Hellobee Boards

@Aspen: thanks!

How are you other ladies doing? This board has been so quiet!

I had been having consistent contractions through out the day and especially at night for weeks. I just knew baby would come early but each night the contractions would fizzle out. My due date came and went with little progress made at my 40 week appointment (on a Friday afternoon). My cervix was still high and posterior so my OB didn't feel comfortable starting an induction any time soon.

I was so disappointed thinking I would have to go into work the following week but I had some fun plans for the rest of the weekend so I decided to make the best of it. We went to a wedding Saturday night and I noticed on the hour drive home, that contractions were getting consistent again but I figured it was like any other night. Around 9/10pm the contractions felt more crampy and I was using the bathroom more often so I decided to try to get some sleep. I would wake up with each contraction but was able to sleep in between them. We got up for church Sunday morning around 7:30 and I made sure to tell my husband about the contractions and that I felt like it would either happen today or tomorrow. We went to the 8:30 service and I had to sit out in the lobby and breathe through them at this point. We had tickets to see beauty and the beast but I knew I wouldn't be able to sit through a movie the way these contractions felt. We called my parents around 10am and told them to come over and get the boys because things were escalating quickly. I was really having to focus, breathe and moan through contractions that were 3 minutes apart.

We got to the hospital around 10:30am and got settled into triage, when they checked I was at 4cm, 80%. I had my doula meet us up there because I was already starting to struggle through contractions. My OB wanted me to stay in triage for an hour to ensure I was really in labor and progressing. After an hour of grueling contractions every 2-4 minutes, my body had barely progressed to 5cm and my cervix was still posterior and high. My OB was going to order another hour in triage but my nurses could tell I was definitely in labor and felt pity on me so I got admitted after a monster contraction.

After getting settled into my room, contractions were so strong and on top of each other that I asked to get prepped for an epidural. My body was so tense and shaky that I knew I wouldn't have much energy to keep going. The epidural got placed after about an hour and when I got checked again, my cervix had finally come to the front, still dilated to a 5. My OB came in shortly after that to check for herself and she accidentally broke my water. My doula had me switching positions every 30 minutes or so to get baby to descend and I was able to relax. After about 4 hours I got checked again and was at an 8, so close!

My doula and husband were being so patient and helpful, especially since I had been having the shakes for hours now and asking for constant massages, ha. I touched up my makeup and mentally prepped to meet our baby soon. Around 7:30pm I got checked and was complete so the nurse called my OB. We waited over 30 minutes on my OB which annoyed me, we were so anxious to meet our little one. She showed up around 8:15 and they began prepping me for delivery. I did 3 practice pushes and then it was go time, I pushed 2-3 more times and baby was out! My husband proudly announced that it was a girl and we both just started bawling. It was a really beautiful moment and I'm so glad we did team green for this pregnancy.

@lilyann: congratulations! So happy for you for the shorter labor - after two boys I'd be pleased to have a girl, not sure if you were feeling the same. She is adorable!