Celia was due on December 21st, but since I had only dilated to 1 cm the midwives went ahead and scheduled me for an induction on December 26th. We went in to the hospital at 4 pm to have a foley balloon inserted in order to get my cervix ripened and progressing. The balloon procedure was not supposed to be painful but it was very painful to me. I was planning to go as natural as I could with my birth plan but I definitely had to adapt due to the nature of her birth 🤷🏼‍♀️ The balloon gave me really bad cramps to the point where it felt like a was having contractions every minute, even though they weren’t real contractions. I ended up throwing up multiple times. I was trying to avoid any heavy pain meds so they gave me Tylenol at first, which did nothing. I ended up getting something put in my IV for nausea and I also ended up having to have a shot in the butt with nausea medicine too. After that, I tried to ride out the pain, but I wasn’t allowed to get out of bed or really move because I was hooked up to monitors for the baby and an IV. Ultimately I ended up having to have Stadol and Ambien in order to get some sleep so that I would be prepared for real labor the following morning.

They came in around 5AM on December 27th and removed the balloon and told me I was at 4cm. As soon as the balloon was out, I felt so much better. I was able to sleep some more and then shower and eat a couple bites of oatmeal. They started me on pitocin later that morning. I labored through most of the day without any medication and honestly the contractions felt way less painful that what I had experienced with the balloon. They also broke my water and saw that there was meconium so I got super worried. They ended up pointing internal monitors on baby to make sure she was doing okay. Around early evening, they checked me and I had only gotten to 5 cm which was super disappointing. I ended up opting for an epidural because I was so tired and starting to feel really defeated. The epidural was such a life saver. I was able to finally relax and get some sleep. However, I still wasn’t really progressing and they started talking about sending me in for a c-section. They were worried that I was developing an infection from the meconium because I was running a slight fever. They started prepping me by wiping down my belly and swabbing my nose and I started crying because I was so disappointed. Another midwife assessed me and decided that they would give me 2 more hours to progress because my contractions were still looking good. If I didn’t progress in 2 hours, I would go in for the c section. Well 2 hours passed, and I made it 9 cm. This was probably around 8pm. They had me relax and moved me into a couple of different positions to try to get me to 10cm until 10:30 pm when they came in and said they thought I was ready to push. I had a hard time feeling my contractions and pressure to push so they ended up having to up my pitocin a couple of times and turned off my epidural. Pushing was so painful. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours and her head just kept bobbing in and out. My labor nurses and midwife were really encouraging though and my husband did a good job of supporting me throughout all of labor. Celia Grace was born at 12:53 AM on December 28. She weighs 8 lbs 1 oz and is 20.5 inches long. I ended up needing stitches in 3 separate places but all of the pain was 100% worth it for my sweet daughter.