The Birth of Reagan told her by her Mama!

My labor was prodromal, so it all started on Monday afternoon February 14th. The contractions were light and short lasting, not very close together. Until Wednesday night around 10:30pm I ended up texting my doula who is also my aunt Mandy to come over for support as things were picking up. I labored for a few hours more at home with the support of her, Nolan and my mom. Finally once my contractions felt intense and were only a few minutes apart we decided to head to our birth center (around 1:30am). Once I got there I was checked and was 5cm (feeling SO encouraged that things were moving along). I had an anterior lip and my baby was also posterior so this made things a lot more difficult. During labor we tried doing sim’s rotations over and over to get her to turn.

Labor was intense, I had extremely strong contractions every 1-2 minutes all lasting a min long, but I felt I was coping well and had amazing support from Nolan and Mandy. The midwives and Mandy suggested getting in the shower to help ease contractions and it was AMAZING and helped a bit. After several more hours (7am) I was checked again and was told I can get in the tub to get ready to push soon. I couldn't believe I was going to meet our baby soon and felt so accomplished for what my body was able to do. I became so emotional and started crying because this was the moment I’ve been waiting so long for! I labored in the tub until I felt the urge to push and then we really began to work. I was going from the tub to the bed, from standing to squatting and doing tug of war (my favorite way to push) trying absolutely everything I could to push my baby down.

It was now 12:30pm the next day (the 17th) I suggested I go to the hospital because in my heart I just knew things weren’t progressing and something was wrong. With everything I had prepared for for months, and all the work I did in those last 24 hours or more I was beyond devastated. I was so determined to have this baby naturally but she was stuck behind that anterior lip and still hadn’t turned. We get to the hospital around 1:30 and I get an epidural. I finally had a chance to get a couple hours of sleep until we were ready to start again.



I get checked and find out from the midwife at the hospital that I was at 9cm which means the birth center had me pushing for 4 hours on an incomplete cervix on top of the anterior lip and posterior position of the baby. Once I was complete we pushed for another 2 hours and again I just knew in my heart that things were not progressing. The midwife at the hospital was absolutely amazing and I’m so thankful for how hard she worked with me. But in the end, a C-section was necessary. We prepared for surgery and at 10:50pm that night we FINALLY got to meet our precious baby Reagan 💕💕 even though my birth plan did not go as I expected I’m so thankful for a healthy baby and for the experience of it all. It was the absolute hardest thing I have ever done in my life and I’m so proud of myself for getting through it all.