Our Story!

Hello! I thought I’d share our story now that our sweet kiddo is here in case it helps anyone else know what to expect!

6/10 I was 1/2cm, 40%, baby -4.

6/17 I was 3cm and 70%, baby -2! I think the change was from pumping for an hour each day and walking a mile each day. I got a sweep that day and had some good rhythmic Braxton’s 3x over the next 3-4 days but that was it really.

6/23 at 2am we showed up for our induction, still a 3! I had continued the same pumping and walking schedule, so I expected better but was happy.

3am - pitocin started, not too bad.

357am - water broke by MD, procedure not bad but contractions immediately picked up.

515am - inserted epidural, contractions pretty rough

720am - at 5.5cm and contractions are pretty excruciating. Epidural still hasn’t kicked in

815am - IV fentanyl and loading dose thru epidural, finally 90% relief!!!

913am - 7cm but cervical check coincides with the epidural wearing off. Didn’t realize it at the time but it was just the loading dose wearing off 😔 contractions become excruciating again

1030am - receive another loading dose through epidural which takes away 85-90% of the pain! I had been feeling for several minutes like her head was low and I needed to push, at 1044 they checked me and I was 10cm!

1142am - little girl born! Only had to push for 52 mins! (But who’s counting right??)

I had a 2nd degree tear which I was so nervous about but honestly it is no biggie. Even with a bad epidural I didn’t feel the tear itself. I have never had burning while peeing, and even BMs are no biggie! I was so scared but it’s been fine! I haven’t even used the peri bottle, just witch hazel pads.

Baby girl was born calm as can be, didn’t cry much at all especially at first. APGARs were 9/9! We have chosen to exclusively pump so didn’t try to latch. 1 hour of skin to skin was awesome, and Daddy got to cut the cord. I was groggy from so much Fentanyl but totally still able to enjoy it, just sort of heavy eyed and sleepy.

The uterine massage for bleeding is something that had me nervous, but for me I’ll say it wasn’t that bad. Take a deep breath and just try to relax. My nurses were all super quick about it so that was awesome!

We are in SW Missouri and COVID changed nothing for us other than no extra visitors outside my husband. We did not have to get tested or anything like that. Only other deal was that we weren’t allowed to bring breast milk pumped at home to the hospital due to the risk of COVID, but anything I pumped there they would keep.

Overall I’d say don’t sweat it and just be prepared for anything! Even if your epidural doesn’t work or something crazy like that, you’ll get through it and it won’t matter anymore! The less stress the better!

Good luck to you all! And if anyone has any questions in the comments I don’t mind.