It’s hard to believe that my baby boy is 1 year old. It feels like I had him yesterday. As I reflect on this past year, I wrote a post about my experience and I’d like to share it with you.

As a first time mom, I didn’t know what to expect. I have heard countless stories about the labor and delivery process from other moms. Some good, some bad and some that left me saying O.M.G?! I love hearing about the labor and delivery experience from moms, but in my mind, I wanted to ensure that their stories did not influence my thought process. so I took everything in with a grain of salt.

36 Weeks Pregnant

I went in for my routine doctor’s visit. After my checkup, the doctor asked if I had any questions or concerns. For the past week, I have been waking up out of my sleep, scratching and rubbing hydro-cortisone all over my belly. I asked if the intense itching was a normal side effect of pregnancy. She gave me two answers (1) Yes – my skin could be itching due to the fact that it’s being stretched and (2) No – it could be a liver condition but it’s too early to tell. She would need to draw blood to find out. Depending on the outcome of the blood test, I would need to have the baby immediately. Since there weren’t any red flags on my charts, she wanted to draw my blood just to be on the safe side.

37 Weeks Pregnant – June 28, 2017

Thursday, June 28, 2017, started out as a typical workday. I rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, got dressed and I headed out the door. I packed my lunch the night before so I was out of the door with an extra 5 minutes to spare. #Winning, LOL.

On the way to work, I received a call from the doctor stating that the results of my blood test came back and I needed to have my baby TODAY! When I asked for more details and that’s when she said I developed a condition called cholestasis. According to the Mayo Clinic, cholestasis is a common liver disease that only occurs during pregnancy. Intense itching is the main symptom of cholestasis of pregnancy. There is no rash. The itching is often worse at night and may be so bothersome that you can’t sleep. If I did not have my baby that day, there could be a chance that he would be stillborn by the time I reached my 40th week and that is a chance that she doesn’t want to have to take.

Caller Are You There?

As soon as I sit down at my desk, I call my parents and then I call Ricco (my baby’s father) to inform them of the news. On a typical day, I can call them and they answer the phone in less than 20 seconds. This morning NO ONE answered the phone. I literally played phone tag with them for about 20 minutes. When my dad finally answered the phone, I said: “I’m having the baby today and yall (referring to mom and dad) need to get on the road right now to make it in time for the delivery”. My parents live 3 hours away from me.

Thirty minutes later, I leave work. As I drive back home I have 1,000,000 questions in my mind. As soon as I get home, I walk upstairs to see Ricco sitting in our home office watching a YouTube video instructing users on how to fix XBOX remote controls. If looks could kill! SMH. LOL. I’m saying what are you doing? He says fixing my XBOX remote, I say I need to have the baby. He says okay, my bag is packed and I placed yours in the car, let’s go. Thank goodness, I packed my hospital bag two weeks ago.  If you would like to know what’s in my hospital bag, click here.

After about two hours of sitting around the house, we finally head to the hospital.

Admitting/Registration

I finally arrived at the hospital. I have to admit, when the registrar asked me for my name and insurance info, I begin to cry, frantically. Ricco had to speak for me and give her all of my information. I was too distraught, nervous and anxious to talk.  We move off to the side and wait for the surgical techs.

The surgical techs arrive and we are escorted to the delivery floor. My room was nice and extremely spacious. In fact it was the room that was showcased during the hospital tour. I meet my day nurse & change into my hospital gown. Get in bed, get my IV drawn and now I sit and wait.

My parents finally arrive and I was ready to have this baby. So I thought.

Taking it Easy…..So Far

Shortly thereafter, the first dose of Misoprostol also known as cytotec is administered. This is a pill softens the cervix allowing the contractions to begin. About an hour later, the nurse informed me that the will baby arrive on the next day and I could not eat anything after 12 midnight.

I was feeling pretty good. Still feeling like my usual self, hadnt had a taste of pain, yet.

Once the Cytotec wore off, I could get out of bed and walk around with the monitor. Mom and I walked up and down the floor for about 35 minutes and then we headed back into the room.

Around 11pm the second dose of Misoprostol also known as cytotec is administered. This. Hurt. Not sure what they did this time around but I was in constant pain ALL NIGHT.

Day 2 – June 29, 2017 

After that second dose of Misoprostol, I was in pain and it was hurting BAD! From a scale of 1 to 10, the pain was a 10. I asked for pain meds and I was given stadol (this was the worse medication that I have EVER had – it made me hallucinate).

I did not sleep well at all, was ready to go home and get in my bed. The contractions were UP and down all night.

Pitocin/Epidural

The next morning, I woke up sore and in a lot of pain from the previous night. I was very uncomfortable. I was in so much pain, I continuously asked for an epidural. The nurses did not want to give me one, however the doctor agreed to have the epidural administered. I did not get that until 1pm.

I received the pitocin at some point (I dont even remember when…LOL). The only thing I could remember was having the epidural administered. Shortly after I got it,  I felt great, at times I forgot that I was pregnant because I did not feel anything.

Later in the evening, the doctor came in and explained how she was going to break my water. Ironically, she broke it during her illustration, so at least she did not have to repeat her self. LOL.

Everything between 4pm and 10pm is a blur. LOL. The epidural was doing its thing and I was catching up on all of the sleep that I missed from the previous evening.

Time to Push

Around 10pm, the nurse checked me and said that I was at 9cm. I was happy and very shocked that I was already at 9cm. An hour later, we started pushing. I felt like, I pushed as hard (off and on) as I could for about 30 minutes. When I was ready to stop pushing, my baby came out.

It’s a Boy

Brayden was born on 06/29/2017 at 11:40 pm. He was 18″ long and weighed 6lbs 2oz. When they laid him on my chest, I was overcome with emotions. I was instantly in love with this little person. Funny thing is when my dad called his name. Brayden he picked his head up, turned it to the side and dropped it back down. I have NEVER seen a 3 min old baby do anything like that. I knew that I had a baby genius on my hands. LOL.

We stayed in the hospital for four nights before heading home. My hospital did not have a nursery, so  Brayden stayed in my room with me the entire time. It would have been nice to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep but we enjoyed the extra help while we could.