My mother flew in from Michigan on Friday for the birth and her birthday was Monday so she really wanted the baby to come soon. Sunday morning I had a meeting with my doula. She went through her “birth bag” with my fiancé, my mom, and I and she had some peppermint oil that she said she used to bring on contractions during labor. My mom insisted that I smell it so the doula massaged my hands with it.

At 11 that night my fiancé and I did the deed and were about to go to sleep. Around 11:30 I had a major cramp and I had to lean over the bed to cope with it. My fiancé was in the bathroom then and by the time he got out I had 4 of these and I could not understand why they hurt so badly. A few seconds later I felt a gush come out of me. Then it registered that I was in labor and my water had broke. I called my doula and she suggested that I take a shower and try to get some rest. I jumped in the shower but sleep was not happening my contractions were about every three to four minutes. The doula came over and suggested that we go to the hospital. So we headed out at about 1:30am. We had to stop at a friends house to give her a set of keys just in case we forgot something because she was going to be joining us later at the hospital.

 We got to the hospital around 2:30 and I had to tell the nurse what I could remember of my birth plan because my fiancé left it. They hooked me up to monitors (which I did not want) to see how the baby was doing, I only had to be on it for 20min.  She checked me and I was only 1-2 cm. They then did the check to make sure my water broke and it came back negative. I had been leaking something constantly for the last 3 hours. Turns out it was just a lot of mucus and I was in very early labor. They then tell me that my baby is having early decelerations, which meant that my baby’s heart was dropping too low with the contractions especially since I was still in early labor. The nurse also couldn’t pick up my contractions well on the monitors, this killed me I was contractions and they hurt like hell so I knew this wasn’t all in my mind. I was really disappointed and starting thinking that my natural birth would not be happening after all and I could not go home because of the babies heart. So I had to stay on the monitors for an hour on my side which ticked me off. But my doula really helped me through it coaching me to breathe and relax. She also made sure I was warm with heated rice packs and gave me positive thoughts through my contractions. 

There was a shift change and I had a new nurse and she said that if I could get off the monitors and out of the bed which was what I wanted. Since my water hadn’t broken I opted for the Jacuzzi tub. At this point I lost track of all time. My doula set up the bathroom with fake candles and put lemongrass drops in the water. My fiancé turned on my favorite music and I got in the tub. I was in another world now to the point where they had to ask me if I was still having contractions. I was and they weren’t very consistent but I was really too into myself to notice. My fiancé and the doula took turns massaging me while I was in the tub. A few hours later they wanted to check me and hooked me back up. I was at 4cm. 

Then my contractions got really hard and they were picking up decelerations in the baby again so they had me go on my side. An hour later they couldn’t pick up the contractions so they wanted to give me an IV. I didn’t want one but my fiancé and the nurse insisted that if I wanted to have this baby vaginally I better take it. I was upset but had to keep concentrating since I could not change position. The nurse checked me after the IV and I was at 6 and 100%. My friend got there at about this time but I did not remember. She taped everything after this point. Everyone realized that I was going fast, about 3 hours to 4 cm and then 1 hour later at 6. They put an oxygen mask on me but I was completely oblivious at this point. My midwife got there a few minutes later and I was grunting really hard with each contraction. So she checked me and I was 7 and my water finally broke. They started setting everything up and the midwife checked me again a few minutes later. I was complete on one side and had a little cervix left on the other. I went from 7 to 9 in 5 minutes! She pushed the other side of my cervix at the next contraction and told me to do what my body wanted I was at 10. 

I looked at my fiancé and my doula and I kept saying it’s almost over, she’s is almost here and the next contraction I grunted some more. Everybody started screaming that they could see her head. It hurt so bad I had to stop for a second, but that was all I could stop for because I had another contraction and her head just popped out. One more contraction and my body completely let the baby go and the midwife placed my little angel on my chest. She cried and I kissed her. It was awesome. 

My beautiful daughter was born at 7:41am on August 21, 2006 (her grandmother’s birthday). She weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces and was 19 inches long. She has the longest hair I have ever seen on a newborn and they told me her hand came out right next to her little face. Everyone said that it all went perfectly and that I had been really strong. I am glad that I trusted myself to have this baby naturally. I knew I could and I am glad that I got to show others this strength too.