Finally getting around to sharing my second birth story. The week of my due date I started to feel cranky and had an on and off headache. My dad, who was in town with my mom to watch my 3 year old, decided to pick up a blood pressure cuff from the pharmacy just in case. My blood pressure readings were all over the place - with many of the readings being elevated or high. I knew I had to go into triage. Got there, waited a while, and was eventually put in a surgical recovery room because triage was full (this ended up being nice because it was quiet back there). My first blood pressure reading was a little elevated (135/75), but all my readings after that were normal. They were getting ready to send me home b it had a blood draw and urine rest just to be sure. Bloodwork looked good but there was elevated protein in my urine. So I had low risk preeclampsia with no severe features and they recommended that I be admitted and induced. They offered to do a “clean capture” by inserting a catheter into my bladder (to be sure the protein was in fact from my urine and not from discharge or other stuff mixed with my urine. But at that point, it was almost midnight on my due date and I just wanted to deliver - and was worried about the blood pressure issue. Admitted around midnight, fluids and antibiotics right away (gbs positive), epidural around 1:15am, pitocin around 2:30am, kept upping pitocin every hour and I didn’t feel anything really. Kept upping pitocin and I started to feel crampy, then broke my water around 11am and that’s when I really started to feel it. The epidural wasn’t working and I was in sudden and intense pain. Went from 4 to 10 cm in less than an hour and pushed for about an hour in TOTAL pain. I groaned and said it’s not fair and I can’t I can’t I cant. I begged for an anesthesiologist and doctor. Baby was born at 1:46 and I felt IMMEDIATE relief and calm, almost euphoria. Recovery was almost pain free except for cramps - even though I had a 2nd degree tear.