I never got around to writing this so here it is!

August 22 - Due date

August 24 - 40 week appointment with my midwife, she checks me and no change, still 0cm

August 30 - 41 week appointment, checks me and I am just a finger tip dilated. Since she won't let me go past 42 weeks she schedules an induction for September 4th... I get home and cry because I am so scared of being induced and I would also not be able to birth at the birthing center. That evening I lose a little bit of my mucus plug and am getting irregular contractions.

September 1 - Contractions disappear by morning but later in the day I notice some blood when I go to the bathroom. At about 9pm I start getting some mildly painful contractions, I sleep until about 11 when they wake me up but they are still about 11 minutes apart. I try to sleep but the contractions are painful enough that they prevent me from sleeping.

September 2 - By 6am the contractions are about 8 mins apart and lasting a minute. The pain is increasing and by 10am they are 4 minutes apart and my husband calls the midwife and we go to the birth center to get checked. She checks me and I am only a 3 so she sends me home. About half an hour after we arrive home I hear a loud 'pop' and my waters leak onto the floor. We call the midwife again and she said to come in about an hour and she would start my antibiotics (I was GBS positive).

I went in to the birth center about 1pm and just before I got my antibiotic hooked up I heard another popping sound and more amniotic fluid gushed out.

4pm - only 4cm, I am managing the pain really well at this point but have been throwing up so the midwife gives me an IV drip to stay hydrated.

8pm - still 4cm and I am getting tired, midwife gives us our options that we could go to the hospital to get pitocin and epidural or wait it out a couple of hours, I am exhausted but we decide to wait a bit longer

11pm - I am still stuck at 4cm, midwife calls the hospital to get a bed for me as it's been a long hard 4cm and she says I should get the epidural...but they are full right now so they would call in a couple of hours when a bed was free in labor and delivery. Midwife decides to give me a shot of a medication to make me drowsy so I could rest. I actually found it awful as I was so sleepy that I would fall asleep in between contractions and then be woken up by them.

1am - I progressed to a 6...and still no beds open at the hospital. Midwife says okay, we can go to a different hospital or you can try the tub since you have started progressing. So of course I choose the tub and it is amazing! The pain relief is unreal...oh and my husband has been amazing this whole time, reminding me to breathe and helping me through the contractions.

3:30am - I get out of the tub and she checks me and I am at a 10! Time to start pushing! My husband tells me he can see our baby's dark hair (we didn't know the gender) and I push until 5:30am when the midwife notices the baby's heart rate spiking.

5:30am - As soon as she sees that baby is in distress she calls hospital to tell them we are on our way but they are full still so we get in the car to go to the other hospital and she tells me not to push and tells my husband who is driving, that if I say the baby is coming to pull over and honk the horn at her (driving in front of us). We start driving and the hospital calls her back...a bed has opened up!

6:45am - After a 40 minute car ride in the dark, in the pouring rain by the way we arrive at the hospital and I am wheeled straight into the delivery room. I am hooked up to an IV and start pushing (that car ride helped things along) and our baby GIRL Alessandra Rose is born at 7:24am on September 3rd. Baby goes straight on my chest but then has to be taken for a few minutes to get her breathing. Midwife delivers placenta and stitches me up (only a few tiny tears and a graze)

7:45 - Breastfed Alessandra and find out she weighs 7lbs 15oz and 22 inches long (her head was a bit cone shaped from being stuck in the birth canal so she later shrunk to 21 inches). I was up and walking half an hour after she was born.