All I can say is HATS OFF to those of you who are able to do a natural birth. I had terrible back labour and was begging for the epidural by 4 cm.

Thursday night at 8 pm I started having contractions.

By 2 am they were 4-5 mins apart and painful. I said it’s time to go in. We packed up and got there shortly before 3.

Got checked at 4. STILL only 1 cm. They said they’d monitor me for an hour and see if I progressed.

5 am they come in, no progress but baby had a few drops and wasn’t moving much so they said they weren’t comfortable letting me leave and would induce if I was ok with it. I said, let’s do it!

6 am they come to give me the Foley tube (balloon catheter). The doctor said it would take about 8 hours to take me from the 1 to a 4 and that they would start me on oxytocin too.

Contractions start to pile on top of one another - it was back breakingly painful. My husband had to put all his weight onto my lower back to give me any sort of relief.

At 845, foley tube falls out! I was at a 4!

I asked the nurse when I’d be able to get the epidural and she said they usually wait a bit because it tends to slow labour down and I was “already looking at another 8-12 hours at least”. I begggggged for it.

930 - epidural! Glorious! Could still feel some contractions but could breathe through them!

1030 - nurse can’t find heart rate. I can see her panicking a bit. She goes to move my belly monitors and yells “oh my god! You’re delivering!!” I wasn’t, but my sac was bulging out so it must’ve just looked like I was crowning lol. I guess he had moved so far down that the monitors couldn’t pick up the heart beat. Anyways so she quickly checked me and I had gone to an 8 in an hour!

By 11:20 or so I was fully dilated. They said, let’s give you a rest for an hour and then it’ll be time to push!

Well by 11:45 they were worrying that his heart rate was dropping with each contraction so they said I could start pushing as long as the doctor said it was ok.

Baby was born at 12:35! Absolutely perfect!

Baby Sam! Weighed 6 lbs 15 oz! We’re SO in love 😍!

The sleepless nights are totally worth it!

Pic for attention!