Positive ALL NATURAL Birth Story- Surprise Gender 💙❤️💙❤️

Sunday morning I woke up with a mild headache and light nausea, so I took it easy all day. I didn’t notice myself having Braxton Hicks at all, which is interesting because I had them for the last 8-10 weeks. I stayed home from church and when DH got home, we went on a 3.5 mile walk. I took a warm bath, bounced on my yoga ball, and had him massage my ankle pressure points to start labor. We baby danced and I thought I was just having more Braxton Hicks (around 7:30-8:00pm)- but I had a little more sensation than usual. We went to bed at 8pm because Dh hadn’t slept well the night before. My contractions became regular at that point and I began timing them at 8:15. They felt like period cramps and were 6 minutes apart, lasting about 1-1.5 minutes each. I got out of bed and decided to hop in the tub to take the pressure off. They got down to 5 minutes apart by 9:00pm, lasting about a minute each. Because of my distance from our birth center, they told me to check in at 5-1-1. I called at about 9:45, but my midwife told me it could be a while, to take Benadryl, and try to rest. I popped a Benadryl, but laying in bed was so uncomfortable! I dozed between contractions for about 45 min-hour, and then woke dh up with my moaning (11:00pm). At this point, I couldn’t stand being in bed anymore, I took another bath, and he called the midwife and our doula (midnight). The midwife still didn’t believe I was far along, and said to call her when the doula arrived. At this point, my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, lasting 1-1.5 minutes. The doula arrived around 1:00 am and my contractions were 2 minutes apart- she told the midwife that we WILL be coming right now (thank god). We piled in the car and I had a contraction on all fours in the middle of the sidewalk on the way to the car. Dh drove 85mph almost the entire way to the center and (cautiously) ran a couple red lights- we got there in about 20 minutes (it normally takes 45-75 minutes!)  I was in transition in the car, but didn’t realize it. I had some really painful contractions and started shivering uncontrollably. This entire time I was playing my hypnobirthing soundtracks, and they were helping me stay grounded. The doula kept reminding me to relax my shoulders and not arch away from the sensation. Dh reminded me of my affirmations. When we got out of the car (2:00a), I had a couple of contractions on all fours at the center, the doula and Nick did an awesome job of applying counter-pressure to my hips. The midwife checked my cervix and said “you’re either a 9 or a 3- which do you want to be?” I said “a 9, of course! But what am I really?” I was a 9! I labored in bed on all fours for a while while Dh applied counter-pressure to my hips, my water broke around 2:30am with a huge pop! It probably blasted 3ft back. Then I moved to the tub where I continued to labor on all fours and Dh continued to push on my hips. I was slipping so much that I stayed in there only until 3:00-3:15; I moved back to the bed. At this point, I could feel the top of his head about 1 knuckle in. I pushed in bed for about 30 minutes and then switched to a squatting position next to the bed. At this point, I was done! I wanted the baby out! I pushed as hard as I could and pushed him out at 3:55 am! (This is probably why I had a second degree tear). We immediately got him on my chest and I saw that he was in fact a boy(the gender was a surprise)!! We had skin to skin and let the cord pulsate, Dh got to to cut it, and then they weighed and measured him. He was 8 lbs 10 oz, 21.75 inches long, 13.5 inch head, and a 14 inch chest. He is beautiful and simply perfect.