Background info: This was my second birth, with my first I wanted all a natural birth and actually had an epidural and after 5 hours of pushing and then ended in a c-section. I had tried my best to prepare for this one with HypnoBirthing practice since I wanted a VBAC with the second.

Here it goes: The morning of 38 weeks and 1 day I started the day pretty exhausted, which was abnormal for me. The night before I had mild irregular contractions, but nothing noteworthy. Later that night around 3am, I started to have regular contractions that were between 5-7 minutes apart. Earlier that week my doctor said I was 4cm dilated and that if contractions got between 5 and 7 minutes to just come in, so we ended arriving at the hospital around 6am that morning. When we got there they checked me again and said I was at 5cm. So far all of the contractions had been very mild, I didn’t have to even breathe through them. So they admitted me and then the waiting began. Since I was an attempted VBac they didn’t let me eat anything, which was difficult on my energy level and mood. Luckily I had snagged some food from home and eaten a bit before they made the no food call. The contractions didn’t get any worse and continued throughout the day. Around 3pm after having checked me she noted I was at 6cm, but that they would like to get things rolling and wanted me to thinking about them breaking the waters. My doctor left after that to go back to clinic and was coming back around 5:30pm. By the time she was back I was so tired and hungry of not having any real food that we agreed for her to break waters...so she ruptured them at 6pm. Things were still pretty manageable for the next 20-30 minutes, but got progressively more intense. By 7pm I was moaning through the contractions and felt a need to push. She checked me and I was at 10cm. So I pushed for an hour and baby was out just after 8pm. I was shocked that it worked and I made it through it all naturally. I kept thinking they were going to tell me it wasn’t working and prep me for a c-section, but they continued to prep for baby with each push and now I have this little beauty, Hazel Columbia. She was 20 inches and 8.1lbs. We absolutely adore her 💕