I just gave birth to our beautiful baby boy at 12:01 A.M he weighed 7 pounds & 15 ounces. I was 39 weeks and 4 days. I’m calling this birth experience redeeming because with our second baby I had an absolute traumatizing experience due to umbilical cord prolapse and I almost died because my womb split back open three hours after the operation plus a ton of other complications.

With our first baby she literally flew out as soon as they put me in the room I arrived at the hospital at 9cm. I just woke up in active labor. That was extremely painful because it happened so fast I felt like I was being hit by a train. However, it was still a good experience at least 10000 times better than the second.

It had only been 16 months since I gave birth to our second baby (this baby was a huge surprise even on birth control) so I’ve been terrified the entire time due to everything that happened. I have been having prelabor for a month now. And dilated to 5 cm for 3 weeks.

Well yesterday afternoon I could tell they were different than the contractions I had been having. They felt more crampy than tight. We walked a ton and contractions picked up. They started coming every 4 minutes around 3p.m so I said let’s head to L&D since I’m attempting a VBAC I don’t want to wait to long. When I arrived I was 6cm and contractions very strong and consistent, but honestly very manageable!

After a few hours my contractions were remaining the same and I was 7cm. So things were moving way slower than my previous labors and I was thankful for that. The contractions were painful but not to bad and I was so surprised how well I was doing lol.

So at 9 p.m my doctor came in and she said I was almost an 8 but still kind of thick. Baby’s head was in the perfect position and no room for the cord to slip out. At this point I still don’t feel to uncomfortable with the contractions, which I still couldn’t fathom lol. But I had to go ahead & get the epidural before she broke my water. My contractions were extremely strong after she broke my water, but I couldn’t feel them I just saw on the monitor. By this time it 10 p.m and we’re just waiting for my cervix to efface 100% I was at 80%. At 11:45 I felt a lot of pressure with each contraction so they checked me and it was time to push! I started pushing at 11:55 and he was born at 12:01, after two contractions (4 pushes) I felt like I was dreaming and I still do because everything went better than I could’ve ever expected! I did get a 2nd degree tear, but I’m just glad that’s all!

I got to do skin to skin right away and he has been latching on like a champ. I’m beyond thankful this has been such a redeeming experience!