I figured while hubby & baby are sleeping, I could jot this down.

Thursday, Aug 9, was my last day at work before I took my maternity leave. My son was due August 18, but my OB scheduled my induction for August 14. I had spent the last few days with a premonition that I was not going to make it to my induction date, but kind of hoped I would so I could the house tidied up before my son came home.

I came home Thursday night from work and cleaned the kitchen top to bottom - I had planned to do this every room 😂 anyway, after mopping the floors, I was give out and it was about 830.

My husband and I went to lay down for bed and he wanted to wind down a little bit before he just went to sleep. So, he gave me a kiss and I closed my eyes and went to sleep after we listened to my son’s heartbeat for the night.

I laid there on and off from sleeping. I hadn’t slept well in probably 2 weeks because my tummy was so big, and so so heavy. My son also seemed to have like to host dance parties in my belly every night as soon as I went to sleep. I was also having a lot of pressure on my cervix, so I thought that could be something, but I assumed he was just working his way down. I said a little prayer that maybe he would come that night so I could have him on World Lion Day (we are huge Lion King geeks - you should see his nursery)

My husband finally settled down, so I have hoping that him snuggling in with me would help me sleep.

Well, at about midnight, I woke up for the third time to pee, and I was really hungry. I could hardly sleep anyway so I decided to get up and find something. I had some leftover pizza and right after I ate it, I thought I was going to throw it up, so I went to the bathroom.

I sit down to use the bathroom, and I was 90% sure I lost my mucus plug. I wiped and there was a teeny tiny bit of blood.

I finally laid back down about 1:00, desperately hoping for some sleep. I woke up 2:45, and I had to pee really bad. I got up, went to the bathroom, and again when I wiped, there was some bloody discharge.

Finally, at 3:50, a pretty gnarly contraction woke me up. I went to the bathroom, and found more bloody discharge. I laid back down and had another contraction at 4:07, and I was really having to breathe through them because they were pretty painful.

I had another contraction at 4:20, and for about a half hour they were 6 minutes apart lasting over a minute. Nothing too horrific, but they did hurt badly enough that I was having to very conscientiously breathe through them.

I woke my husband up about 5:00 telling him I was pretty sure it was time to go. We got ready, and by the time we were walking out the door, I was really hurting.

The car ride to the hospital took what felt like forever because it was pouring down rain, and the riding made the contractions feel so much worse.

We finally made it to OB ER where I was checked in pretty quickly. The nurse went over all of my symptoms, checked my cervix & found me at a 5, and I knew pretty quickly today was the day. My husband isn’t really familiar with all the symptoms so, bless his heart, he asked the nurse what all of that meant. She looked at him and said - “you’re having a baby today!” I’ll never forget my husbands huge grin. He was so excited.

They moved me back to labor & delivery and the contractions were really intense at this point. We had called all the immediate family, and our parents and my sister were trickling in while I was trying to breathe through these things. Getting the IV in sucked because they couldn’t find a good vein so I ended up with it in the side of my right arm, and they still had to move it to the same awkward place in my left arm. It was really not pleasant but it was fine.

They asked me if I wanted an epidural and I was like, YES PLEASE! It took them about 20 minutes to get me prepared, and then they kicked out everyone but my husband. I was pretty nervous about the shot, but was willing to do anything to be able to ditch feeling these horrible contractions I was now getting at less than 2 minutes apart.

The anesthesiologist laid me on my side, and was telling me he was about to give me the shot. He gave me the shot which hurt like hell, but was pretty bearable until he had to move the needle/catheter right at the peak of the worst contraction I had had yet. I have an extremely high pain tolerance, but the pain of the contraction and that needle in my back was excruciating, and all I could do was cry. I laid there seriously just whimpering because I felt so defeated by the pain.

Finally, I stopped feeling the contractions completely, and I was able to relax and get a grip. They let me labor like this for a while as I lost feeling from my hips down.

The doctor came into check me and break my water. Side note - my normal OB was out of the country on vacation, so she didn’t even get to deliver him lol. They checked me and I was at a 7. At this point it was about 1030, and the nurses were really happy that my body was laboring on its own and making good progress. They broke my water and my son started to move down even further. This is when I realllllllly started feeling the pressure in my pelvis. When they broke the water, they discovered that he had pooped in distress (probably while I was getting the epidural because I was so upset) She told me it was nothing to worry about because they were going to suction his tummy out when he was born.

They decided to start me on pitocin to speed the contractions back up because since I relaxed, they slowed down. After about 45 minutes, at about 11:15, the pain was starting to break through the epidural so I asked them to come check me. I was essentially at a 10 but, we needed to get his head further down in the birth canal.

They sat me up in the most uncomfortable position, and OMG the pressure was so intense. I could feel him moving down. After about 20 minutes of sitting like that, I was ready to push.

They came in and checked me, and they did a practice push to make sure it was going to be productive. They felt like it was and went to get the doctor. They came back and reported he said that I needed to

Labor down a little bit. I told the nurse that since I did that practice push - I NEEDED to push. He finally gave in and we got started.

I pushed through about 5 contractions and he was finally crowning. They called the doctor in and after 2 contractions, I pushed his head out! I pushed through 1 more contraction, and then, the doctor had to do an episiotomy because my son was so big.

I didn’t feel a thing, but my sister said it was awful to see lol. Exactly why I opted out of the mirror 🙋🏼‍♀️

After 1 more contraction, my son was here!!!!!!! He pulled him out, apparently caught him by his waist and then handed him to me. I was covered in blood but I cried so hard holding him. I couldn’t believe that my husband and I made this little person, and that I carried him for 9 months!!! I immediately fell in love with his beautiful blue eyes. They took him about to suction his tummy and weigh him.

Doctor stitched me up and they got all the afterbirth out and cleaned me up. I am so over the bleeding, y’all. It’s a freaking mess down there.

So, at 12:08pm, on August 10, my perfect little Dean Greyson was born weighing 8 pounds even, and measuring 19 inches long, on World Lion Day! He is so perfect. Thank you for reading my incredibly long birth story. I am so proud of it. 💙