My birth story: We didn’t find out our baby’s gender until birth

We waited nine long months to find out the sex of our baby. Yes, we actually did wait! We did not have a gender reveal party or do a big gender reveal on social media. We wanted to do something different—and for us, it was the best thing we could have done.

When I was 39 weeks and three days along, my cervical exam at my prenatal appointment revealed that I was 1 1/2 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. My doctor did a membrane sweep to try to help get me into labor. I went home after my appointment and started walking and rocking on my yoga ball to help encourage labor, all while our dog Dixie was right by my side. I even took her by the paws and did squats with her for a few minutes—my silly dog.

Then labor started

My husband returned from work and we ate dinner. I was still not having contractions, so I went back on my yoga ball until bedtime. As we were making the bed to crawl into it, I started getting cramps and small contractions, which were 20 to 25 minutes apart at first. I went on my yoga ball for what felt like the one-hundredth time that day.

I called the OB nurse who instructed me to come into the hospital once my contractions were a couple minutes apart. But my mom had fast labors, and I was nervous, so I decided not to wait that long.

I spent a little more time on my yoga ball and then felt the urge to urinate. I went to the bathroom and saw that I had bloody show. I was so anxious; I walked right into our room, turned on the light, woke up my husband and told him that we had to go to the hospital.

I have never seen my husband get up so fast in my life. He started the car and we were on our way to the hospital.

When we arrived, my contractions were roughly five to eight minutes apart. The OB nurse did a cervical exam, and I was 4 1/2 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced! This was really happening.

I decided to get an epidural, but had to wait an hour to get it—that was a tough hour. We called the family members we needed to and waited. At 8 am, and my doctor checked my cervix— I was 9 centimeters dilated, and she could easily feel the baby’s head. But my water was still intact, so she broke my water.

I remember looking at my husband and I instantly started crying, and so did he. I was anxious, excited, nervous and overwhelmed.

My baby was born

My doctor came back into the room shortly after breaking my water—it was time to push. I pushed for two hours and nine minutes, as my husband watched the whole birth of our beautiful baby. My husband kept saying, “Oh my gosh,”—he was just as overwhelmed as I was.

Our child’s head was out, and after one more push, they guided the baby out and right onto my chest. Everyone kept saying, “What is the baby?” Finally, my husband looked at our child and announced to the room, “It’s a boy!”

We had a healthy baby boy.

We instantly started bawling, and I couldn’t talk or move or anything. I was so excited, over the moon, and so in love with our son.

Colt Lee Pedersen was born at 12:49 May 16th, 2019. He weighed 6 pounds and 13.7 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Waiting to find out the gender of our baby was an emotional, overwhelming and excellent bonding experience for me, and my husband and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.