I shared the birth story of my other son and wanted to share Leon’s birth story as well. Nick and I decided to find out the gender of our second child. I have no idea why I felt that I needed to know this time around but I was adamant about it. It must have been my need to plan as much as possible haha.

Similar to my last pregnancy, I had a lot of back pain and went off of work early. I had been off for 3.5 weeks and started having some cramping on Wednesday. I had taken Chuck for a walk to see if that would “loosen” things up! The cramping didn’t last long so I just thought it was a fluke.

The following day, the three of us took Chuck for another walk. When I arrived home I started having more cramping and pain. After I put Olin to bed, I took a Tylenol and bounced on my exercise ball while watching more Hallmark Christmas movies. I told Nick to go to bed around 10pm because we would likely be going to the hospital later that night.

By midnight, things started to settle down a bit more and I was able to fall asleep on the couch.

It was now Friday and all day I was having sporadic cramping but nothing as bad as the night before. By 3:30pm, things were starting to get more uncomfortable so I call my mom and asked her to come over. Nick was on his way home from work and I knew that things were ramping up!

We arrived to the hospital around 5pm and in pure Nicole fashion, I started puking immediately. It was like my body knew I was at the hospital and that it was okay to let my body go. When the nurse checks my cervix at 5pm, I’m in active labor and 5cm dilated.

The nurse asked me what my plan was for medication and I said that an epidural would be lovely. The doctor wouldn’t do an epidural until blood work was complete. I’m not entirely sure what she was checking for but it took awhile before the nurses were able to get my vein. I’m not sure if it took too long, but I never did get my blessed epidural.

I moved into the birthing room, and things started to go QUICKLY. My friend describes being in labor the best way, “it’s like watching a wild horse trying to be tamed” hahaha! That is exactly how I felt. Between trying to breath through the fucking insane contractions, I was either puking or peeing myself. Try not to picture any of that because it was NOT pretty! The poor woman arriving for her section saw a bit more than I think she intended to that evening.

I had been talking to my nurse about her last birth and she had told me that when she arrived she was already 7cm dilated and there wasn’t any time for an epidural.

When I got checked and was told I was 7cm dilated. I looked at her with pure panic in my eyes, and she said “you may still be able to get it.” (In the sweetest voice ever!). As she was reading the panic in my eyes, I was reading the lies in hers and knew at that point that the doctor wasn’t coming to give me the epidural.

It was then that I looked at the clock and thought “Ok, but what if I am one of those women who have to push for hours? I can’t do that. This pain is way too fucking much”. I can’t confirm nor deny those words didn’t come out of my mouth, it’s all a bit of a blur.

I told the nurses that I felt like I had to push. They checked me again and then broke my water because it still hadn’t broke on its own.

During my last delivery, I really struggled holding my knees up AND push, so I requested the bar that you put your feet on. At this point, I think there were 5 nurses in with me and still no doctor. He was in the operating room next door, delivering the other women’s baby. One nurse went running for him and I just kept pushing. He basically dove into the room to catch my baby boy! It was almost instant relief after he came out.

I had no idea what was like to be able to hold your baby while they get you cleaned and stitched up. I said to the nurse “This is 1000 times better than watching your baby be wheeled out in an incubator!” Its like I instantly forgot about what I just went through.

Leon Albert Dennis was born Dec.4th at 8:03pm weighing 8lbs 6 oz. This last year has been insanely busy, but I would not have had it any other way! He lights us up <3

If you want to read about my son Olin’s Birth Story just click on the link.