Prepping for labor is a mental rollercoaster. After my 36 hour labor experience with Clover, it was hard not to psych myself out. Still, I was encouraged that this time around would be easier since my cervical scar tissue issue was likely cleared up. But then, I found out Maple was presenting posterior at my 36 week U/S and my confidence went down the drain again. PSA: don’t go down the Google rabbit hole. I read all sorts of stories about horrible back labor, long labors and emergency C-sections from posterior babes. Ehhhhh! I spent the last 4 weeks of pregnancy doing spinning babies exercises, getting prenatal chiroprator adjustments and getting my mind right. I was 99% sure Maple had turned the right way. Now I just had to wait…

Waiting for labor to start is always so hard for me so when my due date came and my babe was still cozy, I started getting antsy. But by that night, things started to change and rather QUICKLY!

We had just put the kiddos to bed and I sat down to fold some laundry and veg out to some HGTV. I felt my first contraction at 8:15pm. Then another 8 minutes later. Then another. I didn’t say anything to Joe who was sitting next to me because I didn’t want to freak him out lol. But after 5 or 6 time-able contractions, I thought I should probably let him in on what was going on. I still didn’t think it was “the real thing”, but Joe insisted that we finish packing the hospital bag and text my mom just in case. Since the contractions were still mild, I thought it best that I lay down and get as much sleep as possible in case they started to pick up. I was able to be in and out of sleep until around 11pm, still having consistent contractions. By midnight, they were feeling more intense and coming every 2-3 minutes. Joe and my mom said we should probably head to the hospital but I was hesitant. With Clover, my contractions had been this close together when we headed to the hospital but I ended up only being 1 cm dilated and got sent home. I really didn’t want to get sent home this time but I decided better safe than sorry.

The car ride over, the contractions got INTENSE. Thankfully it was only a 5 minute drive because I was hating not being able to move through my contractions. Like something out of a movie, we ended up parking in the wrong area and had to walk all the way around to the main entrance, me stopping every 2 minutes to breathe through contractions. We finally made it into triage around 12:30am and boy was I feeling these! After what felt like a million questions (why do they ask laboring mamas SO many questions?!), they finally checked me. To my surprise, I was 5cm dilated/100% effaced! They told me, if I wanted an epidural, we would have to get that going NOW and couldn’t guarantee that I would even get one in time. The pain was so strong I couldn’t really talk, so Joe admittedly said YES, she wants one. I didn’t disagree! Enter the worse IV nurse ever haha. She failed getting an IV in me twice, blowing out my vein. I joke that this was the worst part of the labor being stuck on the triage table having to stay still while getting poked left and right. Finally they sent in a different nurse and she was able to get the IV going and we were off to my delivery room around 2/2:30am. I was now 7-8cm dilated and waiting for the anesthesiologist. I remember asking the nurse “You promise he’s coming soon?!” Once I had the epidural, my body was finally able to relax and kept on progressing. This was such a breath of fresh air since I needed pitocin with Clover to get strong enough contractions. By 4am, I was 9cm dilated. Our birth photographer arrived at 4:42am just in time for my midwife to let me know that I was complete and could start pushing if I wanted. I was super nervous since it took almost 2 hrs to push Clover out. This time? 3 contractions/pushes in 7 minutes time and Maple came sliding out sunny side up at 5:02am. I could not believe how fast everything went!

Maple has been a sweet kiss from heaven. She’s calm, alert, a great nurser & sleeper and cute as they come. Thank you Lord for so perfectly forming our family in your Divine timing.