My Birth Story | POSITIVE Induction + Super FAST Labor at 41 Weeks
i had my doula on one side holding one
leg i had garrett on one side holding the other leg you just don't know
what labor is like until you do it hey guys this is my crazy five and a half
hour birth story preceded by a couple weeks of false labor birth story i'm a first time
mom i have obviously never given birth before and i was absolutely shocked that it went that
quickly that it was so smooth it was nothing like i had envisioned or planned for really in
any way it was a magical wonderful empowering experience so i want to share it because i know
a lot of people out there go past their due date have to be induced that's what happened to
me i really did not want any interventions or medicalization of this birth however that's
not what happened ultimately but at the end of it i actually think it was the perfect birth
experience for me so let me share a little bit about that just in case any mamas out there are
about to give birth and wanting some reassurance for me it began on the monday of my 39th week i
woke up early in the morning i was having some really minor contractions and so naturally in my
mind i thought this is it this is the beginning it's gonna happen i didn't actually know that
labor could start and then stop i read all the [ __ ] books i've looked at the apps not once
did anyone mention that labor could just stop so i was totally unprepared for it to just stop 12
hours later like just completely and totally stop this was really messing with me mentally because
i had always watched these birthing videos where people you know had this moment at home where
they were like oh it's beginning and then they would continue to have the signs that
one has when they're going into labor until heading to the hospital and then they would
have their birth story it wasn't happening that way for me i was having false labor it
stopped it took another week again for it to start up again in between that time i had
an appointment with my ob who checked and no dilation but things were at least softening
so i was like okay it wasn't for nothing when i went back in to get checked again the
following week it was a couple days past my due date and um they hooked me up to a non-stress
test monitor and also a contraction monitor and it was measuring what looked like contractions at the
time so i was like oh my gosh okay now this is it but it wasn't so 24 hours of those very mild
contractions where my whole uterus would harden but then it wasn't that painful sweetie it stopped
again i have to say my mental state with all of this start and stop labor was pretty rough it was
hard for me to understand why it was happening and what had happened i really didn't want the
induction basically so every day that passed going past my due date it became clearer
and clearer that i was probably going to need this induction having an induction means
that you're going to be hooked up to monitors there's just a lot more things that have to happen
like i couldn't labor in a bathtub like i wanted to i couldn't do much of the labor at home like i
wanted to or in fact any of it at home it was the beginning of me understanding that birth plans
are just plans and that almost no one gets the exact birth that they envision or plan i've been
doing hypnobirthing leading up to this i've been doing like coloring all these things like powerful
mantras and i just had this idea in my head of how it would go and so i really had to make peace with
the fact that that's not what was going to happen if i had this induction i know that some people
will go beyond 41 weeks but i agreed with my ob that it would be better for us to do it at the 41
week mark there's so many rabbit holes you can go down reading about why people induce when they
do and um you know the pros and cons of it so i won't get into that here but for safety reasons
we decided to induce at 41 weeks i actually had a really lovely kind of last you know evening with
my partner garrett in the sunday leading up to the induction we just spent the day hanging out as you
know the last day as it just being the two of us it was kind of nice actually to be able to have
a calm drive to the hospital and to kind of have a plan and know what was going to happen in a way
looking back at that having it be so calm leading up to the hospital and the birth was really a
blessing so then once we got there we checked in it was 8 p.m we started the cytotec which is a
cervical ripener at nine still completely closed no dilation but i was softening so four hours
later we did another round i did start to have contractions and so they didn't want to do another
round of that they wanted to start me on pitocin now mind you i'm completely hooked up to
monitors i've been sleeping most of the night so no big deal i didn't really need to move around
or anything then they ordered breakfast for me it arrived and they decided to start the pitocin
drip just on a level one i think it goes up to 30 right away like immediately i start to have
very regular contractions i'm talking every single minute i couldn't even eat breakfast i was
like you guys i don't know if this is right i went from like zero to 100 real quick so the nurse took
a look she was like okay that's you know i agree so we turned off the pitocin and the contractions
continued like i was in full on labor it didn't take long for me to really be in the throes of it
the hypno birthing went out the window there was no way that i could i tried to put it in my ears
but i was just like this is too much i can't focus on anything um what really helped was just to be
bent over the bed and to have either garrett or my doula pushing on me you know when the pitocin
started we texted the doula and she was like okay it usually takes most people a couple hours to get
going and that's what the nurses had assumed to but it didn't like i just went immediately
so i tried to kind of handle it for about an hour and then i was finally like you know
what i think i might want that epidural and i was worried about it because last i heard
i wasn't dilated at all and i felt like you're supposed to wait but everyone was encouraging
that i do what i need to do to manage my pain and so i did out to get it even
though i thought i wouldn't i have to say it was the best decision and i'm
really glad that i did because all i wanted to do was lay down on the bed at this point it
was about 11 30 so my contractions had started right around 8 a.m and this was about 11 30 now
that i got the epidural and i was relaxed and um finally i was like okay enough for the nurse
to check how dilated i was she checked and as she checked my water broke and she was just
like i can't believe it you're fully dilated it was amazing to hear that i couldn't believe
that i had basically done the whole labor without the epidural like i had gone straight basically
into transition and i was about to give birth so we gave him about 30 more minutes to descend
i could feel the pressure that's something i was worried about with the epidural that i wouldn't
know when to push but i totally still felt the pressure and i totally knew when to push
pretty soon my doctor was called she came in and we started pushing that was probably one
of the toughest parts of the whole thing just because like that pressure is really something
you just don't know what labor is like until you do it so i started to push and the nurse was just
amazing she was there coaching me i had my doula on one side holding one leg i had garrett on
one side holding the other leg i had pictured me like maybe in a squatting position or you know
really anything but on my back to do the delivery but then by the time that that's where we were
at that's kind of the place that i wanted to be and kind of felt the most effective pushing
as well once the water broke there was some meconium in the water so there was some
concern that maybe he had aspirated that they had a respiratory therapist come in they had
a bunch of people at the ready just in case there were any problems and that was why specifically i
did want to give birth out of hospital because i just wanted full support in case there was
ever any emergency or we needed anything so i was glad to have that although the room
just kind of flooded with people which was a lot so at that point i finally did the hypnobirth
thing i was like garrett please give me my headphones so i put it in and i listened
to the track about waves of pushing and that like got me through the end of it so in
about an hour i pushed him out and he was born and that was such a beautiful moment everything
was fine he's totally healthy we didn't need the respiratory therapist he bounced right away
that was my crazy quick five and a half hour birth story as a first-time mom i had been really
worried about this induction because you hear so many horror stories but when it came down to it
it was totally fine it was actually wonderful and beautiful i'm so lucky that my labor was only five
hours and i'm just really glad that this guy's here now fully baked in the 97th percentile
for height my eight pound two ounce baby he came right on time
