I gave birth to my baby girl on January 17th. The day prior I went into labor & delivery after having excruciating contractions all day. They weren't getting any closer than 9 minutes apart but they were consistency 9 minutes apart for the entire day and I was in complete agony. I told my SO that I didn't care that they weren't 5 minutes apart and to take me to the hospital. They put me on the monitor and I was indeed contracting, big ones too, then they checked me and I was only 1cm dilated but 90% effaced and they told me I would have to go home. So there I was walking out of the hospital in the most pain I've ever been in my life. Still contracting every 8-9 minutes and in tears. Skip to 4:00am that morning and I was literally screaming through each contraction, still only 9 min apart. My SO said that's it we're going back to the hospital. Went back, got checked again, now 2cm dilated and 100% effaced. Once again they said I would have to go home, at this point I thought oh hell no! I begged and asked if there was any other option, I was in tears and in so much pain. The doctor then said okay I'll let you walk the halls for 1 hour and we'll see if you've progressed after that. So I walked for an hour in agony but I was not giving up, came back and was 3cm dilated! Then the golden gates of heaven opened up and the doctor said "ok, let's have a baby today". I literally cried from joy because of how much pain I was in. They took me down to labor & delivery and broke my water almost immediately (the worst pain 😖) then I had to wait to go through 2 bags of fluids before I could get my epidural. Mind you an epidural was not in my original birth plan but after being in excruciating pain and contracting for over 24 hours my body was exhausted and I just couldn't take it anymore. I received my epidural and it was a godsend! I didn't need the pitocin because I was dilating on my own, about 1-2 cm every hour. By 4:00pm I was 10cm and ready to push. This is my first baby so I had no idea what I was doing. Boy was it hard!! Like squeezing a watermelon through a grape-sized hole! I was exhausted after not sleeping for over 24 hours so I didn't have much energy when it came time to push. I pushed for over an hour an a half and I heard the doctor saying my pelvis was small but he saw the baby's head and she wasn't that big in size so I should be able to push her out (had she been any bigger than her birth weight I would have needed a c-section due to having a small pelvis). At this point the baby's heart rate was dropping and I had to be given oxygen so I mustered up all I could and pushed with all my might for another 15 minutes and I hear the doctor tell me to just look down and he pulled her right out. There she was, finally!! My beautiful baby girl. At 37w5d, My Zara Wynter, born at 5:44pm on January 17th weighing 5lb 9oz and 19.5in long. Labor was NOT easy at all! But I'd do it all over again for this sweet face.. 💖