On February 26th at 10:30pm I started having contractions. Sadly, they were every 10-15 mins apart so, I knew I couldn’t go into L&D; yet. I was up all night long until around 5am on the 27th when my husband woke up for work. About ten minutes before he woke up they were starting to come every 4 mins lasting 1 minute long! They had me in tears because they were strong so, I knew they weren’t just BH contractions. We woke up my mother who came to stay with us until our little boy arrived (we live in CA and she lives in MO). We then decided to call the doctor to see if he wanted us to wait until our 3pm appointment we were supposed to have that day or come into L&D.; The nurse we spoke to told us to come in because we are having a baby today! When we arrived to the hospital we were placed in a room to monitor how close my contractions were and to see how dilated/effaced I was. I was dilated to a 2 like I had been for 3 weeks but, I was 100% effaced with a bulging water sac! The doctor decided to go ahead and admit me at 6:30am. At 11am they broke my water because it wasn’t happening on its own. At 11:30am the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. It took him seven times to get it placed correctly and that was about a hour long. I was dilated to a 4 once the epidural was placed. I was finally able to get some rest once the epidural kicked in! Those things are magic when done correctly! At 4pm the nurse checked me and I was dilated to 8cm. She was shocked when 4:25pm rolled around and I said I needed to push! She informed me that it would probably be 1-3 hours of pushing since it’s my first baby and in my head I was thinking “this is going to be the longest labor ever.” Well, 10 mins later she called the doctor to come in because I started crowning and at 5pm my sweet 8lb 13 oz and 20 1/2 inch long baby boy came into this world! 35 mins of pushing and the doctors were shocked! I had to have 7 stitches but, my sweet boy was definitely worth it all! Today, he is 3 weeks old and is the sweetest baby!💙 My heart is so full!