I just wanted to share my birth story because I love reading everyone else's. It's been a little over a month now since my baby was born, but I haven't had much time to write the story.

Anyways, it started on 4/1/17. I was supposed to be induced the following day at 8pm because I was 41 weeks so I'm so glad she decided to come out on her own right in the nick of time! The whole day was just a normal day where I ran errands with my husband, we had a nice lunch and then I made a good dinner. Then at about 7:30pm I started having some contractions (I previously had not had any contractions, not even Braxton hicks). I started tracking the contractions and was telling my husband this may be it. By about 10:30pm they were coming frequently about 5 min apart so we went grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital.

We got admitted at I was already at about 4cm. I was so happy and thought this would go quickly and we may have an April fools baby. They kept checking me and everything was progressing great. I labored on an exercise ball, on my hands and knees, laying in bed and even on the toilet. I used deep breathing and kept my eyes shut for most of my labor. I got to 9 1/2 centimeters sometime in the middle of the night, but that's when it stalled. My baby was sunny side up and was caught on a lip of my cervix. The Dr. kept trying to push the cervix past her head so she could come down more but it wasn't working (that was super painful though!). After 16 hours of labor with no pain meds or anything and my labor just being stuck I opted to get some pain meds. They gave me fentanyl which just slightly dulled the pain for about 40min. Then they told me that I could either get an epidural and see if that would relax me and allow my baby to turn and come down more or I might have to have a c section. I decided to get an epidural. Getting the epidural wasn't bad except I had a hard time staying still while my contractions kept coming. After getting the epidural I felt so much better. I could see that I was having contractions on that monitor but barely felt a thing! Finally after several more hours they checked me again and my baby had turned and come down! Then it was time to push. I had a hard time pushing at first because ut seriously feels like you're pushing to poop and my body didn't want to do that in the bed lol. My husband (the only person in the room besides the Dr and nurses) was so helpful during the pushing. He held my leg and counted during my pushes. They put a mirror so I could see as I was pushing and finally after 3 hours of pushing baby Elizabeth was born on 4/2/17 @ 5:51pm weighing 7lbs 6.5oz and 20.5 inches long! My total labor and delivery was 22 hours and didn't go exactly as planned. I had wanted to have a natural birth, but I feel confident that next time if the baby is facing the right way I will be able to do it without meds. But obviously the most important thing is that my baby was healthy!

What surprised me most was how I was able to handle the pain better than I thought I would, how my Dr wasn't as present as I thought she would be (She answered a phone call in the middle of me pushing), how much it hurts when they push on your stomach to make your uterus contract after delivery, how awesome all the nurses were, and how helpful my husband's support was.

Thanks for reading that long story! :)