I spent my entire pregnancy reading birth stories so I figure I owe this board a good one. On May 25th at 7pm I went to the hospital to be induced. I was five days overdue and 100% over being pregnant. That and I wanted to avoid having my son on Memorial Day if I could. At 9pm my OB inserted the cook catheter. I think foley bulb is another name for the same thing. Basically it’s two “balloons” inserted into the cervix and then inflated to help your body to dilate. Usually used with a cervix thinning drug called cytotec to start labor. I was already having painless contractions when I got there so I never took the cytotec. The placement of the balloons wasn’t really painful just uncomfortable. I don’t remember when I started having painful contractions, but it wasn’t long. I want to say around 2am I was dilated to 4cm which is when the balloons fall out on their own or they’re taken out. My nurse started to pull mine out and it felt like I wasn’t dilated enough so I kept saying “ow” over and over until I was yelling because it hurt so bad but she kept on pulling for some reason. Finally they popped out and I was in tears and a little shocked that she did that. She apologized later on but that didn’t really make up for how bad it hurt. Anyway, I decided to wait as long as I could before the epidural because I read about them wearing off so I powered through my contractions all night. They were coming every 5 minutes or so all night long so I got no sleep. I did try a pain medicine but it just made me dizzy didn’t really help with the pain. 6am rolled around and after being up all night I was completely exhausted. I think I was 6cm at that point. I decided to get the epidural and my only regret is not getting it sooner. At 7am I got it and as soon as the anesthesiologist left the room i was pain free and out cold. Woke up at 11am still pain free but with the overwhelming urge to poop. They checked me at 11:30ish and I was ready to push. Mind you I still had zero pain so I had no idea what I was about to feel. I started pushing and I went from no pain to ALL the pain so fast it was unreal. Screaming, crying the whole nine. I usually can handle pain but this was on another level. He stated crowning (I think) and my screaming got worse and I demanded my OB to cut me because it felt like his head was too big and I was ripping open. She did the episiotomy because she was also worried I would tear completely. I’m a pretty small person (4’11’’,~110lbs) so idk if that played into it but I was panicking. I pushed for maybe 15 minutes total also so I think that’s why it was so painful for me because the epidural numbed me so well pretty much right until he was crowning. Donovan Michael Shaw finally came out, swollen, wrinkly and with a full head of hair. 6lbs 4oz. He is now 11 weeks and my whole entire world. Oh and my husband was with me throughout this story but I let him sleep pretty much the whole time 😂🤷‍♀️

This is him now 😍 growing like a weed might I add