much. By 5am on 4/5 it was unbearable. I managed to shower and get myself together and got to the hospital because we had a good hour of 3-5 min apart contractions. Had to go through all of the Covid precautions and then they didn’t seem to think I was too far along because of how calmly I was holding a conversation.

Well..... the nurse reached in there and said I was 10 centimeters!!! I was so relieved and happy that my baby would come that day and that all the painful contractions were actually doing something! I smiled the whole way as they wheeled my bed to L&D. I wanted a natural labor and really didn’t want anything hooked up to me. I thought they gave me regular IV fluids but now I’m reading the bill that there was Oxytocin in there. They also had to break my water for me and insert a catheter just to drain my bladder quickly to make room for the baby to come out. These are all things that scare the crap out of me usually and I’ve never been admitted in a hospital for any reason before.

I was told to sit on the birthing ball until I feel the “urge to push”. The amniotic fluid was still gushing out of me but I sat on the ball with a giant pad and breathed through the contractions. I felt some kind of urge to push when more water came out so I got on the bed and the nurse put her hand up there and told me to “push” which pretty much means try to poop lol?! The dr came in and every time I had a contraction I had to do 3 big pushes and they counted with me for each one. no screaming or grunting allowed, but I did let some out because it felt like it would help (my throat was so sore the next day. Not a good look during covid times).

They asked if I wanted to feel the top of my baby’s head while she was still in there.. ummm no but it did sound cute the way they said she was looking around. I heard the nurse use the term “transverse” but I guess they were just talking about which way she was facing, because she was def head down. I also never thought I would allow my husband to watch everything but he had to hold my leg up as I pushed. It helped a lot having him involved, and I remember asking him “are you okay?” Immediately after a contraction and round of painful pushing. He laughed in disbelief that I would ask him that while I was giving birth 😂. I did have a few rounds of pushing towards the end when I was losing my confidence. I just had to tell myself that this next deep breath and push could be the last one before she comes out. When I felt her head pop out I involuntarily let out a high pitched scream and then everyone yelled at me to keep pushing (I thought the rest of her would just slither out, but no 😅) it was just one more long powerful push and the rest of her flew out of me!! (They were putting olive oil all over her head early on to lube her out of there hahaha)

They immediately put her on my chest, all bloody but beautiful and perfect. I couldn’t see much of her face because I had to wear a face mask and that made it hard to see my chest area. She gripped onto my finger right away and was sticking her tongue out and wanting to nurse already 😭🥰.

However this whole hour of skin to skin time was distracting because I had multiple tears that they needed to stitch up :/. I think before they did that they also had to press my stomach a bunch to get the placenta to come out, apparently mine was delayed but eventually I was able to push it out. Another thing was they asked if I wanted to cut my own cord and I panicked and said no, kind of regret that now!

After we got to the mother baby unit I was considered a fall risk, not sure why but after 8 hours I was allowed to walk around and was just a bit sore from the stitches. And not trying to brag but we were given the option to leave the next day and so we did 😁 everyone told me it’s better to stay at the hospital because it’s scary going home and being on your own but no, it comes so naturally. And in the hospital we were interrupted every 10 min by a doctor or nurse or someone to do tests or housekeeping or room service. Im usually so shy about being naked around anyone but my husband but I let those nurses help me breast feed and took in all of their awesome advice. I didn’t even need the lactation consultant.

Anyway we’ve had an absolutely lovely week at home bonding and secretly we love having her all go ourselves during these social distancing times ❤️☺️