SUPER LONG POST. HA.

The evening of May 26th I noticed I was having a decent amount of discharge that lasted all day and had some blood. So, early the 27th I went to get tested to see if there was amniotic fluid also since most things I read about the plug and bloody show weren't all day events. Anyway, the test came back negative. My midwife wanted to send me for an ultrasound, but it was Memorial Day so the place was closed. We decided to wait and see if my water would break or if this was a false alarm.

My wedding anniversary was the next day so after the appointment I took my husband to a brewery for a mini celebration. I started having some back hip pressure that was lingering and I just felt uncomfortable, but I wanted to spend time with him so I stuck it out.

Around 9:30pm we tried to lay down to sleep but I couldn't get comfortable unless I was standing. I heated up a rice sock to help the hip pain, and tried to rest. Probably around 11pm I finally got out of bed and was just pacing but still no rolling pain. My husband woke up and saw that I was struggling to sleep so he suggested we go on a walk. During the walk I stopped more than once because of, what I now know were, contractions.

When we got back from the walk everything changed. We didn't have an electric heating pad but someone recommended that so my husband ran to a 24 hour Walmart to get one to see if that would help my "hip pain"

I could no longer stand up comfortably and had to only be on all 4s or leaning over the couch with a heating pad on my hips.

This was when we made the first call to my birth center and they asked us to time our contractions. Apparently I was having more than I realized because my times were all over the place. 5 minutes, then 8, then 4, then 11.... so we stayed put.

A few hours of this and I started vomitting. I was not prepared for that at all, so we called the birth center again. They said this was normal and to just get to the 5-1-1 contractions and maybe take a bath. Still no gush of water, which I was waiting for.

About an hour later I started bleeding and everything just hurt. I couldn't tell what was a contraction and what wasn't. I felt like I needed to push put a BM too and was starting to worry. My husband called the birth center and they said we can come on in and theyll see how far I was.

We got to the center at 7:30am. I literally could barely walk into the facility but was still making jokes and assumed they'd send me home because we came too early. The midwife checked me and looked at us and said "you ready to go push a baby out?" I was 9.5 cm and definitely starting to push when I was at home.

My husband started full on crying and walked me to the birthing room. Pushing was probably the worst part for me since I had no clue what I was doing and when I was contracting.

Hayden Orion was born at 8:29am, May 28, my wedding anniversary.