Natural birth at 20 years old ( suuuuper long story)

I had my baby on April 7 at 1:47 AM at 40 weeks 1 day. I've never posted here but I thought some women might want to hear another positive story!

My husband is a Marine and stationed in NC while I've been at home with my mom in Florida. Since I found out I was pregnant, I worried he wouldn't make it to the birth on time. I'd had mild back pain since the 5th but didn't think much of it since my back hurt a lot during my pregnancy (figures-- she was resting her head against my back!). Around 2 am on the 6th, I had pretty bad back pain and I felt some fluid leak down. I wasn't sure if my water broke so I called my midwife who told me whether I'm in labor or not, try to sleep especially because if I'm in labor, I'll need the energy. Perfect! Except my back was killing me so there was no sleep. My husband and I had the plan that once I called him to say I was in labor, he would leave as soon as his superiors let him. Around 4 am, it was really bad so I went to my mom's bathroom and got in the soaker tub. I didn't think I was in labor. I wasn't sure. Both my mom and doula told me I was but I was hesitant to call my husband because what if I wasn't in labor? He only has 10 days home, and I didn't want any of it wasted if it was a false alarm. When I was in the water I ended up calling him, telling him I wasn't sure but I may be in labor. He got everything cleared and would be arriving in Florida around 4 PM. At 8 am I ate some oatmeal and my doula arrived. I wasn't feeling cramps or contractions in the front, just horrendous back pain. I tried to nap, unsuccessfully. I bounced on the ball for a bit to try to help my pelvis open up. I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. My sister came to visit. I was anxious still that my husband may not arrive. My back pain kept intensifying so I went outside to walk around the pool. Every time a contraction came on, I got into a lunge position and my doula squeezed my hips. About this time, I decided to head to the birth center. It was around 3 pm and my husband's flight was arriving. I focused on breathing while in the car. It sucked driving there because I couldn't move around to help the pain. Finally around 4 we get to the birth center, my husband not too far behind. I got settled into a room and they checked my dilation. 100% effaced, 4 cm dilated and waters in tact. They left my husband and I to cuddle to try to help me relax. Again I tried to nap unsuccessfully. And few hours later around sundown they checked me again as I was in a lot of pain from my back. My waters had just broken, a huge gush. 7 cm! So I was in transition. Since baby was on my back, we had a chiropractor come in and adjust me. Things got going pretty well after that although my back was still hurting simply because it had been hurting for so long now. It was literally hot to the touch where it hurt. My skin was sore from my doula pushing in my hips but her doing that really helped the contractions so I suffered through it. Eventually I decided to get into the water again. Probably around 11 or midnight. I was miserable with my back. They had me moving from the bath tub to the toilet every so often. I was so so tired. I hadn't slept since Wednesday and at this point it was Friday morning. I started falling asleep in the tub. My doula wanted to give me energy so she fed me some disgusting chocolate sugary thing. Not sure what it was. I hadn't eaten a full meal since my peanut butter sandwich but I had eaten bits and pieces of fruits, drank LOTS of coconut water, water, chicken broth. At some point I decided I was not leaving the tub, although I originally was not planning to birth in the water. My doula went and got my husband who was in the next room (napping maybe? Not sure) and told him it was time. As everyone says, the urge to push is uncontrollable. I fell asleep between contractions, waking up to push then asleep again. Then they were back to back and I couldn't sleep more. I kept feeling the need to poop and pushed for that, to which the midwives said is exactly how I needed to push and that it was the baby. I was in a weird position since the tubs were narrow but deep so I was kind of sideways for a while. I stayed quiet for most of labor but once I felt myself stretching, I was screaming all types of curse words in English and Spanish. I honestly don't even remember what I was saying. At some point, I was side-lying and the midwife was holding my left leg up kind of high. I was pushing and got a horrendous cramp in my calf and screamed "HOLY F*CK MY LEG IS CRAMPING" at which point I stopped pushing and the baby was getting compressed since she was in the birth canal. Immediately my midwife, doula, and student midwife all told me to keep pushing. I shook my head but pushed with contractions as needed. I was born bald so when the midwife said "we can see her head. She's got lots of hair!" I thought to myself, "no she doesn't why are you lying" lol. I wanted to quit. Tap me out I was done. The stretching was too much. Finally I mustered up the strength, gave a couple good pushes and she was in my arms. Boy she had lungs on her seeing as she screamed my ears numb but I was in a state of bliss and disbelief. I tore some and the water was bloody but I was happy. After a few minutes, my husband took her and I tried getting out of the tub. I had low iron during pregnancy. At 37 weeks my iron was just barely at an acceptable level. I almost fainted trying to stand. I immediately put myself on the floor and laid against my doula. She and the student midwife talked to me while I tried to regain strength. About half an hour later I got up just to get on the toilet. When I tried to stand again, I almost fainted again. We stayed on the floor a while then they said I had to go the bed. Somehow I made it. They brought the baby back to me and we all slept for a few hours. When I woke I got stitched up then ate and went back to sleep. Once I could walk without getting light-headed, the midwives left and told me I could leave once I felt able. We ended up leaving around 1 pm. My baby, Lea Catalina, was born 7 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long. ❤️

Yes this was super long... Don't say I didn't warn you, though!