I have been reading many birth stories in prep for mine, since I am a FTM. So here goes my birth story.

When I was 35 weeks we went to the ER because I thought my amniotic fluid was leaking. I got tested, and was diagnosed with hydrorrhea. This is excess of watery discharge, which is hard to diferénciate from amniotic fluid.

The OB told us to come back if it happened again. So went back home and patiently waited.

When I was 39+1 I started noticing leaking again, but I let it stay, because I thought it was hydrorrhea again. The dripping continued until 39+3, but it wasn't constant. Since I wanted to be sure it was nothing, to avoid any risks of infection we decided to stop by the ER. We were completely underprepared and without any bags, since we thought we would be sent back home again.

We arrived there by noon. The midwife checked me and thought that I was not dripping amniotic fluid, but she decided to do the chemical test anyway. It came back positive.

I got antibiotics via a very painful IV. Then I got checked for the first time in the whole pregnancy. I was at 2 cm 70% effaced. After talking to my OB the midwife told me that they will give me 12 hours to progress into labor on my own. I got admitted rightaway. My husband went to grab our things and take care of our dog while I got settled into our hospital room.

In the meantime I danced, bounced on the physio ball and did the excercises on the Activating labor video from youtube. I also went up and down all the stories of the hospital ( which had 3 stories).

When my husband came we played a boardgame and watched JoJo while bouncing, then we did more excercise.

By 11:30 pm we had gone up and down the three stories about 27 times, I had done the excercises in the video 3 times, and we had done plenty of bouncing. I was 4cm 100% effaced. You can tell I really really didn't want to be induced.

The midwife broke my waters around 12:30 am. She asked me if I wanted the epidural, I refused. I thought the pain would be manageable with hot water and the hability to move. Well baby's had other plans. His heart rate was going down every time I had a contraction, so I had to be in the birthing bed strapped to the monitor. My body hated that, it was so painful. I really needed to move around. I told her that if I couldn't move then I needed the Epidural. She order it.

I went through what I though hell for what I thought were hours, but the anesthesiologist came in just an hour and I was a solid 10cm, so no Epidural for me.

Finally she let me in the shower, which made things better, and then I got a spinal block. Which I didn't know was so good, specially in comparison to what I had read about the epidural.

It was great, I could move my legs and feel all my body and the contractions, but the vagina, anus and uterus were under anesthesia. After about an hour and a half or so of pushing, my baby came into the world head and shoulders in one push splashing everything. No tools were used. This part was far easier. My baby had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, that's why his heart rate would go down.

He was apgar 9 in 1 minute and 10 in 5.

I just got a tiny tear with 6 stitches. We did skin to skin, delivered the placenta, and I got stitched up right before the spinal block wore off. ( It lasts about 2 hours)

My baby finally got a name, and he latched after playing for a while.

Welcome Alberto Miguel, with 51 cm and 3'150 kg born at 3:25 pm on July 30th.