I slowly wrote out our birth story about a week after giving birth. And with a newborn photo sneak peak from today, here ya go!

Quinn's birth was nothing like I expected but everything I had hoped for. I went for a check up on Wednesday, June 24 at 39 weeks, 5 days pregnant. I was 1.5cm dilated and 75-80% effaced. I had some bad lower back aches over the previous week or two and ongoing loss of my mucus plug but no contractions or anything. I went to bed that night, like any other night. Little did I know my life was about to change!

As has been the case the last couple weeks of pregnancy, I woke up around 12:30 am on Thursday morning, June 25 to use the bathroom. When I sat up, it felt like i peed myself a little. Nothing abnormal It took some continued leaking, a couple of outfit changes and being awake for an hour for me to think that maybe my water broke. DH woke up around that time with me "I'm leaking something?!" Having tested positive for Group B Strep, I wanted to delay going to the hospital until necessary but my water breaking complicated that. We packed our last minute hospital items and decided to go back to bed until the morning. Not long after, I began experiencing what I can only describe as UTI type pains in the front of my lower abdomen and lower back ache pains. I breathed through them but wasn't really able to sleep again. Around 4 am, I decided to try and time them. I still didn't even know if what I was experiencing was contractions even. Around 6 am, I called the on call OB to let her know I thought my water had broken. I wasn't sure about contractions still but she said to head to the hospital. I also let our doula know what was going on. We both showered and headed to the hospital around 8 am. Of course we hit traffic and didn't arrive until about 9:30 am. I had been breathing through 45 second contractions every 3-5 minutes almost the whole way there. Despite this, I brought my sneakers along, thinking we'd have some time and some walking to do for me to progress. Well, we checked in, confirmed my water did in fact break and learned I was already at 4-5cm!

I was brought to a labor and delivery room and our doula arrived just before 11 am. At this point, we were still waiting for my GBS antibiotic to come up from the pharmacy. I needed Vancomycin which is a one hour regime, not the usual 20 minute Penicillin dosage. Or so I thought. The antibiotic was finally started around noon. I was continuing to have bad back labor and between the antibiotic and the fetal monitoring (they were apparently having trouble getting a consistent 20 minute timeline), it was difficult to move around much. We tried a number of different things for my back but unfortunately didn't get a ton of relief from them. Around 1pm, I was checked at 7cm. The antibiotic was still running, ultimately taking almost 3 hours to complete. DH was great at making sure I stayed hydrated. Around 7cm was when the pain started to get bad. I was having a harder time breathing through contractions and needed DH and our doula to remind me to breathe deep and low, not scream. I kept my eyes closed a lot of the time and let DH and our doula deal with any questions from the doctor or nurses. They had all reviewed our birth plan and only one nurse, who was with me for only a short time, even mentioned medication. It happened once and was never brought up by anyone again!

Baby Quinn was still facing the wrong way and I was given a peanut shaped ball to use between my legs to try and encourage her to flip during contractions. The peanut ball also made any bladder control impossible! I labored on my side in that position for the next two or so hours. Around 3 pm, the antibiotic was sped up a bit because I was at 10cm! I had been feeling the urge to poop for a while but was told it was just the baby moving down into place. Pushing took nearly two hours. The first couple of contractions and pushes were extremely productive but then my energy level zapped and we went through a stretch where it became difficult. We tried different positions - on my side, all fours, with the birthing bar, none of which felt any better or were any more productive. My doctor came back in and with some local anesthetic and her manual assistance, I pushed through another 3 or 4 contractions before Quinn entered the world! The pushing was difficult but her coming out was not really, despite a 3rd degree tear. Quinn was placed on my chest while I received stitches and the blood loss was under control. While that repair was done, DH enjoyed some nice skin to skin time with Quinn too! Ultimately, I got my unmedicated birth and couldn't have asked for a better experience at the hospital or with my birthing team!