First I was scheduled for an induction on 2/26 because of IUGR. But at 11P on 2/18 I started having contractions so I labored at home until 5A & then I called my doctor who told me to go on in but I didn’t want to wake up my mom because it was officially her birthday (2/19) so I waited for my mom to wake up. Ab is round 6:30A she was up getting ready for work & I went in & said “happy birthday you get the day off! Please take me to the hospital..” 😂

We got to the hospital & got a room pretty quick, the nurse came in & said the monitor wasn’t seeing any contractions but if I could feel them they’d monitor me for 4hrs & check me again, (Wednesday 2/17 I was 1cm & 50% effaced) so they checked me & I was then 4.5cm & 100% effaced but my cervix was still really high so they weren’t convinced I was going to have this baby today. They gave me a yoga ball & I bounced on it for about 2hrs before I couldn’t breathe through my contractions, but they still weren’t on the monitor so the midwife came back to check me at 11:40A & suddenly I was soaking wet. I thought I just peed on her I was mortified & apologizing & she goes “your water broke it’s okay. You’re about 7.5cm now. Looks like we’re going to have this baby.” I ended up getting an epidural around 2:30P & they gave me a peanut ball & told me to take a nap. But the epidural wasn’t working on my left half... I tried to bare through it but I couldn’t so I called the nurse & turns out the pump was broken so I was only getting about 1/4 of the dose... so they gave me a shot of some narcotic while I waited for a new pump. Around 3:45P they got everything working & I was officially numb on both sides & my nurse said “you probably have about another hour so go ahead & take a nap after we flip you” she lifted my leg & I go “wait what’s that?” The nurse looks down & goes “oh god.” Walks to the door I’m in a full blown panic because who says OH GOD AND LEAVES IN THE MIDDLE OF LABOR?! She yells in the hallway, “I need this room turned into a delivery room now.” & suddenly everything was just happening. At 4:10P they told me to push & 2 pushes & 8 minutes later I was holding my boy. I was crying I was so happy & then I started bleeding really bad because my cervix didn’t dilate fully & he ripped it into pieces. They took him from me because I was going in & out & turns out he needed to go to the NICU because his glucose levels were so low & he couldn’t regulate his body temp & he had really low O2. Finally they got my bleeding under control & I was okay but I didn’t get to see my baby again until 2/20 when he was finally okay enough to stay with me in my recovery room.

He came out 5lbs 15oz & 18.5in long & shares a birthday with my mom 2/19. He also is named after her recently deceased father so for her final birthday gift he sent her his namesake.