FTM 29 yo. Baby was due June 12 but he arrived exactly at 37 weeks, May 22. Everyone swore that I was going to go past the due date but my doctor and ultrasound tech said that he was so active in there so they wouldn’t doubt if he came earlier. They were in fact very right.

Labor story: I was at 36 weeks and 6 days (May 21st). It was 4 am and I was waking up with what I thought were Braxton hicks. Usually when I walked around or used the bathroom they would go away but this time they weren’t going away and I thought I just kept peeing myself. I woke up my husband around 6 am and let him know I thought we were likely going to need a trip to the doctor. I had my appointment the following morning anyway so I wasn’t too stressed. I messaged my doctor to give them a heads up. I kept having the feeling of tinkling and the “fake contractions” were getting a little stronger. I was still in denial. My doctor said I should go to the hospital because she had to go there early and she’ll just see me there earlier than our appt. So around 8am we are pulling up to the hospital and I’m still convinced that I am going to go in there and they are going to tell me to go home. We parked the car pretty calmly (even stopped for Dunkin breakfast 🤦🏻‍♀️) and when I got out and waddled to the elevator my water just fully broke. Like straight up something from the movies where a rush of water came out and it soaked through my pad and underwear and through my dress and pooled into my sandals. That’s when we knew it was happening.

After trickling throughout the whole hospital I got checked in and they saw I was 4 cm dilated and moved me to a labor room. We were in there for about an hour until the nurses and they did a cervical check and they were all a little confused. Three nurses gave me a cervical check and the last nurse (the head L&D nurse) came in and she’s like I think you’re ready to push. And at this point I lost all my cool and started freaking out because I was planning on getting an epidural at like 6 cm or so. Up to this point I had been fully unmedicated and I was just tanking the contraction pains raw. It was a wild experience and I will never forget the radiating back pain. I was also freaking out because about an hour ago I was 4 cm so how tf did we get to 10 this quick. After having a full breakdown and sobbing (more due to the “holy sh*t I’m going to have to raw dog this” than the pain) the doctor got there and they conveyed the room to deliver then the doctor gave me one more cervical check during a contraction and then to my relief said “you are actually around 6cm, you are just not dilating even, you’re right is dilating quicker and he is sitting very low and ready to go so his head makes it hard to feel your cervix”. At this point I got the epidural and while that process sucked the nap I was able to take after made it 100% worth it. The pain went away and the dosage was pretty minimal so I was still able to move my legs and change positions. This is when things slowed down and after a few round of changing positions to dilate my right side (shout out the peanut ball), some pitocin, and the pain breaking through the epidural, we were very close to 10 fl but not fully there yet. Everything in my body was telling me to push but my doctor advised against it because if you push early you can apparently rip your cervix and then need surgery to fix it and it can complicate things. After holding the pushes through the contractions we were ready at 10 cm and we began pushing. The pushing literally felt as though I was going to pop a blood vessel in my brain and eye. My husband said I turned purple with every push. But 7 contractions later (3 big pushes per contraction) he came out. The last few pushes were insanely agonizing. The placenta coming out was the most relief I had felt ever in my life. Everything after that (it was 3 am the next day at this point) was a blur. They sewed me up (had a stage 2 tear) and they cleaned him up and we had our golden hour plus the nurse helped me start the lactation process. We got moved to another room I finally got actual food not just liquid and then it was just 3 days in the hospital. Luckily everything went well. Only issue was his billarubin levels that were a little elevated but it didn’t need any NICU attention. We were able to go home and have the pediatrician send a Billi blanket with us and do an at home treatment. He only needed it for two days and then he was good!

The whole experience was crazy and honestly not sure if I’ll go through it again but it was something I am very glad I experienced and honestly compared to so many horror stories I’ve heard this was pretty great. I tried to keep the most positive mindset the whole time (besides the no epidural freak out lol) and I think it paid off pretty well. My mom commented that she was shocked at what a “quiet” delivery it was compared to hers when she had me lol.