Henry"s birth story

Friday evening was the quintessincial ""dark and stormy night" with torrents of rain and wind battering down the house and flooding the streets. As we went to bed, I joked that it would be our luck that the baby would be born on such a night....oops.

Thankfully, when I awoke at about 4 am with contractions the rain was slowing down. I timed them for about a half hour before waking the hubs up when they were about 45 seconds long and 5 minutes apart. We got the bag together, got some breakfast from the kitchen, and let the dog out. I figured we had some time.

By the time we got to the hospital at about 6 am the contractions were a minute long and about 3 minutes apart. The pain was getting more intense, as well. When I was finally checked by the resident OB at about 7 am I was 6-7 cm and they rushed us into a labor and delivery suite.

Things kept moving quickly until I hit 9 cm at 11 am and stalled. The contractions got worse but the baby wasn't moving. At this point, my OB also got called into an emergency C-section. Left in pain, I asked for thr epidural. I was impressed I had gotten to 9 cm on my own and the pain was starting to cloud my head and focus. After the epi I was able to rest until the doc returned and get my strength back.

The doc broke my water at 12:30 and we discovered meuconium in the fluid, so NICU was called in as a precaution. I pushed for just shy of 2 hours...he was "right there" for most of it but his giant head was stuck. A third-degree episiotomy later, Henry Joseph arrived at 2:11 pm.

He had no mec-related issues and scored 9s on both his Apgars. He was wide awake and alert and got to meet his family right away. He started breastfeeding about an hour after delivery and has been getting better every day since!

Recovery has been painful, but totally doable. Six days pp and I'm just a little sore and feeling mostly like myself.