On june 6th at 40 W 4 D, i woke up at 4 am to some very mild period like contractions, I wasn’t sure if it was the real deal or braxton hicks so i timed them and they were roughly 10-15 mins apart until 9 am. Then they disappeared leaving me feeling disappointed considering I just had the “membrane sweep, induction, NST testing / ultrasound” talk with my midwife and many eager folks texting me for updates that I didn’t have, daily.

The next morning June 7th at 40 W 5 D, I woke up at 3 am with contractions again, more intense than the morning before, and closer together 5-10 mins. I woke jimmy up around 6:30 and told him it’s go time. We packed up the car and headed to my parents house to early labor as long as possible since it was closer to our hospital and my sister (and doula!) could come help me manage the pain. We went for a walk, put on some labor meditation, ate lunch, did some hip circles on my ball, and by 2 pm we decided we should head to the hospital before things got too intense since it was a 40 minute drive, praying I would be dilated enough to get admitted. Luckily, I was 4 cm dilated! By 6 pm I was 6 cm. The pain was starting to get very intense, making me doubt if I could have the unmedicated birth I wanted, so I started nitrous oxide since I knew it would leave my system fast if I didn’t like it. By 8 pm I was 7 cm dialed. I labored with very painful back labor until midnight before getting checked again. 4 hours later… and there was no change. The contractions were too painful for me to relax my body through, I spent hours in the tub, and now running on 21 hours of labor with no sleep. I was so exhausted at that point I was sobbing, doubting my entire existence, and falling asleep snoring between 6 minute contractions. I knew I couldn’t sustain that for much longer, so I made the hard decision of throwing my birth plan out the window, stop letting my thoughts scare me, and caved for the epidural thinking it would at least let me rest for a bit, relax my body enough to progress away and hopefully be ready to push any hour after that. Boy was I wrong.

By 8 am, I was still 7 cm, “maybe” 8. I was 80% effaced, just lost my mucus plug, my waters were bulging but still never broke. Thinking that was what was holding my body back, we decided to have the doctor break my waters.

at 8:15 the doctor broke my water and said I was more like a 8-9 cm dilated. Hopeful once my water broke, I would be ready to push any minute. There was also a lot of meconium in my water.

An hour goes by, and at 9:15… from breaking my water I actually backtracked back to a 6-7. I was really starting to feel discouraged at this point.. 30 hours in and still a 7?! At this point, we decided to start on pitocin to get things moving.

By 1 pm, I finally progressed to 8 cm, and by 3 pm to a 9! The OB on call was starting to breathe down my midwives throat with talks of a C-section since I had been in labor for so long even thought I was finally starting to progress.. and that’s when I knew I could do this. I had a point to prove. We started on some labor meditation so I could let my body relax through each contraction to encourage progression and by 5:15 pm I felt like my body wanted to start pushing. I was still 9 cm with a cervical lip but I just let my body push on its own with each contraction and by the next check, she could feel babies head! I pushed on my side while pulling the rebozo from my sister, and by 6:52 PM our sweet baby girl was born! Jimmy was able to help pull her out of me, announce we have a girl, and cut her cord. 40 hours total of labor and roughly an hour and a half of pushing. It was the hardest thing i’ve ever done and biggest feeling of relief I can’t even describe.

Born at 41 weeks exactly on 6/8/24. Weighing 8 lbs 4 oz. 20 3/4 inches long. Our baby girl Phoebe Eleanor Mullen 🎀