I know how much I enjoyed reading everyone's stories...thought I'd go ahead and share mine while my little man is busy visiting with grandma and grandpa next to me! Warning: It is a long one!! :)

My due date was 11/16/2013. I spent the day silently raging at the world for all the texts and suggestions to induce labor. Then around 12:45am on 11/17/2013, as my husband and I were climbing into bed for the night, my water broke! I ran to the toilet and was sitting there gushing all this fluid and shaking like crazy because of the adrenaline and excitement! Yelled out to my husband that my water broke and he thought I was joking...this was no joke! Baby was coming!! I called the midwives to see what my next step would be...and I was told to meet with the nurse at the birth center within 2 hours. At this point all I felt were small cramps.

We finished packing up our bags, hoping we got everything we needed, called up the necessary family members and headed over to the birth center! Contractions started up around this time but they weren't too painful. The birth center is about 15 minutes from our house, and the drive there honestly sucked! Anyway, it was nice and quiet at the birth center. No one else was there...just us and it was peaceful. Perfect! They hooked me up to the monitor and I had to sit there for about 20 minutes while contracting. They were getting stronger, and I started to focus on my breathing during them. Baby and I were doing exactly what we needed to be doing. Go us!!

After they took me off the monitors, my husband and I tried to get some rest but the contractions were too strong. I was able to breathe through them using the self-hypnosis techniques I studied for the past few weeks, but they were painful enough to keep me awake so I just gave up on sleeping. I was too excited anyway. My boy is almost here!! A while later, my parents showed up and I was sooo happy to see my mom! I completely lost track of time after this as I really was focusing on breathing through the contractions, they were getting pretty intense! I made my way into the shower in the room, and that really seemed to help with the pain. I basically sat on the floor in there and let the warm water run over me. I was humming my way through contractions...and kind of regretting my decision to do an unmedicated birth, lol.

After a while, that was no longer helping me and the nurse and midwife suggested I try leaning over the birth ball on the bed. So I made my way over to the bed...and before leaning over the ball they checked my cervix. Already at 7cm! Holy cow, I was surprised, but also too concerned about the damn contractions. Leaning over the ball was awesome...I had my mom at my shoulders, and my husband standing at my ass end. Every time a contraction came, they'd both get right up in there and massage my back. WOW! It felt amazing, and was sooooo helpful. I was moaning through the pain at this point. Meanwhile, the midwife and nurse were filling up that nice tub for me.

No idea what time it was, but eventually I decided the birth ball+massages weren't working for me anymore, and my knees were hurting pretty bad. Time to get into the tub! Such relief, but the contractions were pretty brutal at this point. I was yelling through them, and my screams were only getting louder with each contraction. My mother in law finally showed up around this time...I wanted her to be able to witness the birth of her grandson too! Suddenly, I started feeling the urge to push! So that's what I started to do. I was yelling through contractions like some sort of animal...I've never heard myself yell like that, but somehow it made me feel better, haha. The worst part of this phase was at one point, they checked my cervix and I wasn't quite all the way dilated (so super close!) and they told me to withhold from pushing during the next few contractions. UGH, that was so hard! I kept saying “I can't! I need to push...I can't do it!” but everyone in the room was encouraging me and I managed to get through that little bit.

Holding off on pushing allowed my cervix to do what it needed to do and I started really bearing down at this point. After a bit of pushing, the midwife grabbed my hand and had me feel the baby's head!! Weirdest feeling ever...but I just wanted to get through this crap so I went back to pushing my baby out! Before I knew it, he was on my chest!! Such an amazing feeling. Instant relief. So much happiness! There are no words to truly describe that moment. And the support I had from my husband and family was amazing. I seriously could not have done it without their encouragement (and awesome massages) throughout the whole ordeal. I felt (and still feel) so lucky!

TL;DR: It had only been 7 hours since my water broke. Jackson Aaron was born on 11/17/2013 at 7:47 am. He weighed 7lbs 5oz, and 20” long. Such a cutie pants!!