Originally Posted by ME!

I'd been having light cramping since Thursday morning, nothing that I paid any attention to. Sunday night they seemed a little more regular, but still just a dull pain. I had a bath around 8pm to see if they would subside, or if they'd keep going. They stuck around obviously… J
At 1:30 or so, Jeff and I decided to go to bed, and my contractions got a little more intense. At 2:25 I started to time them to see what was going on. At this time I still figured after I fell asleep they'd go away. I was able to time them myself until about 3:30 and then Jeff took over. I had to vocalize through them at this point. At 4:30, we stopped timing them and I got up to make a post and clean the kitchen. I figured if this was it, I wanted the kitchen to be clean when my doula arrived. We took the dog for a walk, and then I sent Jeff back to bed. While he was sleeping I tried to sleep between contractions (impossible!) and then ended up taking a bath. My labor was all in my back, down my right leg, and in my hips. There was no comfortable position for me. The bath was nice and spaced the contractions out some. At this point they had been coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting 45 seconds to a minute. At 7:30 I woke Jeff up because I didn't feel I could get through them alone anymore and we had some things to take care of. He called our Doula and gave the midwife a heads up about what was going on. (Unfortunately our Doula was MIA until about 10). Traci (my midwife) asked if we wanted to come into the Birth Center and I wasn't sure. I had no idea how far along I was, and didn't want to end up in there to early. Since I didn't seem to have a latent phase of labor, I thought that’s what I was doing. We ended up deciding to head into the birth center at about 9:30.
Contractions in the car were terrible, and would not leave my hips or right leg. I had no idea the pain would be there and was kind of shocked by it all. At 9:40 we arrived at the birth center. Our room was set up with candles and was really cozy. Everything was as I had pictured it. They checked me and I was at 6-7cm with a bulging bag of water and +2 station. I got straight into the tub and labored there for about an hour getting out to pee and have a few contractions on the floor and bed. I only ended up having contractions on the bed because I was getting checked again. After only an hour and a half at the birth center I was 9cm, and the baby was +3. I had a couple intense contractions on the bed, and then promptly threw up which is probably what got me to 10. I used the toilet again and got back in the tub at noon.
As soon as I entered the tub my body took over and started pushing. I was scared and wanted with all my might just to stop it. There's nothing like it. It was the most intense, radical moment of my life. I pushed twice and my water broke, and then 8 more times and he was out. My baby boy had arrived!
They laid him on my chest and he sputtered and gurgled for a few seconds until he started to breathe regularly on his own. He pinked up pretty quickly. After about 15 minutes his cord stopped pulsing and Jeff cut it. I handed him over to Jeff and got out to deliver the placenta on a birth stool. I had no urge to push, so that part was a little weird, but easy compared to what I had just done.
I had a small second degree tear that only needed one figure 8 stitch.
He has a perfect latch and nurses wonderfully. My baby boy is here, intervention free, alert and complete.

7pounds, 2.5 ounces, 20 inches
born peacefully under water at 12:19pm December 13, 2004