I posted a birth story on /r/BabyBumps , but I left out quite a bit of detail, and thought it may be less tacky to rewrite it here.

I had a relatively easy pregnancy. Tolerable morning sickness, no complications, everything stayed right on track. I was due September 22, 2013.

I had a gut feeling for most of my pregnancy that my daughter would come early. I had a few bouts of false labor in the weeks leading up to my due date. I would have contractions about every two minutes, lasting 30 seconds, that were very painful in my back, and would not stop no matter what position I was in or how much water I drank, for several hours. More than once I was convinced that this was it, but the contractions would eventually fizzle out and stop.

A few days before my due date, at my final OB appointment, I had a cervical check and membrane sweep. I was at about 1 centimeter, and soft but still high. A couple of days after, I had some mucus with brown blood in it. I was excited, until I realized it was from the check and sweep.

I started to lose hope of my due date baby, until I started having contractions again the day before my due date. They were very irregular and not very painful, and my plan was to labor at home until my water broke, so I went about my day as I normally would. These contractions didn't stop, though. In fact, they continued throughout the next three days, still irregular and only slightly painful.

The day after my due date, I had a non-stress test at the hospital. I was having barely any contractions, and it took over two hours on the machine because baby kept squirming away from the monitor. They finally got the readings they needed, so they sent me on my way. On the way back home, I joked that I would go into labor that night, simply because I had already been at the place I needed to be.

I was laying in bed that night, chatting on the BabyBumps chat room, when I began to notice my contractions seemed more painful and consistent. I decided to shut off my computer and time them for a while. They were almost exactly 5 minutes apart, lasting one minute each. After an hour of this, and having to stop and breathe through the contractions, I called my aunt and told her I thought it was go time. She changed and we headed to the hospital. My fiance stayed home to rest. We were expecting me to be sent home.

I got to the hospital around 10 PM. I was checked and declared almost 3 centimeters, very soft, and had a bulging bag of waters. I was definitely in labor, and was admitted.

I called my fiance and my dad to inform them that I would be staying. My dad said he would get some sleep and come in the morning, but he was too excited, and showed up at the hospital not even half an hour later.

I got an IV port placed shortly after, and had two vials of blood drawn. I had to answer a series of questions whilst breathing through these increasingly painful contractions. I was given Benadryl through the IV so I could get some rest. I was only able to doze on and off for a couple of hours.

In the morning, my fiance got a ride to the hospital. I was so glad he was finally there, we were both worried he would miss the birth.

When he arrived, I was walking around the ward to try and get things moving along. My contractions were coming about every minute and a half at this point, and were getting more painful as time went on.

Not long after I completed my rounds, and about 12 hours after arriving at the hospital, I was checked again, and to my surprise was STILL at three centimeters. The doctor (who happened to be my favorite) gave me the choice to go home and labor on my own, or they could give me Pitocin and start induction. After discussing the options with my fiance and aunt, I decided to be induced.

I was started on 2 units of Pitocin to (hopefully) make my contractions more productive. They didn't get much more painful than they had been. The dose was upped to 4 about 30 minutes later. The contractions got closer together, but with breathing and focusing, I was still able to tolerate the pain. About 30 minutes later, they broke my water. It felt like I peed myself. Almost immediately, the contractions became unbearable, and within minutes of having my water broken, I asked for the epidural. I had to squeeze my fiance's hand during these contractions, which were coming about every 45 seconds and lasting just as long. I was given Stadol to hold me over until the anesthesiologist got to my room. I've heard that Stadol makes you feel drunk, and I'm going to say this is true, because I really don't remember much in the time period between getting Stadol and having the epidural placed. I think they turned the Pitocin down, because I was contracting too frequently.

After about a half an hour, the anesthesiologist got to my room. She got me in position and began describing what I would feel. She was right on target with this. However, I was sitting with my hips a bit off-center, so she had me scoot over a little and she tried a second time. Once again, I felt everything exactly when and how she told me. It was a little stinging when the needle went in, and some pressure as the anesthetic went in. It seemed like I was having one constant contraction. They were about 45 seconds long and 15 seconds apart, and they hurt extremely badly. I had to moan deeply through them just to sit still while the epidural was being placed. The anesthesiologist was so perfect and gentle.

The epidural started to kick in almost immediately. I laid on my left side for a while, and after mere minutes, all I could feel of my contractions was some vaginal pressure. I got the shakes very badly after the epidural kicked in.

I really needed to pee, so they set me up to use a bedpan. I tried with all my might, and I just could not use the muscles to pee! A student placed a catheter with a foley bulb into my bladder. This was uncomfortable, and certainly didn't take away the feeling of needing to pee.

I labored for another short while, and was checked. 9 centimeters, finally! I started to get very excited and nervous for delivery. Not even 5 minutes later, I felt the most intense urge to poop. I knew what this meant! The nurse proclaimed I was not ready because they just checked me, but I insisted I needed to push. Seriously, I would have gone crazy if I couldn't push. She checked me again, and I was 10 centimeters with a lip. She told me to push while she pushed on the lip, and it slipped right over baby's head. It was time!

Someone went to get the doctor, and I was allowed to push while I waited. My fiance and the nurses and students all took turns holding my legs while I pushed. I would get about three pushes per contraction, but they were still coming very fast, so I had a hard time resisting the urge just so I could take a breath.

The doctor got there after a few minutes. Baby was already crowning when he got there. He broke down the table and prepped everything. I did what my body told me to do and pushed basically back-to-back. Her head was so painful coming out. I was screaming about how badly it hurt. I was also pooping during a majority of the time I spent pushing. The doctor didn't think she would fit, so he used anesthetic to numb the area, and just as he was about to cut an episiotomy, out popped baby's head. With the next push, the rest of her came out.

They quickly placed her on my chest, and I burst into tears. She was so beautiful and perfect. The nurses were helping me dry her off, because I was just in such shock. My fiance cut the cord. I just kept telling him how beautiful she was and how much I loved her. I did skin-to-skin for a long while. I had a second- or third-degree tear. I didn't ask any details. I could feel the doctor stitching me up, but I couldn't have cared less. All my attention was on my beautiful little girl.

Her latch was amazing from the start. She was very eager to breastfeed. She had her first meal, had her first bath, had her vitals taken, and we were brought to our recovery room.

I hated staying in the hospital. I could never get sleep between all the visitors we had and nurses in and out all day taking vitals. We went home at two days post-partum.

Baby stats: born September 24, 2013 at 2:35 PM. 7 pounds, 7 ounces. 20 3/4 inches long.

TL;DR: Several days of prodromal labor, stalled at three centimeters, chose to be induced, wonderful experience, would do it all again.