I don't usually post anything but since this was a crazy, scary, and amazing time I figured I might as well. Maybe, some other women have gone through something similar during their own births. My due date was February 10th.

So let's start off with how this came to be, I finally got pregnant after having fertility issues, it took me a year and a half to do so. The pregnancy wasn't too bad didn't really have any issues other than nausea and headaches and it flew by soo fast.

So here I find myself 37 weeks and 1 day along January 21st with BV that's being treated and I'm going to the bathroom before I hop in the shower, nothing unusual going on, I'm finishing up and I noticed when I wipe there's blood. "Alright, I've read plenty of times about the bloody show, this is probably it." I thought, so I get in the shower like I had originally planned on doing (and now to clean myself up) and at this point my husband and mom know what's going on so he calls the nurse line to see what they think we should do (first time parents). As I'm finishing up getting ready to get out of the shower I look down and see a lot of blood coming out, like running down my legs, covering the whole tub underneath me lot (me freaking out not knowing what to do because it won't stop coming) "Dylan! I'm bleeding a lot now and it won't stop!" he's still talking to a nurse and my mom starts freaking out and calls 911 so now the ambulance is on the way to take me to the hospital I'm not delivering in. The bleeding finally stopped enough where I could put underwear and a pad on and the ambulance arrives, they get me to the hospital and at this point I'm still bleeding but nowhere near the amount I was (thank goodness), the doctor does a pelvic examine and I'm not dilated and having no contractions. He ends up coming to the conclusion that it was a cervical irritation from the BV and that some capillaries had broke so nothing to worry about. "That's great!" baby is healthy and strong as he's been through the whole pregnancy.

Well now here we are January 29th and yet again when I'm going to the bathroom I wipe and there's blood! This time it was coming out like when you sneeze on your period. I go to the hospital as advised and they check and everything looks great, no dilation, no contractions, baby is healthy, so I'm sent home.

January 31st, I think you can see a pattern now, I'm going to the bathroom, I wipe, there's blood! But this time after I wiped it started coming out like I was peeing and my husband was standing in the doorway and says "I thought you were done peeing?" I said "I'm not peeing" well that wasn't pee it was blood coming out which made it sound like I was in fact peeing. Back to the hospital we go! Pelvic examine, no dilation, no contractions, baby is healthy. But this time it was different, this is my third time bleeding and still no explanation as to why I'm bleeding so the doctor on call consults with the high risk doctor to see about inducement, 2 hours later the doctor comes back and says "I talked to the high risk doctor and he said it's best just to induce you". I was not prepared mentally at all for her to say that, so 10pm that night they insert cervadil, 9am the next morning they take that out and start pitocin (Yay! NOT 😒).

So we will fast forward a bit since this is already long enough.

11pm, February 1st i ask for an epidural, because the pitocin is at the highest dose they can give and those contractions are ridiculous with minimal change in dilation. Five, yes, FIVE attempts later, after hitting bone every time, he finally gets a spinal epidural in, which now means it has to be monitored more closely and more risk for a spinal headache (can I catch a break? Nope.).

After 32 hours of labor, it's time! Time to push! This is the easy part, 30 minutes and minimal pushes later, my baby boy is out! This is where it gets bad, I'm holding my baby for the first time, he's beautiful and I love him more than life itself, and they take him off of me, I have no idea why I was completely engulfed in him and nothing else mattered. After they take him off I realized it was because I was hemorrhaging and they needed to get to me, I quickly realized that because I started to pass out and I say "I'm going to pass out" they lay me down fast and put oxygen on, I'm still bleeding, the doctor calls a code white, and this whole time my mom is crying holding my baby and my husband is with me holding my leg doing everything he can to hold his tears back because he's watching me dying in front of him. Within a matter of minutes of calling the code white there was at least 25 people in my room I'm being poked for blood, having IV's put in, having a doctor's arm inside of me pulling blood clots out while being able to watch his hand inside of me with the ultrasound his partner is using. I'm still bleeding at this point and they are doing everything they can to stop it and I thought I might die at this point so I looked at my husband and it was like everything stopped, I got his attention and I said "I love you" with tears in his eyes he said "I love you too, you're going to be fine don't worry"

They finally got the bleeding stopped, everything was starting to calm down, I had packing and a balloon inside of me to insure the bleeding stopped and to lower the risk of bleeding again for hours afterward. That was the most uncomfortable thing I've ever felt and I wouldn't wish anyone to have that, but it helped save my life so I would have it again to be here with my family, because now I get to watch my son grow up and I get to stay by my husband's side. Every staff member said I was lucky that the doctor that saved my life started his shift 10 MINUTES before I gave birth, he has saved many women's lives with his work and knowledge and I am forever grateful to him and all the nurses in that hospital. A lot of women don't live through that, I'm happy I was one of the lucky ones.

32 hours of labor, 30 minutes of pushing and my baby boy was here.

I did end up getting a spinal headache and I was whiter than a ghost and here just over a month later I still am.

I lost half of my blood hemorrhaging and I am lucky to be here today. It makes me appreciate life so much more and I am forever beyond grateful for that doctor.

Here is the beautiful boy I went through all of this for 💙

💚Mason John, 5lbs 12oz, 18 1/2 inches long, born February 2nd at 5:12pm at 38 weeks 6 days💙