As a first time mom, I read a ton of birth stories to prepare for what mine might be like. I found it helpful & I hope you do too!

I was 38 weeks + 6 days pregnant. I had a midwife appointment previously that week and she told me to “mentally prepare to surpass 40 weeks” because most FTMs do. However, I had a feeling I was going early.

On the Friday afternoon, I passed the mucus plug. It was an increased amount of gooey discharge throughout the day (with tinges of red/pink). The night I went to bed feeling pretty normal. At 2:30am on Saturday morning, I awoke to a pain in my stomach. It felt like I had been punched in the gut. When I sat up, I started feeling a warm liquid dripping out of me. By the time I went to the bathroom, my shorts were soaked. My water had broken.

I woke my husband up and told him to get everything ready. I drew a warm bath and sat it in for about 20 minutes without any pain. Then suddenly, the contractions started. It felt like intense menstrual cramps. I used an app on my phone to time then. Within an hour, they were 5 minutes apart and really intense. We called the midwife & she told us to meet her at the hospital.

Once at the hospital, she checked me and I was 4cm. I was in intense pain at this point. They admitted me to L&D and I asked for an epidural right away. It took about 1 hour for the epidural to arrive & this was the WORST part of the whole labour. The contractions were intense and short apart. I was crying from the pain.

When the doctor came to give the epidural, I was so happy. I don’t remember the needle hurting that much, felt like someone was drawing blood (just from my back). Once the epidural kicked in (which was right away) I felt 100% better. I was so calm and happy and relaxed. I actually fell asleep.

An hour later, my midwife checked me and said I was 10cm! Turns out when the body relaxes, it moves things along. I pushed for 4 hours and honestly it didn’t hurt at all because of the epidural. It was exhausting!!

Unfortunately after 4 hours, my little boy was “sunny side up” and he wouldn’t flip to come through the birth canal. The doctor and midwife decided on a c-section. Within 30 minutes, I was on the table in the OR. And 15 minutes after that, I was holding my baby boy. The c-section didn’t hurt but was definitely uncomfortable. However after the terrible contractions and 4 hours of pushing ... I was happy to get him out.

At 4:11pm, my little man arrived!!!