So I thought that while my sweet baby boy is sleeping, I'd write this down before the details start to fade.

I was due September 27th but because of my gestational diabetes, my perinatal doc wanted to induce me by 39 weeks. I really didn't want to go that route (everyone loved to tell me their horror stories about induction) but if course the only thing that really matters in the end is the safe and healthy delivery of my son. I'd already drunk gallons of red raspberry leaf tea, taken and inserted evening primrose oil and had sex daily (of yeah, hubby loved that method lol!) to start labor naturally and nothing was working. So I went in for my weekly appointment with my midwife Friday morning on the 22nd and she said we needed to schedule the induction. Just for giggles, she also checked to see if I was dialated yet and yay! 3 cm dialated already! We did the membrane sweep right then, hoping to kick start labor and scheduled my induction for the next evening, Saturday at 10pm. I wasn't super hopeful but willing to try anything.

The cramps started immediately, but it wasn't anything beyond regular period type cramps and from what my midwife told me, this was normal. I had light cramps all day and finally stated feeling some real contractions around 530pm but nothing major, and they were really irregular, sometimes 14 mins apart, sometimes 8. I made dinner for the faint and they got stronger and slightly me regular, by about 8pm they were about 8 to 9 mins apart. Finally by about 10pm we were thinking of going to bed, but the contractions were too painful and I didn't think I could sleep, it was hard enough to sit still, by then I was walking around and leaning on counters during contractions. They were about 6 to 7mins apart by then so I called the midwife on call. She said to wait until they were 4 to 5 mins apart before heading in so I hung up to wait. My husband was there during this process and once he saw I couldn't sit still be started loading up the car and told my daughter to get ready to go just in case (she's 15 and we wanted her to be there for her brother's birth). I only lasted about 20 minutes after that call and my husband called the midwife again cuz in that time my contractions moved to only 2 to 3 mins apart- that fast! We drove the 15 mins to the hospital and got into triage at 11:08pm. As we were walking into the hospital, another woman in late stages on labor was also coming in, very obviously in pain and having constant contractions. We overheard in triage the nurse tell her that although she wanted an epidural, she was already 10 cm so it was too late, she was wheeled out almost immediately. I remember thinking, that really sucks, I can't wait for my epidural! When they checked me in triage, I was 6 cm but a few minutes later my water broke and by then my contractions were right on top of each other, less than a minute apart.

About 20 minutes after we were admitted to triage, they moved me to my delivery room. I had only just shifted to the bed there and had an overwhelming need to push. Too late for my epidural also! My husband had to run to get my daughter from the waiting room, since only one person could be in triage with me. She made it just in time! 10 minutes of hard pushing and a couple small tears needing stitches later, my son was born at 1 minute to midnight! I guess he decided that he was finally ready and there was no reason to take his time getting here! Although it hurt like hell, at least it was fast and my son is perfect, healthy and safely delivered, which is all a mom can ask for!