Labor did NOT go as planned! My baby boy had been breech since at least 35 weeks (although I'm sure he's been breech this whole time), so I was doing everything possible to get him to flip around because I wanted an unmedicated vaginal delivery. I've always wanted to experience birth for what it is, and to feel that empowerment and connection to my body. I had hired a doula to help me achieve my natural birth and had prepared myself as well as I could! Once I found out he was breech, I began seeing a chiropractor for the Webster method and acupuncture. I also tried several things on spinningbabies.com. At our 36 week appointment, he was still breech, but then it's practitioner thought he may be transverse so I began to have hope that he was turning! I continued to do the stretches and acupuncture. At 36 weeks 4 days, I woke up a few times throughout the night from some cramping. It felt like menstural cramps. When I woke up for the day and went to the bathroom, I noticed I lost my mucus plug. I figured this was the beginning of labor, but knew that it could also last even a few weeks like this, so I started to keep track of the contractions I was having. They were really mild, only lasting 30 seconds or so. They were spread apart anywhere from 5 minutes to 25 minutes. I went about my day as usual and my husband and I decided to go out to dinner. During dinner, they really began to pick up on consistency. I was logging them about 5 minutes apart, although they were still only 30-40 seconds long. I called the on-call OB Doctor to see if I should go in and she recommended that I do just to see where things were at. I went into OBED around 8:00 at night. They tracked my contractions and the baby's heart. Turns out they were only 8 minutes apart but were lasting about a minute. I figured we'd be going home but the doctor wanted to check my cervix and the baby's position first. Turns out I was at 4 cm and 90%, and the baby was still very much breech. He said I'd be having a c section and that they'd go ahead and prep me. Whoa! Everything happened so fast. We let the doula know what was happening and she didn't end up being needed (bummer). By the time they were telling me this plan, it was 10:00 at night. I asked if he would be born that night or technically the next day. They said, "Oh you'll have a baby tonight." I started to feel really overwhelmed! All of a sudden I felt like I needed more time, but i didn't have it. As they prepped me for a c-section, I began shaking uncontrollably. I think it was nerves. I was really terrified of the spinal. It wasn't too bad, but I still couldn't stop shaking. They began with a numbing needle into my spine that made me jump from the pain. It was a very harsh pin. Then the spinal didn't really hurt all that bad and I was numb within minutes. My husband wasn't allowed to be in there during the spinal for some reason, so after I had that done, they let him come back to the room. They strapped down my hands so that I wouldn't "reach down and try and help the doctor"! That was really strange. And still I was shaking uncontrollably. I couldn't feel a thing, but I could tell they were doing SOMETHING. I felt pressure and pulling. After the longest few minutes, I finally heard my baby boy cry and I knew he was out! I couldn't see him but my husband could. While I was waiting to see him, I started to feel really nauseous and ended up throwing up. They did all their stuff and after probably 15 of the longest minutes ever, my husband got to hold him and bring him close to me. It was such an amazing experience, seeing him for the first time. As it turns out, the reason why he was breech and wouldn't turn is because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck three times and one time around his arm! The doctor said any time he would move his arm, it would tighten around his neck. Poor thing!! I'm so thankful my body went into early labor to protect anything horrible happening to my baby boy. He's late pre-term, but didn't have to spend any time in NICU. He's been a trooper and is passing all his tests! Plus he's such a cutie weighing only 5 lbs and 18 inches long. Recovery has been really rough with lots of swelling, pain, nausea, and exhaustion. But when I hold that baby boy, I'm just so thankful. I'm sad it didn't go the way I envisioned it going, but I'll work toward recovery and feeling like my old self again!