<\/a><\/p>\n

October\u2019s PhenomeMOMs have been such an inspiration! From triumphs<\/a> over the NICU, to dealing<\/a> with loss, turning pain into purpose<\/a>, and finding the humor<\/a> in it all, these extraordinary moms have shown us all what it means to be phenomenal in motherhood.<\/p>\n

I was motivated by the PhenomeMOMs and\u00a0\u00a0last week\u2019s PheneomeMOM Valerie harassed<\/del> convinced me to share my own story.\u00a0This is the first time I\u2019ve shared it\u00a0with all the details in such an open space, and a small part of me is terrified. I\u2019ve got butterflies in my stomach, and my heart is beating really fast right now\u2026 but I knew I\u2019d have to share this one day. I\u2019m hoping that as I share my story\u2013openly and honestly\u2013 you\u2019ll understand why I felt such a strong desire to start Mymommyvents.<\/p>\n[line]\n

I\u2019ve always been kind of a Type A personality. I always have a detailed plan, with deadlines and notes and highlighted portions\u2026I\u2019ve been told that I\u2019m super organized and I show grace under pressure. The birth of my first son would change all of that.<\/p>\n

My son was born on May 10th, a full month before his due date. Goodbye, detailed plan<\/em>. It had been a pretty easy pregnancy, with no morning sickness or crazy cravings at 3am (although I was a fiend for bread. Did you know you Red Lobster does takeout? You can get a bag of biscuits at the little window. Not that I did that or anything. I didn\u2019t eat a bag of biscuits by myself, either). My biggest problem was managing my gestational diabetes, and the fact that I had recently left a temp job, leaving us dependent on DaddyVents\u2019 income.<\/p>\n

My mother went with me\u00a0to a routine doctor\u2019s appointment for a stress test. Because of the diabetes, I had to see my regular obstetrician\u00a0as well as the hospital perinatologist<\/a> on alternating weeks each month. My husband was at work, but I had plans to meet him and my mother in law\u00a0later that day to pick out the bedding for the baby\u2019s crib. We\u2019d spent the weekend walking around Franklin Mills mall in Philly, and my mom and I had gone to National Mom\u2019s Night Out<\/a> at Roosevelt Field on Thursday evening. I felt great, and was excited to start putting my baby\u2019s nursery together.<\/p>\n

The technician pulled my chart from the machine and looked at me strangely. \u201cDo you feel anything?\u201d she asked. I was used to little man dancing around, but nothing felt out of the ordinary. \u201cYou\u2019re having contractions.\u201d I laughed. Yeah, right. This is what the women on TV were screaming about? She told me that every time I had a contraction, the baby\u2019s heart rate dropped. They wanted me to go to the hospital so they could monitor his progress.\u00a0I called DaddyVents to let him know that I was being sent to the hospital, but that he didn\u2019t have to leave work or anything, because I felt totally fine.<\/p>\n

Of course, he ignored me and got to the hospital in record time. The nurses and midwives at the hooked me up to a fetal monitor. \u201cDid you feel that?\u201d a nurse questioned. \u201cFeel what?\u201dI said. \u201cYou just had a huge contraction.\u201d Seriously?<\/p>\n

I honestly hadn\u2019t felt a thing. I was ready to go home and sleep, but the midwife let me know that not only was I not going home, I was 4 centimeters dilated. I immediately began to cry. What about\u00a0my plan? We didn\u2019t even have a car seat! Our baby shower was supposed to be that Saturday. I was more worried about where he would sleep than labor. My husband calmed me down, and we were moved into a delivery room.<\/p>\n

I tried to keep my spirits up. We watched television, and one of our dearest friends, who\u2019s also a doula (and Moms Rising<\/a> associate), came to visit and coach me through the night. Hours later, and still no baby. My OB wanted to start Pitocin in order to speed up my labor, but I refused. I assured him that my son would make his appearance soon and that I was afraid of needles, so I didn\u2019t want an epidural, either. I started to feel the contractions a few hours later.<\/p>\n[line]\n

Want to know what happened next? Click here <\/a>for Part 2 of my birth story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October\u2019s PhenomeMOMs have been such an inspiration! From triumphs over the NICU, to dealing with loss, turning pain into purpose, and finding the humor in it all, these extraordinary moms have shown us all what it means to be phenomenal in motherhood. I was motivated by the PhenomeMOMs and\u00a0\u00a0last week\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89,1],"tags":[82],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/POSTPARTUM-PANIC.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymommyvents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}