It was Wednesday, September 13th.  I was 39 weeks and 4 days.  My last day of work was going to be that Friday.  My boss had bought me a Spa Package and I thought it was the perfect time to use it since my due date was fast approaching.  I took the day off and was pampered with a massage, manicure, and pedicure at Bellanina Day Spa.

That evening, I attended my 39 week appointment.  The nurse took my blood pressure and saw that it was way higher than normal.  She decided to try my other arm to see if it it was just a fluke and it had the same result.  I was taken back to the exam room without any worries.  However, when my doctor came in, the first thing she asked was “do you know why your blood pressure would be high?”  I then responded with “Um, well I just had a massage and a manicure/pedicure, sooo no.”  She then proceeded to manually take my blood pressure, and it was even higher.  It was decided that since I was so far along in my pregnancy and my blood pressure was high, that the best choice was to go to triage to be monitored with a possibility of inducing.

I called the hubby with excitement.  I drove back home to get our hospital bag just in case, and pick up the hubby.  We arrived at triage where they put me on a blood pressure monitor and a baby monitor.  The monitor took my blood pressure every 15 minutes.  It was still high, but not as high as in the doctor’s office.  We sat in the triage room wondering if we were going to be induced.  After what felt like ages, the midwife on call said we booked a stay the hospital, meaning I was going to be induced.

We were then transferred to a delivery room.  At 10:30 pm, I was given Cervidil since I was not dilated at all and told to get some rest until the next day.  By 10:30 am the next day, I was finally checked again.  I was only 1 cm and 25% effaced.  Talk about torture!  I thought I would totally be a lot farther along than that.  Our next step was to try a foley balloon.  Let me tell you.  This was TORTURE.  They seriously tried putting this thing in like 5 or 6 times.  I literally wanted to give up.  Then they gave me an hour break and tried again.  Turned out it wasn’t working because I was already dilating.  When they checked me this time I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Progress!  I was so relieved.

Next it was time to start the Pitocin, which meant an IV attached to me from now on.  It wasn’t a big deal, I was still able to walk around and bounce on my medicine ball.  Unfortunately, every time they checked me that day, there was literally no progress.  By 24 hours, I was so fed up.  I just wanted some progress!  I was drained and tired and sick of contractions.  I decided that if I was checked again and no progress that I would request an epidural.

The doctor came in to check and guess what, no progress.  However, she offered to “break my water” to get things moving along.  Unfortunately, as she went to complete the procedure, something happened that she couldn’t follow through.  I was literally so disappointed, but luckily, they started the order for the epidural.  I was able to hold onto Brett as they started the epidural, but unfortunately, the worst contractions ever were starting as well.  This was because my water ended up breaking on its own.

Once the epidural took affect at 12:30 am, I was seriously in heaven (seriously, there should be an epidural for everything in life).  I was able to get some sleep and relax.  At around 2 am or 2:30 am, the doctors came in to check on me again.  I had jumped to 9 cm dilated and 100% effaced.  I couldn’t believe it.  Our Bailee was almost here.  They told me to hang in there and wait until it felt like I couldn’t not push even when there was no contraction.  Brett was sleeping, which means I had to yell to let him know it was almost time.  He sleepily said “that’s great” and fell back asleep.

I tried getting some more sleep, but my epidural started waring off.  They came in to try and give me more medicine, but it wasn’t helping or taking affect.  This meant that the last cm, I was literally going to feel every contraction.

At this point, I had to throw something at Brett because he wasn’t waking up and I needed to hold onto him.  At around 4:00 am, I told Brett I needed to push.  He called the nurses and the doctors in and when I was checked, they said it is time!  I pushed for a total of 15 minutes and our beautiful baby girl was here.  30 hours and 15 minutes of pushing, our Bailee was born September 15th, 2017 at 4:28 am.

I literally think about this day all the time.  It is one of the happiest moments in my life.