Since I had a great experience I thought I’d share with y’all!

This is my second delivery, and the first was not fun. It was somewhat traumatic. I was induced at 41 weeks and had contractions every 30 seconds, no epidural until I was 10 cm dilated, my daughter had her cord around her neck, and I was so exhausted and out of it I didn’t feel “present.”

This time around I went into labor naturally (yay!) at 38 weeks. My husband and I had been intimate Saturday night and I had bleeding after. I didn’t think much of it because the same thing happened with my first pregnancy so my doctor told me to only go into triage if I had more bleeding the next day or if labor progressed. The next morning I woke up to pretty regular contractions that lasted all day. I went into triage around 2 pm to be checked. I was 3 cm dilated and since I was contracting they kept me an hour to monitor. In an hour I had increased to a 4, and in another hour I was 4.5 cm dilated and 70% effaced so they admitted me. They ended up breaking my water around 9 pm (6 cm dilated, very little pain) and I asked them to get my epidural started before the pain increased. The anesthesiologist was busy so I had to wait (which was rough 😅) but I got my epidural around 8 cm dilated. I had been throwing up from the contractions so I was SO happy to have some relief! Once that epidural set in I was golden! Felt just slight cramps instead of full blown contractions. They let me rest for a couple hours then came to check my cervix. I was 9 cm and 100% effaced, +1 station! My doctor said “shall we push and see what happens?” And my little man was out in about 6 pushes. I even got to reach down and feel his head while he was crowning 🥰 and cut the cord! Definitely felt 100% more present and really enjoyed my experience this time around. And baby is perfect in every way! Good luck to all my soon to be August/late July mommies 💞