• Have a specific birth plan and find a medical team that will stick to it. 
• Abdominal breathing didn't work for me (in fact, it made it worse). What helped was thinking of contractions as surfing--when you're getting out there, you can either go with your board over the wave and fight it, or you can go underwater and let the momentum of the wave bring you further out. Once I just laid there and relaxed (albeit thinking I was going to die), my body took over and made it happen. 
• Yes, it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my entire life. 

I crawled out of bed at around 130ish AM to go the bathroom, because you know pregnancy problems, and all the sudden there was an uncontrollable gush. I managed to make it to the toilet when more gushing commenced so I yelled for DH to wake up and help me out. He was freaking out with excitement when he realized that our baby was definitely coming! I couldn't get off the toilet without water going everywhere, so DH started frantically packing the bag for the hospital (because we are incredibly poor planners) and I was just sitting there telling him what to put in the bag as he ran around like crazy. We were admitted to the hospital around 2:30 am and after confirming that my water was indeed broken, was finally given a room around 4 am. I was having contractions, but they weren't super strong, so DH and I tried to rest a bit and sleep, but were totally unsuccessful - too much was happening.  At around 9am I was checked and hadn't progressed much, so we decided to place a Foley balloon, which got me to 5 cm in about 2 hours. At that point we were hoping I would contract on my own because I really wanted to avoid Pitocin, but alas no progress was made. At around 3ish, we started Pitocin and I could tell the contractions were ramping up but despite the pain level, they weren't effective contractions. I think I had maybe ONE contraction the entire labor that seemed typical - where the contract spreads across the entire uterus in hard knot. The rest were more in my cervix only, but were still really painful.

I was on Pitocin for quite a while without an epidural, but once we hit "level 16" I just couldn't handle the pain anymore and received the Epi. I was a little bummed I "caved" and got the epidural that I didn't plan for, but it was just too much for too long at that point. Immediately after the epidural, I was able to sleep a little and they were able to ramp up the Pitocin to max levels.

Unfortunately, it didn't work and I had to go in for a C-section. Once in he OR the epidural wasn't strong enough so they had to place another higher spinal, but that went the wrong way, which made it impossible for me to feel like I was breathing (I was breathing just fine, but it felt like I had a horse on my chest!) So I had to be put under general anesthesia for the birth, which was my worst fear going in this - that I'd essentially "miss" Wally's birth.

A few hours later, I woke up in recovery and they wheeled me up to meet my baby. I had no idea if it was a boy or girl because I wanted DH to tell me and all the doctors and nurses made sure anyone who cared for me in recovery used the words "baby" and never him or her (she was seriously awesome!) DH then showed me our little guy and told me his name. It was one of the best moments of my life to hold that little man for the first time!

It wasn't the birth story I wanted to share but its the one I got, and I'm so incredibly thankful that Wally and I are both healthy and safe! I'm glad the doctor let me labor for as long as did and at least try for a vaginal birth before convincing me to do the C-section. I feel a lot more at peace knowing I gave it my all to have the experiences I wanted, even if things didn't go as planned.

Baby Ellie was born on Sunday September 4th at 9:10pm. She was 7lbs 8oz and 21.5 inches long. I was 40+2 and for being a FTM i had a fairly easy delivery. I started feeling contractions saturday sept 3rd around 3pm, they went on for about an hour and quit, so i thought nothing of it. Later that night around 11pm i started feeling contractions again, this time they never stopped. I started timing them and they varied between 3 to 8 minutes lasting about 1 to 2 min. It went on like that until 9am sunday morning, i knew it was the real deal, i never felt that way before. I told my SO its go time. Before getting to the hospital i texted my cousin, who is like a sister to me, and lives an hr south of chicago that we were going to the hospital and she hit the road right then to make it down to us! We arrived at the hospital and got checked in at 11am. I was in the triage and was at 3cm, 80% effaced. They had me walk for an hour to see if i would progress, we rechecked and i was still in the same spot. They decided to send me home since i didnt progress within the hr visit. I was upset, i knew she was coming that day, i never felt like that before. So we left around 12:30 and on the ride home my contractions started getting stronger. Got back home around 1pm, went into our room and could not stay still, felt awful as contractions got stronger. Around 3:30ish i laid on the bed to feel better and felt a huge gush, my water broke! Thank god i put a Always depend on before i laid down. I went to bathroom as quick as i could and text my SO in living room my water broke, as he was coming to my aid my cousin just arrived at our house!!! She came into the bathroom and checked on me, i said Ellie must have been waiting for you, my water just broke we are going back to the hospital! She left for my parents house to go with them and we returned to the hospital. Rechecked in and we were placed into a room around 5pm. I was 4cm, 90 ef. I got IV, nitrous, and they started patocin at 530p. Contractions instantly picked up and around 7pm i was dying. Decided to get an epi. An hour passed before they came back to give it to me. I was in so much pain, and started feeling like i needed to push, they rechecked me and said if i was at a certain point they couldnt give me the drugs... I about died. The cutoff point was 9cm and i was at 8cm!! I think since i was a FTM they didnt think id be progressing so fast, and waited on other people before me. Barely was able to get the epi, they had to hurry, but thank god i did, i felt SO much better after. I was ready to push at that time and would have had her sooner, but they said to wait awhile to let baby come down just a touch more before starting to push, i think they just needed to help other people. I rested for about 30 min and the doctor came back in for go time. I only pushed for 25mins, but while we were in the home stretch, fireworks from the Louisville Bats game started going off. My mom and cousin were like fireworks are going off, i was like yah i know right between my legs, they laughed and were like no outside, look! Well the firework grand finale started going off right when Ellie was born at 910pm!! It was timed SO perfectly, it kind of felt like a movie scene. From the time we checked in the 2nd time to the end of labor was only 4hours! I couldnt believe how quick it went and everyone couldnt believe this was my first baby, even the doctor, since it went so well. Very little tearing and a healthy baby and mama!