This post is late but I've been wanting to share for a while.

I was due July 17, 2018. I had an awful pregnancy. Sick all the time. Vomitting, constant colds/flus/ear infections. Had to have surgery to have my appendix removed while pregnant.

Fast forward to Canada Day. We had plans to go downtown Calgary to watch the Fire works with family. Not close to our home or our chosen hospital at all. I kept having pains and pressure, which I thought were Braxton Hicks as it was still 3 weeks before due date. I told hubby and our family I was fine and let's just go downtown and enjoy the fireworks. We took the train because it's faster. Once we got downtown which required alot of walking, I began to realize that "ya! I'm pretty sure I'm in labour". It got a little brushed off, and don't worry you're fine.

By the time we were heading home after the fire works which was like midnight, and we were getting on the train that I told my BF that yes, I am in labour! We had alot of walking ahead of us, and I kept having to stop and breath through contractions.

Get on the train which was a 40 min ride back to the train station close to where our car was parked. The train was so full, standing room only. Not one person offered me a seat to sit In. I was standing, holding a pole and going through contractions every few mins. A huge fight broke out on the train, and I was trying to hide and shield myself in the back. Cops comes , train delayed and I'm thinking "whyyy now?!?" Almost in tears.

Finally got home and started timing contraction just to see. 2ish mins apart and 30+ seconds long. I said "babe, we gotta go to hospital". By this time it was around 2 am and we had to drop off our 5 year old with family. I was really moaning and groaning at this point. But I made my hubby stop at McDonald's because I know they don't let you eat. I ate as much as I could, between contractions of course haha. The hospital wasn't very close to where we dropped off our daughter.

We got to hospital, got checked and I was 3cm. They were going to send me home to progress more but baby heart beat kept dropping very low so they admitted me right away. Monitoring very closely. My progression started plummeting after I decided to go with epidural. They broke my water and give pitocin which didn't seem to do much. I felt awesome after I got the epidural.

After several hours I started having extreme pain. Nurse couldn't understand why because I had an epidural. Dr came to check becaise I was in alot of pain and felt like I needed to push. Turns out my epidural came out and I wasn't receiving any pain management medication for hours. Boy was I upset.

Anesthesiologist came and re did my epidural. Right after my nurse checked me and was like "oh shit, your 10 cm you shouldn't have had that epidural". Not long after 3 doctors and like 8 nurses rushed into our room, kicked everyone except my hubby out. All talking amongst eachother and then said we need to deliver your baby now because of his heart rate being so low. It was really scary, I felt like a spectacle with everyone rushing in, rushing around and not getting alot of information.

I was so numb, I could barely move or push. For fast measures they used vacuum. Even though I couldn't feel they told me to push. I pushed 3 times and he was out. All in all it was about only 15 mins after my second epidural that he was born. Umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, arm and body. I was in labour for about 11 hours I think after being at hospital. I had no stitches or tearing. The nurse was extremely inappropriately and made the comment "mailman?!" When he came out because of his bright red hair. Which we still don't know where it came from 😂 my BF is native with dark skin and we both have dark, almost black hair. Our son is super fair skin and beautiful red hair. 🤷

Our baby boy was born July 2 at 1:26 pm, weight 5lbs 6oz. We stayed at hospital 3 days because of his low blood sugar, and being borderline premie. He had an ultrasound on his heart where they found a small hole (which healed on its own by 6 week check up). He was jaundice and had to be checked consistently for 5 days.

He is now almost 9 months - happy and healthy. Thank you for reading. ❤️