Anyone can tell you about the woes of laboring, and the lows of delivery. But what no one can tell you, is what you will experience when it happens to you. The complete, underestimated, unexplainable high you will feel when you see that baby for the first time. It's actually hard for me to recall my birth story for this very reason. It's a blur. Once I saw that baby, nothing else remained in my memory. It's weird, and makes no sense to me. I guess that's when I fell in love. I started dilating at 34 weeks. All my Doctors gave me their word I would deliver early. Right. As a naturally impatient person, being told this, then not getting my own way was not fun for me! Five days before my due date I headed for an appointment, expecting an induction date. The nurse took my BP, and decided to send me to L&D and have them determine a course of action, as it was on the medium side of caution. I called my husband and asked him to meet me at the hospital. They set me up for an induction the next morning, scaring the crap out of me! Try waiting 40 weeks for something you've wanted the most in the world, then being told you'll get it in the morning. Exciting right? Then try to sleep that night! They put some prostin gel on my cervix to soften it, and said they would start pitocin in the morning. Baby had other plans. The back labor started that afternoon! Wish I knew it was back labor when it was happening! I tried everything I could think, even headed to my car to lay down on the heated seats! Finally at 4:00 am I decided it was time to go. We were settled into our birthing room, and waited for things to progress. It did normally, and finally it was time for the epidural. Low and behold this Mama only gets a partial block, so they tried two separate times, and I wasn't getting much relief. No biggie, let's just do this. After 18 some hours of labor, it was time to push. I should mention that at this point I had no concept of time. I still don't. I thought I pushed for maybe 15 minutes, but my husband swears it was an hour and a half! I do remember thinking (and saying) " I can't do this." My body can't do this. I was an hour deep, and I felt like I had nothing left in me to give. I had a mirror positioned so I could see what was going on down there (best idea ever!). The nurse pointed out that dark head of hair, and I got my strength back. It was amazing the motivation that came from seeing that. This is where things got scary, and everything was so hush hush that my husband told me this later, and I had no idea what he was talking about. The baby's heart rate dropped. It was so sudden, that I hadn't even noticed the change in pace in the room. The Doctor explained that the baby was very close, but that he was going to perform an episiotomy to get the baby out now. Then it happened. I can't even explain this part.. Seeing that baby boy was the strangest, most enjoyable moment in my whole life. I remember specifically looking at my husband and saying "THAT's Jack! That's the baby! It's him!" Like I suddenly realized the baby inside of me really was real. So baby is out, but now I'm hemorrhaging. I have a nurse straddling me, pushing on my stomach as hard as she can to try to get my uterus to contract, to stop the bleeding. The Doctors are scrambling while blood is pouring onto the floor, and I'm in a complete daze (minus the nurse on top of me that I want to murder). Finally everything is under control, and I'm nursing my baby, while examining the placenta with my husband. We're weird. Five minutes after my son was born, I said "I'd do that again right now". I really don't like people who place so much negativity on the birthing process, scaring new mothers into thinking it's horrible and terrifying. Every single person has a different experience. Mine just happened to be the single most influential moment of my life. Even if it is all a blur ;)