My birth story...

So my last day of work was July, Friday the 13th. I was so happy to be out of work until October. At this point i was 38w3d. What do to now?!

I was having steady Braxton Hicks (BH) but nothing painful. Saturday goes by all is good. I noticed on Sunday the 15th that the Braxton Hicks were becoming a little painful and they made me feel like i was having period cramps and like i needed to poop something wicked. All day Sunday, that’s the pain i experienced. I had my weekly OBGYN appt that coming Wednesday the 18th, so i figured i could hold out. Now it’s Monday. The BH are getting a little stronger, and closer together, but still a few hours apart. My mom and i decide to go get our feet done. I noticed the entire time i was getting my pedicure, i didn’t have one contraction while sitting in the massage chair. I had a hair appt that next day (Tuesday, 17July) so we also went to by the hair store. When i tell you these BH were breath taking!! Now Monday night i am not able to sleep at all! The contractions were around 10-20 minutes apart, but everything I’ve read said they have to follow the 4-1-1 or 5-1-1 rule (4 or 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour). So i tried to sleep through it, only getting short 10 minute bits of sleep before another contraction had me in the bathroom. Tuesday morning rolls around, I’m officially 39weeks!! And in a whole lot of pain!

So i call and cancel my hair appt and call the OBGYN asking if i could come in that day instead of Wednesday because i was in a lot of pain. They said sure, come in at 11am. The whole ride to the OB’s my mother and i are joking about what they might say... we said she would say i was still 0/0 (zero % effaced, zero cm dilated) and to suck it up, we joked that she would say i was already 6+cm, anyway... We get there, and i explain to the doc everything I’ve been experiencing over the last few days as she’s putting on her gloves. I lay back, and she inserts her hand to check my cervix for effacement/dilation. Instantly i began to cry because she’s so heavy handed. She even caused a contraction so i was in even more pain. She said oh honey these aren’t Braxton Hicks, you’re in labor, you’re already 4cm! You can head to the hospital, you’re going to have a baby!!! So I’m laying on the table crying through a contraction and the pain of her rough ass hands while my mom calls my partner Derrick (who by the way is 7 hours away in Virginia). All i hear her say in a panicked voice is “Derrick, it’s Candyace’s mom, their admitting her to the hospital, she’s in labor!!!”. For those curious, I’m Military and the Army has me stationed in New York right now while his job has him in Virginia.

So, the OB tells us we can head up there and to try and get there within the next hour or so. We hadn’t eaten, so we decided to go get some food and then head to the house to grab the hospital bag. Derrick hits the road and we prepare to head to the hospital. I check in around 4:30pm

I’m 5cm/100% effaced and just waiting on daddy to arrive to break my water. So now we wait.

I push through the contractions until my body just can’t take it anymore, around 9pm my contractions are 5 minutes apart, and Derrick is only 30 minutes away. He finally arrives at 9:30. Baby waited on his daddy!

I ask to get in the jacuzzi to help with the pain. It felt wonderful!!!! I stayed in for about 20 minutes.

Doc comes in a little later and breaks my water. By now I’m in agonizing pain and begging for an epidural. That was painful!!!! I was contracting so much and baby was kicking because i had to hunch over. But I’m glad i got it. Now I’m fully effaced and fully dilated! They tell me it’s time to start pushing. It’s around 1:15am July 18th now, i push a total of 6 times, twice over 3 contractions each. And baby arrives at 1:27am at 7lbs 14oz, 20 inches long. I only cried three times during this entire ordeal. When the OB checked me, when she broke my water, and when she handed me by perfect baby boy.

Here’s me 24hs later

One of our maternity photos