My December 7th baby girl arrived November 26th at 1919 weighing 7 pounds and 3.2 ounces and 19.29 inches long!!

I think I was in early labor from 12:30-11:50 pm on 11/25 where I had strong pressure and what I thought Braxton Hicks contractions that we're coming regularly every 10 minutes. Then from 8:30-1130 pm that day they were increasing in frequency. I decided to lay on my left side to get some sleep and they seemed to space out a bit. I then fell asleep.

I woke up to eat around 4:30 am, felt some contractions but went back to sleep and woke again around 9:30 am were I started to count contractions again but this time they were crampy and appearing in the rectum. They got more intense and started to come closer together. I called my husband to come home from work because there were such different contractions and painful. I tried laying down, on all fours, in the tub on the toilet and nothing made it better. Around 12 pm he was home and I was crying from the pain. Sitting was the worst position and laying left sidelying was the most tolerable. I managed to get dressed and we rushed out the door to the hospital after calling the doctor office to make sure. At that point I had been having PAINFUL contractions for 1-2 hours 3-7 minutes apart with some 9-12 min apart but all averaged 7 minutes over that time frame.

I got to the hospital begging for an epidural. I thought I could die they were awful contractions. They checked me and I was 4 cm and 60% effaced, station -1 They admitted me and hooked me to IV and brought in the anesthesiologist. I had 2 contractions during the placement of the epidural and that was the worst. After that I started to feel sooooo much more comfortable. I haven't felt that comfort in months!! I could still feel contractions and the were tolerable, I had to press the PCA (pain pump) maybe 4 times total from that point to the point of pushing. I was contracting 2-5 minutes at that point of getting the epidural. After 20 min with the epidural I felt a POP and my water broke naturally!! Gush of warm fluid ran out. Then a lot of bloody show to follow.

Another 30-40 minutes after contracting at a rate of 2 min they placed me into a labor and delivery room (I was in holding before that). It didn't take long for the doctor to come in to check my cervix again. I was then 2+ , 100% dilated and it was go time to start pushing.

From 9:30 am until 5:50 pm I was in pretty much active labor, from 5:50 pm until 7:19 pm I was pushing. I tore 2+ and hemorrhaged where they gave me some medicine to stop the bleeding.

Baby was perfect, and we are so happy. Some surprises: I wanted an epidural, My MIL was present and saw everything and even taped it for my parents who live far away and I didn't care about explicit content one bit.

Baby latched and fed for an hour (30 min each side) before falling asleep in my arms.

We are so so blessed!! ❤️😍🥰