While I was pregnant I was really freaked out about the whole birth process. I heard all kinds of stories about C-Sections, natural births, scary epidurals, and how I might poop in front of a crowd of people! But at around 36 weeks I was ready to have my body back to normal and meet the little person I'd been growing inside. 

I lose my mucus plug. I had just noticed it when I went to the bathroom. Yeah, the name is fitting ladies. I also had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks Contractions. These weren't painful for me, just felt like my muscles were tightening. So these were my first signs that The Big Day was getting close. 

I start leaking some sort of fluid. It felt like more than my average amount of fluid all day long. I wasn't sure if my water had broken, because I didn't know what that would feel like. Everyone says, "it's nothing like the movies where it gushes out," so I thought, maybe this is it! And I called my OB/GYN. 

During one of my prenatal doctor visits, I was tested for Group B Strep. You can learn more about this infection and the test by visiting the American Pregnancy Association website. Anyway, I tested positive for it. The nurse who I spoke to recommended that because I tested positive for Group B Strep, and that I thought my water might have broken, I should go to the hospital to get everything checked out. If it was amniotic fluid, I would be admitted to the hospital, if it wasn't I would be discharged and sent back home assuming everything else was fine. 

I'll also note, that my doctor's said they would not do a membrane sweep for me because I tested positive for Group B Strep. So if this is something you were looking to do, check with your doctor.

We live in a small town in North Carolina, and the closest hospital in the city is an average 25 minutes drive (granted you're not stuck behind a tractor on the two-lane road). We grabbed our bags, (which I wish I could repack) and headed out the door. 

I waddle with my husband to the women's center of the hospital and get checked in, but not admitted right away since I wasn't in active labor. The nurses get my belly hooked up to a heart rate monitor and notify my doctor that I'm at the hospital. My doctor's practice rotates between 6 doctors. You didn't get to choose who delivered your baby, and throughout my pregnancy, I saw every doctor during my prenatal visits. I saw some more than others, and liked some more than others. 

Anyway, they tested the fluid that I thought I was leaking and turns out it was not amniotic fluid.........................................................................................................................................

And we waited for my doctor to release me so I could go back home........................................................................................................................................ It seemed like forever!...................................................................................................................... Then he came into the room and said, "I don't know what to do with you." 

?!?! What?!?!

My doctor explained that in a ten minute span that they were monitoring the heart rate of my baby, his/her heart (I say his/her because we were waiting until The Big Day to find out the gender) shot up really high, and then dipped down really low. He said that if he hadn't seen this spike/dip he would've released me home. But because he did, he suggested that I be induced. I was close enough to my due date, I was already at the hospital and just to be safe. I asked him, "What would you do if it were your wife?" And when he said he'd induce, I looked at my husband and nodded, 'let's do it!'

Now I'm officially admitted to the hospital, and after all the moving around, checking in, meeting nurses, I make it to the delivery room. It's big. There's a couch for my husband, Alex, to crash on, I'm in the big hospital bed, there's a small (barely used) TV and overhead lights, lots of them.

This is where some medical lingo comes in. Your cervix needs to be softened and dilated. At 3:00 AM I was prescribed Cervidil to soften my cervix. For those of you who don't know, it takes a whole 12 hours for this to work. And, for me, it worked like a charm, it just took forever. I was also prescribed Diflucan for my Group B Strep. (Doctors typically prescribe Penicillin, but I'm allergic). While we were waiting for this time to pass, I tried to sleep. But my belly was still hooked up to a heart monitor and I had an IV,  there were nurses constantly coming in/out of the room, and I had to pee all the time. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep. Besides all the physical factors, I'm going to freaking have a baby!

12...hours...later...

Oh...my...gosh! 

After your cervix is softened, now it needs to be dilated. Before I was admitted to the hospital I was 1cm dilated. I asked nurses, read books/blogs, and my doctors all about Pitocin and decided this was right for me. I did two, 30 minute rounds of Pitocin to kick-start my contractions, and again, it worked like a charm. Wow! Those are intense! I have never felt pain like this before, and it came on powerfully and suddenly (which I think is the point).

After an hour on Pitocin, the nurse asked me if I wanted to opt for pain medication. I didn't want to be a martyr, and didn't think I could handle the pain of child birth, so I opted for an Epidural. 

This was the worst part of the entire experience. I don't want to freak anyone out, but this part freaked me out. Let me clarify, that I never saw a needle, I was never in pain from the needle for the Epidural, but I felt SOMETHING IN MY BACK. First, the nurse who administered the Epidural came into my room and explained what it was, what she'd be doing and what to expect. She leaves the room and comes back with her equipment. Keep in mind, that I'm having the most powerful and painful contractions of my life during this time. So every few minutes, I'm having intense pain, and you're expected to relax while they give it to you.

I was told to sit up straight in my hospital bed, and hunch my relaxed shoulders forward. She gave me a shot to numb the area (which just felt like a weak bee sting) and that's when it started to freak me out. I could FEEL something in my back and it was making me so anxious, scared and freaked out. I started panicking, crying, and not relaxing. The nurses were concerned I was in pain, which is not a good sign, but I was just scared. It's really hard to describe what it felt like...I just knew I didn't like it. 

The nurse has to start over, and try a different spot on my back. So she gives me another bee sting numbing shot, and tries again. This time, Alex and another nurse are holding my shoulders down and trying to get me to relax and I could just feel some sort of liquid (which I assumed was blood) trickle down my back, and then it was done. 

NECTAR OF THE GODS! The nurse looked over to me and asked, "So, how bad does that contraction you're having feel?" And I put two thumbs up like The Fonz and said, "Ehhhhh" with a smile. I couldn't feel any pain! But that didn't last long. Soon, the initial boost dose wore off and I could start to feel the contractions again. I called the anesthesiologist back into my room and she made some adjustments. We had a perfect balance of tolerable contractions where I could still feel them and know when to push ultimately.

Pitocin also worked like a charm. We had to wait for a few more hours for me to be completed dilated. When I was admitted I was 1cm. After a few hours of waiting, the nurse who was with me through the majority of the induction process asked me at that point if I wanted to guess how dilated I was. Thinking it was another thing that would take forever, I thought to myself that I was probably only 4cm. But she told me I was 7cm! I don't know what caused it (but my sister-in-law experienced this too) but I started to shiver and my teeth were chattering. The nursed said it happens to a lot of women and not to be nervous.

Next thing I know, Bam! I'm 10cm dilated and the nurse tells Alex to grab a leg. I had no idea what I was doing, but she assured me she'd correct what I was doing wrong. Here's how she instructed me to push: My contractions were about 30 seconds long, and a short time in between. During a contraction, which we could see happening on a monitor, and I could still feel but wasn't in terrible pain from, I would push. She told me to take a deep breath in, push for a solid 10 seconds (which she counted out loud for me) , breath out and repeat that two more times. Then when the contraction was over, I would rest. But not for long... 

I was laying on my back, feet in the air. Alex had my left foot and the nurse had my right. After about 15 minutes of this, my doctor came in the room and sat down at the foot of my bed. She was super calm, which helped me a lot. But her count down was soooo sloooooow haha! She really made me work hard for it. After a little bit longer on my back, we switched over to my left side and did some pushing that way. Same process: Push three times for 10 seconds each, resting in between pushes and in between contractions. Sometimes she would tell me to just skip a contraction and rest a little longer.

Then, I switched to my back again. 

Let me also add, I don't deal well with gory, gross, nasty things. And the nurse REALLY wanted me to look at the little head through the opening of my vagina with a mirror. I repeatedly told her, "No. That's gross." But she had a big mirror wheeled in anyway, and I saw a little blonde head in the opening of my vagina. I still wish I hadn't seen it ha!

Ok, here's where things got exciting. 

It's been about an hour and 15 minutes of pushing, and all of a sudden, other nurses enter the room, my doctor puts a big gown on, my nurse is still walking me through pushing and I can feel this pressure much lower than the rest of the pushing. Here we go! This time, I'm really determined. I'm worn out, but I know it's close. A few more pushes....push push push....nothing yet...push push push...almost there...push push pusssshhhhh....and relief........ Alex looks over and says, "It's a boy!"

Seriously, right now, it makes me so emotional thinking about it. That was the most special moment of my life. My husband's a daddy, I'm a mommy, and our son, Ryan James was born on Thursday, May 24th at 12:19 AM. 

Before he was born, my doctor noticed a little meconium I had discharged, so when Ryan was born, the nurses brought him over to a table where they examined him. This is where Alex went over to see our son and cut his umbilical cord. (Alex was shocked how cone-shaped Ryan's head was, but it's normal shaped now)

While that was happening, I still had to push out the placenta, but that was no big deal. I looked at it too...it's gross! My doctor also told me I had a tear, which I didn't feel happen. On a scale of severity from 1-4, 4 being from vagina to anus, I was a 2. So she stitched me up like new. I also couldn't feel that, and my stitches were dissolvable and everything healed quickly.

Some women say that they pooped during labor, but if I did, I didn't feel it or see it and neither did Alex. And if I had, I'm sure I wouldn't have cared.

Ryan's here! He's really here! I totally had a feeling we were having a boy too. 

After he's all cleaned up and measured, we get skin-to-skin contact. He's so warm! He's so cute! And he smells so good! 

I could go into the boring details of our hospital stay, but basically we spent that day he was born in the hospital and then left the next day. I wanted my bed back, the comforts of home, and to not be interrupted every freaking hour!