My due date was May 26, 2020. The day came and went with no signs of little one coming anytime soon. On May 27th, I had an appointment with my OBGYN, he did a cervix check and I was only 2 cm dilated. He swept my membranes and told me to come back the next day at 4 if my water hasn’t already broken or contractions haven’t started by then. I didn’t sleep all night and finally fell asleep around 7 am on May 28th. I woke up around 2 pm because I had to pee and sat on the toilet for about 5 minutes before I realized I wasn’t peeing anymore, my water had broken and I was leaking 😂 My mom and boyfriend got the car ready and we headed to the hospital. At this point, I still had no contractions or pains or anything like that. We got to the hospital at 2:47 pm and they checked me into triage. I was only allowed one support person due to COVID-19. In triage they checked to see how dilated I was and if my water had actually broken. I was 3 cm dilated at this point. They attempted to insert an IV into my hand and blew my vein so I had to get my IV in my forearm. (this was more painful than the epidural 😂) After that, I was moved up to L&D. I was started on penicillin because I was GBS+ and pitocin to try and get my contractions stronger. After 3 doses of pitocin, I started to feel my contractions and around 4 cm I got the epidural. Honestly, the best decision ever. If I didn’t have the pitocin, I could’ve waited it out longer like I intended to, but those pitocin contractions are no joke 😅 I have scoliosis so I had to get the epidural three times. The first two times, the anastesiologist got the needle in, but had a hard time threading the catheter through. The epidural was nothing like I thought it was. I didn’t even feel the numbing shot or the pressure that a lot of people talk about. For me, I could feel like a nerve in my back shoot down to my leg, which wasn’t painful but definitely uncomfortable. After I finally got the epidural, I was so relaxed. It was around 7 at this point and I wasn’t getting my cervix checked until 11. I took a nap, got some work done and talked to family on the phone. My doctor couldn’t deliver my baby (still not sure why) so another doctor came and introduced himself and checked my cervix to see that I was only at 5 cm. They upped my pitocin again and told me they would be back at 3 am. At 3 am, I was 8 cm dilated. I was getting so close. Now, I had gone through three bags of penicillin and my arm started burning. That made it so hard to get anymore rest so I was already exhausted. At 5:30 am, I was finally 10 cm dilated. My baby was still at -2 station but the doctor delivering my baby said he thought if I started pushing it would progress things faster. (This is where I wish I would’ve spoken up, because the first hour of me pushing only got the baby to 0 station and I was so tired that it was hard to keep pushing.) I started pushing, an hour went by, then another before he told me that he could finally see the baby’s head. My water had been broken for 18 hours now so they were worried about that, my heart rate dropped so I was put on oxygen, the baby’s heart rate dropped so after every contraction, I had to be flipped to my side and then back to my back to push so I had no time to really rest. I was eating ice chips in between every contraction because at this point, the epidural wore off on my right side and I felt EVERYTHING and that made my temperature hard to read so I had to stop. Finally, my doctor recommended that he use the vacuum to assist or I get a C-Section. I opted for the vacuum. He couldn’t get it on the baby’s head at first and then finally, after 5 more pushes, at 8:10 am, on May 29th, 2020 my son was born. He had a nasty cut on his head from the vacuum and they were worried that he had gotten chorioamnionitis from swallowing amniotic fluid. He also had pooped inside of me so they were worried about me getting an infection. I got to hold him while the umbilical cord was cut and then he was taken straight to the NICU. I had no idea about the possibility of him having chorio until the next day. I thought he was down there for his head. I was no updated for hours even though I continuously asked and it took them forever to give me permission to go see my son because I had trouble walking after the epidural. I also had 28 stitches and was bleeding more than they expected. But we pushed through, after only two days in the NICU, my son tested negative for chorio and I was able to take him home. He is a little over a week old now and the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. My delivery was the most traumatic experience I ever had but I would do it 1,000,000 times over for the outcome. 💙