It’s been 1 week and 1 day since Brady entered my life and changed my world forever. I don’t know what I was expecting going into this journey. I knew I was ready to be a mom and start a family but I didn’t expect to feel this kind of love so suddenly and so intensely. This little 6.6lb peanut has brought me so much clarity and purpose. I am incredibly blessed to call him my son.

We headed to the hospital on Sunday January 5th at 8pm for our scheduled induction. I decided to get induced at 39 weeks because I was extremely uncomfortable and because he was full term at that point. My Dr. agreed that it was a good idea since I would be in better shape and condition for delivery. We arrived at the hospital and were immediately admitted. At 9pm the nurses prepped me with the IV which was probably one of my most hated parts of the whole experience! I was just extremely uncomfortable having wires and a needle come out of my hand. They started me off on Cytotec, a pill that’s meant to soften your cervix and put you into natural labor. I took the pill at 10pm and started having contractions around 1am. We were told to try and rest but honestly that is impossible! We spent the night watching The Office and I took a coloring book with me to ease my mind.

By 2am I was having consistent contractions and by 4am my contractions were stronger and closer together. They checked me at 5:30am and I was certain I was dilated to at least 3cm but nope…I was only at 1.5cm. I was a bit heartbroken. We tried to get some more rest and a few hrs later at 7am on Monday they decided to move me on to Pitocin to speed things up. The Pitocin started to work with my body and I was having crazy intense contractions but they were too close together. The nurses took me off Pitocin at 11am to give me a rest. And then…started it back up at 1pm.

At 2:30pm I went to the restroom and had bloody show/mucus plug fell out. There was little progress in dilation so we decided to get the epidural at 4pm, the plan was to let my body relax and do its thing. The epidural was not a good experience for me. The anesthesiologist hit a bone or area that was super sensitive so I was in a lot of pain during the process. But, thankfully I progressed to 3cm with the epidural and my Dr. came in at 7:45pm that night and broke my water. Things escalated really quickly after my water broke. My Dr. told me I would probably deliver around 2-4am the next morning so she left to go have dinner and we got comfy and decided to sleep.

The nurse came in an hour later at 9pm to check my progress and she was in SHOCK – I was at 10cm! I had dilated from a 5 to a 10 in 1 hour. She quickly called my Dr. to come as soon as possible. I started to push with the nurses at 9pm and thanks to my classes my pushes were really efficient and effective. The nurses told me to stop pushing because his head was right there. They were yelling for the Dr. to scrub in faster because he was literally about to come out. Dr. came in and 1-2 pushes later Brady was born at 10:07pm.

My birth experience was a pleasant one – I’m so thankful and blessed. I went into it with a very calm and relaxed mindset which set the tone for delivery. The birth classes also prepped us for what was to come. I am in baby bliss at the moment and soaking up every minute with my baby boy.