It’s odd to me that I feel the need to write a disclaimer but I’m going to anyway. Please know that I wholeheartedly understand every birth story is different. I commend all women and partners who have experienced the birthing process. Each of our stories hold value and have brought a life into the world in their own unique way. I love my story and am proud to share.

At one point I was jealous of those who experienced counting contractions and rushing to the hospital to deliver their little one – but you know, that’s not our story. That’s someone else’s and I admire them for it. I hope you enjoy reading.

This is our story. Raw. Unfiltered. and probably a bit TMI.

July 8th, 2017 – I was 12 days past our due date and we had an induction scheduled for 1:30 pm. It was Saturday morning and we woke up like any other day. We ate breakfast, I showered, did my hair & makeup, and we relaxed at our apartment. I was told to call the hospital around 11:00 am to see if they would be ready for me at 1:30 (apparently they HAVE to accept patients who go into labor on their own first so if too many woman came in on their own, I’d have to wait to be induced). I called and they said they were full & that we might have to wait until Sunday or Monday to come in. Slowly I hung up the phone and cried…. Every other pregnant woman in Tacoma was having their baby except me… Come on!!

Around 1:00, I receive a call saying I could come on in. As soon as I hung up my heart starting beating like crazy. My mind was screaming – “Wait! This isn’t how babies should come! Don’t rush her!!” Also a super fun panic attack of “Holy crap, we’re having a baby! I’m sooo not ready for this!” hit me. We grabbed my go bag that had been packed for weeks and walked to the car (I was a bit sad we weren’t running the way I had anticipated this moment being). As we arrived at the hospital, we parked and walked for what felt like hours to get to the emergency room check-in. We walked up to the counter and said “Hey, we’re here to have a baby”. The woman gave us some paperwork, asked if I needed a wheelchair even though she could clearly see I wasn’t in labor, and then told us to head to the 14th floor.

Side note on the 14th floor – since hospitals don’t have a 13th floor, it just goes 12th then 14th, doesn’t that TECHNICALLY make the 14th floor the 13th???? Not cool.

I walked in in a sleeveless black dress that made the sweet tan I had gained waiting for this girl to arrive glow! We walked by a desk of nurses who complimented me so sweetly that made me want to hug them all even though I felt like a giant balloon! *Labor & delivery nurses are the best & well skilled in the art of lying 🙂 * Apparently when you go in to have a baby, you get two rooms – the first, where we headed, is the calm 0-5 cm room. The second is the painful 5-10 cm room. These are clearly not their respective names, but that’s how I saw them.

Saturday was a weird and surreal day. Once we got to the hospital, I wasn’t going to be able to leave until we had a baby since I was already 12 days past my due date. I wasn’t feeling any contractions so they hooked me up to a monitor to see what was going on. Apparently my body had started having contractions but I couldn’t feel them. They weren’t painful. The movies prep you for full on, gut wrenching, screaming contractions so that’s what I was waiting for! I could feel my stomach tighten a little bit and then release. Apparently – that’s a contraction. (I know, I know – your thinking ‘Lucky B****’ right now if you’re experience is different than mine lol)

I was barely dilated so I started round 1 of 3 rounds of Cytotec. This is a tiny pill given once every 3 hours to get things ripe and ready for baby. It sounds so weird – my body needs to be “ripe”. What am I, an avocado?? Well, once they give you this pill, you sit around and wait 3 hours, then you take another one, then wait again, etc. They gave me the 1st pill and said, “Welp, see ya later! Let us know if it starts to hurt – that’s our goal”…. Wait what?! Their goal is to cause me pain… Awesome. The baby can totally just live in there forever then.

We started to get settled in for the afternoon/evening. After that, it was honestly kind of nice. Friends came by to see us, our family sat with us for a bit, we checked social media, called family that was out of state, and I ordered almost everything off of the hospital menu but I made sure to tell the woman – “I swear I’m not a pig – just suuuper pregnant and starving”. An odd to thing remember but there was a Jim Carey marathon on TV so it added some extra laughs while we sat around waiting for something to happen. Anything to happen. We did have an added bonus – our room had an amazing view of Mt. Rainier and the full moon!

I took the first round of Cytotec at 3:00 pm, the second round at 6:00 pm, then at 9:00 pm before they could give me the third and final dose, things started to happen…