My birth story (delivered at 38+6)

Since I always enjoy reading birth stories on here, here's mine!

I'm going to try to keep this brief:

July 25 5:00pm - I was out in the backyard playing with my dog when all of a sudden my water broke. It felt like a pop and then a bit of fluid came out (as though I had peed myself). It wasn't until I stood up that a huge gush came out.

5:30pm - got to the hospital. They tested the fluid and hooked me up to see if I was contracting (which I wasn't). Doctor checked my cervix and it was thick and completely closed. I was told to go home and come back if I developed contractions. If not, then I'd have to go back in at 5am for an induction.

We went to get frozen yogurt on our last evening as non-parents. Looking back now, it was really special and I'm glad we did that.

Throughout the night, I had contractions but they were no closer together than 8 minutes and were not worsening at all.

July 26 5:00am - headed to the hospital.

8:00am - IV was put in and pitocin was started. Contractions started becoming pretty painful within 45 minutes.

9:30am - I wanted to go no epidural but the pain was getting to be too much and I was no longer able to breathe through them. I thought it over and at 10:30am I decided to get it.

10:45am - pain was gone. I still felt the pressure of contractions, but they were not painful at all. I definitely don't regret getting the epidural at all.

Dilation was very slow.

July 27 12:00am - I was only at 6cm by this point. And I developed a fever because my waters were ruptured for over 24 hours. Antibiotics were started and I started throwing up pretty violently. Things around here got kind of blurry because I was given Gravol which made me super drowsy and the fever was giving me the chills. I was shaking uncontrollably. Also, we learned at this point that baby's head was facing the wrong way. The nurses had to come in every 15 minutes to change my position so that it would encourage baby to flip over.

2:00am - Fever finally went down and I was starting to feel normal again, but every time I moved (which was every 15 minutes to get baby to turn) I would throw up.

2:10am - started feeling an urge to push, so we started. Husband was awesome during this and fed me ice chips between pushes.

3:09am - baby girl was born! No need for vacuum or forceps and only had a 1st degree tear. Baby and I did skin to skin immediately while the doctor stitched me up. It's weird because I could feel what she was doing, but I just didn't care. I was too tired from labour.

Spent about 2 hours in the delivery room afterwards where they measured my new baby girl and gave her Vitamin K and eye ointment. She was perfectly healthy. Then they moved us to our room and we got some sleep.

A few things I want to point out:

1. I was SO eager to be done being pregnant. I was hot, uncomfortable, huge, and just generally miserable. Not that things suck with having my baby now, but it would have been nice to have a few more weeks of "freedom".

2. I never felt much of a bond with my bump during pregnancy. I knew she was in there, I felt her movements, but I couldn't really say that I loved her at that time. I was hoping that once she was born, that I'd immediately fall in love with her. And I didn't. It's still a process, but at 4 days old I'm now starting to feel pretty crazy in love with her. It's more of a protective love, but it's still there.

3. I thought I knew my husband before, but seeing him as a dad has made me fall so in love with him again. I literally just watch the two of them together and feel my heart melting. I knew he'd be a great dad, but seeing it in real life is way different.

4. I definitely underestimated the postpartum bleeding. I go through about 10 pads a day. U by Kotex (heavy flow) are amazing and I haven't leaked through them despite how much I'm bleeding. And brace yourselves for the biggest clots you'll ever see.

I can't think of anything else right now, but feel free to ask any questions!