Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally be able to share my own birth story. I really enjoyed reading these before and during my pregnancy. It might be long!

It was 15 days before my due date and I woke up around 5 in the morning with slight cramps. I was so tired though, that I convinced myself it was because of the upset stomach I had the night before. I had to get up at 7 for work so I just ignored it and kept going back to sleep. I got up at 7 went to the washroom and noticed I had some bleeding. I was excited. We called the on-call doctor to see if I should go to the hospital, I wasn't sure because of the bleeding if that could indicate a problem or not. The doctor said if I was concerned I could go and get checked out. It took us about an hour to get everything ready before we left.

I had a feeling this could be it, so I told DH that we should stop for some food. We went to McDonald's and had some breakfast. I was having contractions, but when I timed them I saw no consistent pattern. They also were not very strong at all, very minor menstrual cramps.

We got to the hospital, filled out the paperwork, and eventually got into triage. They hook me up to some monitors, everything looked fine. She checked me and said I was 1cm and she said that I was having irregular contractions. She told me it could be a day, or it could be a week. She sent me home and told me to come back when they were coming every 5 minutes ,lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour.

We went home, I had a bath and then I decided to have a nap. I had only slept an hour before I woke up with a stronger contraction. I got up and started timing them while DH made me lunch.

After an hour, I noticed the 5-1-1 pattern. But I was doubting myself, since I got to this point so fast. I ate lunch and continued to time them. I told DH I think we need to go back to the hospital. I helped clean up from lunch because I didn't want to sink full of dirty dishes. Then we left again.

The contractions started to get stronger. By the time we got back to the hospital, I wasn't able to walk during a contraction. But I still wouldn't say they were that bad. Eventually we got back into triage and they checked me again. I was at 5 cm! The nurse said she was surprised I was that far along, and that I was handling things really well. She told me they would admit me but they had to get a room ready first. I wanted to labor in the tub, so I asked about that and she said she would make sure that I got a room with one.

At this point I was just taking it one contraction at a time. Squeezing DH's hand with each one and breathing. They brought me a yoga ball. I found it easier to get through contraction if I was sitting rather than lying in the bed.

Eventually they came back to check me again, this might have been a bit over an hour later. I was 8 cm! Again they said said I was doing really well and that they would get me a room soon. At this point I realized I hadn't gone to the bathroom at all so I figured I should try. When I got back to the room I decided to get on the bed. The next contraction came and when it got to the peak I felt a warm gush. DH said the look on my face was hilarious. It was such a weird, warm feeling like I had just peed my pants. I got out of the bed where I leaked more fluid and at this point they came in with the wheelchair and said my room was ready. I'm not sure if they rushed me out of there because my water had broken, or if it was just really good timing.

Got to labor room. They told me the baby was very low, I was feeling a lot of pressure. I was not sure how much pressure I should be feeling, because I almost felt like I needed to push with every contraction. But they checked me and said I was still at 8 maybe 9cm. At this point, with every contraction I kept telling them I felt so much pressure and I didn't know if it was time to push or not.

I really didn't like the nurse at this point. She kept asking me if I wanted something for the pain. She kept trying to tell me I should take gas and that it won't harm the baby. It was annoying though, because I thought I was doing really well. I was breathing, I wasn't screaming in agony, and I wasn't feeling like I can't do this. Plus I was at 9 cm, I've gone this far! Concentrating is what really got me through the contractions, and I feel like gas would have just been too much of a distraction. Plus I was more afraid of throwing up than I was of the pain, and I was worried gas would make me nauseous . She checked me at one point, and didn't trust what she felt so she called another nursing to check as well. She said shortly after this that she was probably going to be switching out with someone else, and it took everything I had not to show my happiness at this.

Then I felt that unmistakable feeling, that I need to push. Luckily the nurse switched out around this time. During the contraction I was saying "I'm trying not to push I'm trying not to push". I felt kind of a burning sensation, so I knew that when they check me next I would be ready to push.

I was right, and they told me to start pushing. With that first push, I remember almost having an out-of-body experience, and I thought wow is my body really doing this? I was so surprised that it just knew what to do. Pushing wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be, I didn't realize I could trust my body so much.

I can't remember how many contractions I went through during the pushing. But at one point they said I was ready for the doctor to come in. This was hard, they told me to stop pushing and I felt like the baby was half out of me. The burning was crazy. I I just concentrated on that feeling and imagined everything stretching out. The doctor came in, a contraction came and I told them I had to push. DH said the doctor was not expecting things to happen so fast. He said she almost missed it, but I'm not sure.

We were Team Green, and after only 20 minutes of pushing, we finally got to meet our beautiful baby boy. He was only 5 lb, but I'm not surprised because I'm a tiny person and was a 5lb baby myself. He was full term though, and absolutely perfect.

I'm so proud of myself for being able to do this naturally and unmedicated. Things happened so fast, I wasn't able to use the tub like I wanted to, but at no point did I feel like I can't do this.

I honestly think the key is not being afraid. At no point did I have any fear. While pregnant, I feel like people couldn't wait to tell me their horror stories. But I feel like the common thing in all those stories was fear. I was excited, not afraid and I think that made things a lot easier.

From the time I woke up from my nap with consistent contractions, he was born within 8 hours. Not too bad! I had a second degree tear, 3 stitches.

He's 4 weeks now, and we're still getting the hang of the night-time feeds but we're doing really well.