**UPDATE**Warning!! Long, with raw birth photos! 17 hour labor, and epidural drama!!

**UPDATE**

We’re at home, he’s 9 days old today, 6/20, and my little Ollie Pop is healthy and cute as can be. We’re doing wonderful! Finally got breastfeeding down, so he’ll be EBF! Thank you all for the amazing wishes, I couldn’t have done this without my Glow community

Last picture of me pregnant. I was having contractions here 😩 haha

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So I’m a couple days late, due to being a new mom and finding my new routine, but I’m excited to finally share my birth story with you guys here. Reading all the birth stories while I was pregnant with my first really helped give me an idea as what to expect.

June 9th, the day before I went into labor, I was 40weeks exactly and totally ready to give birth. I live on the 3rd story of an apartment building, so I invited my mom over to do some laundry with me and help get this baby out. I did countless trips up and down the stairs, carrying heavy baskets full of laundry and detergent bottles. I went to bed eager to have my baby boy.

The morning of June 10th I woke up with a feeling that today was the day. I told my boyfriend to get ready because he’s coming tonight. He thought I was bluffing and being dramatic.....HA! At around noon I started getting cramps with mild contractions. I ate like a cow and laid down expecting them to be false alarm labor pains again. But no, they got more intense.

By 5pm I had a serious bloody show and pretty bad contractions. I knew it was happening. I held off running to the hospital because I was terrified of getting sent home for not being dilated enough. But the pain became unbearable FAST. At 6PM we left for the hospital. By the time I was admitting I couldn’t walk and barely talk. It felt like my pelvis and spine were breaking. The contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and lasting a good 45 seconds to a minute. I was screaming at every employee in the hospital. Turns out I was having 100% back labor and he was facing the wrong way. No wonder it felt like I was going to die. I get checked and I was already dilated to 7cm! They admit me very quickly, and by 8pm I was getting my epidural. The epidural was also pretty painful, and I wouldn’t relax my back from the constant contractions, causing the anesthesiologist to miss TWICE... I got poked by that huge needle 3 times. Not fun. But let me tell you, I don’t regret it at all. That epidural is a life saver. The pain relief was pure magic.

Now this next part took forever. I labored comfortably to 10cm, and the midwife manually broke my water. At about 3am I started pushing. My baby was still facing the wrong way so they had to manually turn him before I could get anywhere. That was a interesting feeling. Pushing was harder than I thought. I had my epidural turned down so I could feel when to push and when not to. I pushed for a full 4-5 hours, feeling a lot of it. At first my pushing got me nowhere. The midwife threatened me with forceps or a vacuum assist, and I was NOT about to have that. With that now on the table, I really set my mind to pushing, and he FINALLY came out!!! The pain was immediately gone as soon as I saw my boy. I cried and cried from love and happiness as the doctor stitched me up. Only a 1st degree tear!

I had delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin for an hour before anyone else touched him.

I’m thankful for no pitocin, no device assisted delivery, no cesarean, and no crazy interventions were used.

Here he is. Oliver Craig Adams.

Born June 11th, 9:40AM

6lbs 12oz, 19in long.

17 hour labor.

I’m so blessed!!!