On Nov 19th I woke up after having mild contractions all night, nothing serious. I had a few more contractions throughout the day but again, nothing serious. Then, at around 3:30 pm I had one strong contraction. Didn’t think much of it because I didn’t have another one. At 4pm I started having constant contractions, some more painful and some not as bad but we decided to go to the hospital to get checked out. At 4:20pm, as my wife was checking into security I was standing there and had a painful contraction and the security guard asked if I needed a wheelchair. I literally just stood there, dumbfounded because MY WATER BROKE. As I was standing in the lobby of the hospital. I couldn’t believe it. We were taken to labor and delivery to get checked out, the whole time I’m telling my wife “what if I just peed myself, that’s going to be so embarrassing”. They come in to check me and I’m 4cm, 90% effaced and my water had indeed broken. I started having contractions every minute- minute 1/2 that were painful but still manageable. Around 5pm we were taken to the private birthing room where I labored for about an hour 1/2 (of intense contractions) before being checked again. I had progressed to 6cm at that point. By 7:00pm the contractions were unbearable! Still coming every minute so I literally had no break in between. I was so hot and in pain that I literally ripped off my hospital gown and socks and labored completely naked. At that point I just couldn’t take it anymore and asked for an epidural. My plan was a medicine free labor but my blood pressure was getting so high from me not being able to properly handle the pain that I was feeling sick and felt that something would go wrong if I didn’t get pain management. Once I decided to get the epidural, they came really fast and by 8ish I had my epidural in. My doctor checked me literally 2 minutes later and told me that I was ready to push. She wanted to wait 10 more minutes to let him come down just a little more but we were ready. I pushed for about 10 minutes and at 8:19pm, Caleb Walker was born. I felt a little upset because had I known that I was ready to push, I would have tried without the epidural but at the end of the day, I feel that I did what was best for baby and me. My labor from start to finish was only 4 HOURS.. the nurses and the doctor were all in shock as this was my first pregnancy.

Funny side story- Right before the epidural I turned to my doctor and said, I just want him to be born already! And she said “oh honey, it’s your first.. it’ll take a while.” Her face when she checked me just 15 minutes later and told me that I was ready to push was like she had seen a ghost. She was so sweet though, as were all of the nurses.

Welcome to the world, Caleb Walker 💙