This was my first baby. At our gender ultrasound, we discovered that I had something called a marginal cord insertion. Basically what that means is that the umbilical cord was attached to the placenta along the very thin outer edge, instead of in the middle. So baby may not receive all the nutrients needed in order to grow quickly enough. And now, my pregnancy is considered “high risk”.

So I thought that surely I’d deliver early since baby probably wasn’t going to be growing fast enough and there would be no sense in him staying in if he’s not getting what he needs.

Since I was high risk, I got more ultrasounds. Every ultrasound I had (I ended up having 6 or 7 throughout the course of the pregnancy) showed baby was doing just fine! In fact, he was always measuring big. So I for sure thought I’d deliver early.

Well. Time continued and I went all the way to 41 weeks!! Even with a big baby. My cervix only dilated to 2cm so my doctor scheduled an induction.

I checked into the hospital at midnight and around 1-1:30, they started me on cytotec. By 2:30-3, I was having major contractions, less than a minute apart. And they were in my back. Ugh back labor is horrible! Anyway, my body took over and I didn’t need pitocin or anything as my body progressed quickly.

I was in a lot of pain, but wasn’t dilated enough for an epidural, so they gave me something called Stadol. It didn’t help the contractions not hurt, but it did put me to sleep in between them. So I’d have a

contraction and then fall asleep and then wake up a minute later for the next contraction. Because of that, I wasn’t allowed out of the bed to try to help the pain.

Around 8am, I was dilated enough for an epidural and let me just say, the epidural was my best friend. It allowed me to rest and relax a bit and made it more enjoyable. My water broke on its own around 10 am.

And with every contraction after that, I felt more water/fluid come out.

By 1 pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push. After 12 hours of labor and 20 mins of pushing, baby was here at 1:19 pm.

8lbs 14oz and 20 inches long.

Labor was complication free and I didn’t need any additional help from foreceps or a vacuum or anything. Honestly, labor was fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Photos below