Had my bloody show Friday afternoon 11/17, after that had lots of false labor (prodromal) with random contractions but nothing ever setting into a rhythm. Ate pineapple, did squats, ate spicy foods, drank red raspberry leaf tea, ate prunes.... all kinds of things to try and get things going. Was starting to lose hope when BAM! Water broke Monday morning at 3 AM while in bed (thank goodness for waterproof mattress protectors!)

So what they don’t tell you about your water breaking.... it’s not just a big gush and then it’s over.... for me it was a big gush, then a bit later another Big gush, and I just basically kept leaking out Big gushes for HOURS. Hubby threw our hospital bags into the car and OFF WE WENT! I ended up waddling into the hospital with a towel shoved between my legs to try and prevent leaks (didn’t really work 😂)

We got to labor and delivery around 4 am, they confirmed my water had in fact broken, and the water that was still leaking was a brownish/green color now when told the nurses that Baby probably pooped inside the uterus. They told me not a big deal, they would just have to make sure she didn’t inhale any once she was born.

They checked me and I was only 2 cm and “still very thick”. I also wasn’t having any contractions (which is ironic since I had been having false labor all weekend 🙄). Fast forward to 9am and I still wasn’t progressing so they started pitocin. Some contractions started but honestly they still weren’t that bad to me. Nurse asked if I had painful periods. I said YEP. She said she’s noticed that people with painful periods are kind of “used to it” and they expect labor contractions to be much more painful, which helps them deal with the pain (or something like that)...

Anywho, so i finally started contracting, at noon the checked me again and I was 3 cm, 50%, and Baby at -3 station 🙄. Contractions started getting a bit stronger, honestly still not that bad though but I decided to go ahead and get the epidural at 2pm (you know, just in case lol) the worst part about getting the epidural was they made my husband leave. That was kind of scary... it was just like WHAT, WHY? but it wasn’t too bad. Lots of pressure when the needle went in. Mostly I was just concentrating on not moving! Then they taped up my ENTIRE DANG BACK ( later when they removed the tape it was AWFUL 😖) and then I was magically numb !!! 💃

At 1530 I was 4cm, 50% and Baby at -3 station. They didn’t check me again until 11pm at night cause they were worried about infection. They decided to stop pitocin at 9pm for 2 hours and then restart it at 11pm. When they checked me again at 11pm I was 7cm!

About 30 minutes later I felt a lot of pressure like I had to poop so I called the nurse in and she checked me again and I was at 10 cm fully effaced!! Problem was the on-call doctor was currently delivering another baby so they told me not to push 😖 it sucked trying not to push with all that pressure but about 10 minutes later the doctor was ready and they had me start to push. I probably only pushed for about 15 to 20 minutes, and then BAM! Lily Marie was born!! She was immediately put on my chest which was awesome !! but I did have to get stitched up which sucked 😓 after I was stitched up the nurses help me start breast-feeding and Miss Lily latched within a few minutes 🤩 after that all the nurses and Dr. left the room so it was just my husband and I and Baby Lily for about an hour or two for Baby bonding. After that the nurse came in to weigh and measure her: 6 lbs 13 oz, 22 inches long born 11/20 at 11:59 PM ❤️❤️❤️

All in all the 21 hour Labor wasn’t actually that bad. I think I psyched myself up in my head to expect it to be much worse than it was (which I’m very grateful for!) Miss Lily and I have been exclusively breast-feeding since she was born and everything is going awesome. She lost about 10% of her body weight (she got down to 6 lbs. 2 oz. on Friday 11/24) before my milk came in, but then by 11/25 she had went up to 6 lbs. 3 oz. and has been gaining well ever since!

It has been such a relief that breast-feeding has been going well because that was a big thing that had caused me a lot of anxiety during my pregnancy. Lily is now three weeks and one day old and at our last appointment she was 7 lbs. 3 oz. 💃👌🏻🤩