(Long story) Yesterday I gave birth to my beautiful baba Theo 💙 born at 39 weeks exactly. My first baby i got induced at 39 weeks and she was born via emergency c section due to her head not descending down. She’s 18 months old. From 37+5 weeks which was a Friday I was getting period cramps, mostly at night time on and off, then on the following Friday I had my bloody show which was bright red, then after then I was losing bits of my mucous plug that day and the next day. Saturday night I started getting light contractions at around 7pm. Went to bed like normal 11 / 12ish, was having the contractions every 10 - 20 mins but managed get a couple of hours sleep. Woke up at 3 and couldn’t fall back asleep after then so I started timing my contractions again which were never more than 5 mins apart. Decided to have a bath at 6am, the pains felt like bad period pains at this point but weren’t too bad. Contractions started getting between 3 and 5 minutes apart so I called the hospital around 7:30 / 8 to see what they said, and she said to try and stay at home as long as possible to be more comfortable unless my waters break or I can’t stand the pain anymore. So I went back to bed to try to relax as much as possible, an hour later I was starting to get really uncomfortable with them as they were getting quite strong, then at 9am I had a contraction and half way through it my water broke! So I called and off to the hospital we went, only 10 mins away if that. My pains were getting a lot stronger when I got to the hospital so I was thinking hopefully things will move along a bit faster since it’s my second baby, hahahaha nope! I was only 2cm when she checked me, omg I was devastated!! So I wasn’t even in ‘active labour’ yet even though I was in so much pain! It was horrible! They gave me some co-codamol to try and help but it didn’t do anything. Luckily I got transferred to a room because I was on a ward at this point so I could have a bath to try and help the pain, if there wasn’t a room free I might have been sent home and I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done because at this point I was in agony, the contractions were soooo strong and I wasn’t allowed even gas and air because I wasn’t in active labour, I honestly didn’t know how I was gonna cope, it was the worse pain I’ve ever felt, with my first since I got induced I had a epidural when I needed it since you don’t have to wait till you’re over 4cm like you do when you go in to labour naturally. No position eased the pain, the water didn’t help, if my boyfriend spoke during a contraction I couldn’t even listen or breathe through them, I was terrified every time I felt another contraction coming because I just couldn’t deal with the pain, at one point I seriously considered just putting my head under the bath water 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ pain makes you crazy lol. The midwife said even when I made it to 4cm I might not be allowed an epidural since they wanted me to be as natural as possible to keep an eye on my scar, she said some anesthesiologist refuse to do epidurals on vbac’s, and that thought terrified the hell out of me, how was I gonna carry on like this?! I genuinely didn’t think I was gonna be able to get through this pain. About 45 mins after being in the bath I begged the midwife for some pain relief to take the edge off, so they said I can have some pethidine. She checked me beforehand and said I was 4cm and had a really stretchy cervix and broke the rest of my waters, I was getting contractions back to back sometimes 3 in a row and like a minute apart if I did get a break, so she said she’ll see what she could do about an epidural and I finally got one at 2pm, only 4 1/2 hours after getting the hospital I know but I really needed it, sooo bad!! I don’t know how women can do it without it. This was when the pressure started, the pain had gone but omg the pressure to push was insane, I’ve never felt anything like it, which I see now why my first birth didn’t work out right, I never got that urge to push even when I was 10cm. But with this one it was the most hardest thing ever trying to go against your own body, all I kept saying was I can’t deal with this pressure, it was so weird how urgent it felt, I just needed to push it away! But I had to wait til I was ready, and everything seemed to be progressing really well. It was just before 5 that I could finally start pushing. She said the doctor wanted me to try pushing for an hour and if things weren’t progressing well after then they would possibly intervene and either take me to theatre or use extra help. He was definitely ready since I was having that urge to push for all those hours, she could feel his head really low down which was a good sign! So I pushed for an hour and he was so close to coming out, the doctor came and said he wanted to help with a vacuum, so after a few more contractions and a little cut to help his head out, he was finally here!! I was so glad I got to have a natural birth this time. I’d say the only bad thing about coming in to labour naturally was the fact that I couldn’t have pain relief, it was honestly the hardest thing ever getting through those pains, but I’m glad he’s here and healthy 😊💙