Contractions aren’t always time able!

On February 27th, I had my 38 week check up. I kept having contractions on and off since the Thursday before. When I was checked Thursday my cervix was 0 cm and high and closed. My check on Tuesday showed I was 3 cm and 80% effaced. My heart rate was as high as my baby’s for the last two weeks while resting so my midwife scheduled me for an induction the Tuesday after at 39 weeks. I was so excited to have a definite day he was arriving but because I had a plan I didn’t think that’s really how it was going to happen.

So the 28th comes and I’m still having mild contractions but nothing time-able and just chalked it up to Braxton Hicks. We wanted to wait until the first anyways because that’s when my husbands paid paternity leave kicked in. So i laid down around 11 pm and accepted my fate that I’d be pregnant for the rest of my life (dramatic I know 😂)

I woke up around 1 am on the first and my stomach was killing me. I had such bad pelvic pain since i was 32 weeks so I just figured it was another sleepless night. The contractions were coming at 2 minutes apart. Then 15 apart. Then they’d stop. Then it started the same pattern over again. I really didn’t want to wake my husband and kids up because contractions are supposed to be regular if you’re in real labor, right? Wrong. It started hurting more and then I got a bloody show but my contractions were still so irregular and the last time I went into labor I was only at the hospital for 45 minutes before giving birth. My husband called his parents and they got the girls and we headed to the hospital.

When I got there they hooked me up and my cervix was 5 cm and 100% effaced. They told me I was just dehydrated because as soon as I sat down and got fluids my contractions came only one in 30 minutes. Then I stood up and contractions were one right after another. I felt like the was ready to fall out of me. Since this was my last baby and I’ve done it natural twice I opted for the epidural so my husband and I could just relax and enjoy the last experience. I got the epidural and to be honest I can’t believe I never got it before. That thing is really cool. I highly recommend. 😂 so the nurse checks my cervix after an hour and my cervix was 8 cm and water was bulging even though I’d only had 2 contractions in that hour and they weren’t even big. They broke my water and I instantly went to 10. At 1:30 pm they had me start pushing. With no contractions to help. My contractions had completely stopped by then. At 1:53 I heard my sons voice for the first time. He was born at 38 w 2 d at 7 lbs 13 oz and the little man waited it out til the 1st so his daddy could be with us for 6 weeks.

Contractions are not always time able! Had I waited til they got that way, I would have given birth at home because they were never regular! Listen to your body!

Here’s my handsome little D.J. He’s named after his daddy.