Sullivan Sterling is here!

*Birth Story*

Sullivan Sterling Munro

Born January 27th at 10:59PM after 14 hours of natural labour! (Induced) 7lbs 14oz and 21.7 inches long!

I was due (today) February 1st and my Dr. wanted to induce me at 39 weeks as I’m petite and she wanted baby to stay small being I was considered low risk.

I had cervical ripening (Cervidil) done Friday night(26th)at 9 pm and it started working overnight. I thought for sure they would need to do another round in the morning because I was just crampy overnight but nothing serious however, when I went in to the Hospital at 8:30AM they checked me they said I was dilated to 3cm. A few minutes later my Dr. came in and broke my water to get things going “naturally”. I felt very minimal pain all morning so when they came in at about 12 to offer me an epidural I told them no because I wasn’t in any real pain yet. At 1PM they checked me and I hadn’t progressed at all. They said baby had moved down but that I was still a 3 and that we needed to get things moving so they put me on Oxytocin drip.

From 2-5PM was a bit painful but nothing unbearable. The nurses kept coming to offer me gas, morphine and an epidural and I said no it’s not unbearable yet. At around 7PM I was checked again and was only at 7cm. From 7pm to 9:30 pm was brutal, I wanted to give up and I vomited and then dry heaved every contraction. The pain was horrible and the pressure even worse and I really broke down but by that point when they offered me an epi I didn’t want it because I figured I’d went so long without it why give up now.

I asked to be checked again around 9-9:15 and was STILL a 7 although the baby had moved down more.

We laboured until 10-10:30 or so and I just wanted to quit because it was so painful so I asked to be checked again because I was getting the urge to push. When she checked again and said I was at 9cm I got a second wind. I was so excited to be so close to being done and she said the baby was so low that it was coming soon if I could just make it through another few contractions.

I made it through for another 10 minutes or so and then asked to be checked again because I NEED to push. I was past a 9.5cm and it would be soon that I could push! I only had 3 more contractions and I started pushing without trying. The nurse told me to let my body take over but not to purposefully push. She checked me again and I was at 10cm and ready to go! She called for the Dr and before she arrived I did a few pushes with 5 nurses and the resident that was working with my OBGYN.

Pushing was probably the BEST feeling! The ring of fire hurt so so so much but i just wanted to go and be done so badly I pushed with every ounce I had in me! It was an odd combination of the worst and best feeling all in one!

Once the Dr. was in I only had two contractions worth of pushing before his head was out and I felt so excited and was good to push for the shoulders. Halfway through pushing for the shoulders he was stuck so she put her hands inside (not pleasant) and fixed him because his elbow was up by his head.

I gave one more push and he was out and I cried my eyes out! In total I pushed for just over 10 minutes from when I started pushing to when he was delivered!

I was kind of curled up with my head pushed up towards my knees and I saw it was a boy and through my tears I said “Travis, it’s a boy!! You have a son!” and then they put him on my chest and we did skin to skin. There was one little bleeder from her trying to get his shoulders unstuck so I needed one suture. He latched instantly and has been feeding like a champ since!

We don’t want to put him down, we are so in love! 😍