This is a story about my first baby who was born two years ago. We are now expecting our second and I love to read the birth stories and I thought I would share mine.

At all of my checks, I was 0% dilated and had no change on my due date. My OB-GYN asked if I wanted to be induced and set it up at the hospital. My husband and I went and ate lunch with my mother (who works at the hospital) and we went in to be admitted.

They started by placing an IV and taking some labs. Then, they got me all hooked up to monitors. One for the baby’s heart beat, one for contractions, one for my blood pressure, pulse, etc. Finally, they gave me the tiniest pill to take which would soften my cervix and start contractions.

Around 6 hours later, I started having contractions, but they were not doing anything so I got another pill, a shift change occurs, and another pill 6 more hours later (I had the maximum amount). So now we are 18 hours into the inducement and I am dismayed around 1cm but have softened.

By the way, my husband had a GREAT nights sleep on the couch bed while I was almost in tears from the pain. At this point I didn’t want to take anything for the pain. The nurse (3rd one at this point) came in and told me they were going to start pitocin. She hooked it up and the contractions increased in intensity.

I requested an epidural and was told the anesthesiologist was in surgery and it would be around an hour. I was willing to wait because I didn’t want to take anything intravenously but after around a half hour I was begging for the drugs. The nurse prepped some kind of pain reliever and told em that I could have it or wait for the anesthesiologist who could be there in 10 min. I chose to wait.

The anesthesiologist came in and the nurse bent me over in the most uncomfortable position while it was placed. Whole the contractions pain was gone, the pain from the catheter they placed was immense. Think the type of pain you get with a urinary tract infection. I was miserable.

The nurse came in to check me and I was 2 cm dilated. I told my husband to go get some lunch and come back as the nurse was also going to lunch and I didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast.

After 15 min, I started feeling wet stuff come out of my vagina so I called the nurse because it felt weird. She came and said I had displayed to 10cm in 15 min and to call my husband back as it was go time. I gave him a call and my mother as she planned to be in the room too and was in a meeting.

They both showed up and the nurse came back telling me the doctor was in a C-Section and would be along soon. She told me not to push. We passed the time talking about all the food I wanted to eat as it had been over 24 hours since I ate.

The doctor came in, popped my water, and called NICU as the baby had pooped! NICU shows up and with the first two contractions, my OB turned the baby to face the right direction (I had been in back labor the whole time). I remember being very concerned with making my hemorrhoids worse and not wanting to push too hard but it was so painful when the doctor said if I pushed harder it would be over faster, I figured hemorrhoids were the lesser evil and pushed with all my might. Two more contractions and she came out. NICU looked her over in about 30 seconds and handed her to me.

The doctor started stitching me up as I teared in 3 places. And delivered the placenta. The nursing team took my daughter and measured her, out some goop in her eyes, and did some other preventative stuff. The adrenaline made me shake so hard I was worried about shaking the baby but was told it was normal and perfectly fine.

I remember they wanted me to pee right after (which hurt like hell). I got wheeled down the hall to recovery. I finally ate and fell asleep only to be woken up by my baby crying. I jumped up (hurt like hell) and tried to feed her. By the way, my nipples had scabs by the time we left the hospital because she and I were so bad at the breast feeding thing. But we got that down later.

On the drive home, my husband was so scared of crashing he drove like a grandma.

Two years later, I am excited to do it all over again because it is so worth it and I love my little girl we named Pepper. Best of luck to all of you that made it through the story. Thanks for reading!