hi i’m finally making the time to sit down and write out my birth story with landon! a lot of you guys asked to hear about it, but i also wanted to write it for my own sake – to try and remember as much as possible! if you’ve had a baby before, you know it all becomes a blur very shortly after baby is born!
it really is true what they say – you can go into birth with a plan but let me tell ya…all of my babies have had a totally different plan haha and things almost never went according to plan. but i’m very thankful that all of my births have ended with a healthy baby and healthy mom. so no complaints!
so, here we go. my birth story with landon (and probably way more detail than you wanted to know!).
on jan 11, we were getting ready to go to my mom’s house to celebrate my niece’s birthday with my siblings & their kids. i was 35 weeks pregnant. while we were getting ready to go, i thought about not doing my hair and makeup but for some reason had the thought…”well, if i have a baby tonight, i’d want my hair and makeup done” lol. i just had a feeling landon was coming early.
we went to my mom’s house for the birthday party, and around 6pm…my water broke at my mom’s house. i was 90% sure it was my water because either just felt like this random….large leak of liquid. almost like i wet my pants ha. so i asked my mom to go get me a pad. i was pretty much freaking out right away because i knew baby boy wasn’t term yet.
i called my midwife and told her i was pretty sure my water broke so she suggested we come into the hospital to check things out, because if it was in fact my water, they needed to keep an eye on baby since he was pre-term.
michael and i left my mom’s house, drove home, packed our bags and headed to the hospital. we got there around 8pm on saturday night. (side note – we were the FARTHEST thing from ready for this baby. bags were not packed, house was a wreck, didn’t have baby clothes, his room was far from ready, etc!). i went into triage and they confirmed that it was in fact my water that broke. after that, they admitted me to the hospital and told me we were having this baby tonight! (or…tomorrow lol).
even though my water broke, i wasn’t really having contractions. nothing consistent. at that point it was around 9pm so my midwife told me we could either start pitocin to get things going, or i could just try to sleep and wait it out – but if contractions hadn’t started by 6am then she’d need to start pitocin either way. i know myself and knew i would not be able to sleep regardless. i didn’t want to be wide awake all night and THEN go into labor at 6am the next morning. so i thought, maybe if they give me pitocin now, i’ll have a fast labor / delivery and he’ll be here in the next couple of hours. so, they started me on pitocin.
but let me tell ya, it was not a fast labor haha. i started pitocin around 9pm and contractions picked up pretty much right away. in the beginning i was able to manage the contractions / pain really well. i was breathing through them, moving into alot of different positions, i was in a good headspace. things were moving.
around 1am things started getting extremely painful so i called my doula and asked her to come up. she got there shortly after and helped me through the contractions – she was a lifesaver! she made the room feel so warm and cozy, brought a heating pad for my back, turned on these warm twinkle lights, did hip squeezes during my contractions, and so much more.
probably around 5:30am, i was in so much pain, contractions were on top of each other, and i thought ’surely we have to be close’. i was so exhausted. my midwife checked me and said ‘she’s complete. you’re a 10’.
i couldn’t believe it!!! i’d made it to a 10! i was actually pretty surprised because i didn’t feel that ‘pushy’ feeling yet. but i wasn’t gonna argue lol if they told me i was a 10 i was like great let’s get this baby out.
so we tried a few ‘practice pushes’…and after maybe 15mins i could tell something just wasn’t right. i felt like i wasn’t really able to effectively push. so my midwife checked me again and said ‘okay. you’re actually not complete yet. i’d say you’re at a 9 or 9.5’ and also baby was at station 0 meaning he hadn’t completely dropped yet.
she originally thought i was at a 10 but then said there was still some cervix towards the back / my cervix was slightly tilted. thiiiiis was brutal news at this point in my labor. it was now about 7am, i was so exhausted, in so much pain, and felt like the light at the end of the tunnel just moved much further away.
at this point in my labor, i was so exhausted from being up & laboring all night long (at this point, about 10hrs of active labor). i no longer felt like i was able to breath through the contractions, but instead my body was tensing up and almost shutting down because i was so exhausted. and because of this, i wasn’t really ‘opening up’ / dilating because my body was so tense and so exhausted. i told the midwife i needed the epidural at around 730am.
part of me felt like such a failure because i’d made it to a 9.5 with no epidural, and i was ‘giving up’ now. but there was not a doubt in my mind that this was the right decision – i literally could not keep going because i was so exhausted and in so much pain. so i got my epidural around 730am, my body was able to relax and continue dilating…and landon was born just over an hour later!
i could do an entire separate blog post on the disappointment i felt / feel about getting the epidural when i planned on going unmedicated. but at the same time, i know it was exactly what my body needed. it allowed my body to rest, and i pushed landon out with zero pain / zero issues whatsoever. i think i pushed for maybe 5 mins!
before i got the epidural, at about 6am i was screaming in pain and told michael “I NEED MY MOM. CALL MY MOM” (i wasn’t planning on anyone being in the room with us! but something about that moment…i knew i needed my mom.) so michael called my mom and she ended up being in the room when landon was born which was incredibly special.
it was also such a God thing that my mom was in the room, because as most of you know, Landon was taken to the NICU almost right away and i told michael to stay with landon, and my mom was able to stay with me which was such a God-send.
landon came out around 8:40am on 1/12/25. he was 5 weeks early, but weighed 6lbs 7oz! so i was hoping he would’ve been totally fine and not need the NICU. but his oxygen wasn’t great. we did skin to skin for a few minutes but then they had to take him away to work on his breathing. then they brought him back to me. but then his oxygen levels were below 80 which is when they told me they had to take him to the NICU for further oxygen support. this was simply due to him being born at 35 weeks and having underdeveloped lungs.
i could do an entirely separate blog post on the NICU experience and how broken my heart felt in that moment when they took my baby away. but i’ll save that for another day. what matters is that we are now all home, healthy, together, and so happy and i am so thankful. landon spent 12 days in the nicu which just makes our time at home now, those middle of the night feeds, all of the cuddles, that much more special! and i’m so thankful for all of the doctors and nurses who helped our boy get healthy and strong.
i’m sure i’m leaving so much out haha because it’s been a month now since i had him! wild! so let me know if you guys have any questions or want more info about the birth story. thank y’all so much for being a part of this journey, for your prayers, and all of your support along the way! we love you guys so much!
xo Lauren
