I decided it was time to go to Labor & Delivery at 37 weeks & 5 days pregnant to get checked on. Something didn’t feel right, I’m extremely in tune with my body and I just knew there was some wrong. Swollen feet, face and hands are all characterized as “normal” symptoms towards the end of your pregnancy. Well, a blood pressure reading of 192/120 is not normal and could actually put someone into a stroke, heart attack, seizure and so much more. The sudden realization that I had developed severe preeclampsia aka “The silent killer” at 37 weeks had me in shock as I didn’t have any other obvious symptoms other than the swelling. My induction started around midnight, it started off well, I was able to laugh and breathe through each contraction. Six hours go by and I finally dilated to a 1, I felt like it was going to take days at that rate. My biggest want for my delivery no matter what happened was to have a vaginal delivery. I expressed my wants and need to each person on the staff and they made sure they could do what they do to make sure I was able to fulfill just that. We moved onto the next step of my induction and it took about an additional 7 hours to get to a 3… a 3!!! Here we are about 13 hours into the induction, I sat on my birthing ball. I sat on the toilet to labor and I used each inch of my room to my ability to work through each contraction. 24 hours of laboring go by with just a pill and foley bulb. I needed a break, I didn’t sleep. I got into the bed where I decided it was time to give myself that much deserved break. As I laid there breathing and meditating by the power of god my water broke on its own. Once I felt that gush I knew we were getting closer to meeting our baby girl earth side and it had to happen at least within the next 48 hours. The nurses were so impressed by how far I got dilated on my own. It’s now day 2 of my induction. It was time to start a small dose of Pitocin, mind you I requested that we started very minimal to allow my body to do its own work. Once that Pitocin set in it was a wild ride. The waves were having me moaning loud and firm. I threw up numerous times, I started to not feel myself in my body. The outer body experience began. I completely blacked out for HOURS not realizing what my body was actually doing. We’re finally about 36 hours into this induction, nurses are extremely happy and impressed with my progress. I was finally dilated to a 7, I knew it was going to be any hour now we made it to a 10… September 18th 5:45 pm I knew it was time, the urge to push was completely overwhelming and took over my mind and body. All I could think about was hearing baby girl cry for the first time, that saved me. At this point I still had not slept, I had not eaten since before we left for the hospital ( I enjoyed myself some chikfila ). On a liquid diet, fluids pumping through me and tons and tons of magnesium which basically makes you feel like you have a forced flu, my body was feeling so weak. I was entering the final transition to birthing baby. I completely enter my own world canceling everything out around me. My face was SO puffy, my legs were SO swollen I couldn’t see my feet. I didn’t have the energy to cry or be upset by my appearance, I was full force at this point, nothing else mattered. Nurse comes in and checks and confirms it’s some to push this baby out! Finally at a 10… Hours and Days 45 hours to be exact, to get to this exact moment I dreamt of my whole life. My amazing nurse had me do a few practice pushes, after my first push she realized I wasn’t playing around, I knew exactly what to do and baby would be out within the next hour. Typically a first time mom takes much less time to push their baby out. She instantly called in the doctor and team. Doctor was so impressed with my determination the whole time I had been in that room. Little did we know we would meet our baby girl Penny in 45 mins total pushing. She came at 6:35 pm on September 18th.