My insane, positive birth story

My December 1st baby girl decided to surprise us on Thanksgiving morning and I've never been more thankful in my life.

FTM at 40. I was scheduled to be induced on her due date this Sunday due to my age. Last week, I started losing my mucus plug. I'd been having lots of BH contractions for a couple weeks.

On Wednesday I woke up with some reddish discharge. I was advised to continue my appointments that day as normal. Baby passed her NST again with flying colors. OB did a cervical check and I was 1cm, 80% effaced, no progress since last week. We did a membrane sweep.

I was pretty crampy rest of the day. Was having mild contractions. I was still able to do things around the house and hang out with my husband so we didn't think anything of it. Contractors started to pick up in frequency around 10pm so my husband started tracking. We decided to go to bed around midnight.

Once we went to bed, my contractions started to get more intense and I wasn't able to sleep. My husband told me around 1 that I was somewhere between 5 1 1 and 4 1 1. He called L&D and they told us to come in. Things started to suck around this time. I threw up before we left which surprised me because I know that's usually a sign of active labor.

We got to the hospital around 1:30. Went to triage. 3cm dilated but lots of discharge. Nurse decided to monitor me for an hour and check again rather than send me home because my contractions seemed worse than they should be at that point.

An hour later I was at 4cm. They decided to admit me. Contractions got really intense and I was like oh no, forget the natural birth. I need pain killers. We got a hold of our doula and she was on her way. I was starting to have "I can't do this" thoughts, which made me feel bad. That's usually a sign of transition but I thought I was only 4cm so I was like wow, I'm weaker than I thought.

They got me to a delivery room by about 3am. At this point my contractions were unbearable and I struggled to even change positions. The nurses were scrambling to get me an IV for fentanyl and trying to get the anesthesiologist in for an epidural. I was shocked by how intense everything was.

Around 3:30 I felt the need to push, which threw everyone off. Like, I had no way of slowing down. They checked me and I was fully dilated and effaced. Everyone was shocked. I went from 4 to 10 in an hour. They tried to call the OB but the OB didn't believe I'd be birthing that soon since I'm a first timer.

My water burst. My pushing was involuntary. I was screaming sounds I never heard come out of my mouth before. My doula wasn't there yet. The nurses could see a head so they called the OB back in and said NOW. My husband begged for pain meds for me. It was too late. I was like holy shit, I'm going to have this baby right now, no meds, hours and hours sooner than I expected.

I pushed through 3 contractions. Screaming like a banshee. OB made it in time to catch the baby. She was born at 3:58am. I only had minor first degree tears.

Absolutely insane. Our bags were still in the car. We didn't use any of the labor tools we brought. My doula made it about 15 minutes after she was born.

I never ever expected a delivery like that. I still can't believe that happened. It was so fast, we didn't even tell anyone we went to the hospital.

Baby and I are both doing really well. She's absolutely perfect. My husband was my rock and seeing him be a dad is the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

It wasn't the labor I imagined but it also couldn't have gone better.

I wish you all an equally positive and healthy birth experience! Enjoy your little bundle when they get here. It truly is a miracle. ❤️