my natural birth story!

I have been an occasional poster but daily lurker on this board, and I have always enjoyed reading the birth stories so I thought I would post mine.

It was such a great experience...honestly!  I woke up at 5:30 am on July 30th with my first contraction, they quickly and steadily progressed so I ate breakfast, showered, finished packing and then woke DH and called my mom to come stay with our son.  We headed to the hospital and arrived @ 8:20 am, the midwife watched me get through a couple contractions, then I agreed to have her check me and she says to the nurse, "we're going to have a baby any minute now"...it was time to push!  Six pushes later and I got to meet my sweet boy just about 45 minutes after arriving at the hospital!  Other than a second degree tear I honestly don't think I could have wished for the birth to go any better than it did.

I was GBS+ but there was no time for antibiotics (in retrospect I should have left for the hospital sooner but I wanted to make sure the contractions were real and had no idea how quickly things would progress!) however the good news is that since my mw broke my water to check for meconium (none, phew!) right before I started pushing, the window of time where he was potentially exposed to GBS was brief.  We had a mandatory 48 hour hospital stay to monitor him, and all was well.

I am so grateful because this experience was so completely different from my first birth...although it was pain med free it included cytotec, a posterior baby, over two hours of pushing, ds unexpectedly requiring a nicu stay and transfer of hospitals following birth, etc.  This time around it was calm, controlled, and an overall joyful experience.  My contractions felt so different this time.  I think the big differences were: natural contractions vs. cytotec contractions, back labor vs. no back labor, and water breaking several hours prior vs. water breaking right before pushing.  We had taken Bradley classes before my last birth, but other than helping DH learn how to coach me, I honestly felt like so much of what we practiced went out the window during my last labor.  This time around I was actually able to concentrate and recall the things I had learned to help get me through each contraction.  I was so pleased because I never felt out of control like I did last time.  I was able to breathe through all my contractions, focus on relaxing, and didn't really become vocal until the end.

I am even more inspired and passionate about natural birth now than I was before.  For those of you who are thinking about it or have already made the choice but might be having moments of doubt and fear...you can do it!

Thanks to anyone who made it this far reading, and good luck to everyone in having the best birth experience possible.