Baby girl is peacefully asleep on my lap and we have 30 minutes until the next feeding so here is my crazy birth story.

So my daughter decided not to come willingly and we had an induction scheduled for 41 weeks exactly. The plan was: get to labor and delivery by 8 pm Sunday 8/18, start cervidil that night, and start pitocin first thing the following morning. Got to the hospital, got all checked in and set up, our doula came and dropped off her bag and said she was going home for a good nights sleep and to call us if anything changed. Cervidil was placed around 10: I was 1 cm and 50% effaced, and hubby and I decided to try and relax and get some sleep.

Woke up around 11 in pain and the nurse gave me some kind of narcotic, I can’t remember. It worked for 30 minutes or so when I woke up again in agony. I couldn’t lay down, I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t use the birth ball: agony. They were insanely strong contractions and they were like a minute apart. I buzzed the nurse and asked for more drugs. Nope. Not until the next morning. At this point I can’t take it. My husband is rubbing my back and trying to help but I am starting to lose it. I told him to call our doula. He was like already? You’re not even in “real” labor yet. But he called her and she was there by midnight, and as soon as she saw me she knew I was in active labor. I was begging for an epidural but my doula said I had to wait until I progressed further, getting it this early would cause labor to stall. So we tried getting into the shower, hip squeezes, everything. By this time, my contractions were through the roof. I didn’t know what labor was going to feel like but I didn’t have any idea it would hurt this much.

Probably tired of hearing me beg for an epidural so soon, the nurse relented and checked me: I had gone from 1 to 5 cm, 90% effaced, in an hour. Shocked faces on the nurses and doula. They removed the cervidil since it had obviously done its job lol and finally got the anesthesiologist on the way but that took another almost 40 minutes. Once it was placed it took only a contraction or two and when I tell you SWEET RELIEF I swear to you I would never do labor without one. To women who do: you are incredible warriors but holy shit it saved my life.

After that was in I was checked again: 7 cm. So I had progressed from a 1 to a 7 in less than two hours. Omg. Fell asleep, woke up at 5 am, fully dilated and complete but she was still way up and not even in the birth canal. She’s also in the posterior position 😑👎🏻. So they started laying me on my side back and forth trying to my hips to open up and her to move down. The agony of contractions starts again...my body takes over and has a mind of its own and I am begging to push.

We get started pushing and it’s a long road. They let me see her head starting to come out with a mirror and it was one of the single most incredible things I have ever seen. Baby starts not tolerating the pushing very well so I have to wear an oxygen mask. It’s taking a long time to move her down but she slowly descends.

After an hour of pushing things start to get dicy. My ob comes to deliver and realizes things need to go fast or it could be bad. The word forceps is used and I freak out. Everyone is telling me to get her out as fast as possible. I’m pushing like a mad woman. Before I even know what’s happening my doctor does an episiotomy (NOT in my birth plan! 😂 but we know how those things go!) and on the next contraction she’s out in one push. I see her for literally one second: her eyes are wide open like she’s in shock at her traumatic entrance and I notice she’s purple.

They rush her over to the warming table and there are like 6 people working on her and saying things like “stat”. They have to breathe for her for a few seconds. Her initial apgar score was a 2 and I was in complete hysterics and oblivious to my stitches and placenta and everything. They tell me that she is ok and will be fine but has to go to the NICU for monitoring. She has fluid in her lungs and air in her belly, a nuchal chord, and she’s not pinking up well but her second apgar was an 8. They let me quickly hold her and then my husband goes with her upstairs while I lay there and try to collect myself.

She has recovered incredibly quickly and after three tries breastfed like a champ tonight. We are hoping to be home in a few days but she is doing really really well.

Olivia Evelyn Crouch: 8 pounds, 6 ounces, 21 inches. She made a late entrance but came into the world like a freight train in just 12 hours. We are all completely smitten.