I've been debating on whether or not to post about our birth story because it's so long... It's still all a little fuzzy but here is the best I can remember.

It all began on August 3rd I was having a really bad headache I couldn't get rid of and have been borderline preeclampsia since 17 weeks. I decided to go in to the office & they checked my BP and it was very high. Since I was 39w & 3d they decided to send me to the hospital for monitoring. I went up and was monitored for 4 hours & was sent home to do a 24 hour urine & come back at 2pm for possible induction if my BP was still high.

When I went back to the hospital on Saturday my BP was still high & my provider decided to admit me and start the induction process. I was having consistent contractions & only 1/2 cm dialated so they decided to start with the foley balloon. After 12 hours they said id be to 4cm & around 10 hours of the balloon they started pitocin. They contractions started getting so painful with the pitocin but they said I couldn't have an epidural until I was dialated to 6cm.

Sometime Sunday 8/5 I was FINALLY dialated enough for an epidural. I had went through the pitocin all the way to 20 and had to start over again. After the epidural I was finally able to nap...for about an hour until it stopped working on my left side. They call up anesthesia and the gave me a shot of medicine through the IV and it helped for 2 hours. They came back and gave me more & it only worked for 1 hour.. and of course it was time to push. It was the absolute worst pain I could ever imagine. It felt like my left hip was literally breaking in half. They couldn't give me anymore medicine so we just worked through it. After pushing for a little while I felt like I was going to pass out. My BP shot up and I became tachycardic. The nurse came in & gave me oxygen. At this point it had been almost 2 days since I had eaten due to the pitocin. The doctor let me have some beef broth & it helped a ton. So we went back to pushing.

I pushed for 3 & 1/2 LONG hours before I didnt have any more energy to push. I wasn't making any progress and my baby boy hadnt come down very far in the birth canal. They decided that it would be best to prepare for a C Section. Since we were both stable they said it wasn't an emergency and took some time to set everything up. They turned off my pitocin & told me to "breathe" through the contractions... That was the worst hour EVER. It was extremely hard to not push through the contractions!

At last, on Monday August 6th at 5:54am my sweet baby boy was born. Bowen Scott Bartha 8lbs 6oz & 20.5 inches long. ♥️ They discovered he was stuck on my pelvis bone because he didn't come down straight.

I was unable to do skin to skin so my husband got to do it while they closed me up. During the C Section I lost a significant amount of blood and ended up having to have a blood transfusion. We spent 6 long days in the hospital but my baby boy was worth every second. I'm thankful we both ended up leaving the hospital relatively healthy. Here he is now 😍