They say nothing can truly prepare you for the day your baby decides to arrive, and looking back at my labor logs, they were absolutely right. My journey to holding our little one wasn’t exactly a straight line. It involved a lot of monitoring, a stubborn 5cm plateau, and a sudden plot twist at the end. Despite all that, our labor and delivery story is definitely what I want to keep forever.
If you’re a mama-to-be reading this, or just here for the ride, here is exactly how those intense, life-changing days unfolded.
The Ripe Weeks & The Heavy Waiting
By the time June 29 rolled around, I was exactly 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant.
As my OB-GYN and I had discussed before, the 38th and 39th weeks are the “ripe weeks”—the absolute ideal window to deliver. Honestly, my body was feeling it. During those final days, the weight of the baby felt incredibly heavy, and I was constantly feeling so much intense pressure down in my pelvic area. Walking, sitting, sleeping—everything was a beautiful, exhausting chore.
Two days prior, during our clinic checkup on June 27, my OB did an Internal Examination (IE) and confirmed I was already 1 cm dilated. We knew the countdown had officially begun.
June 29: The Routine Check That Changed Everything
Our story truly starts on June 29. We were advised to get a Biophysical Score (BPS) scan to make sure everything was still looking good with the baby, or to see if we finally had a reason to induce labor. The results came back with a perfect score of 8/8! Even with the great news, our OB advised us to head straight to the hospital to run a Non-Stress Test (NST), just to be absolutely sure.
While the monitor showed contractions were about 15 minutes apart and the baby was doing perfectly fine, my blood pressure had other plans. It clocked in at a high 150/128.
After a Contraction Stress Test (which involved 20 minutes of breast massaging to see how the baby would respond under stress—thankfully, the result was negative, which is great!), my OB made the call. Because of the high BP spikes, we were looking at potential preeclampsia rather than just white-coat hypertension.
We agreed it was time to induce.
By 3:49 PM, I was transferred from the common labor room to the delivery room. The team administered 5ml of prostaglandin gel to jumpstart the process. It felt exactly like getting a Pap smear—a quick speculum exam, the gel was applied, and then the waiting game began.
Within an hour of being moved to the Lamaze room, things escalated fast. By 4:30 PM, my contractions hit hard—every 3 minutes, with the pain scaling up to a solid 7 or 8 out of 10. I was put on oxygen, and the team drew blood and collected urine samples to officially screen for preeclampsia.
By 9:56 PM, I was 3cm dilated.
June 30: The 5cm Plateau & Navigating the Spikes
Just past midnight on June 30, things seemed to be moving beautifully. I hit 5cm dilated at 12:18 AM.
Knowing I had a long way to go, I opted for comfort. My epidural went in at 1:15 AM, bringing some much-needed relief. To help things along, the medical team gave me antibiotics, Methyldopa for my blood pressure, and 4 Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) capsules to help soften my cervix.
But then, everything paused.
For hours, my body stubbornly stayed at 5cm.
By 5:40 AM, the baby was getting a little too comfortable and sleepy. The nurses actually had to use a bell-ringing technique on my belly for about 30 minutes to wake the baby up and get that little heart rate safely back above 150 bpm. Right around that time, my body spiked a fever of 38.6°C.
Between doses of Paracetamol for the fever, another round of EPO capsules, and regular epidural top-ups, we just kept pushing through.
At 9:42 AM, a major milestone: my water broke naturally.
Even though an internal exam at 11:38 AM showed my cervix was getting thinner, the dilation was still holding at 5cm. They gave me Buscopan to help relax the muscles, which came with the wild side effect of heart palpitations. Indeed, our labor and delivery story is such a rollercoaster.
The Final Plot Twist: Welcome to the World
By the afternoon, the hours began to blur. Epidural top-ups, antibiotic rounds, and tracking my temperature fluctuations became the rhythm of the room.
At 5:13 PM, my blood pressure spiked again to 146/89.
After nearly 28 hours of monitoring, laboring, and staying strong at 5cm, our medical team decided that the safest, best route for both me and the baby was an emergency Cesarean section (CS).
At 6:15 PM, I was rolled into the operating room.
Just seven minutes later, at 6:22 PM, the room filled with the most beautiful sound in the world – our baby’s first cry. He’s finally here.
Reflection: Looking Back
By July 1, as I rested in recovery with my blood pressure safely back down to 110/80, I finally had time to process everything.
Birth rarely goes according to a strict script. I might have envisioned a different birth plan initially, but looking at my husband, looking at our healthy baby, and realizing what my body endured to bring this little miracle into the world? I have never felt more proud of our labor and delivery story.
Our next chapter officially begins now!
