Our sweet little Luke made his way into our world at 8:18 AM on March 16. He weighed in at 8lb1oz, was 20.5 inches long, and had a head circumference of 13.5 inches.

On March 15, my due date, I had an appointment for an NST at Labor and Delivery due to transient gestational hypertension. I had one BP reading that hit the 140s. The doctor told me she was no longer willing to wait to induce me, and that we would be going forward with it. I had the choice between starting right away with the Cytotec or coming back that night to sleep with Cervidil. I opted to get started ASAP.

They took me back to my L&D room, which was huge and got me hooked up to IV and fluids and then came in to insert the first round of Cytotec. I was only 1.5 cm and 50% effaced, so the first insertion was not pleasant, but the second one at 3cm wasn't as bad. These two rounds of Cytotec got my contractions going, so they let my body try to labor without starting the Pitocin. I did this for several hours until my contractions started to stall. They told me they would be starting the pitocin and with the intensity of the contractions that I was already having, I asked for the epidural prior to starting it.

Epidural placement was scary for me but really wasn't bad. I kept wiggling my toes to make sure things were okay. Then, I got the catheter put in and laid back in bed on oxygen and tried my hardest to relax. The epidural did drop my blood pressure, so they had to pump me full of liquids at a high rate. Eventually, I finally hit 10cm and a regular rhythm in my contractions. It was time to push.

I pushed for 2.5 hours. This little boy was stuck in my pelvis and with the epidural, it was hard for me to get a feel for what pushing was effective. About 1.5 hours into pushing, they started to see progress in his head moving and I gave it everything I had to get him through. As the pushing went on, the rectal pressure grew more and more intense. It honestly felt like it was turning inside out. Not painful, just very uncomfortable. Also, I totally pooped on the table... 😣😣.

My pushing was so effective that as they were calling for the doctor to come in to deliver him, he shot through my pelvic bone and was pushing against me with intense pressure. At this point, my epidural could do nothing for the pain. I was screaming like a banshee. I had to hold him at the ring of fire while the doctor got ready... it was excruciating. As he came through, the pain was even more intense and I was sure I was going to split in half. It probably only took a few minutes in total, and the pain went from 1000 to like a 3 in seconds once he was out. My eyes were closed and my husband had to tell me he was out and on my chest. It took me a few seconds to be able to fully focus on my beautiful boy. We had delayed cord clamping and an hour of skin-to-skin and he nursed. During this time, the doctor sewed up mu 2nd degree tear and went inside me up to her elbow to remove my placenta.

He was worth every painful second. We really can do more than we think we are capable of.