Unmedicated Birth (Not by choice)

I was originally due on April 9th (my mom's one year anniversary of her death) but with an IGUR (interuterine growth restriction) diagnosis at 24 weeks we figured she'd probably have to be delivered early. Thankfully not as early as she could've been. At 28 weeks we had to go to weekly NSTs and ultrasounds and growth scans at every 4 weeks. At 31 weeks we had an elevated cord Doppler and was told that at our next appointment we need to be prepared to stay at the MFM hospital in Seattle, 2+ hours away with good traffic. At that appointment everything ended up looking good so we were going to take it week by week. Almost every week during the NST or ultrasound my regular ob would send us to labor and delivery for extra monitoring. We always went home after a couple hours but my midwife on duty had my get the shot of steroids to help baby girl's lungs develop just in case. Fast forward to 36 week appointment at MFM, my doctor said they needed me to deliver during the 38th week and I could be induced at my local hospital. Thank God!! Went into my ob's office and scheduled my induction for March 28th. I had originally wanted a C-section because I was so afraid of something happening during delivery after my previous stillborn. My ob said that I should be fine and I didn't push it. On March 23rd (day after our anniversary) I woke up feeling super uncomfortable and with a lot of vaginal pressure and I told my bf that I was going to go into our appointment the next day and tell my doctor that I wasn't comfortable giving birth vaginally. Well baby girl had different plans... That night I couldn't sleep and "slept" on the couch and my bf came down and got me around 7 am. At 7:57 am I'm laying in bed about to finally fall asleep and my water breaks!! I yell to my bf who was in the bathroom that I was either peeing or that my water broke and that I needed him to come check 🤦 He runs in and spreads open my legs and my mucus plug comes out 😂😂 I call my sister, stepmom, and my ob. My sister tells me to take my time and go get food so I didn't show up to the hospital until 11 am. Thinking I had plenty of time because my contractions weren't all that bad. I get to the hospital and I was at 4 cm dilated and the l&d nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural. I wanted as much pain meds as humanly possible so she went to get the anesthesiologist before he was supposed to be in a C-section at noon. She goes to get my IV in and can't. The anesthesiologist needs me to have 2 IVs due to me being on blood thinners and the risk of me hemorrhaging was so high. I had to wait for IV Therapy to come down with their ultrasound machine. Now it's noon and I'm in so much pain! She calls the anesthesiologist and his C-section had been postponed but he still wasn't coming. At this point I'm screaming and they wouldn't give me any pain meds due to a medication I am on. Which never was the plan and I had given birth before on this same medication without there being a problem giving me pain meds. The doctor comes in and I'm thinking I'm going to die! I have my head in the pillow screaming, inflatable peanut thing between my legs, and my arms and legs begin to shake uncontrollably! I guess this is called transitioning. She checks me and says I'm at 9 cm but I feel like I need to push. She rolls me on my back and her and a student doctor lift me off the bed and hold my legs up in the air the whole time I was pushing. 3 or 4 pushes and only 6 hours after my water broke I gave birth completely unmedicated to my beautiful baby girl!! She was born at 37 weeks and 5 days weighing 5 lbs and 6.8 oz and 19" long. Since she was under 5 1/2 lbs she had to go to the NICU for at least 12 hours. After low glucose tests she ended up staying for 5 days and came home on my dad's birthday and my grandpa also ended up dying that same morning. Not at all how I planned my delivery but it was a 1000% worth every second!!

🩷Andi Raelynne 🩷 3/24/25