This is kinda long but here it is...

My due date was August 17th but I was set to be induced on August 14th at 7 am. The night before I felt completely normal and felt no signs of labor or contractions coming anytime soon. I went to bed around 11, ready to wake up early and head to the hospital. At 2:20 I woke up with a little bit of back pain but not too bad....being this was my second I had a feeling it was the start of back labor. After about 5 minutes I decided to take a shower as a just in case I didn’t make it until my alarm at 5. While in the shower I had a few contractions, painful but not too bad. After the shower I wake my husband and tell him what is going on...all while the contractions are becoming more painful but still bearable. He decided to take a shower and while he is showering I time them and they are about 2-3 minutes apart and getting stronger. I’m telling him to hurry cause I’m in a lot of pain and ready to be checked out. The 20 minutes drive there was awful and I was still having painful contractions that are becoming stronger. We get there and while walking in I get right outside the entrance and have a contraction but this one was different..I’m leaning on the bench outside the door unable to walk and my body was forcing me to push through it. We get inside and at the check in desk I’m continuing to have the same contractions with my body forcing me to push. The front desk lady finally calls for a nurse to come take me after she realized I’m in crap ton of pain. I am still trying to not be dramatic cause I’m thinking I’m probably not that far along and the pain will be getting much worse. They get me in a room where there was at least 10 people prepping things and check me right away and I was 8 cm and -2 station. When the doctor said that all I could say was oh wow, can I have an epidural...even though I knew it was too late for that. They decide my water must have broke while I was in the shower as I had no clue it was already broken before arriving at the hospital. Eight minutes later they check me again and I was 10 cm and ready to push. As I’m pushing they were still trying to get my IV going and take my shirt and watch off me. Pushing through the ring of fire was the worst!! After a few pushes my baby boy was born. According to the nurses he was born 23 minutes after we checked in at the front desk, and was here before they even had me admitted.

I never planned on having a natural birth as I have a low pain tolerance. What kept me pushing with all my might through the pain was hearing a nurse tell me that the pain I was in wasn’t going to go away until he was out. Knowing that I felt like I pushed that much harder each push to get him out and end the pain I was in...I told my husband like three times between pushes that I felt like I was dying.

After having both a natural birth and epidural birth I am not sure what I will do next time. Giving birth naturally sucked but I recovered so much quicker with this birth than my first and felt so much better quicker. I only took Tylenol after to help with cramps of uterus shrinking...not due to my lady bits having stitches. Having said that...if I had to labor for hours naturally with painful contractions I would def have the epidural, but knowing my labors are naturally quick and the pain ends when you give birth I will have to weigh my options whether I want an epidural or to try naturally again.