My Labour & Delivery Story

I wanted to document my labour and delivery story for other mom’s to be, but also for me to look back on since I know I’ll forget a lot of this! While I was in the hospital, Pete took down notes so we could recount exactly what happened, and I’m SO glad we did.

Before I get into my labour and delivery, I should share that in December I went into preterm labour – I was 34 and a half weeks and woke up with really bad stomach pains. I went to triage, and learned that I was having contractions and was already 2-3cm dilated. The OB on call admitted me to labour and delivery (at which point Pete and I were like “ummm are we having our baby 6 weeks early?!”) to try and stop the labour. I spent 36 hours in the hospital getting steroid injections and magnesium drips to slow down the contractions and keep her in me for a few more weeks. ALL the doctors and nurses told us we’d be lucky if we could keep her in for just a few more weeks – and then my due date came and went. Penny did NOT want to come out anymore!!

I had a scheduled induction for February 10 – I was due the 7th, and the Monday before my induction date (February 4), I asked my OB to induce me. I was READY for her to come out especially after the preterm labour. I’d had a few sweeps done, tried eating spicy food… we tried EVERYTHING, AND I was sitting at 3-4cm dilated! We had it in our heads that she’d be coming before my due date so by the time February 4 came, I had made up my mind that I was done with pregnancy. My OB scheduled my induction for 3 days after my due date because he would be the OB on call to deliver her – but he kept saying “you won’t make it until then”. Proved him wrong!!

We got to the hospital at 10:30am, by 11:30am we were checked in and I was hooked up to the pitocin, and by 12:30pm I’d had the epidural and my water broken. For anyone on the fence, I would 100% recommend the epidural. My nurse checked with the anesthesiologist – he had another surgery to go to, so if I didn’t get it then at 12:30, it’d be a few hours until he could come back. And let me tell you, I am SO happy I got it when I did based on how fast my labour progressed. My contractions were really starting to pick up intensity, and coming every 2 minutes in the hour I’d been on the pitocin.

As the afternoon carried on, I dilated very fast. At 1:50pm I was 5-6cm. I felt great though! The epidural seriously worked wonders – I didn’t feel a thing. At 2:40pm, I got checked again and was 7cm dilated. We were all amazed at how fast my labour was progressing!!

At 3:00pm, they tried using a different heart rate monitor on Penny which was on her head as opposed to the one that gets attached to your stomach (so yes, it was up inside me!). They were moving me around to try and get her to come further down since she was sitting really high up. I was flipped on all fours, and then back again. My nurse came back in at 4:05 to check me again and I was 9cm dilated. We couldn’t believe it – 9cm already!! It had only been 4 hours on the pitocin at that point.

At this point in my labour, things start to get a little bit more chaotic. Penny’s heart rate started to drop (went from 140bps to 90bps) – she just didn’t like the contractions – so my OB pushed me to 10cm dilated so we could start the delivery process. It seriously went from 0 to 100 REALLY fast. All of a sudden, there were 8 nurses and my OB in the delivery room and they were telling me I was going to start pushing. I was in shock and barely understood what they were saying. No practice pushes? Nope, real pushing!!

Because of the drop in her heart rate, my OB had to use forceps. Luckily I couldn’t see what was going on, but Pete said that was really hard to watch – a grown man PULLING with a lot of force on a baby’s head. I pushed 5 times total, and out she came!! Seeing her and hearing her cry for the first time was honestly the most magical thing in the entire world – I can’t believe we made this gorgeous girl!

Penelope Jean was born at February 10 at 4:22pm. Our lives changed FOREVER, and she’s the most perfect sweetie ever.

I hope any other mom’s out there have a smooth labour and delivery, and if you have any questions feel free to comment or drop me a DM on Instagram!