Figured I’d share my birth story for those who are interested. I had a really great experience for it being my first time!

The night I went in. Miss my belly! 🥺

On Tuesday, the 5th of November, at 41 weeks & 3 days, I went in to be induced. I had been in early labor for 8 days. But couldn’t feel the contractions. When I arrived at the hospital and my midwife checked me, I was 3cm dilated & 80% effaced. So automatically I was no longer a candidate for Cervidil or Cytotec. So, they ran an IV and started me on Pitocin and a saline drip. They then gave me Benadryl to help me sleep through the night. I was able to get some sleep. But not much because my anxiety was high, hospital beds are uncomfortable as hell, and my hips had been killing me for like 3 weeks prior to that, so couldn’t really get comfortable anyways. About 7 hours later, my midwife came in to check me again to see if I had made any progress. 4cm dilated but still only 80% effaced. But my amniotic sac was bulging. Slow going. So she talked to me about possibly stripping my membranes or breaking my water, or letting me walk the halls for a while. I chose for her to break my water after I walked for a while. (They had me on a wireless Bluetooth monitor that I could get in the tub with and everything. It was amazing!) So she came back in a little while later and I was 5cm and a little over 80%. Still wasn’t in any pain. And the contractions I could feel, just felt like pressure in my belly. She then broke my water. After she broke my water, I decided to try laboring in the tub. Because I had been told that once your water breaks, things tend to speed up, and just in case things started to get too painful for me, I wanted to see if the bath would help. About 20 minutes of sitting in the tub goes by, and that’s when I started being able to feel the contractions. But they weren’t that bad. Just felt like real sharp period pains to me. But the tub ended up not helping me. The only things that helped me was either walking around, or being on all fours, swaying my hips. I did those two things for quite a few hours. Then the pain got really intense, and I ended up sitting on all fours in the bed, leaning into this like foam chair my midwife brought me. And she applied pressure to my hips for me. Which actually helped tremendously! (She was amazing at her job, by the way, I later ended up sending her a PM on Facebook to thank her! I’ll post screenshots at the end of this.) It got to the point where I wasn’t getting a break in between contractions, at all. I was vomiting and kept almost passing out. So, up until that point, I hadn’t had any sort of pain medication or anything. But, once it got to that point, I talked to my fiancé and decided to get an epidural. Which, I didn’t want initially. But I kept my options open in case I changed my mind. So, I asked for it. My midwife checked me, and when she did, she got a HUGE smile on her face. She could feel my baby’s head and I was 9.5cm dilated and 100% effaced!! (I was/still am SO proud of myself for making it that far without asking for anything.) While we were waiting on the anesthesiologists, they gave me Fentanyl. Which didn’t do anything but make me super loopy/out of it for like 10 minutes. Apparently all I did for that 10 minutes was slowly lick my lips. My fiancé’s joke was, “Have you ever seen a turtle eat lettuce? That’s Courtney on Fentanyl.” 😂 Anyways... The anesthesiologists came in and my midwife stood in front of me, had me hug a pillow, put her forehead to mine, held onto my hands, and talked me through the entire process. (I was terrified of the epidural because of sooo many horror stories I had heard. But it wasn’t bad at all. The IV they put in my hand hurt WAY worse than the epidural. It stung for literally less than a second when he numbed me, and then after that I didn’t feel anything.) Once the epidural had kicked in, I wasn’t numb like the way everyone described it to me. I could still feel my legs, they just felt SUPER heavy and asleep. I could also still feel the contractions, they just weren’t AS intense. The only thing that was actually numb was my coochie and my butt. After the epidural kicked in, they had me lay on my right side, put the peanut ball in between my legs, and told me to try and rest while I dilated the rest of the way. They then came in about 20-30 minutes later to flip me to my left side because my daughters heart rate was dropping. But she was perfectly fine once I was on my left side. Thank goodness! They let me sleep for an hour or so. When they came back in, it was time to push! I pushed for 90 minutes. But in between contractions, when I wasn’t pushing, I was almost falling asleep because I was so exhausted. I ended up having to have oxygen because mine and my daughters heart rates were dropping. Once she was crowning, the midwife let my fiancé help deliver her. He actually got to pull her out of me. It was amazing. On Wednesday, November 6th, 2019, at 8:05pm, my little Everleigh was born! When she came out and they put her on my chest, she was a little purple and it took a minute to get her to cry because she had been stuck in my birth canal for a bit. But everything was okay once she started crying. She got her color back and all. I ended up with a second degree tear. It took them over a half an hour to stitch me up. I did skin to skin contact immediately. For almost 2 hours. Before they took her from me to get her weight and measurements and all of that. She was 9lbs, 1oz, 21 inches long, and a 14cm head. Chunky girl. It was the best moment of my life. I instantly started bawling. It’s almost 3 weeks later and there’s days I still cry just looking at her. I am so in love with her.

Pictures from the day she was born. 🥺♥️

Pictures of her recently. 🥰 She’ll be three weeks old tomorrow! ♥️

Always sleeping on me. 😌

The recovery process was hard the first 2 weeks. The first few days though were THE worst. I was sooo swollen from tearing and everything. It was awful. But witch hazel pads, ice packs, and that peri bottle they give you at the hospital to use when you pee, are life savers! My body is still a little sore some days. But I would go back and do it 1,000 more times, all for her. Breastfeeding has also been a challenge. And until your nipples get used to it, it is painful. But it’s also rewarding. The bonding time is incredible. ♥️ I plan to do it at least until she’s 6 months.

This was 24 hours after I had her. 🥴

Picture from today. Not too bad. I was 130lbs before I got pregnant. When I went in to have her, I was 157lbs. I’m now 137lbs. So not there yet. But close!

My message to my midwife! ♥️