Our little P came on February 4th! I was exactly 39 weeks pregnant. My goal was to give birth at the hospital but without interventions.

friday, feb 3rd 9:00pm – my water broke, no contractions (had two bubble feelings in my vagina, went to the bathroom, and “peed” – felt like I peed but out of my vagina. looked and it was cloudy with speckles.) i had some more leaks over the next few hours.

*i talked to my doula and she said to try and get some sleep if possible, things are happening!

*never got sleep 😏

10:30pm – started contractions

11:30pm – 5-1-1 contractions (5 minutes apart, 1 minute long, consistent for 1 hour)

saturday, feb 4th 12:30am – checked into patewood

1am – nurse wanted me to wear belly bands and i tried to refuse. she said the portable monitor was not available at the moment. she attached the belly bands and after about 10 minutes, she left and i took them off to go to the bathroom. never put them back on.

1:30am – doula joined

3:30 my husband started the double hip squeeze during contractions and continued until i gave birth. it was a lifesaver! my contractions were never more than a minute or two apart, so this was no small job.

4am – transition signs, throwing up/ shaking/ triangle on lower back (my doula said later she could see the triangle on my back ever since she arrived at 1am)

*i could feel the baby’s head, and my doula & husband could see the head! doula went to get the nurse

*nurse checked me and said “you are only 4cm. DO NOT PUSH” – suggested the miles circuit to get head reversed out of vaginal canal and give cervix more time to open

*this felt very discouraging at the time, especially after feeling the head and thinking we were getting close.

*i even mentioned epidural to my support team, but they didn’t really believe me 😆 (i didn’t really want it but needed to let out some frustration) if the epidural was a pill, you bet i’d have taken it, but the idea of getting in the bed and waiting to get hooked up to everything was enough to deter me

6:00am – i requested a check in order to stay positive and i was at 7cm!

8:45am – 10cm! new nurse came in and checked. “it’s time to push! don’t be afraid of it”

*i was laboring on the toilet at the time and didn’t want to get off. the nurse really didn’t want me to give birth on the toilet 😆 she suggested the bed, but any contraction that i had on the bed was 10x worse. so i was NOT about to get on that bed.

*they walked me towards the bed. i put my hands on the end of the bed and refused to go any further.

9:05am – official birth time!

*pushed him out standing at the end of the bed. dr. batson caught him from behind me. nurse said “put him through her legs” and i received him!