Unplanned Natural Birth Story

Background:

When my H and I found out that I was pregnant, it was a HUGE surprise. We were not married yet (we are now! ), he had two children with his ex-wife, and I never really wanted kids.  I was on birth control and figured that if I took my little pill everyday that I'd be safe...

Over the course of my pregnancy, my H talked to me a few times about Bradley classes, and how he and his ex-wife had gone to them and she had two natural births.  He was scared of the medications and how they might effect our little guy when he was born.  I, personally, had never considered how I would give birth, seeing as I had never wanted kids.  But, anything that reminded him of his ex-wife was OUT in my book, and I never got around to taking any classes at all - Bradley or otherwise.

Labor:

My son was LATE - our due date was Nov. 12, but my son didn't join the world until Nov. 24.  At my final prenatal appointment, my lovely midwife said that we would need to induce, and we scheduled it for Monday, 11/24 at 8:30am.  The night of the 23rd, I still had not felt any contractions, and I was NOT looking forward to induction, as I'd heard terrible stories about the pain compared to a normal delivery.  But my little guy had other plans!

I woke up at around 4am on the 24th with crazy back pain - it was driving me nuts, so I got up to walk around - that's when I saw the blood on the sheets.  I called the L&D at my hospital and they said that they were slow so I should just come in, seeing as I was supposed to be there in 4 1/2 hours anyway. My H and I drove to the hospital with my Dad, and everything went SUPER fast after that.

My contractions were less than two minutes apart from the start, but weren't super painful until about 10am.  At that point, I was ready for an epidural!  But, my H said I should wait and see if the birthing ball helped out any before I got drugged up.  Ladies, let me tell you - the birthing ball is AMAZING!  I sat on that thing and I was fine!  The pressure was still painful, but it wasn't that bad.  I rocked back and forth on the ball for about two hours, and at noon, I was was moved back to the bed so that the nurse could check my progress.

Laying down was HORRIBLE!  My son wasn't facing the right direction, so I was experiencing "back labor," and the nurses were telling me that it would be more painful for me that way, so they just needed the word, and they'd get me medication.  I told them that I had gone this far okay, so I'd wait a little.  They kept trying to pressure me into getting an epidural, but the fact that they wouldn't shut up about it just made me want to wait even more!

I started pushing at 12:30pm, once the midwife showed up (not my midwife from my prenatal treatment, sadly).  I pushed for less then 30 minutes, and Ta-Da!  Connor James was born at 12:56pm, 11/24/2008 weighing in at 9lbs, 1oz.

After the fact, I realized that - Hey!  I did it natural!  My story proves that it doesn't take expensive classes to get a natural birth.  If you're like me and don't have clue how you want to give birth, just go with the flow and do whats comfortable for you - You might surprise yourself!