I had gotten my membrane sweep on Wednesday morning around 10am and was at 3cm. All day Thursday I had been having discharge and bloody show but no cramping or any other sign except being uncomfortable. (Tmi section)...as much as I didn't "want" sex I felt that we needed to try it one last time since we were past due and I was trying everything to go into labor so I wouldn't have to be induced. Went to bed around 1am....

Woke up at 3am with painful contractions coming about every 15-20minutes. I kept falling asleep in between but finally woke up for good around 7am bc if them and wanting to track. I text my mom at 8am bc they had gotten to be about 6-8 min apart but told her.to wait til I've had time to walk around and take a warm bath. I then called my midwife at 9:30am to see what she wanted me to do as I had professed to every 5-6min and she is over an hour away. She told me to head up to her to be checked and to go from there. I called my mom and she and my dad came and picked up Alli & Noah.

Get to my midwife at 12:15, and get checked at 12:30 by one of the other midwives where she says I'm at 3cm but she can feel that the sac is extremely low. She gives me to option to be admitted and have my water broken or to labor some more.on my own and come back at 2pm to be admitted. We opted to wait a little longer so we could grab a late lunch before being admitted. My contractions are getting more intense but I got to enjoy Panera 😊

At 2pm we are admitted to the hospital in one of the natural birthing rooms. My favorite MW joins us as she's on call till 7pm. This was a totally awesome blessing bc I completely trusted her and normally it would not have been her day to be on call but another MW in the practice was out sick so they were splitting her shifts for the weekend. 2:15pm, Maureen (my MW) says that I'm at 7cm and that if I'm ok with breaking my water, she's confident that we'd have a baby that day. I agree, and after she sees her last 2 patients at the MW office (located here in the hospital), she returns to break my water at 3:45.

Contractions intensify almost immediately. I get into the laboring tub around 4:30pm, where I work through hard contractions that bring me to the brink of testing my desire to go natural. My nurse has brought in essential oils snd is diffusing an amazing citrus blend that I focus on when breathing through each contraction. Ben is putting cool washcloths on my neck and face, and Maureen is monitoring baby's heartbeat.

At about 4:45ish I tell Maureen that I need to push, so in between contractions coming every 1-2mins, I get out of the tub and barely make it to the bed and am on all fours as I work through a few more contractions. My nurse and Ben massage my lower back and I then lay on my back as I feel like my arms are going to give out. Once I flip to my back, Maureen does a check and I'm at 9.75cm, so during another contraction she helps to move the cervix the final small bit in order to make me fully 10cm. Holy crap!!!! At this point my eyes are closed, I'm definitely not breathing through contractions and just trying to tell myself not to die. HAHA! I push a couple times bc I feel like that's the only that will help but at the same time it's beyond intense. My nurse is stroking my hair and encouraging me right in my ear and Ben is cooling my face with washcloths. I feel weak but know that the only way for the pain to stop is to push, so I bare down and push 3 times, then relax a moment. Push again and feel the ring of fire and immediately keep pushing bc I know it's almost over. 2 more pushes and she's out. Maureen let's Ben pick up Everly and place her on my chest, and then shows him how the cord is pulsing and how good it is for baby to get back all her blood.

OK so that was drawn out....I'm sorry. Crazy how different a natural birth is with supportive people than the traditional medicated birth. The pain sucked bad BUT the experience was more than I could have hoped for. My midwife was excellent, nurse was amazing and funny, and Ben was great! And of course our Everly is completely perfect💕